Ethics news:
5 October 2005
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The politics of fear are blinding us to the humanity of others
A culture of guilt and apathy threatens to undermine our values and turn us into a traumatised society The most important question for our times is: are some humans more human than others? In practice, both abroad and at home, the British response has been a resounding "yes". Our civilising mission in the empire resulted in the violent deaths of millions of people. At home, we turned a blind eye to torture and blatant miscarriages of justice ...
The Guardian - 1 October 2005
The market in fear
Politics has become a contest between different brands of doom-mongering. Fear is fast becoming a caricature of itself. It is no longer simply an emotion or a response to the perception of threat. It has become a cultural idiom through which we signal a sense of unease about our place in the world. Popular culture encourages an expansive, alarmist imagination through providing the public with a steady diet of fearful programmes ...
Spiked-Online - 26 September 2005
It's the threat that serves well to explain our fear
The Prime Minister is correct when he claims his proposed anti-terrorism measures will have the "overwhelming support" of the Australian community. What's interesting is where that support springs from and what it reveals about us. There's no doubt that enthusiasm for tougher anti-terrorism laws derives partly from the widespread belief that, sooner or later, Australia will be a target for a terrorist attack. But that's not the whole story ...
The Sydney Morning Herald - 1 October 2005
This is not the way to fight terror
Howard's anti-terror laws will be less effective than ending injustice in the Middle East. It is hard to imagine one single act - apart from our involvement in the "coalition of the willing" - that will do more to promote the development of home-grown terrorism than the tough new anti-terrorism laws announced by the Prime Minister and a craven bunch of Labor premiers and chief ministers ...
The Age - 29 September 2005
Without consent
Australia is heading down the same track as Northern Ireland and apartheid South Africa, jailing people without charge. Rarely have state premiers met to consider an issue as sensitive as the one facing them next Tuesday: preventive detention. John Howard's latest strategy to stamp out terrorism involves house arrest, tagging, new powers to search and question, plus a brand new crime of "inciting violence against the community" ...
The Sydney Morning Herald - 24 September 2005
The war on tyranny starts now
Did you notice in all the hoo-ha about anti-terror laws last week that two state premiers have promised to go further than the Federal Government in combating terrorism? You may have thought that Philip Ruddock and the Man of Steel were world champions at depriving us of our liberties in the name of public safety but premiers Mike Rann, of South Australia, and Geoff Gallop, of Western Australia, were not about to be upstaged ...
The Age - 2 October 2005
Rights that are all wrong
In Australia, rights are decided by those elected to power, which is how it should be. Compare the constitutional structures of Canada and Australia and what do you notice? Both are federal systems. Both share the English common law tradition, the Westminster parliamentary form of elected government, and a great deal of history. True, Canadian provinces are much more powerful than Australian states ...
The Age - 27 September 2005
We must have the protection of a bill of rights
Canadians are protected by their charter. We have no such safeguard. James Allan's dim view of Canada's 23-year-old charter of rights and freedoms (Opinion, 27/9) does not coincide with reality. In fact, the vast majority of Canadians support their country's bill of rights, and with good reason. It provides a check on the power of executive government and has made for a tolerant and diverse society that puts Australia to shame when it comes to human rights protections ...
The Age - 30 September 2005
No magic solutions for those who won't help themselves
Relying on governments to solve all our problems is a guarantee of perpetual frustration. From mental health to Telstra to the environment, Australian politics suffers from a deeply entrenched set of expectations that governments can save us. Of all the messages the former Labor leader Mark Latham has unleashed, this observation is the most important. For historical reasons, we've come to have a childlike faith in the ability of governments to solve our social and economic problems ...
The Sydney Morning Herald - 27 September 2005
A new way of doing the world's business
There was a vacuum here at the United Nations summit this month, an aching space demanding to be filled. What was lacking, quite simply, was leadership: the vision that could have put backbone into long overdue reform and new purpose into the multilateral drive to tackle poverty. We didn't get it. And the disappointment felt by civil society across the world is palpable. Instead of opening a new chapter for the UN, we got a summit of fudge ...
International Herald Tribune - 25 September 2005
We must move ahead on stem cells
To maintain its world-leading reputation, Australia needs to change the law to allow the therapeutic cloning of cells. It was a welcome sight to see the lead story in yesterday's Age (29/9) on the Victorian Government's push to ease the stem cell laws. First, because it's absolutely true that the present laws are hindering scientists and their potential to develop new treatments for disease. Second, it was a relief to finally see some public discussion about the review ...
The Age - 30 September 2005
Therapeutic cloning will commodify human life
Big money may make for bad ethics in stem cell research. Big biotechnology and big money. It could be really good for Australia's economy. It might be a potential goldmine just waiting for some smart science and clever entrepreneurs. Or not. And human embryos are right there at the heart of it. They could be the big money-spinners for Australian biotech. ... Like Bob Hawke's idea about making Australia a radioactive dump, all that is required is to suspend some ethics ...
The Age - 4 October 2005
Hard to make peace with the odds on this lot
It's difficult to find nominees for a peace prize in a world where there isn't much. In an episode of The Simpsons, Homer gets a phone call notifying him that he has won the Nobel Prize. The call is a mistake but, if it was the Nobel Peace Prize, why not? Henry Kissinger and Yasser Arafat were both awarded the Peace Prize and they had done no more for world peace than Homer has - possibly less ...
The Sydney Morning Herald - 5 October 2005
Wiesenthal's unforgettable legacy
Simon Wiesenthal was known as a Nazi hunter, but his life's work went far beyond justice for justice's sake. He was also motivated by the drive not to forget the victims, including 89 of his own family members. He understood that remembering the victims was important to re-build the lives of those who escaped. Thousands of survivors around the world drew some solace from the fact that perpetrators would live in fear of justice for the rest of their lives ...
BBC News - 20 September 2005
Taking on the bullies
The response to bullying must go beyond punishment to understand the causes. There is critical concern being expressed for comprehensive action that does something about the bully and his or her behaviour. In the political arena, if it wins the next election, the Victorian Liberal Party is planning to introduce antisocial behaviour orders similar to the system used in Britain that would explicitly prohibit acts of bullying ...
The Age - 26 September 2005
What covers your needs? £8000 a month? £10,000 a year?
In our consumerist frenzy, do we know what ‘need’ means any more? Last weekend, Sir Tom Hunter was explaining why he is donating $100 million to an African aid foundation he has established with former president Bill Clinton. Self-evidently, it is a good thing to do. ... Sir Tom holds to Andrew Carnegie's dictum that the man who dies rich dies disgraced, and he does so without any of the old thug's richly deserved guilt ...
Sunday Herald - 2 October 2005
Grounded by low horizons
Killjoys want to reduce the number of cheap flights to sunny destinations, in pursuit of questionable targets on carbon emissions. A new report suggests the growth of air travel must be curbed to prevent climate change. Rough translation: all those oiks taking advantage of cheap flights to visit far-flung corners of the world should stay at home instead, and make do with Skegness ...
Spiked-Online - 23 September 2005
Bear necessities
Harold Evans reflects on how an environmental success story - rescuing grizzlies from extinction - could be set back by the quest for oil. There's a tiny Wild West schoolhouse in a romantic setting in the Rocky mountains of Wyoming. It is just two rooms flying a small American flag in the loneliness at the edge of Yellowstone National Park. Audra Morrow, the solitary teacher, has just four children in her school ...
BBC News - 30 September 2005
Hotel guests clean up on shampoo
Britons take home 430,000 gallons (1.95m litres) of shampoo from hotels every year, a survey has found. Small bottles of shampoo were the items most likely to be "stolen" by guests - around 70% of people questioned by hotels.com admitted they removed them. Other products frequently taken included shower gel, sewing kits, bathrobes and "Do not disturb" signs. Only 19% of guests felt guilty about taking the items as most people felt they had already paid for them ...
BBC News - 30 September 2005
Another beauty burned by an ugly industry
The fashion industry exploited Kate Moss' drug allure. For a graphic illustration of double standards in the fashion industry, take a look at the latest issue of Grazia, the celebrity and fashion magazine. On the front, inevitably, is a paparazzi photograph of Kate Moss. She is wearing enormous sunglasses, her hair is tousled and wild; she looks sullen and troubled, as well she might, and possibly hung over ...
The Age - 28 September 2005
Taking politics out of the gun
Today's protests against arms and the arms trade are shot through with childish naivety - and more than a smattering of chauvinism. Guns have been big news this week. First the Irish Republican Army ditched theirs, putting a reported 650 Kalashnikovs, 50 heavy machine guns, 40 rocket launchers, six flame throwers, one surface-to-air missile, three tonnes of Semtex and various other weaponry 'beyond use permanently' ...
Spiked-Online - 29 September 2005
Hurricane Katrina: location, relocation, abandonment
Why have risk managers been so quick to give up on New Orleans? It has been suggested in risk, disaster and business-continuity management circles that one way to avoid the consequences of natural disaster is to not be there in the first place. The Mississippi river and the ports of Southern Louisiana, centred on New Orleans at its mouth, have been America's import route to its own hinterland and export gateway to the world ...
Spiked-Online - 30 September 2005