by DAVID FLINT – EXILED Iranian Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi last week delivered a message that resonated: “You cannot reform a snake. Venom is in its DNA.” This is a truth which escaped all American presidents between Jimmy Carter down to Joe…
by DAVID FLINT – I WOULD like to paraphrase former Labor Prime Minister Paul Keating. “I guarantee that if you walk into any pet shop in the West, or indeed the world, what the resident galah will be talking about is how…
by DAVID FLINT – DONALD Trump, whom history will surely judge as being among the greatest of US Presidents, has done what his predecessors either feared to do or did not even understand they had to do. It took one American president,…
by FRED PAWLE – THERE will be many things the newly freed and exuberant people of Iran will want to ask when (and if) their mullah overlords flee. First and foremost, someone needs to switch on their internet, which is currently blacked…
by PAUL COLLITS – IT IS probably wise to wait until public figures are long dead before conferring greatness on them. Doing it “in real time” is asking for trouble. Talk of the “right side of history” amidst contentious debates suggests complete…
by FRED PAWLE – DON’T be fooled by the official narrative about Iran. If the past is any guide, it serves the elites’ interests, not yours. Opinions about the Middle East these days are like magic mushrooms sprouting en masse in a…
by PAUL COLLITS – THIS week, The Beach Boys musician Brian Wilson died – and Vishwash Jumar Ramesh didn’t. Go figure. A lot of people have been saying that Ramesh should buy a lottery ticket. Most would agree that Brian had probably…
by PAUL COLLITS – IT IS said in most election campaigns that this election is “the most important in … [add your own number of years]”. A quarter of a century is a popular one – whether it’s remotely true or not. …
by PAUL COLLITS – AUSTRALIA’S bizarrely appointed Ukrainian Cardinal, Mykloa Bychok, was unsurprisingly fulsome in his praise for the late Pontiff. There are several reasons to tilt towards kindness towards the late Pope Francis. Francis was a managerialist, who brought HR to…
by PAUL COLLITS – CARDINAL George Pell wasn’t initially sure of his priestly vocation as a youth. He had a solid academic career beckoning, as well as a solid football contract inked in. He chose the priesthood, and, by George, it cost…
