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Critics of the Jubilee 2000 campaign opined that remission of international debt would give the green light for corrupt governments to fritter away the proceeds. This has not proved to be true. There is powerful evidence that debt cancellation is already directly helping the poor. In Uganda debt relief has...
It was early May, the traditional time for drilling wheat in our part of Australia. As the days passed everyone was getting noticeably more worried. Every time he'd go out Dad would cast an anxious eye heavenwards, but the skies remained monotonously clear as they'd done for the last four...
AIDS is a huge problem in Africa and at one time some expressed fears that it would not only wipe out a huge proportion of the population, but all healthcare provision as well. Viewed in that light it's hard for Westerners to understand the government of South Africa. At times...
The holocaust and the horrific 1939-45 World War had small beginnings. The Nazis talked such absurdities that few thoughtful people took them seriously. Common wisdom reasoned that the Nazis could serve a useful purpose: let them take out the Communists and then we'll take care of them. But while Europe...
One of my favourite childhood memories was waiting for goods trains to pass the level crossing a few miles down the dusty road from our farm in inland Australia. Most of the cargo, on its way to the coast from the remote mining town of Broken Hill, was raw silver,...
Most people who know London know about Cleopatra's Needle. It's an ancient Egyptian obelisk that stands proud on Westminster embankment, a massive but carefully fashioned shaft of granite, on which an ancient potentate proclaims his great deeds. Now if you visit historic Luxor in Egypt, you may stumble on a weathered,...
A series of recent events seems to suggest that public opinion in the Western world is moving inexorably in favour of tolerance of homosexuality. In France in October, the National Assembly and Senate approved partnership contracts giving a new legal status to cohabiting non-married couples - heterosexual or homosexual. Non-sexual...
A recent British Medical Association survey of junior doctors found that 95% would back industrial action, short of going on strike. This industrial action might include work to rule, refusal to carry out administrative duties, refusal to participate in waiting list initiatives and refusal to act as porters. The core problem...
Friendly critics of Triple Helix are apt to chide us that we give too much space to the debate about euthanasia. 'Healthcare bristles with issues for discussion and debate', they say. 'Why give this one so much space?' Our first response, always, is that euthanasia is a 'defining issue'. If the...
These perhaps obscure Old Testament words carry a contemporary resonance. Public debate about genetically modified food rages. The spectre of 'Frankenstein foods' stalks the popular imagination, the latest episode being fears about how far pollen from trials of GM crops can travel and what it might affect. So did the authors...
