Opinion pieces

61 - 70 of 143 results

War in the Garden of Eden

Wednesday, March 8, 2017

While the battle for West Mosul rages from house to house, tens of thousands of people displaced by the fighting are filling camps around the city. Most arrive with just the clothes on their backs. Some are barefoot. Many have suffered years of unimaginable misery. Yet they are the lucky ones. They have survived.

Opinion Pieces, Conflict, Iraq, Refugee Crisis, Tim Costello

Australia Needs to be Open to the World in Troubled Times

Tuesday, February 7, 2017

Right now Australians are probably more concerned - and perhaps more nervous - about international affairs than they have been for a long time.

Opinion Pieces, Foreign Aid, Tim Costello

Aleppo's Despair Shows the International Community is Failing Syria

Monday, December 12, 2016

The ancient city of Aleppo is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. But the name Aleppo now evokes apocalyptic scenes of destruction and despair, a city reduced to rubble, a child wiping blood from his face. Aleppo has become a byword for human misery.

Opinion Pieces, Refugees, Syria

Looking The Other Way Is No Longer An Option

Monday, September 19, 2016

"You may choose to look the other way but you can never say again that you did not know." -- William Wilberforce, to the English parliament, 1789. Wilberforce was speaking of slavery in his dogged pursuit of abolition, but more than two centuries later, we are no strangers to looking the other way when it suits us, as it often does.

Opinion Pieces, Asylum Seekers, Refugees, Tim Costello

World Vision Completely Opposes Terrorism

Friday, September 9, 2016

When the prophet Micah asked what does the Lord require of you, the answer was beautiful in its simplicity: “Walk humbly with your God, love mercy and do justice.” It is this that we are asking for now in Israel, where World Vision employee Mohammed El-Halabi faces charges of funnelling humanitarian aid to Hamas.

Opinion Pieces, Gaza, Israel

Suffer the little Syrian children: One year after the death of Alan Kurdi

Thursday, September 1, 2016

One year ago, September 2, 2015, the image of three-year-old Alan Kurdi’s lifeless body lying face down on a Turkish beach flashed around the world. It smashed our hearts and, for a while, it seemed the world cared just a little more about the millions of refugees, half of them children, who have fled the war in Syria.

Opinion Pieces, Middle East, Eastern Europe & Central Asia, Refugee Crisis, Syria, Tim Costello

This is no time for wreckers

Friday, July 8, 2016

Australia is emerging from this federal election not so much divided as ambivalent. The parliament is almost evenly split, the Senate chaotic, Labor triumphant in defeat, Malcolm Turnbull much weakened after a political near-death experience.

Opinion Pieces, Tim Costello

The huddled masses have never been in greater need. What we will do about it?

Friday, July 1, 2016

No matter how Australia votes this weekend, there is an issue that must be resolved; the fate of the 1300 plus souls we have chosen to warehouse on Nauru and Manus Island, places that have become outposts of detention and despair.

Opinion Pieces, Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Middle East, Eastern Europe & Central Asia, Human Rights, Kevin Rudd, Refugee Crisis, Tim Costello

Profit makers not the prophets that have the ear of our pollies

Monday, June 6, 2016

If the money to buy influence lies in corporate hands, who fuels the debate on the issues that affect us all?

Opinion Pieces, Tim Costello