Politics
Justice Vs Power
Can the ideal of justice, where all people are afforded the same justice, to live under the same laws and societal standards be achieved when the is existing order empowers some but denies equality at […]
Articles by Bert Hetebry
Politics
Does exceptionalism drive hatred?
Throughout his presidency, Barack Obama was questioned about his view on American Exceptionalism. In speech after speech he affirmed that America was an exceptional nation, citing its role in geo-politics, and offering opportunities to all […]
Politics
Is it time to look at why the United Nations has a Declaration of Human Rights?
Two major wars in the first half of the last century, exposure of the atrocities carried out as Germany not only sought to expand its territory, but sought also to have an ethnically and genetically […]
Politics
It’s all Albo’s fault… apparently
That was the message sent to me yesterday as the news broke about the terrorist attack on a Jewish gathering at Bondi. Actually, there were two messages, first “Diversity?”, the second “Blood on PM HANDS”. […]
Your Say
“It was just sex!”
A recent discussion about Andrew Mountbatten Windsor’s travails elicited the ‘it was just sex’ comment. The idea that a young woman, a girl really, a few years short of adulthood, had been groomed to be […]
Politics
What hope is there for peace in Gaza?
“The Old City of Gaza is the historical centre of Gaza City in the Gaza Strip. For much of its recorded history it has been the southernmost coastal city in the region of Palestine, occupying […]
AIM Extra
All we are saying is give peace a chance
One, Two, Three, Four! Everybody’s talking about Bagism, Shagism, Dragism, Madism, Ragism, Tagism This-ism, that-ism, ism ism ism All we are saying is give peace a chance All we are saying is give peace a […]
Politics
POLITICS IN DEMOCRACIES: The art of compromise… or is it?
In other words, who or what are most important? Me and the platform I was voted on, or the opportunity to belittle and demean people who are opposed to my way of thinking, opposed to […]
Health
Why there can be no peace for Palestinians
At the end of 2024, according to UNHCR, there were estimated to be 123.2 million people world wide, forcibly displaced due to persecution, conflict, violence human rights violations and events seriously disturbing public order. That […]
Your Say
What makes a ‘real man’?
“… How can a father blame a single mother for not teaching his son how to be an accomplished man? Men expect boys to act like men, but there’s rarely a man in their lives […]
Politics
Algorithms and the death of critical thinking
A podcast recently arrived on my phone and I viewed it reluctantly, but was a pleasant surprise, had the arresting title, ‘Why STUPID People Are a Greater Threat to Society Than Criminals’. The podcaster/influencer opened […]
Politics
Imposed peace in Gaza. How will it work?
How do you make peace, a peace that works, a peace that is sustainable? Two years of bloody fighting was initiated with an attack on a kibbutz and music festival in Israel, just outside the […]
Politics
Hope at a time of hopelessness
The moment people are unjust to you, they have lost the fight. The moment they attack you, they have lost the war. The moment they try to humiliate you, invalidate you, or destroy you, that […]
Politics
The price of privilege
Privilege: Having special rights, advantages or immunities. In Hannah Arendt’s book, The Origins of Totalitarianism, there is a chapter sub-heading “The ‘Rights of Englishmen’ v’s the Rights of Men”, dealing with racism, and how the […]
AIM Extra
Racism and criminal predestination
The idea that some people are more predestined to criminality than others because of race is a topic canvassed by Hannah Arendt in her discourse on Antisemitism, the first section of The Origins of Totalitarianism […]