Syntagma Square: A Greek Tragedy
Less than three years ago the Greek Socialist Party, PASOK, won a solid victory in the Greek elections. I worked on their campaign and experienced at first hand a real sense of optimism that despite the Global Financial Crisis, Greece was on a new path with George Papandreou leading the way.
One of the benefits of working on campaigns away from home is the opportunity to become, even fleetingly, part of the ebb and flow of a new city. I stayed in a hotel right on Syntagma [...]
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Is Darwin Getting the US Troops Japan Rejected?
In early April the first contingent of about 200 US Marines from Hawaii arrived in Darwin. (See my previous blogs here and
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No better time for change within Labor
This op-ed was originally published in The Australian.
Last week in Rome I attended a conference of progressive political parties.
It was hosted by the Italian Democratic Party, which is now the most popular party in Italy following the political demise of Silvio Berlusconi. [...]
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Barry O'Farrell's first major political move was to trip over
This op-ed was originally published in The Daily Telegraph.
Until recently the O'Farrell government threatened to go through its first term completely unnoticed.
After 16 years in opposition it was hardly bursting at the seams with plans for NSW.
The Coalition [...]
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We Went All The Way With LBJ. Do We Have To Do The Same With Obama?
American news bulletins invariably carry a story about US troops being deployed to some trouble spot.
On a stopover in Hawaii yesterday I was watching the local TV news. It included a story about an Hawaii based US brigade about to be deployed overseas. What caught my attention was the fact that this 200 strong contingent of marines - an advance guard for a force of 2,500 soldiers - was heading to...Darwin.
The story candidly described how this military [...]
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