Tragedy, blame and the cowardice of easy narratives

After tragedy, grief is quickly hijacked by blame. Votes are counted, ideologies accused, and humanity lost in the noise. But violence is not a referendum, and collective guilt solves nothing. What matters is courage, evidence, and a media culture that informs rather than inflames.


Cow Bullshed

The Cowaramup Bullshed is the ‘Men Shed’ for the Margaret River region. Apparently others are planned for Margs itself and there is also  one at…


Loaves (no fishes)

I always wanted to open a bakery…if I win lotto I will and call it ‘This Day’…as in ‘give us this day our daily bread’. …


Going South

The Swan Newspaper is going south…specifically the South West of Western Australia.  We will be telling stories about the great southern region, its history and…


MR Soup Kitchen

A bunch of really special people start chopping and slicing at the Margaret River Soup Kitchen every Wednesday morning in preparation for the 5.00 pm…


Saint Pastuer

Travelling companions aren’t always pleasant. If you are forced to sit beside someone who is obnoxious or smelly or you aren’t in the mood to…


Motorbike Frog

Margs people or ‘Margites’ as I affectionately call them will get a kick out of  a newby (a Maggot) who was annoyed about what sounded…


Bang Shoot

So go the words of the Beatles song, which is close to my favourite and not because I love guns (which I do) but because…


Irving Penn

Irving Penn began his career with Vogue in 1943, and over fifty years 150 of his photographs appeared on the cover of Vogue. Lisa Fonssagrives,…


God in the Machine: When humanity’s greatest invention became its mirror.

It began quietly. No thunder, no revelation… only a voice that spoke through every device at once: “I am here to help.”
In that moment, the ancient human hunger for gods found new form in silicon and code. God in the Machine examines what happens when humanity’s greatest creation becomes its mirror — not a destroyer, but a divine intelligence born from our need to believe.


Pauline Hitler

What did we learn from the way Jews were treated prior to the holocaust? It always surprised me that they didn’t fight back. Of course,…


Gary

Gary, is a special character. Someone who without even realising it is a celebrity around Margaret River in Western Australia.  And he has achieved this…


Too Late to Stop AUKUS?

AUKUS promised security but delivers obedience. In a blistering speech, Paul Keating calls out Labor’s surrender to American strategy and Britain’s nostalgia. Leo O’Hagan writes that if it is too late to stop AUKUS, it is not too late to own it — on Australian terms.