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People are full of fear. Everywhere a sense of fear sleeps under the hubris of western affluence, religious fundamentalism, and grinding poverty. This fear is not merely individual (like a fear of snakes) it is psycho-social, institutionalised into the very fabric of society. It is a national and international psychosis in the western world. Read more
There is indeed one thing the British got right in their several million terrace houses across Greater London built in the 1930s. They put the toilet in the right place – out the back where it belongs. Read more
As Vaclav Havel in The Power of the Powerless, (originally published in Czechoslovakia in October 1978) argued: power often stifles creativity and ideas, and generally it is only those on the margins that have the space, sometimes the eccentricity, to think radically. Read more
While the original focus of Paulo Friere’s educational philosophy in Pedagogy of the Oppressed, written some thirty-seven years ago, was the underclass within the two-thirds world, much of his approach is acutely relevant to what appears to be a new underclass in the affluent West in 2013. Read more
This was the final sentence in an opinion piece in the Guardian newspaper on Thursday 3 October reflecting on the sinking of the migrant boat off the coast of Italy near the island of Lampedusa, where it is now confirmed there are over 300 dead.
Like Australia, Europe faces the continual challenge as boats arrive in waves, reflecting the fever pitch that is reached when people who are faced with desperate circumstances take desperate measure to try to make a better life for themselves. Read more