Winter is coming in the southern hemisphere. In fact, it has arrived early in some parts with record cold, rain and even snow in May. It will come as a surprise to experts, bureaucrats, and politicians (but not regular readers here) that in winter there are an...
Let’s start by rewinding about a year. Lockdowns were imposed as temporary measures to “flatten the curve”. This was to enable health systems to cope with cases as they arose – not to end up with no cases. Australia had such remarkable success in its quest that the...
Last month I wrote about good news not getting much airplay. The other issue which gets lost in media hype and political hyperbole is perspective. In 2017 there were 56 million deaths around the world. That number may have been slightly different in 2020 but would be...
The media knows that bad news sells. Rolling coverage of terrorist attacks, natural disasters and, of course, more recently Covid 19 makes people more likely to buy newspapers (yes, they still exist) or consume news electronically or online and maybe even pay for some...
The old Chinese saying about living in interesting times continues to be apt in 2021. At time of writing different countries and even states or regions within countries have different approaches to Covid 19. There are currently eight vaccines at variable stages of...
As I write this last column for 2020, the words of the late John Lennon come to mind; “So this is Christmas And what have you done? Another year over A new one just begun” Last week marked the 40th anniversary of his tragic death by homicide. Where has that time gone...