Latest Articles
We are encouraged to rely more and more on government officials to do for us what we could equally well do for ourselves—and, maybe more importantly, not to do what might help us solve our own problems.
Sep 08 2024
10 mins
If we imagine a metric called the Pinocchio Scale, which measures the number of lies told by a politician as a percentage of his or her overall public statements, our current prime minister (for want of a better description), Airbus Albo, has moved well into uncharted territory.
Sep 06 2024
5 mins
The Fantasy Goldfields of New Gold Mountain
We are on the Ballarat diggings in early September 1857, the eve of the Chinese “Moon Festival”, when SBS television’s New Gold Mountain begins. Using a murder mystery to drive the plot—a disembowelled corpse has been discovered—this historical drama aims to give the viewpoint of Chinese participants in Australia’s gold rush.
SBS adopts a surprising position on Asian gold seekers.
The main Chinese characters work for a Canton-based syndicate, called “The Brotherhood”, which like the fabled Tong societies of California organises crime across the gold fields.
A fluent English speaker, the Chinese community’s headman, Leung Wei Shing, is the Brotherhood’s manager at Ballarat. The Chinese Protector, Frederick Standish, and local authorities are clueless about this control over criminal activity. So is Belle Roberts, the owner-editor of the Ballarat Star, who starts a Chinese edition and is investigating the violent death. She befriends the handsome…
If we imagine a metric called the Pinocchio Scale, which measures the number of lies told by a politician as a percentage of his or her overall public statements, our current prime minister (for want of a better description), Airbus Albo, has moved well into uncharted territory.
Sep 06 2024
5 mins
The Editor of Quadrant Music, Alexander Voltz, has won the symphonic section of the prestigious George Enescu International Competition in Bucharest.
Sep 03 2024
1 mins
The Justice’s legal analysis is superficially plausible but, nevertheless, the judgment is woefully woke. This is because the law, even if it were argued that the Court correctly applied the law, is incompatible with the biological fact that there are two sexes.
Sep 01 2024
14 mins
