Keywords: Duncan Maclaren
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AUSTRALIA
- Duncan MacLaren
- 03 April 2012
Australian aid worker David Savage was severely injured by a suicide bomber in Afghanistan. The Taliban tried to kill him in revenge for the shooting of 17 unarmed Afghan civilians by a deranged American soldier. In more innocent times aid workers were regarded as angels by all sides.
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AUSTRALIA
- Duncan Maclaren
- 15 February 2012
5 Comments
Burma has embarked on a series of reforms that have altered its pariah status. But Burma's icon of democracy, Aung San Suu Kyi, does not fully represent all Burmese, and there are vast problems that must be addressed before sanctions are fully lifted.
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AUSTRALIA
- Duncan Maclaren
- 16 December 2011
2 Comments
Jimmy was among the quietest of the refugee students we taught. He is now a leader with a 'backpack' medical organisation whose members take medicines into the areas where 'internally displaced persons' are found. He risks his life every day since the jungle is awash with Burmese soldiers.
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AUSTRALIA
- Duncan Maclaren
- 27 October 2011
3 Comments
The development theory of 'modernisation' taught that old traditions, including religion, had to disappear for people to be 'developed'. This purely Western model is now seen wanting. All faiths put the human person, not economic theories, at the centre of development.
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AUSTRALIA
- Duncan Maclaren
- 31 August 2011
2 Comments
My last visit to South Africa was in 1989 when apartheid was in its death throes. The only difference between then and now in the gap between the poor (mostly black and so-called coloureds) and rich is that some blacks have become the 'nouveaux riches' of the new South Africa.
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AUSTRALIA
- Duncan Maclaren
- 13 May 2011
16 Comments
The Scottish National Party government has rid Scots of the sense of inferiority hammered into them by the British state. Australians, given their outrage over the banning of The Chaser's royal wedding commentary, know something of how this feels. The British state is past its use-by date.
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RELIGION
- Duncan MacLaren
- 21 February 2011
24 Comments
In an extraordinary move, the Vatican has denied approval for Caritas Internationalis Secretary General Lesley-Anne Knight to stand for a second term. There is outrage in the Confederation, and with good cause.
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INTERNATIONAL
- Duncan MacLaren
- 13 December 2010
3 Comments
Outside: the fish factory that never sleeps. The people working in it are illegal migrants, paid a pittance and treated as sub humans. Only the strong return from the fishing trips. If you are ill and cannot work, you can be tipped into the sea along with the other rubbish for the seagulls.
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INTERNATIONAL
- Duncan MacLaren
- 25 November 2010
5 Comments
I have two lasting memories of North Korea. The first was the obstetrics unit of a hospital; it looked like a medieval torture chamber. The second was orphanages where malnourished 14-year-olds looked only eight. The latest escalation of tension can only mean such sights will become more frequent.
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