General Interest
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WHIMSY Music to Drive By
Everyone knows I like a jam session. That is, I like it when it’s music that’s involved and it’s not just another Bali traffic snarl. South Bali’s traffic is now legendary for all the wrong reasons. Anyone who doubts this from afar, not having actually experienced the joys of eight lanes of traffic in a… Continue reading
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On Why Julian Assange is Just a Bloody Nuisance
The Julian Assange saga is a tiresome example of life in the cyber age. He has managed to capture the attention and – more crucially – the support of many in the chatterverse, by parlaying his expertise as a web-dredger into a self-appointed mission as global saviour. Doubtless this serves his ego. It is very… Continue reading
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Originally posted on The Devil of History: On Sunday, Salon.com had an essay on the recent Fareed Zakaria plagiarism case. For those of you who don’t follow American middlebrow news sources with a passion, the story is that Zakaria—a regular commentator and columnist for CNN and TIME magazine—lifted a paragraph about the book Gunfight almost… Continue reading
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JULIAN ASSANGE (Editorial in The Australian newspaper today)
This says it all … Assange’s hypocritical homily IN his political sermon, uttered from the open-air balcony of the Ecuadorian embassy to the adoring crowd below, Julian Assange confirmed what many have always suspected: his hypocrisy and cowardice is rivalled only by his self-aggrandisement and arrogance. In pleading his case for martyrdom, he was quick… Continue reading
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The Problem of the Australian Labor Party
This analysis by HENRY ERGAS, in The Australian, July 23, 2012, is crucial reading. Here is his text: AT the heart of Labor’s problems is its reaction to the 2010 election. In that election, voters swung to the Right, but thanks to Julia Gillard’s deal with the Greens, the government shifted sharply to the… Continue reading
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HECTOR’S DIARY Bali Advertiser, June 13, 2012
His fortnightly diet of worms and other non-religious experiences Stir Slowly, Drink at Leisure The May edition of the 2012 Ubud Writers and Readers Festival newsletter made it out with a week to go before it was June – it popped into the Diary’s in-box on May 26. And since it was leading off with… Continue reading
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Bali’s Silent Day: A Time for Contemplating Navels – But Only Your Own
Friday this week (March 23) is Silent Day in Bali – Nyepi, the Balinese Hindu New Year. It is called Silent Day because for 24 hours, from 6am on the nominated day – the date varies, being on a lunar calendar – until 6am the next day, everything stops. Well, not quite everything. Since Bali… Continue reading
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HECTOR’S DIARY Bali Advertiser March 21, 2012
Banking on it Janet DeNeefe, doyenne of dinners and instigator of that annual Ubud fixture, the writers’ and readers’ festival, has been busy lately. That was in Melbourne, where she did a stint demonstrating the cuisine of Bali to residents of that alternatively cold, hot, wet, dry city at the southern extremity of continental Australia.… Continue reading
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HECTOR’S DIARY Bali Advertiser, March 7, 2012
Dolts Rule It’s always fun visiting the Odd Zone; it’s the very best of your diarist’s former domiciles, for all sorts of reasons, most of them a cause for wry smiles or irritated grimaces. There’s the traffic, for one thing. It largely obeys the road rules and even stays in lane; what’s more, at traffic… Continue reading
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AMERICAN POLITICS
From the American Prospect (Monday, March 5) on Super Tuesday. A fine little aide-memoire: CORONATION TUESDAY Super Tuesday once was super. Progressives of a certain age will never forget the fun of the first edition in 1988. Conservative Democrats had dreamt up a March day of nine Southern primaries that would guarantee no “unelectable”… Continue reading
8º of latitude 