menu_open

Pearls and Irritations

We use cookies to provide some features and experiences in QOSHE

More information  .  Close

A five-minute scroll

Record numbers step out to vote in the US election while PM Netanyahu fires his defence Minister and protesters gather in Tel Aviv. Israel...

latest 2

Pearls and Irritations

Pearls And Irritations

More than 1-in-10 Americans would “take action” to overturn 2024 election results

Close to half of Republicans (46%) and more than a quarter of Democrats (27%) said they would not consider 2024 election results to be legitimate...

latest 9

Pearls and Irritations

World Justice Project

The world’s centre of gravity has shifted to BRICS

The recent BRICS summit in Kazan summed up the results of the Russian presidency of the organisation in 2024. John Shipton, an Australian activist...

latest 6

Pearls and Irritations

John Shipton

Conflicts of interest and the subconscious mind

In recent days, our media have covered two “scandals” involving allegations against public figures of failing to adequately address...

latest 7

Pearls and Irritations

Kerry Breen

Cartoon commentary

latest 7

Pearls and Irritations

Geoff Pryor

I have nothing left to give. I need your help

“I need your help… I have taken this whistleblowing as far as I can. This has been going for eight long years for me. Louise Beaston and I are...

latest 8

Pearls and Irritations

Richard Boyle

To save the planet: Disable this global consumer-corporate machine

The global consumer-capitalist machine is well-programmed to consume the planet in its quest to produce ever-more stuff. Avoiding pollution is...

latest 4

Pearls and Irritations

Geoff Davies

The ICJ advisory opinion and the UNGA response

A position paper has been published by the organisation BADIL in October, suggesting that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) decision on the...

latest 8

Pearls and Irritations

Paul Heywood-Smith

Why Israel and the IDF meet the criteria for proscription under Australian Anti-Terror laws

If Australian anti-terror laws are to be considered principled and fair, they must apply equally to all organisations that meet the criteria,...

latest 6

Pearls and Irritations

Bernadette Zaydan

Who should be the next emperor of the violent global imperium? 

As US voters go to the polls on November 5th, they need to remind themselves that when the US elects its next domestic president, it is also...

latest 7

Pearls and Irritations

Kiji Noh

What makes Chinese students so successful by international standards?

There is a belief widely held across the Western world: Chinese students are schooled through rote, passive learning – and an educational system...

yesterday 3

Pearls and Irritations

Peter Yongqi Gu

History cannot excuse the crimes of the present

One of Mark Twain’s more celebrated aphorisms is that ‘history never repeats itself, but it does often rhyme’. Witty, no doubt, but it doesn’t...

yesterday 8

Pearls and Irritations

Mark Beeson

The Queensland elections and the youth crime crisis

“The basic facts about youth crime in Australia, including Queensland, is that the number of young people getting into trouble with police has...

yesterday 8

Pearls and Irritations

John Jiggens

Albanese’s limp self-defence aggravated the damage of Qantas allegations

And the National Anti-Corruption Commission loses its appeal. Major General Paul Brereton would be doing well to plan a skilful retreat from utter...

yesterday 7

Pearls and Irritations

Jack Waterford

Perceptions of bias: The National Anti-Corruption Commission and Robodebt

From the outset, a question mark hovered over whether Australia’s federal National Anti-Corruption Commission would serve the purpose of shedding...

yesterday 8

Pearls and Irritations

Binoy Kampmark

The Forever War won’t end until we face the State terrorists

At the Imperial War Museum in London, there’s a moving display about Nazis and the Holocaust, the ‘ultimate human evil’. Seeing it in May this...

yesterday 9

Pearls and Irritations

Alison Broinowski

Recall Rudd

The Foreign minister Penny Wong should recall Kevin Rudd as Australia’s ambassador to Washington. Australia badly needs an ambassador who performs...

yesterday 8

Pearls and Irritations

Brian Toohey

The BRICS Summit should mark the end of neocon delusions

Simply put, the majority of the world does not want or accept U.S. hegemony, and is prepared to face it down rather than submit to its dictates....

yesterday 10

Pearls and Irritations

Jeffrey D. Sachs

The United States empire is almost always at war

The US empire is addicted to a belief in its exceptionalism, grounded in aggression both at home and abroad, and finding it hard to admit mistakes....

yesterday 8

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue

Facing an aging population and financial challenges, hospitals in China are converting to senior care facilities

I have always had an interest in reading local official research documents. First, compared with the central level document, it provides a more “...

previous day 10

Pearls and Irritations

Fred Gao

Remarkable Australian comparative analysis supports BDS

A very long line has been drawn between two dots: Israel and China, across what looks like a credibility chasm, by the vocal Australian Coalition...

previous day 1

Pearls and Irritations

Richard Cullen

Doubt, distrust, fear, and uncertainty surround the U.S. election process

With only days until the US Presidential election on 5 November and with polls calling the race 50:50. Michael Lester in discussion with Amelia...

previous day 10

Pearls and Irritations

Michael Lester

What the insurance experts say about Queensland’s climate plans

The new Queensland Premier, David Crisafulli, has made some moderately progressive comments about climate and nuclear energy but they are, when...

previous day 3

Pearls and Irritations

Noel Turnbull

Private schools’ opportunist attempt to lock-in over-funding

Private schools have seized on an opportunity provided by an Amendment Bill before the Parliament to attempt to lock-in billions in Commonwealth...

previous day 10

Pearls and Irritations

Trevor Cobbold

Community’s voice: Shaoquett Moselmane for Barton

Mr Shaoquett Moselmane, a popular politician amongst the Sydney’s multicultural community has been urged to nominate for the preselection for the...

previous day 2

Pearls and Irritations

Zia Ahmad

Democracy; what democracy?

As we approach the end of election season in the USA and are faced with a very uncertain future, it’s worth commenting that democracy is dead. At...

previous day 10

Pearls and Irritations

Jerry Grey

The 2-Israel Problem

Palestine’s problem is only partly expressed as a frustrated 2-State Solution; it might, more effectively be understood as a 2-Israel problem....

previous day 10

Pearls and Irritations

Michael Mckinley

Anomie: Enabled by Western media, Israel’s lies have become a galloping cancer

Israel’s unholy policy trinity – destroy, kill, lie – has been underway for decades. But since October 2023 it has reached horrific levels. The...

previous day 10

Pearls and Irritations

Stuart Rees

Netanyahu has been leading the United States into disaster after disaster after disaster

This is a US operation being carried out by Israel but with complete complicity by the United States and silence by Europe. We fought trillions of...

previous day 10

Pearls and Irritations

Jeffrey Sachs

Fake news, Melbourne 1966: migrant German priest was a U-boat commander who defied Hitler

A few years ago Ken Haddock, a retired social worker, discovered that a legendary folk tale of Melbourne Catholicism was false. For decades Father...

sunday 10

Pearls and Irritations

Val Noone

I’m still dreaming of a Blak Xmas stamp

In 1962, a columnist with the Melbourne Herald noted that a 16th century sculpture of Madonna and Child would be on that year’s Christmas stamp....

sunday 10

Pearls and Irritations

Humphrey Mcqueen

The 2024 Nobel Prize shows the bankruptcy of conventional economics

The 2024 Nobel Prize for economics has gone to two economists for work on why some poor nations prosper while others fail and remain poor. But it...

sunday 9

Pearls and Irritations

Ted Trainer

The politics of appeal and the asymmetrical valuing of lives

On October 11, I attended a vigil for Palestinians in Federation Square, Melbourne. The event did not attract politicians’ censure as it was...

sunday 8

Pearls and Irritations

Angela Smith

The alpha and omega of tyranny

The U.S. and Israel are the alpha and omega of tyranny and destabilisation throughout much of the Middle East – arguably, the world. Who will...

sunday 1

Pearls and Irritations

Reb Halabi

Genocidal scorecard

A United Nations report, published on Monday, lays out in chilling detail the advances made by Israel in Gaza as it seeks to eradicate “the very...

02.11.2024 10

Pearls and Irritations

Chris Hedges

5cd295a8fe3b6cd98cdaf31baa1bc88f