National Observer - Australia and World Affairs articles from March 2001

National Observer - Australia and World Affairs archives from March 2001

The ill portents of Mr. Kim Beazley. (Editorial Comment).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2001... An almost universal response when Mr. Beazley became Leader of the Federal Opposition was to say: what a nice person, what a decent man, and what a pleasant contrast with Mr. Bob Hawke and Mr. Paul Keating. With the passage of time, however,...

The government of Australia by public servants. (Editorial Comment).
March 22, 2001... Australians -- generally an apathetic people without a culture of responsibility -- have allowed the business of government to pass more and more into the hands of public servants, perhaps more realistically referred to as bureaucrats. That...

Mr. Peter Costello: a poor man's Paul Keating. (Editorial Comment).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2001... Mr. Peter Costello clearly is not as intelligent as Mr. Paul Keating, the former Prime Minister, but reflection reveals that there are essential similarities in their respective personalities and policies. Mr. Keating was of course a Labor...

Illegal immigrants masquerading as "refugees": the muslim invasion. (Editorial Comment).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2001... The recent arrival off Christmas Island, in August 2001, of a Norwegian ship carrying over four hundred persons proposing to enter Australia illegally has crystallised a grave problem facing this country. Unfortunately Australia has come...

Terrorism: the heavy price of Israel. (Editorial Comment).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2001... The terrorist bombings in the United States on 11 September have highlighted American unpopularity in many Muslim countries. A continued exacerbation is caused by the apparently almost limitless support that the United States gives to Israel....

Some antinomian trends in ethical investment.
March 22, 2001... We hear much talk today of "ethical funds", a new name for an old concept. The idea that people should not have their savings invested in industries of which they do not approve is not a new idea. A century ago, when the teetotalist movement...

Current orthodoxy in aboriginal education.
March 22, 2001... The "Australian Journal of Indigenous Education" ("A.J.I.E.") is published twice a year by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit at the University of Queensland. It purports to be "the only journal for educators that is...

J. Edgar Hoover's final years: 1960-72.
March 22, 2001... Neither Truman's Presidency nor Eisen-hower's proved to be notably agreeable portions of J. Edgar Hoover's forty-eight-year tenure (1924-72) as the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Director. Still, unpleasant though Hoover found the Eisenhower...

The United Nations and the rights of the children.
March 22, 2001... The United Nations General Assembly adopted the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989, and it has been signed by more countries than any other human rights treaty. It was signed by Australia in August 1990 and ratified...

North Korea in the emerging international system: prescriptions for South Korea.
March 22, 2001... The general view of North Korea is that of a "rogue" regime, irrational, dangerous, provocative or even aggressive. Pyongyang's invasion of South Korea in 1950, its maintenance of strong military forces near the inter-Korean border since then,...

The invalidity of any purported ratification of the proposed international criminal court. (Legal notes).
March 22, 2001... Much concern has been expressed recently at the support by the Attorney-General, Mr. Daryl Williams, of effective ratification of the proposed International Criminal Court. (1) Any ratification of the Statute of that Court would involve very...

Twentieth-Century Heroes. (Book Reviews).(Review)
March 22, 2001... TWENTIETH-CENTURY HEROES edited by Gary Benoit Appleton, Wisconsin, 2000: American Opinion Publishing Inc., pages 191. Heartening and daunting, this splendid collection of twenty-five essays handsomely produced as well as painstakingly...

The Holocaust Industry: Reflections On The Exploitation of Jewish Suffering. (Book Reviews).(Review)
March 22, 2001... THE HOLOCAUST INDUSTRY: REFLECTIONS ON THE EXPLOITATION OF JEWISH SUFFERING by Norman G. Finkelstein London, 2001: Verso, pages 160. "The Holocaust Industry" reopens, in part, the so-called "Historikerstreit", the argument which erupted...

Hustler: The Clinton Legacy. (Book Reviews).(Review)
March 22, 2001... HUSTLER: THE CLINTON LEGACY by Joe Sobran Vienna, Virginia, 2000: Griffin Communications, pages 255 and index. Clinton's Presidency is remarkable for the way in which an astute and apparently conscienceless President was able to avoid...

The Boy From Boree Creek: The Tim Fischer Story. (Book Reviews).(Review)
March 22, 2001... THE BOY FROM BOREE CREEK: THE TIM FISCHER STORY By Peter Rees Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2001, pages 336 and index. This biography of Mr. Tim Fischer, who was the leader of the Federal Parliamentary National Party from 1990 to 1999 and Deputy...

Indonesia: An Eyewitness Account. (Book Reviews).(Review)
March 22, 2001... INDONESIA: AN EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT by Michael Maher Melbourne, 2000: Viking, pages 274. Michael Maher was sent to Jakarta as the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Indonesian correspondent in 1993. This book is his account of the next six...

Peter Costello: The New Liberal. (Book Reviews).(Review)
March 22, 2001... PETER COSTELLO: THE NEW LIBERAL by Shaun Carney Sydney, 2001: Allen & Unwin, pages 329 and index. Shaun Carney is an Associate Editor of "The Age" in Melbourne, and therefore it was doubtless to be expected that his biography of Mr. Peter...