World
The pigeon and the socks
In February PETA sprang into action to rescue a pigeon held in India which had been accused of spying for China. They secured its release. In March five pairs of socks were found in a factory in Malaysia with the word ‘Allah’ printed on them. A team of 40 policemen carried out checks at the Continue reading »
It will take hope, inspiration and action to save the earth
I see humanity as at the mouth of a very long, very dark tunnel. And right at the end of that tunnel, there’s a little star that’s hope. And it’s no good sitting at the mouth of the tunnel folding our arms and hoping that the star will come. I travel around the world 300 Continue reading »
Imitation accelerates
The whole world is experiencing an “escalation to extremes” because we imitate each other to a profound degree. We should choose our models more carefully. There are over 100 million people who have been forcibly displaced from their homes and over 36 million of these are seeking refuge in other countries. We are in the Continue reading »
Nuclear energy everywhere costs an arm and a leg
The contribution of nuclear power to electricity generation is the lowest for thirty years and its price twice that of renewables. It crackles like a Geiger counter in a uranium mine: in 2023, Emmanuel Macron announced plans for six additional EPR [European Pressurised Reactor] nuclear power plants. Hang on, no, perhaps fourteen in the long Continue reading »
Everything Chinese is a national security threat to the United States
After the battles over 5G, social media and advanced microchips, Chinese electric cars are the new front line of US economic warfare. Like any environmentally correct person in North America, I was toying with the idea of buying a Tesla to replace my beat-up eight-year-old Honda. While doing some research, this came up and suddenly Continue reading »
Stan Grant on Good Friday, Easter, and God’s absence in our suffering world
I never thought I’d see an inspiring Easter reflection in the usually secular, The Saturday Paper. But last Saturday (March 23) there was Stan Grant, writing on the Christian feast. Grant is a really thoughtful writer and his spirituality comes, he says, ‘from being born into a history of suffering’ as a First Nations person, Continue reading »
What does Gaza stand for?
The unreasonable delay by the United States in supporting calls for a ceasefire has resulted in thousands of needless deaths that could have been prevented by a simple US vote. This obstructionism and the lack of leadership is an eternal shame for a country that purports to claim moral leadership and respect for the international Continue reading »
The Cross: What do we bring to the Cross this Holy Week 2024?
The Cross speaks to us of how we find God in places where compassion is needed. Those places in our own hearts and circumstances where we feel most lost; those places of our deepest grief and regret. The Cross speaks to us of the presence of God, full of compassion and One from whom nothing Continue reading »
US-China electric vehicle dispute shows old trade rules imperil climate action
“The climate crisis is too urgent for the U.S. or any country to allow outdated trade rules… to distract us from enacting bold climate policies,” argued one campaigner. As the Chinese government on Tuesday formally challenged what it termed “discriminatory” U.S. electric vehicle subsidies, climate action advocates warned that antiquated trade policies and international bickering Continue reading »
Russia: A steel wall against the West
In 1942, a Finnish sound engineer Thor Damen, secretly recorded 11 minutes of a conversation between Finland’s Commander-in-Chief, Carl Gustaf Mannerheim and Adolf Hitler, without the latter’s knowledge. Fighting as allies, both seemed awed and shocked by the Soviet capacity to fight, Hitler exclaiming, “They had the most armaments that people could imagine. Well, if Continue reading »