2009

Say it like you mean it, we love a bold leader

The public is thirsting for political leaders who dare to speak their minds. If only Australian politics would produce someone like the young German economics minister, our political debates would become infinitely more interesting. And Kevin Rudd would finally have a real reason to be afraid of ideologues. [...]

Sisters are doing it for themselves

There is only one place on earth where a man’s world is still as it should be, and that’s Russia. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has just released pictures showing him shirtless on a horseback, making fire by a lake and relaxing in a tree. As his steely blue eyes were gazing into the Siberian sky, nobody would have dared to tell the muscular ex-KGB man that men couldn’t be left to run things on their own. [...]

Nuclear risk powers fear rather than debate

Properly assessing the risks of nuclear power alone is not enough to decide whether we should opt for this technology. But without proper risk analysis we will not be able to make rational choices at all. [...]

“Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God the things that are God’s”

The Catholic Church has long put the obstacle of the advocatus diaboli in the path of sainthood – someone who argues the devil’s case against the canonisation of a prospective saint. What the Catholic Church had not yet introduced, though, was an advocatus Australiae, an Australian gate opener to heaven. [...]

By their scandals ye shall know them

As long as we can get excited over something as trivial as Utegate, our condition may be hopeless but not serious. [...]

G8 loses way to point of nothing

The G8 deserves a special mention in the history books for its role in the 1970s and ‘80s, but only to the history books does it belong. In its current form, the G8 has managed to be even weaker than the sum of its parts. Wisdom has become nonsense, and the wise thing to do now is not to make the G8 bigger or more representative but to abolish it. [...]

Does Europe still matter?

Where is the European Union heading? How are Europe’s economies dealing with the repercussions of the financial crisis? And where will the continent be when the crisis is over? These are the questions that should be asked in Australia because the state of Europe still matters to our economy. [...]

The Rotten State of Britain

In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the play ends with the death of all the main characters, upon which Denmark is taken over by a foreign force. For Britain, there may soon only be the International Monetary Fund to turn to. Hamlet’s last words were ‘the rest is silence.’ Maybe that would be the best national motto for Britain as well. [...]

Parliament without a people

The elections for the European Parliament are at least as bizarre as the song contest. And just as nobody can remember last year’s Eurovision winners, the results of the EU elections are likely be forgotten soon after they are declared. [...]

Im Zweifel für die Freiheit

Was sich vielleicht zunächst nach einer naheliegenden Erweiterung der Idee des freiheitlichen Rechtsstaats anhört, entpuppt sich jedoch bei genauerer Betrachtung als Perversion desselben. Die Idee der Rechte zukünftiger Generationen oder einer nicht näher bestimmten Natur ist nämlich in Wahrheit inkompatibel mit Freiheit und Privatautonomie. Damit lässt sie sich auch nicht mit dem Gedanken der Menschenwürde verbinden. Ganz davon abgesehen spricht aus ihr ein tiefes Misstrauen gegenüber der Möglichkeit von Fortschritt durch Veränderung. [...]