Monsoon: The Indian Ocean and the battle for supremacy in the 21st century Robert D Kaplan Black Inc. Robert D Kaplan, the author of Monsoon: The Indian Ocean and the battle for supremacy in the 21st century, is a man on a mission. Since the 1990s, when President Clinton was seen clutching a copy of […]

And so, it’s over. Oprah. She came, she saw, she conquered, and we have finally watched it all in her Ultimate Australian Adventure. In a year or so, however, I won’t remember the winery tours, or the product placements for Chevrolet, or Jackman’s bloody eye, or the gabby diva’s earnest face introducing those delightful, emotional […]

Unmaking War, Remaking Men Kathleen Barry Spinifex Press Five years ago, walking through the Dandenong ranges outside Melbourne with my lover at the time, I had one of those fights that seem to tear the hills down around your ears. It was meant to be a beautiful afternoon, allocated ‘couple time’, but I have very […]

On 2 November, the United States of America went to the polling booths for their midterms. Five days later, Burma had its first election since 1990. In Afghanistan, citizens are still waiting for the results of an election they held two months ago. And as I write, Victorians are marching off to our own cardboard […]

In 2009, my Ubud Writers and Readers Festival in Bali, Indonesia was 72 hours of guilt. I was up all night working, fielding emails from my boss as she trekked through the fall-out of Padang City following the West Sumatran earthquake in search of solutions. It wasn’t enough. Nothing was enough: 1 117 dead, 1 […]