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Articles by Bert Hetebry
Building an imperfect perfect society
Screenshot (edited) from the Dept of Home Affairs) Have no fear of perfection – you will never reach it. (Salvadore Dali). Nothing lasts, Nothing is finished, Nothing is perfect. (Richard R Powell). What would we like our society to look like? I’m quite confident that we all have a different answer to that sort of question, reflecting, no doubt on the values we personally hold. We all have views on what is perfect.
The politics of abuse
A heckler interrupted a lecture with an attack on the presenter, rather than addressing the content of the lecture. The response from the lecture went something like this: “Your opinions define you, not me. They say nothing about me, but speak volumes about you.” Much the same can be said of all personal attacks, attacks which bully a person for who they are, and who they are is something they cannot change.
Why support for Israel?
Screenshot from Facebook (@ Palestine Solidarity Campaign UK) A nation… is a group of persons united by a common error about their ancestry and a common dislike of their neighbours. (Karl Deutsch, Nationality and its alternatives, 1969, as quoted by Shlomo Sand’s introduction to ‘The invention of the Jewish People’ 2009).
Is liberalism dead?
Is liberalism dead? Social engineering is alive and well. “Can women and men work together in the workplace?” Canadian academic, author and psychiatrist Dr Jordan Peterson posed that question in an interview in Vice News in 2018. The interview continues questioning the wearing of make up, the style of dressing in the workplace, sexual harassment… “Why would you wear makeup in the workplace. Isn’t that sexually provocative? … What’s the purpose of of makeup then?” Peterson asked.
Profits over people: The end of liberalism
BBC news reports that an 87-year-old woman was evicted from her unit in Madrid for not being able to pay her rent. She had lived in that home for almost 70 years having taken over the rental agreement from her father, but since the complex had recently be sold to an investment firm her rent was raised from €500 per month to €2650 per month, but after objections from tenants, reduced to €1650. The woman’s pension is €1350 euro, and so she was evicted.
The rise and rise of the right
Image from YouTube (Video uploaded by Al Jazeera English) Recent election results in Germany have seen the AfD, a right wing, neo-Nazi party achieve gains in regional elections. Likewise in Sweden and Norway, The Netherlands, Britain, France and Italy, right leaning parties are winning votes in regions which had previously been comfortably left to middle on the political spectrum. Why?
The crime of being Aboriginal
Aborigines in Chains at Wyndham prison, 1902 (Photo credit: Australian Archives) “He was naturally suspicious of white strangers, having spent twenty-seven months in prison for actions would not have been ‘crime’ had a white man committed them.” (In the spirit of Crazy Horse, page xxxix). “The year 1988 was a pivotal moment for a lot of us blackfellas. We had some sense of what had happened to ourselves, as a people, before that year. But what did I know up to that point?
Lessons on losing wars
Since the end of World War II there there have been many wars, including some fairly long conflicts which ran on for years. Trump’s definition: Forever wars. The first was the Korean War which was neither won nor lost; it is still in a stalemate. The DMZ (Demilitarised Zone) separates North and South Korea, and has since July 1953. To cross can still be seen as an act of war.
Don’t ask why
Image from Wikimedia Commons ‘Why’ can be such an inconvenient question. As the twin towers of the World Trade Centre collapsed, the Pentagon was hit by a crashing aircraft and another aircraft crashed in Pennsylvania, America and much of the world went into shock and the immediate response was to start a war on terrorism. Journalist Robert Fisk was on his way to New York from Brussels as those terrorist attacks were occurring.
In search of Motherland
Image from Unsplash (Photo by Joseph Lockley) Where in hell can you go Far from the things that you know Far from the sprawl of concrete That keeps drawing its way About a thousand miles a day? Take on last look behind Commit this to memory and mind Don’t miss this wasteland This terrible place, when you leave Keep your heart on your sleeve Motherland, cradle me, Close my eyes, lullaby me to sleep Keep me safe, lie with me Stay beside me. Don’t go. Don’t you go.
Immigrants: Searching for hope in in a time of hopelessness
Image from YouTube (Video uploaded by The Why Minutes) Fiddler on the Roof is humorous, yet dark story of a Jewish family, set in Ukraine about 1905. Ukraine was part of Imperial, Czarist Russia, and the first Russian Revolution occurred in 1905. A bit of blame is thrown around and another pogrom is called for: Let’s blame the Jews for the problems.
Power and Glory, or should that be Gory?
Image from YouTube (Screenshot of video uploaded by Samrethykar Huotpum) Recent travels have put me in a reflective mood. Trying to understand the fears which we live under, the arrogance of post colonialism, the sense of self-righteousness, the ongoing repression of indigenous people through the post colonial and currently recolonising world. I was standing in an ancient cathedral in the Dutch city of Utrecht.
Shag, Marry, Date debacle
Oh dear, our Prime Minister has been caught out again. Trying to be Mr Ordinary when asked to engage in a game which objectifies women, he said OK. The game was to judge a woman on a scale of whether you would have sex with her, marry her or ask her for a date. It’s a silly game, but underlying it is the challenge to objectifyy a woman. How would we respond to such a challenge? It seems like a bit of innocent fun really. But is it?
Culture and what to believe. (Book burnings, beheadings and bigotry.)
Image from YouTube (Video uploaded by Explaining Communication and Social Skills) Culture, monoculture, multiculture. What does it all mean and why are these things bandied around as though our lives are dependent upon them being deemed to be correct, whatever ‘correct’ means. Probably a good starting point is to define what culture really means in the context of, in this case, Australia, but also more broadly, culture in a national setting. To ‘debate’ what Australian really culture is.
How are people radicalised?
9/11 - screenshot from YouTube video Who will be the next terrorist to re-enact the Bondi attack of last December,? Or perhaps walk into a mosque on Friday and kill unsuspecting worshippers? A synagog? A church? Or just a random attack in a crowded place where ordinary people are going about their ordinary day to day business? But that probably is the wrong question to be asking, since it looks at the most difficult part of the terrorism conundrum.
Where in hell can they go?
Image sourced from YouTube video uploaded by NBC News Where in hell can you go Far from the things that you know Far from the sprawl of concrete That keeps crawling its way About a thousand miles a day Take one last look behind Commit this to memory and mind Don’t miss this wasteland This terrible place, when you leave Keep your heart on your sleeve Motherland, cradle me Close my eyes lullaby me to sleep Keep me safe Lie with me Stay beside me Don’t go Don’t you go (Natalie Merchant) Gaza has...
Civility, Civilised, Civilisation: Do they mean anything at all, really?
We like to think that we are a civilised people, don’t we? I was pondering this question, considering what it means to be ‘civilised’, what ‘civil’ looks like, so I asked a few people on my morning walk and the answers were quite different: some expressing a degree of scepticism, that civility is from a by-gone time, others that civilisation is an ordered, sophisticated social phenomenon, that the opposite is barbarianism, but no further definition was forthcoming.
Can Zionist Israel survive?
Screenshot from YouTube (video uploaded by Behold Israel) In 1944 Hannah Arendt predicted Zionism’s self-destruction in an essay ‘Zionism Reconsidered’ in which she explained Zionism and the colonial project of creating an exclusively Jewish state in what was then Palestine, to ‘recreate’ the biblical Israel, in reaction to the World Zionist Organisation’s congress’s call ‘for a Jewish state covering the entire territory of Palestine, without any division or reduction.’ Arendt commented that...
The comfort of faith and the seeds of hate
Yes, there seems to be a bee in my bonnet, a buzzing in my brain, as I try to understand why religion can be such a comfort for some, but so marginalising for others, why deeply religious people can be incredibly warm, loving people and yet fire up with an intense hatred at other times.
Is it real, this that I feel?
Have you ever walked through a forest and wondered at the feeling, the sense of freedom, quiet contemplativeness, perhaps barefoot, feeling the earth beneath your feet and your mind relaxes, listening to the sounds of nature. The breeze rustling the leaves, the sounds of bird calls and a sense of peace. Or sitting quietly near a stream as water ripples over rocks, slightly disturbing the reflections of the trees in water where the stream becomes a broad pool.
Is American Imperialism in its death throes?
Image from YouTube (Video uploaded by Toasted IDEAS) The threats to acquire Greenland, the attack on Venezuela, and the interest in Panama and Cuba are really just the Imperialist play book, re-opened by Donald Trump as the USA seeks to assert its power as the most powerful nation on earth.
The fear of Sharia Law
Image from Instagram (@yaqeeninstitute) There is a fear of Islam, and with the seemingly growing Islamic population, there is a fear that Sharia Law will be imposed on us. At least that is the impression gained when reading some of the social media posts forwarded to me by my Christian Zionist friend.
Meme from Facebook ( House Of Ram) In Australia, we have, we ‘enjoy’, sometimes ‘suffer’, freedom of religion. Freedom of religion: What does that really mean, especially in the context of the urgent call to somehow inscribe restrictions on that in the light of the Bondi killings? But now let’s not rush too much as a means of dealing with the hatred which possibly motivated that attack, clearly, antisemitism, since the victims were at a Jewish religious celebration.
A taxing problem
Mathias Cormann (Screenshot from YouTube) The OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) has reported on its annual economic survey of Australia, and in it has made several recommendations. Three important ones are: Increase the GST Do more to reduce greenhouse emissions Adopt ambitious social housing targets The rationale for increasing GST is to reduce the dependence on income tax, instead, increase dependence on a consumption tax.
Religious hate speech from the Bible and the Quran
The challenge of having freedom of religion and the way both the Bible and the Quran deal with difference makes the idea of legislating against hate speech from religious leaders and their followers an almost impossible task. The two ideals are almost diametrically opposed. “… in the eyes of science, the very existence of God is an untestable hypothesis yes (and very unlikely ever) to be empirically demonstrated.
The untold story
There is a scene in the old movie, Camelot where King Arthur is frustrated… befuddled may be a better word, as he rails against the futility of controlling women, more specifically, his queen, Guenevere, until he remembers some advice Merlin gave him long ago: Blast you Merlin! This all your fault! You swore that you had taught me everything fro A to Z With nary an omission in between Well, I shall tell you what You obviously forgot That’s how a ruler rules a Queen! And what of teaching me by...
Justice Vs Power
Image from YouTube (Screenshot of video uploaded by Samrethykar Huotpum) Can the ideal of justice, where all people are afforded the same justice, to live under the same laws and societal standards be achieved when the is existing order empowers some but denies equality at just about every level of existence?
Does exceptionalism drive hatred?
Throughout his presidency, Barack Obama was questioned about his view on American Exceptionalism. In speech after speech he affirmed that America was an exceptional nation, citing its role in geo-politics, and offering opportunities to all people who chose to call the US home, yet time after time his true patriotism .
Is it time to look at why the United Nations has a Declaration of Human Rights?
Image from Wikipedia Two major wars in the first half of the last century, exposure of the atrocities carried out as Germany not only sought to expand its territory, but sought also to have an ethnically and genetically pure nation were instrumental motivation for the creation of the United Nations Organisation. After the first war, 1914-18, , but had failed in its intent to somehow avoid another such conflict.
It’s all Albo’s fault… apparently
Screenshot from YouTube video uploaded by 10 News on Dec 15, 2025 That was the message sent to me yesterday as the news broke about the terrorist attack on a Jewish gathering at Bondi. Actually, there were two messages, first “Diversity?”, the second “Blood on PM HANDS”. Knee-jerk reactions followed throughout the evening as the shock and horror of the attack filled the TV screen and the phone kept rattling as news flowed in from all corners of the world.
“It was just sex!”
Andrew Windsor, Virginia Giuffre and Ghislaine Maxwell (Image from NBC News) A recent discussion about Andrew Mountbatten Windsor’s travails elicited the ‘it was just sex’ comment.
What hope is there for peace in Gaza?
“The Old City of Gaza is the historical centre of Gaza City in the Gaza Strip. For much of its recorded history it has been the southernmost coastal city in the region of Palestine, occupying a strategic position on the ancient trade route the Vis Maris, between Egypt and the Levant. Throughout its history, Gaza has been ruled by various empires, including the Philistines, Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Romans and Ottomans.
All we are saying is give peace a chance
One, Two, Three, Four! Everybody’s talking about Bagism, Shagism, Dragism, Madism, Ragism, Tagism This-ism, that-ism, ism ism ism All we are saying is give peace a chance All we are saying is give peace a chance Everybody’s talking about Minister, Sinister, Banisters, and Canisters Bishops, Fishops, Rabbis, and Pop Eyes, Bye bye bye byes All we are saying is give peace a chance All we are saying is give peace a chance Everybody’s talking about Revolution, Evolution, Masturbation,...
POLITICS IN DEMOCRACIES: The art of compromise… or is it?
In other words, who or what are most important? Me and the platform I was voted on, or the opportunity to belittle and demean people who are opposed to my way of thinking, opposed to my very specific interests? Or just any one on the ‘other side’ who needs to be pulled back a peg or two?
Why there can be no peace for Palestinians
At the end of 2024, according to UNHCR, there were estimated to be 123.2 million people world wide, forcibly displaced due to persecution, conflict, violence human rights violations and events seriously disturbing public order. That is 1.5% of the world population. Or if you want to make it real numbers instead of a percentage, for every 1,000 people in the world there are 15 people who are displaced, superfluous to needs, unwanted.
Let’s not look at Africa
It’s been 30 years since the genocide of Rwanda. I recall driving my children to school as the news was on the radio, the numbers grew larger day by day. At first explaining that the numbers killed were more than a capacity crowd at Subiaco oval, then the population of Perth south of the Swan River, then more than the population of Perth at that time. Report after report the numbers grew. The numbers became meaningless, too hard to imagine.
Sustainable Productivity: Australians’ Role in Change - The AIM Network
Written by: The AIM Network Leave a reply Category: AIM Extra permalink Tagged under: #AustraliaFuture, #DoughnutEconomics, #SocialJustice, #SustainableProductivity By Denis Hay Description: Learn how sustainable productivity can shape Australia’s future by driving productivity within planetary boundaries using “The Doughnut Principle.” Introduction Australia faces an urgent challenge: improving productivity while protecting the environment and supporting social equity.
LGBTIQA+ Action Plan important to close health gaps, says peak body - The AIM Network
Written by: The AIM Network Leave a reply Category: AIM Extra permalink Public Health Association of Australia Media Release Australia’s peak body for public health, Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA), applauds the Government’s announcement of a 10-year Action Plan to improve the health and wellbeing of the LGBTIQA+ community.
Health groups call for dying patients to receive free pain relief amid critical medicines shortage - The AIM Network
Written by: The AIM Network Leave a reply Category: AIM Extra permalink Palliative Care Australia Media Release Key health organisations have released an 11 point plan to address ongoing shortages of critical pain relief medicines.
UniSA shark scientist lands a super catch for 2025 - The AIM Network
Written by: The AIM Network Leave a reply Category: Environment permalink University of South Australia (UniSA) Media Release University of South Australia environmental psychology scientist Dr Brianna Le Busque has been named a Superstar of STEM for her work to change society’s negative perceptions of sharks and promote their conservation.
Ding Dong, Australia’s Misinformation-Disinformation Bill is Dead - The AIM Network
Written by: Dr Binoy Kampmark Leave a reply Category: Politics permalink Regulating speech at law is much like regulating breath. At what point is an intake of air deemed inappropriate to the body and worthy of rationing? When will exhalation be allowed? The very idea that speech requires ordering and control is the first step to preventing its exercise. Death, in this case to freedom of thought and political expression, is bound to follow.
Corporate Propaganda and The Death of Brian Thompson: A Response - The AIM Network
In the wake of the murder of United Health CEO Brian Thompson, the New York Times (NYT) has come forth with a remarkable piece of propaganda designed to garner sympathy for Mr Thompson and his family. I, for one, find it very difficult to muster sympathy, good will and empathy for this ghoul who made billions of dollars in profit every year by denying health insurance claims. Let us be clear: insurance is people paying into a pool of money, thereby reducing individual costs.
New data shows huge rise in working people facing homelessness - The AIM Network
Written by: The AIM Network Leave a reply Category: AIM Extra permalink Council to Homeless Persons Media Release The number of working Victorians seeking homelessness help has surged to a record high, with a 23% rise over the past five years, according to alarming new data. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s 2023/24 Specialist Homelessness Services Annual Report was released today.
Shocking homelessness figures must drive Government investment - The AIM Network
Written by: The AIM Network Leave a reply Category: AIM Extra permalink Homelessness Australia Media Release Homelessness in Australia has reached alarming new levels, with the latest Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) annual data, released today, revealing a deepening emergency. Rough sleeping and persistent homelessness has increased to devastating levels, as more people are missing out on emergency accommodation and housing.
Chilling Warnings for Syria: When Foreign Interventions Go Bad - The AIM Network
Written by: Dr Binoy Kampmark 1 Reply Category: AIM Extra permalink The reports through Western presses read rather familiarly. Joyful residents taking selfies on abandoned, sullen tanks. Armed men ebullient and shooting into the sky with adventurist stupidity. The removal of statues and vulgar reminders of a regime. Prisoners freed; torture prisons emptied. The tyrant, deposed. This is the scene in Syria, a war with more external backers and sponsors than causes.
People Should Do Something To Improve Their Lives But Joining A Union Is Satanism! - The AIM Network
Written by: Rossleigh Leave a reply Category: Politics, Rossleigh permalink Of course it’s hard to stay consistent to the values of society because as Saint Margaret of Thatcher said slightly before she lost all reason – or slightly after depending on your politics – “There’s no such thing as society!” And of course, even Maggie wasn’t prepared to tell people that they didn’t need to pay their taxes because of this… But I’m not here to speak ill of the dead.
Exceptionalism is a wonderful thing - The AIM Network
Written by: Bert Hetebry Leave a reply Category: AIM Extra permalink I got brass in a pocket I got bottle, I’m gonna use it Intention, I feel inventive Gonna make you, make you, make you notice ‘Cause I’m gonna make you see There’s nobody else here, no one like me I’m special (special) So special (special) I gotta have some of your attention, give it to me.
Wage theft response at Melbourne Uni must be rolled out nationally - The AIM Network
Written by: The AIM Network Leave a reply Category: AIM Extra permalink National Tertiary Education Union Media Release The National Tertiary Education Union has called for the Fair Work Ombudsman’s new anti-wage theft model at the University of Melbourne – which underpaid workers $72 million – to be adopted nationally. The university has entered into a comprehensive enforceable undertaking with the Fair Work Ombudsman over the underpayments which affected more than 25,000 staff.
Joe Biden Pardons His Son: An Analysis - The AIM Network
Written by: Dr John Smith Leave a reply Category: Politics permalink Outgoing US President Joe Biden has issued what his statement calls ‘a full and unconditional pardon’ to his son Hunter Biden. The pardon has raised more than a few eyebrows, so I want to look at President Biden’s statement, as well as some of the Federalist Papers written by James Madison describing the original intent of the pardon power. Then I want to consider the Constitutional citation for the power.
Long-term unemployment rising while entry level jobs decline: New report - The AIM Network
Written by: The AIM Network Leave a reply Category: AIM Extra permalink Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) Media Release A new report by ACOSS has found entry-level jobs have declined while long-term unemployment has significantly increased, prompting calls for an overhaul of Australia’s employment services system which is systematically failing.
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