Six white men you should read
I know it’s not cool, but I like white men. I used to think I would marry one.…
Asian pride, or lack thereof
If I’m honest, I’m probably more proud of my parents’ law degrees than they are of mine. I’m…
To tweet or not to tweet?
Sometimes I wish I was good at Twitter. It would be proof that I'm not just intelligent but super witty and have something to say about the state of the universe. There may be no "I" in team, but there is definitely "wit" in Twitter.
If I was a tweeter, here's what I would tweet
Here are a few things that have crossed my mind to tweet but never made it to the Twittersphere ...
Angry enough to be free, safe enough to thrive
Safe enough to thrive I read Greta Thunberg’s UN address today and I’m glad I was looking at…
So there’s this giant thank you card you should sign
I wasn’t always an optimist – quite the contrary. When I was 14, I wrote this poem about…
Converse and convert
I stumbled upon an interesting website this week. In the wake of the failed plebiscite and planned postal…
Of vengeance and forgiveness
Did anyone else catch the Jesus parallels in the Divergent series? All in all I was mostly disappointed with the trilogy, but at least there were some interesting ideas.
The books, however, did explore themes of guilt, regret and sacrifice. I suppose in that context, some Jesus undertones are unsurprising.
The problem with American
Last week, on my flight from New York back to Sydney, I binge watched Season 1 of The Newsroom. It’s a series created by Aaron Sorkin, the guy behind The West Wing, with Jeff Daniels playing Will McAvoy, an anchorman on cable news.
In the opening scene of the series pilot, Will is on a panel with a Democrat and a Republican at a university, when a student asks the panel: “What makes America the greatest country in the world?”
The question triggers an epic and rousing outburst from Will, who dresses down both major political parties and rails about why America is no longer the greatest country on earth.
“But it could be”, he then says in softer tones.
That first season of The Newsroom aired in 2012, before Donald Trump ever campaigned for president, promising to “make America great again”.
Coincidence? I doubt it.
Election reflections: Ecuador and Bolivia
A politician who keeps his word? Who would’ve thought! But after a whole decade as Ecuador’s head of…
How libre is your Cuba?
It’s no secret that I’m a fan of a good cuba libre. Or two. Or three. But despite it being my drink of choice, I never really thought much about the name of this basic cocktail until Fidel Castro died.
There was something about the festivities on the streets of Miami that felt wrong. Tasted sour. It’s a cuba libre, dammit - let’s reserve the sourness for pisco, whiskey and amaretto.
The cynical optimist
I’ve always been a cynic. From the time I was in primary school hearing about French nuclear testing in the Pacific, Aung San Suu Kyi being put under house arrest and the Monica Lewinsky scandal, I didn’t have much faith in people.
Strangely enough, this dark view of the world eventually led me to Jesus, my hope. So now I am this walking paradox, being both a cynic and an optimist.
Two weeks ago, I blogged about democracy and the need for greater participation. On Monday, a bunch of us put that into practice by meeting with over a hundred senators and members of parliament in one day.
Do you still like democracy?
It's funny, democracy. We have a voice and yet we whinge way more than anyone in the not-so-free world.
Sorry, what do you mean?
I’ve been considering whether National Sorry Day would be more or less controversial if we spoke Spanish. There…
The Eurovision you know and love
The Eurovision you know and love.
The song was perfect. The dress was perfect. The hype was perfect.
Okay, so in hindsight we were never going to win the thing. But for a long moment there they really made us believe it was possible.
And the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 is … a Korean-born Australian? One who would have celebrated not with champagne but with a glass of lemonade?
It was too good to be true. For all the logic that Eurovision famously doesn’t follow, this perhaps would not have been in the spirit of Europe - not the Europe of the twenty-first century ...
Something about Mary
Apparently Margaret Thatcher was my hero. When I was in Year 6, each kid in our class had to nominate a female role model and I chose the Iron Lady. I don't know why I didn't pick Aung San Suu Kyi. Way cooler. And I mean, I'm possibly part-Burmese. Maybe.
Meanwhile, Alex - the boy I had a crush on - chose English nurse Florence Nightingale. My heart fluttered and sighed. This guy is beautiful and deep!
He chose a compassionate, determined, God-fearing woman. I chose a conservative politician (in)famous for being a hard-ass.
To this day, I think Alex had the right idea. And I'm starting to think I need to have better taste in women.
All About Evo
To commemorate the official start of Evo Morales’ third term as president, I thought I’d share a few images…
“Effectivisation”: A post about the law (and reforming it)
Bolivia is currently reforming its justice system. On October 31, the Bolivian Parliament passed a new piece of legislation, called the Law for the Decongestion and Effectivisation of the Criminal Procedure System. In case you were wondering, it's Ley de Decongestionamiento y Efectivización del Sistema Procesal Penal in Spanish - and "efectivización" isn't a real word in Spanish either, hence the weird translation.
Process is at the heart of justice - as important as a just result is a just procedure to arrive at that result. I'll confess I've forgotten a lot of what they taught me at law school, but this particular principal of justice has stuck with me. Working at IJM Bolivia, I am struck anew by how much of a paradox this often is.
Two words for Washington
If I could choose two words to describe Washington, D.C., they would be EMPIRE and EXTRAVAGANCE. Perhaps they…
Bryan Adams v Joe Hockey
What can I say, I’ve always had impeccable music taste. But no, seriously – I haven’t posted this…
Election 2013. Sigh and splutter.
Another election to remind me how disappointed and frustrated I am with the state of Australian politics. There…