Owen Harries (1930-2020), foreign policy adviser, thinker, gadfly, editor, and advocate of the “national interest” realist tradition, died last week. His influence was profound in Australia and globally. He persuaded, stung, prodded those around him to think.
These are my powerpoint notes to an EG staff presentation in March 2020. Next time, I’ll do better.
This debate is about doing good in our lives. About caring for others and getting ready for the next wave of Covid-19 infections. The app is voluntary, the information collected is not owned by the government, there is no policing, there are many protections.
Mary, Isabella Burke, Michael, Louise Burke (née Easson), and Amanda Howard (née Easson), 14 February 2020 in the Botantical Gardens, on the park bench named in honour of Afif Gabriel Geha and Margaret June “Betty” Mariani, formerly Easson.
Our father, who art in heaven, was a complex man – humble, intelligent, self-deprecating (we all got our humour – the Easson wit – from him), proud of his Celtic blood (frugal, sentimental, fiery, brave.)
The Ramsay Centre is in the headlines again with news about the discussions with the University of Queensland on a major in western civilisation studies as an option in the university’s Bachelor of Arts degree. UQ intends to run a course which would teach text about the impact of the West on Aboriginal people.
This powerpoint was stimulated by an article that Josh Ridley sent to Adam Geha: Bruce Baker and Tom Parks, ‘The Book of Ruth Can Transform the Way We Do Business Today’, Christianity Today, 21 June 2019. I presented these slides to the informal “Eggs No Bacon” ‘Abrahamic faiths and beyond’ ecumenical breakfast club.
Today we not only bury mum, we celebrate her life, reflect on what she meant to each of us, we give thanks, we seek to understand. With my brother Shane, I thank in particular our magnificent sisters, Maree and Karyn, who cared so deeply, who were mum’s bedrocks, always a great comfort for mum over so many decades.
Mr Fry-Kontaxis thinks me both diabolically clever to “rehash” “Israeli talking points” and to simultaneously repeat Hamas propaganda about their recent involvement at the Israel/Gaza barrier. He also detects my “long history of justifying the deaths of Arab victims of Israeli violence, and his repeated blame of those Arab victims.” How sad.
There is neither joy nor bright prospects from any of the recent violence and suffering in Gaza. The tragic loss of life in May naturally focuses attention on Australia’s policy concerning the Israel-Palestine conflict.