Category: America
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The Mad World of Manipulative Mendacity
How The Australian’s breaking news website portrayed China’s response on Mar. 14. The boys are about with their tin drums again. They’re dressing in uniform and singing marching songs. The Australian’s breaking news service popped up this colourful fear-maker yesterday asserting that the Chinese have said we’re a target. They haven’t, and won’t, short of…
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Barely Aware
HECTOR’S DIARY Titbits from his regular diet of worms THE CAGE Bali, Monday, Jun. 4, 2018 THE practice among some western tourists here of going around in their beachwear well away from the beach has caused comment before, among the Balinese themselves though they are polite people and chiefly keep silent, and…
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Belt and Braces
HECTOR’S DIARY His regular diet of worms and other non-religious fare The Cage, Bali Wednesday, Jul. 12, 2017 DONALD Trump made a remarkable speech in Warsaw ahead of the economic summit he attended later in the historic Hanseatic League city of Hamburg, where he demonstrated exactly why the Group of 20 is now the…
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Statuary Declaration
HECTOR’S DIARY His regular diet of worms and other non-religious fare Candi Dasa, Bali Wednesday, Jun. 28, 2017 TEN days in the blissful zephyrs, beside the azure briny you get in the better parts of the archipelago, can do you a power of good. Such a break provides time to read books – or…
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Beggaring Belief
HECTOR’S DIARY His regular diet of worms and other (usually) non-religious fare The Cage, Bali Wednesday, May 31, 2017 FAITH is a personal compact between a person and his or her deity. The faithful, of any ilk, should be honoured for their commitment to a life beyond secular concerns and for the higher…
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Capital Capers
HECTOR’S DIARY His diet of worms and other non-religious experiences The Cage, Bali Apr. 22, 2017 IT’S a shame that Basuki Tjahaya Purnama (Ahok) lost Wednesday’s ballot for mayor of Jakarta. He has shown a commitment to civic service that’s rare anywhere, but rarer still in Indonesia, where winning office is so often a licence…
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Little Ripples
HECTOR’S DIARY His regular diet of worms and other tasty morsels Bali, Saturday, Jan. 14, 2017 WHERE Indonesia and Australia are concerned, you can always count on something unexpected to suddenly ripple the waters. It’s a bit the same as an Indonesian volcano: it’s quiet until it goes boom. In Australia, it’s mostly…
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Messing About in Boats
HECTOR’S DIARY His diet of worms and other non-religious fare Bali, Jan. 4, 2017 WE have a lovely friend, a former media colleague who goes by the pen name of The Global Goddess. She has a tough life, poor thing. She’s forever flitting off from Brisbane, her home city, to go to distant places…
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Dystopian Delights
HECTOR’S DIARY His fortnightly diet of worms and other non-religious experiences Bali Nov. 9, 2016 THERE were no visibly ruffled kebayas at the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival session featuring American author Lionel Shriver on Oct. 29. No one loudly rattled their worry beads or furiously flounced out. This was in stark contrast to the…
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