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Section: International

  • INTERNATIONAL

    Refugee crisis requires international effort

    • David Holdcroft
    • 21 April 2009
    3 Comments

    During the Indochinese crisis, the Fraser Government engaged in a policy of cooperation with other countries in the region. More than a million people were moved, and the boat people phenomenon in Australia ceased for nearly ten years.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Asylum seekers are not criminals

    • Sacha Bermudez-Goldman
    • 21 April 2009
    9 Comments

    If we regard asylum seekers as illegals who burn boats to force themselves on us, we might choose to close our doors to them. Rather than criminals, we should regard them as human beings in great need, deserving our respect and compassion.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    An outsider's guide to the Tamil crisis

    • Natalie Francis
    • 17 April 2009
    19 Comments

    Hundreds of Australian Tamil people gathered outside Kirribilli to protest the attacks on Tamil civilians in northern Sri Lanka. Not wanting to wake the neighbours, they kept their voices down. But the message was clear: 'Please listen.'

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Forward with fairness for asylum seeker policy

    • Kerry Murphy
    • 17 April 2009
    3 Comments

    The tragic death of several asylum seekers on a boat while being towed to Christmas Island again shows the dangers for people coming to Australia by boat. But it does not justify a return to the harsh policies of the past.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    The logic of the Bali death machine

    • Peter Hodge
    • 04 March 2009
    3 Comments

    In Kafka's 'The Penal Colony', a brutal, archaic killing device is valued more highly than the law it enforces. As members of the Bali 9 continue to languish, we ask whether 'because the law says so' is sufficient reason for them to die.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Nicolaides free, but writers' persecution persists

    • Arnold Zable
    • 27 February 2009
    8 Comments

    Harry Nicolaides should never have been jailed, and his release is a cause for celebration and relief. Yet it leaves many unanswered questions about the reason for his imprisonment, and highlights the plight of many other persecuted writers.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    US halts orphans from Vietnam

    • Sarah Nichols
    • 20 February 2009
    42 Comments

    Donation agreements between USA adoption service providers and Vietnamese orphanages are private and negotiable. Some orphanage directors admitted there was a strong financial incentive to maximise the number of children available for adoption.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Letter from Zimbabwe

    • Oskar Wermter
    • 30 January 2009

    A young man, well educated, with several diplomas in his pocket, pestered me about getting funds to do a course in South Africa. Not because he needs that course, but merely to get out of Zimbabwe. The rats are leaving the ship.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Gaza conversations

    • Ben Coleridge
    • 08 January 2009
    1 Comment

    We were invited to share a meal with a Jewish family in Haifa. They welcomed us, and conversation was happy and inviting. Inevitably, the topic of conflict between Israel and Palestine reared its head. The atmosphere was transformed.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Terrorism trial's legacy of fairness

    • James Montgomery
    • 09 December 2008
    5 Comments

    A landmark ruling in Victoria's 'terrorism trial' found the accused were subjected to oppressive conditions beyond what prisoners on remand should endure. It's as if they were to be punished prior to the outcome of the trial, irrespective of the jury verdict.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    The nun and the burqa

    • Bronwyn Lay
    • 02 December 2008
    20 Comments

    When Germaine Greer savaged Michelle Obama's dress, I sighed. The 'beauty' market is a challenge to feminism. In France, two extremes of fashion ideology — burqas and plastic-surgery 'mannequins' — line up to buy bread.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Pol Pot and the repentant Swede

    • Binoy Kampmark
    • 24 November 2008
    1 Comment

    Gunnar Bergstrom returned to Cambodia last week hoping to atone for his one-time approval of the Khmer Rouge's Year Zero. In 1978 he and his comrades from the Sweden-Kampuchea Friendship Association were hosted by a gracious and grateful Pol Pot.

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