Universities are interesting institutions these days. That is not to say that they are as interesting as they used to be. What they used to be is what I still love but can no longer find. A thing to immerse yourself in, a sentence to skip over and delight in; a thing of politics and passion; torn t-shirts and slogans written on skin; chants in the hallways and joints on the lawn. The first time I committed myself into a university was in 1994. Sydney University. Two steps from Newtow...

Australians love bagging Americans. This is not an opinion but a fact that has been ascertained by having to sit through countless conversations where the generic American has been the subject. More often than not Shakespeare’s Richard the Third has been treated more kindly than this American that is just as fictitious as the hunch-backed despot. Why is it that Americans inspire such animosity, what in many cases is constituted of a envious respect and a persistent annoyance? The Columbin...

The continuing drama that is taking place between Australia and East Timor over off shore gas and oil deposits could contain lessons that extend beyond the Timor Sea. Australians are so proud of the role we played in the realisation of East Timorese independence. We waved the flag around and called forth the always ready and always welling emotion of patriotism to the fore when we marched in with our guns and our ships and armoured vehicles. We had stood in between a people who had f...

Jesus H Christ. And I thought I was joking about an international organisation monitoring the American presidential elections , but obviously not. Link It seems that after 12 Democratic House members wrote to Kofi Annan, to ask the UN to monitor the 2004 election after what they deemed to be a stolen 2000 election, President Bush appeared to bow to pressure, but with the exception of turning to the OSCE (Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe) instead. There has been outr...

Firstly, you’ll have to excuse the title. Knowing the limited readership of my blog, I wanted a title that might actually attract some of the more conservative of you here on JU. Secondly. What is the point of this article? Well it’s not really an article as such; it’s more of a curious exploration, an attempted mapping of JU’s conservative topography. I want to know what it is to be either conservative/right-wing. What beliefs and opinions are necessary, and to what extent is this politic...

Politics, it’s everywhere but we never see it, insidious bastard that it is. Is it another word for relationship? Are there things/objects involved? Manufacturing processes and plants, tanks and planes, roads and bridges, dollars and bonds. Is the art of politics about dominion over people or things? Is it the art of facilitating the relationships between people and people and things? I’m sure it’s all these things and I’m sure there is a political economic theory to explain each and ev...

There has been a lot of talk recently about the ignorant, redneck American tearing around deserts in armoured vehicles, armed to the teeth, executing the policies of a stupid little man that lives in a big white house, surrounded by crooked cronies who have a tendency of having a vocabulary limited to the word “yes”. This is a fiction that has been useful to many, but counter-productive to me. I find fiction more than helpful when trying to understand phenomena. I refuse to accept fiction ...