Since the 1950s, the world has experienced a six-fold increase in the number of people living in cities. City dwellers now outnumber rural residents globally and in many individual countries. But the COVID-19 pandemic has begun to disrupt the trajectory, scale and form of urbanisation. Cities, by virtue of their size, have recorded more deaths Read more
Early Tuesday morning, I opened my laptop to work. But first, I meandered over to Twitter, expecting to read a few comments on Krysten Sinema before diving into my Persian presentation. Instead, I started crying. I don’t cry easily. And these were not tears borne of sadness but of frustration. On Tuesday morning, an independent Read more
Reading about meditation is not the same as doing it, but I have always found words helpful. Wise writings from the Church touched something in me that was formless yet real and was waiting to be acknowledged. I think that many of us start meditation after realising this world doesn’t meet our deepest desires. Human Read more
The heart of the Gospel is the proclamation of the Reign of God, in the person of Jesus himself, the Emmanuel, God-Is-With-Us. In him, God brings his project of love for humanity to fulfillment, establishing his lordship over creatures and sowing the seed of divine life in human history, transforming it from within. Certainly the Read more
Writing last week in The New York Times, linguistics professor John McWhorter waxed enthusiastic about the advent of “they” as our all-purpose third-person-singular pronoun. As in, for example: “Roberta wants a haircut, and they also want some highlights.” “Language change is a spectator sport,” McWhorter writes. “It isn’t whether but how things will change over Read more
You may or may not have heard about a High Court case from last week – New Zealand Health Professionals’ Alliance v Attorney-General. It’s about the right of health practitioners to refuse to provide legal, proper healthcare because they object to it on moral grounds. This is so-called “conscientious objection”. But really, this case is Read more
As restrictions drag on and the number of infections rises, more Australians are asking when lockdowns can cease. Federal politicians and business leaders have argued the case for a quick ending while claiming the authority of scientists. Science being science, the relevant questions have been tied to numbers. They have asked: How few cases should Read more
We don’t ask enough questions. Sometimes that is because we feel we should know the answers and don’t wish to appear stupid. In fact, many others also wish to ask the same question but, for similar reasons we all keep our lips tightly closed. That is a pity, for being inquisitive is the start of Read more
In mid-September, the director of the Wellcome Trust, Jeremy Farrar, suggested that Covid-19 was here to stay. “I think that politicians across the world are sort of pretending you can have your cake and eat it,” Farrar told the German podcast Pandemia. “(They’re claiming that) You can have zero deaths, no control measures, vaccinate if Read more
For Catholics who put their faith first, before anything else, there is one way – above all others – to view the life and death issues facing local communities, the nation and the world: and that is, through the lens of the Gospel and Catholic social teaching! But instead, it clearly appears that more often Read more