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Monthly Archives: August 2021

Read more about the article Leaving a sandy quagmire, until next time
Photo by Andre Klimke on Unsplash

Leaving a sandy quagmire, until next time

“What’s the point of having this superb military you’re always talking about if we can’t use it?”Madeleine Albright, US ambassador to the UN, 1993 August 18, 2021 Opinion by Greg Ray All these wars, and little to show for them but pain, hatred and ruin. And yet it never stops. Is it a grand plan, pushing over dominoes until the armies of global finance reach the gates of Moscow and Beijing? Is it keeping afloat the vampire zombie weapons industry? Is it mighty egos flexing their biceps to impress the world? We are told it's about…

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Read more about the article A BHP mail-room boy and shipping clerk remembers

A BHP mail-room boy and shipping clerk remembers

When Neville Chant started work as a clerk at the BHP Company's Newcastle steelworks in 1936, he was allocated to the correspondence department as a mail-room boy. He'd just finished his school leaving certificate and he started at the BHP just before Christmas. It was a different world from that of 2021, but although communications technology might seem primitive compared to today's, it was capable of great efficiency. While BHP's headquarters were in Melbourne, it had important interests in many parts of Australia. The BHP steelworks and its satellite industries were a huge presence in Newcastle,…

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Read more about the article The Harlem Blackbirds

The Harlem Blackbirds

In 1955 Australia was visited by the "Harlem Blackbirds", a troupe of performers from the United States. The group of 32 performers was billed as "Australia's first all-coloured revue" and by all accounts the show was very popular. I've often seen programmes of the tour in my travels around second-hand bookshops and recently I found one in Newcastle - rather bug-eaten, unfortunately - that was distinguished by bearing signatures of many of the performers. I've been able to find surprisingly little written about the show and its performers. Or perhaps, sadly, that isn't surprising, given that…

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