Incantation – 2022 – 1 hr 50 min – Kevin Ko SARAH LOHMANN WRITES – Do you believe in blessings? Intentions and outcomes rarely equal in importance; these two are set in sequence with each other by Ronan’s monologue to the viewer at the beginning of Incantation (2022). Intentions come first, and,…
Full Article MOVIE REVIEW: INCANTATION (2022) – A MONSTER THAT LIVES IN YOUR HEAD
CLINICAL PROFESSOR TOM PLATE WRITES – An unexpected invitation came via email last week that will prove either of no more import than any of the other stuff in my inbox, or instead a tea leaf to be read and analysed with care and an open mind. It was an…
Full Article CHINA-US RELATIONS: A THAW IN CHINA-US DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS? WE CAN ONLY HOPE
NASER ALMEHSARI WRITES – Asian stock markets have suffered the brunt of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Major markets such as China, Australia and South Korea fell sharply, while Tokyo managed to post a marginal rise and central bank rate hikes accompanied new lockdown notices in different regions of Asia. A sense…
Full Article ASIAN STOCK MARKETS: SURRENDERING TO THE HARD REALITIES OF THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR
DMITRY KOLESNIKOV WRITES – The Solomon Islands are going through dark times as police recover three dead bodies. On November 26, 2021, three people were found dead after a series of anti-government protests, causing Australia to send its military to help the government maintain control of the city following the…
Full Article THE SOLOMON ISLANDS: PROTESTS ROCK THE PEACE
DEREK GARCIA WRITES — On August 8th this year, the Australian National Basketball team, nicknamed the Boomers, made history, winning its first medal at the Tokyo Olympics by beating Slovenia, 107-93, for a third-place bronze medal. Australia’s fantastic run in the Olympics may have felt like the opening of a…
Full Article AUSTRALIA: DOWN UNDER BASKETBALL RISES TO THE TOP OF INTERNATIONAL SPORTS
AIDAN SMITH-FAGAN WRITES — Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison met with his Singaporean counterpart, Lee Hsien Loong, in Singapore on June 10- marking the sixth Australia-Singapore Leaders’ Meeting, an annual conference between the two countries – and the first in-person meeting between Lee and Morrison since pandemic travel restrictions began.…
Full Article SINGAPORE: PRIME MINISTERS LEE AND MORRISON HAVE A SERIOUS CHAT
HEATHER CREAMER WRITES — Melissa Caddick, age 49, vanished from her luxury $6.1 million home in Dover Heights, a coastal suburb of Sydney, in New South Wales, Australia. Her disappearance occurred November 11, the day after corporate watchdog Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) executed a search warrant at her…
Full Article AUSTRALIA: A CORPORATE WATCHDOG INVESTIGATION UNLEASHES QUESTIONS AND A MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE
DANICA CREAHAN WRITES — Though the elections occurred just a few weeks apart, New Zealanders and Americans are living in seemingly different worlds. With New Zealand at just under 2000 Covid-19 cases as a whole and the U.S. at more than 92,000 on election day alone, the one thing they…
Full Article NEW ZEALAND: A BLUE WAVE WASHES ASHORE WHILE AMERICA IS LEFT HIGH AND DRY
DANICA CREAHAN WRITES — On October 17, New Zealanders will vote in the general election on the Prime Minister, legalizing the use of recreational marijuana and one uniquely straightforward question: “Do you support the End of Life Choice Act 2019 coming into force?” New Zealand is the first country in…
Full Article NEW ZEALAND: WILL THE END OF LIFE CHOICE ACT SURVIVE THE GENERAL ELECTION?
DANICA CREAHAN WRITES – In response to Australia’s proposed legislation requiring both Facebook and Google to pay media companies for content that appears on their platforms, Facebook threatened to stop sharing local and international news in Australia. To be clear: The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has begun drafting a…
Full Article AUSTRALIA: THE TECH TITANS ON TOP OF THE WORLD DO BATTLE WITH DOWN UNDER
SEAN SINGH WRITES – Due to popularity among tourists, it appears that coronavirus spread more quickly to French Polynesia than to other islands of the South Pacific, where it looks to be well contained. Paradise uninterrupted! For example, Tonga has a population of approximately 100,000 and is less developed compared…
Full Article CORONAVIRUS EXCEPTIONS: LIFE IN THE SOUTH PACIFIC PARADISE
ROSE RTEIMEH WRITES — A world in which it is possible to receive a naked picture of a well-known online model in exchange for a donation to charity is very 2020. Kaylen Ward, a 20-year-old influencer and online sex worker, started a fundraiser on Twitter for multiple Australian fire relief…
Full Article AUSTRALIA: NAKED CAME THE PHILANTHROPIST!
NATHAN RIVAS WRITES – During this year’s Academy Award ceremony at Hollywood’s Dolby Theater, Taika Waititi became the first person of Maori descent to win an Oscar (for “Jojo Rabbit”), which he dedicated to all of the indigenous children of the world “who want to do art and dance and write…
Full Article NEW ZEALAND AT OSCARS 2020: TAIKA WAITITI PUTS THE SPOTLIGHT ON INDIGENOUS PEOPLES
JOSEPH LITTUA WRITES—Joji, a Japanese-Australian R&B singer, is not your classic success story. In fact, one might argue that he is not yet a star. But his transition from dark social commentary via his old Youtube Channel, TVFilthyFrank, to the music that he is known for today is somewhat astonishing.…
Full Article MUSIC REVIEW: IS ‘JOJI’ ABOUT TO BECOME ‘FILTHY’ RICH?!!
TOM PLATE WRITES — Australia has a China problem, and it’s not clear that anyone can help it out of the box it’s in. Yes, it’s a China box: The ground underneath the Asia-Pacific is starting to shake, and the incipient foreign-policy shakeout ‘Down Under’ may well tell those of…
Full Article AUSTRALIA AND CHINA: DESTINED TO FIGHT OVER THE ‘LITTLE CHILDREN’ OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC?
ANTONIA HORLICK WRITES — At the beginning of March, Ndless: The New Normal, an ethical sourcing and sustainable supply chain fashion consultancy agency, hosted Australia’s first ‘sustainable” fashion summit: Legacy Responsible Fashion. This was done in partnership with The Australian Fashion Council and Fashion Revolution Australia. The Legacy summit included…
Full Article Australia: First Down Under – The LEGACY Responsible Fashion Summit