© 2018 Greg & Sylvia RAY
Read more about the article A shopping coupon prize took him to the Titanic
Left to right: Andrew Rogers, Genya Chernaev (pilot) and Roman Sugden. Photo from Andrew Rogers.

A shopping coupon prize took him to the Titanic

When the story of the Titanic submersible disaster broke, my mind instantly went back 20 years to an interview with the first and - up until then at least - only Australian to have visited the wreck of the sunken liner. I had always remembered that interview because of the strange way Andrew Rogers wound up on the trip and because of the story he told about the submersible almost becoming trapped on part of the wreckage. Andrew's Titanic tale began in 1997 when he and his wife Winnie were planning a trip to India. They…

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Private grief and public news

“Ask him if it’s his birthday”, was the bizarre advice once proffered to me as a cadet reporter on a daily newspaper. The cadet counsellor – who lectured us once a week on different aspects of our job – was asking us to imagine attending an accident scene where an unfortunate man had become pinned beneath some kind of heavy machine. Our counsellor somehow pictured a scenario where this trapped person would be fine with answering questions from a cub reporter while simultaneously being rescued from his presumably life-threatening predicament. So, apparently, we would be asking…

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Read more about the article Keeping us in the dark about war crimes
That's gotta hurt! Cartoonist Peter Lewis's twist on Ben Roberts-Smith's Archibald portrait.

Keeping us in the dark about war crimes

June 12, 2023. Comment by Greg Ray The establishment is angry. It is unhappy that former SAS soldier Ben Roberts-Smith lost his defamation action against the Nine media group. It is unhappy that the allegations of war crimes – including murder of unarmed civilians – are now clearly and unambiguously pinned on the chest of the decorated former soldier alongside his much-lauded but now rather tarnished Victoria Cross.    In retrospect, it seems that the decision to launch the defamation action – funded by millions of dollars from the pockets of Australian billionaire Kerry Stokes –…

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