Holding Pattern

The collapse of the Ottoman Empire after World War I was one of the great political ruptures of the twentieth century. For centuries the Ottomans had been the dominant political power across much of the Middle East, North Africa and southeastern Europe. They also held the title of the Caliphate, symbolically positioning the Ottoman sultan […]

“The Kurds have no friends but the mountains.” It is a bitter saying among the Kurdish people, and history has given them good reason to believe it. Numbering roughly 30–40 million people, the Kurds share a common language group, a distinct culture and historical identity, and a strong sense of collective nationhood. By any reasonable […]

A few weeks before he died in Melbourne in 1943, my maternal grandfather Paul Sheer wrote what he called a Spiritual Testament for his children. It contained no prayers, no appeals to God, and no comfort about an afterlife. Instead, it offered something rarer: a secular moral framework for children who, having fled Nazi Europe, […]

Hate Speech Following the Bondi Junction killings, the Minns Government has signalled its intention to expand criminal prohibitions on hate speech. The chant “globalise the intifada” will be banned and the NSW Legislative Assembly committee on law and safety will consider whether other slogans should be included in the ban. “From the river to the […]

The life of my paternal grandmother, Amelia Woods (later known as Cecily and Nana) was marked by early tragedy from which I suspect she never really recovered. Within the space of a few months she lost her twin babies and then her husband Frank Hills. These photos come from newspaper reports in December 1921, when […]