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Read more about the article Doubly foreign: vintage photographic souvenirs

Doubly foreign: vintage photographic souvenirs

If the past is another country, then the past of another country might be doubly foreign, I guess. When I travel overseas I'm naturally drawn to flea markets and vintage stores and among the things I like to buy are photographs and negatives. In dusty cabinets in old stores, on cluttered blankets on the ground at flea markets, at fetes and village yard sale days I hope to see them: tatty paper pouches of old negs and snapshots, cardboard boxes full of glass plate negs or old photo albums. Sometimes particular photo albums excite me enough…

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Read more about the article The new cold war gets warmer, again

The new cold war gets warmer, again

The big guns are out, and they are aiming towards Asia and the Pacific. Sure, the current hot proxy war between the US Empire and Russia happens to be in Europe but the big target is China, and the cold war to prevent its rise is warming by degrees with every day that passes. For Australia – America’s “unsinkable aircraft carrier” and its “deputy sheriff” in the Pacific Region – the signs are all very ominous. The commandant of the US Marine Corps, General David Berger, was in Australia this week, urging the government to ramp…

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Read more about the article Imperial hubris and the fall of Singapore

Imperial hubris and the fall of Singapore

The wartime dealings of Australian Prime Minister John Curtin with his British counterpart Winston Churchill have become the stuff of Australian folklore. Some historians have portrayed Curtin as Australia’s bold saviour, while others have accused him of being a nitpicking panic-merchant. Thanks to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, which some years ago made many formerly secret telegrams and cables between the two leaders and other leading figures of the period publicly available on its website, interested readers can make up their own minds. WHEN wartime Prime Minister John Curtin used to remind Australians that:…

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