Mahler's Prodigal Son

The Sunday Age this morning has a rather small item on its front page about this piece from the New Yorker by well-known, and well-connected and usually authoritative writer Seymour Hersh ....that the Bush Administration is planning an attack on Iraq. This is the opening paragraph to Hershs' piece.... "The Bush Administration, while publicly advocating diplomacy in order to stop Iran fro pursuing a nuclear weapon, has increased clandestin activities inside Iran and intensified planning for possible major air attack. Current and forme American military and intelligence officials said tha Air Force planning groups are drawing up lists of targets, and teams of American combat troops have been ordered into Iran, under cover, to collect targeting data and to establish contact with anti-government ethnic-minority groups. The officials say that President Bush is determined to deny the Iranian regime the opportunity to begin a pilot program, planned for this spring, to enrich...

"Papuan boatpeople face the same treatment as the Tampa refugees did under the 2001 Pacific Solution, as the Howard Government moved yesterday to defuse tensions with Jakarta, warning the asylum-seekers they were not welcome in Australia. John Howard raised the prospect that boatpeople fleeing the troubled Indonesian province would be treated in future in the same way as the 433 refugees picked up by Norwegian container ship the Tampa in 2001. "I'd be concerned about the abuse of human rights anywhere in the world, and I guess no country is free of human rights abuses, but I do not think it serves anybody's interests for us to encourage in any way the fragmentation of Indonesia," the Prime Minister said. "That's why I've taken such a strong stand and why I sent such a strong message to the people of West Papua. Do not imagine for a moment we want you to come to Australia." So write Greg Sheridan and Samantha Maiden in The Australian today. Whil...

It will come as no surprise to read the following: "Israel's unilateral plan to impose final borders will lead to another war in a decade, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said in an interview published on Saturday in the British Guardian and American Washington Post newspapers. Abbas told Britain's Guardian newspaper that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will jeopardise the prospect of long-term peace if he refuses to negotiate an agreement Palestinians see as just." So reports YNet News.com - the full piece of which can be read here . However one views the situation in which the Palestinians find themselves - including economic aid now being cut off from them - one thing must surely be a certainty. The Palestinians will not take anything imposed on them without a fight, whatever the consequences. Starving out the Palestinians [ie witholding aid monies] just seems plain dumb. The Palestinians will not readily acquiece just because some countries said they...

Just today it is reported that an attack on a Shiite mosque in Baghdad has killed at least 70 people and injured some 140 people. Blood donors are being called for, etc. So this statement is timely... "A cruel and bloody civil war has started in Iraq, a country which Bush and Blair promised to free from fear and establish democracy. I have been visiting Iraq since 1978, but for the first time, I am becoming convinced that the country will not survive". That's a dire prediction! However the writer, published here in The Independent , lends more than weight and gravitas to what he says by quoting chapter and verse on various aspects of the mess, what the politicians said would happen, and concludes with some startling statistics. Sobering reading.

"In Nairobi today, United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland launched an appeal for $426 million to support the urgent needs of more than 8 million people in mortal danger from a drought in the Horn of Africa that shows no sign of relenting. "I know we launch many appeals, and there are many areas of the world needing assistance, but I can not underline too much how important this is," Kevin Kennedy, the Director of the Complex Emergency Division of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said in New York of the crisis affecting Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia." When will the world take the plight of Africans seriously? The sheer scale of people at risk is horrendous. As the full piece on allAfrica.com reveals [read it here ] the 8 million people referred to above are those at "immediate" risk. Altogether some 15 million people face starvation and a myriad of associated problems. Update...

This past week has seen millions of Catholics commemorate the first anniversary of the death of Pope Paul II. Many have paid tribute to the late Pope for, amongst other things, having built bridges of understanding between Jews and Catholics. As Haaretz writes in this opening paragraph on the topic of Pope Paul II "The first anniversary of the death of John Paul II was commemorated this week not only by millions of Catholics, but also by many Jews for whom his reign redefined inter-religious relations. However, last April's uniformly positive appraisals of this "hero of reconciliation" by Israeli and Jewish groups presented an oversimplified picture of a more complex reality. One year on, it is time to take a more critical look." And the "critical look" that Haaretz speaks of [see the full article here ] doesn't portray the late Pope quite in the same positive light as has been the case in the past. Indeed, it would not be unfair to say that ...

How many times have you cursed as you tried to remember a particular travel web-site? What was the name of that site which has details of airports, car rentals, camp sites, etc. Whilst not a definitive list, Travel + Leisure has on its web site this month a fairly comprehensive list of travel-related web sites. Check it out here - and bookmark it!