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.


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…


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’. …


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…


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…


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…



First Sculpture

Considered to be the first sculpture ever found. The Venus of Brassempouy was carved from mammoth ivory. She is 36.5 mm high, 22 mm deep…



Napoleon’s Chef

He was the first ‘celebrity chef.’ Emperors and Kings, the elite of Europe in the age of romantacism paid homage to Carême’s amazing culinary creations…


From Wessel to Kirk: How Martyrdom Becomes Propaganda in the MAGA Era

When Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels transformed Horst Wessel’s death into a political myth in 1930s Germany, he showed how martyrdom could be weaponised. Nearly a century later, the Republican Party and MAGA movement are doing the same with Charlie Kirk’s assassination — erasing complexity, amplifying grievance, and turning tragedy into a rallying cry.


The Swan News

From ‘The Aboriginal People of Alice Springs’ by Dan White This and many more amazing pictures of Indigenous people of Central Australia can be viewed…