Decent people take comfort in the idea that money is not profoundly connected with happiness. There are statistics that suggest that as income increases happiness does not rise to an equal degree; and…
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Politics + Society – Articles, Analysis, Comment
Displaying 13201 - 13225 of 13341 articles
Sydney in February displayed in full technicolor what is one of the big stories in Ireland - the latest phase of our history of being an emigrant race. As we walked around the city, stopped for coffee…
Low purity and scarcity is driving down the popularity of ecstasy among regular users but more are using new synthetic party drugs such as BZP and mephedrone, according to a new report. An annual survey…
Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan says he is set to deliver a tough budget. Julia Gillard remains committed to bringing government back to surplus by 2013. Budget day is an appropriate moment to ask how the…
Skimpy, scanty and suggestive attire have been one of the higher profile issues dividing feminists in recent years. In one camp, feminists of the second-wave, radical ilk have loudly decried the “sexualised…
Tonight’s budget is expected to tighten a tax loophole for charities which run businesses unrelated to their charitable work. The government thinks it will increase revenue for Australia’s coffers. It…
If Julia Gillard’s “Malaysian solution” tells us anything, it’s that Tony Abbott’s stop-the-boats mantra has redefined the debate on refugees. The Prime Minister has previously committed to not doing any…
Australian republicans should watch the Scots. In the Scottish Parliamentary election held on 5 May, the Scottish National Party (SNP) secured an overall majority. Formerly in minority government in Scotland…
The manifesto of the Foundation for Endangered Languages states, quite accurately, that “There is agreement among linguists that over half of the world’s languages are not being passed on to the next generation…
Recent Canadian elections have produced minority governments. Until now. Stephen Harper’s victory in the polls last week fundamentally changed Canadian politics. Majority government is back and it is Conservative…
The author of this article, Daniel Metcalfe, is a former director of the US Department of Justice Office of Information and Privacy. He advised the US Government on the Abu Ghraib pictures. President Obama…
Former Australian of the Year Pat McGorry has campaigned to bring attention to distress suffered by many young people in our increasingly stressful society. Twenty six percent of young Australians experience…
Australia possesses an advanced digital economy which remains shackled to a media regulation system that belongs to the past century. Our laws reflect an era when media consumption was dominated by the…
If pre-budget statements by Julia Gillard and Wayne Swan are an accurate guide, this year’s Federal Budget is shaping up as marking a change in the direction of Commonwealth taxing and spending priorities…
The latest international comparisons show there is an urgent need to improve Australian student outcomes. The OECD Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), which has measured the performance…
This week two men were shot by members of Victoria Police. One on the street in St Kilda, the other in a Centrelink office in Windsor. The first was killed, the second seriously injured. Police media spokespersons…
The US military’s assassination of Osama bin Laden in North Pakistan is an important landmark in the “war on terror”. As the leader of al Qaeda he was the primary target of the military campaign to defeat…
The world changes, but our categories fail to keep pace. We try to understand the new through the familiar, and become puzzled when things no longer make sense. Criticisms last week of the Melbourne Model…
You don’t have to be a monarchist to see that the Royal wedding has been a triumph of cultural diplomacy for the United Kingdom, and a powerful statement to the world about the importance of tradition…
Osama bin Laden is dead. Or is he? The newly-deceased Saudi militant was long a central figure for the world’s conspiracy theorists. He was actually a CIA agent said some. He really died of kidney failure…
A mismatch between the cultural make-up of schools and the suburbs in which they are located could lead to social problems in future, according to a Sydney researcher who analysed the trend. Using data…
The killing of Osama bin Laden by US forces on Pakistani soil has come at a time when relations between the two countries have been rather strained. Analysts point out that al-Qaida today is a diffuse…
University education around the world is in a time of considerable change. One key driving issue which has built up for some years is the massive and exponential increase in the knowledge base and the…
Where were you when you heard about Osama bin Laden’s death? Increasingly, the answer to this and similar questions may be, “I was on Twitter.” From the “inland tsunami” washing down Queensland’s Lockyer…
Osama bin Laden has long been a focus for conspiracy theorists with many claiming that he did not in fact play a role in the 9/11 attacks on the United States. That catastrophe was, so the theory goes…