http://www.thepunch.com.au/author-bios/calum-logan/ Calum Logan studied International Relations at Melbourne Uni. He is now badly in need of employment which will pay the mounting bills. He also blogs here: http://www.thegilliesblog.blogspot.com/ en Copyright 2013 The Punch penberthyd@newsltd.com.au penberthyd@newsltd.com.au Thu, 14 Mar 2013 19:00:10 +0000 Thu, 14 Mar 2013 19:00:10 +0000 Politics, opinion, world news, sports news, latest news, views, Barack Obama, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Nathan Rees, Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Garrett, Barnaby Joyce, Australian, federal politics, opinion polls, election, The Punch, thepunch, punch ExpressionEngine 1.6.7 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 15 http://www.thepunch.com.au/images/punch-logo-rss.png http://www.thepunch.com.au/ 144 70 Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. Search The Punch keywords http://www.thepunch.com.au/search/ http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Should-Australia-defend-the-great-wall-or-the-grand-canyon/ Recently a colleague mockingly asked me why I bothered writing. I replied: because the quality of debate is appallingly bad. Exactly, she said. Thus with a sense of light-hearted despair at the recent banter in the media, I weigh into Australia’s strategic policy apropos the on-rushing war with China. It appears that the conservative minds that discuss strategic policy are aligning. China is growing, the world is changing, and power is being redistributed. According to those who subscribe to the various brands of “Realist” international relations theory, this situation necessarily entails armed conflict between states. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Calum Logan) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Should-Australia-defend-the-great-wall-or-the-grand-canyon/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Should-Australia-defend-the-great-wall-or-the-grand-canyon/#item6264 Tue, 12 Jul 2011 19:35:37 +0000 Calum Logan | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/The-more-we-talk-about-it-the-less-we-face-up-to-it/ Asylum seekers are back on top of the news cycle again. It’s almost like those heady days when MV Tampa was anchored threateningly off Christmas Island. This time round there is a delightful little twist. Rather than anxiously imagining the horrible wretches that threaten to penetrate our sovereign territory, viewers are instead invited to ponder the imagination - or lack thereof - amongst a representative sample of middle Australians who suffer from refugee anxiety. The most interesting aspect of this undertaking is that Go Back To Where You Came From resembles an Escher engraving. All those years ago, the Howard government recognised that boat-borne asylum seekers could be used to stage an extremely successful political pantomime. It had pirate-like people smugglers, captured cargo ships, illegal immigrants, the Navy, the Army: a great ensemble by any measure. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Calum Logan) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/The-more-we-talk-about-it-the-less-we-face-up-to-it/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/The-more-we-talk-about-it-the-less-we-face-up-to-it/#item6169 Mon, 27 Jun 2011 19:35:29 +0000 Calum Logan | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/would-you-like-a-heart-attack-with-that-sir/ I am the postgraduate dream. I live on minimum wage; I have a flirtatious relationship with the poverty line. However, I think this is a karmic repercussion of my own bad choices. As a younger, less-worldly type I entered into a line of work - dirty, unrewarding work - from which I seem unable to escape: I kill people. In the beginning it all seemed like good fun. Harmless fun. However, recently the inescapable truth has dawned on me. Hospitality is about killing people. Most of us are all too familiar with government propaganda about the perils of smoking and drinking, two activities frequently central to hospitality. However, it’s not these which really grate against my sensibilities. It’s the fat that is propelling me towards a nervous breakdown. They haul themselves out of their cubicles and waddle in at least once a week. Very often they appear more frequently, their numbers certainly seem to be growing. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Calum Logan) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/would-you-like-a-heart-attack-with-that-sir/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/would-you-like-a-heart-attack-with-that-sir/#item5777 Fri, 20 May 2011 19:50:11 +0000 Calum Logan | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/its-not-a-reactionary-party-without-the-rum/ American satirist HL Mencken once observed that democracy is the pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance. Witnessing the latest efforts of the reactionary wing of Australian politics to develop a local branch office of the Tea Party, misanthropic as it may seem, one must concede perhaps Mencken had a point.  Of course, over-the-top rallies are not strange occurrences in Australian political life. Labor has been traditionally associated with uncouth Trade Unions demos, the Greens with hippies blockading various environmental degradations, and of course conservative parties show up at various meetings of annoyed farmers and frustrated middle-class types. Obviously politicians of all stripes try to utilise such groundswells to further their own agendas, rather than the interests of the masses they claim to represent. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Calum Logan) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/its-not-a-reactionary-party-without-the-rum/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/its-not-a-reactionary-party-without-the-rum/#item5473 Sun, 27 Mar 2011 19:50:50 +0000 Calum Logan | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-west-just-thinks-it-knows-best/ So, rad times in the Middle East? In the bright light of this historic moment can we assert that the Bush Administration’s neo-cons were partially right: the Middle East was ripe for a series of popular revolutions? If only they didn’t have to destroy a country, countless people, and potentially the prospect for better relationships between the West and the region in attempting to prove it. The farcical aspect of popular demonstrations in the Middle East is that although Western Governments and observers have for years mused about the notional benefits of individual will being translated into national policy through some nice democratic practices, the instant any such thing becomes a remote possibility, westerners start getting anxious. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Calum Logan) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-west-just-thinks-it-knows-best/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-west-just-thinks-it-knows-best/#item5026 Tue, 01 Feb 2011 19:55:35 +0000 Calum Logan | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-real-reason-were-fighting-a-war-in-Afghanistan/ The recent discussion of the Afghan deployment focus on the loss of more, young Australian lives as part of a mission which is not understood. It is a tragic loss, yet fundamental re-appraisal of western aims in Afghanistan seems highly unlikely. The western presence in Afghanistan is not simply a lost decade of US led Osama hunting, nor is it merely a 30 year hangover from Cold War conflict. The Western presence in Afghanistan is part of a larger mission that has dragged on for hundreds of years. The common acceptance of the logic that underpins both sides of the public debate about Afghanistan, illustrates that this mission is so acceptable to western polities that its existence is taken for granted and passes largely unremarked. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Calum Logan) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-real-reason-were-fighting-a-war-in-Afghanistan/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-real-reason-were-fighting-a-war-in-Afghanistan/#item3474 Sun, 04 Jul 2010 19:40:22 +0000 Calum Logan | Author bios | The Punch