On 21 March France awoke to the relieving news that its latest serial killer had been identified and located. The positive effect of the news was short-lived. Within minutes, before the presumed killer was even arrested, the political campaign, which had been brought to a halt took a turn for the worse, and the Front National (FN), which had been stagnating in the polls returned to serious contender status for the second round.
That's it! Keith Windschuttle has had enough: 'It took just two days after Australians awoke on Saturday [25 January] to the terrible news of the mass murder in Norway for the left-wing commentariat to start exploiting the event for political capital'. The 'Quadrant' editor and revisionist writer on Aboriginal matters has had it with the Left, and particularly with Aron Paul, who wrote a piece in 'New Matilda', and 'Crikey''s Guy Rundle. No longer will…
French philosopher Jacques Ranciere based the premise of his book 'The Ignorant Schoolmaster' on a groundbreaking experiment led by Joseph Jacotot in the early nineteenth century. Jacotot was forced into exile by the counter revolutionary forces in 1815 and went on to teach at a Dutch university. While his Dutch-speaking students were eager to hear what the French-speaking scientist could teach them, language became simultaneously what prevented them from communicating and, more importantly, the inadvertent…
A few days after the earthquake, Pat Robertson, a sexist, racist, homophobic American preacher, declared Haitians themselves were to blame for the disaster as they had sworn 'a pact to [sic] the Devil'. Sometimes it is hard not to believe that the 'Devil' has played a role in Haiti's plight. However, no pact was ever sworn. If hell was unleashed on Haiti on 12 January, colonialism and neo-colonialism had a great deal to do with…
Why are some conflicts more visible than others, some deaths more significant? Recent events have taken me back to almost a year ago. Time flies, suffering and indifference remains. What I found confirmed through these events and their reception in Australia is that we need to acknowledge equality ever more urgently.
