In Victoria’s Court of Appeal last Friday, an encounter unprecedented in Australian legal and political history played itself out. Through the Commonwealth Solicitor-General (SG) three Commo…
Category: Worth Reading
ROBYN SAMPSON. Ending child immigration detention is just a matter of time. | John Menadue – Pearls and Irritations
Momentum is growing around the world to end child immigration detention. All major human rights experts now agree that immigration detention is a child rights violation. Meanwhile, more and more co…
Gonski’s troublesome twin | The Saturday Paper
The reason I supported the original Gonski schools funding formula was because it was both needs based and sector blind. The formula wasn’t perfect, but what is? Implementing it, for example, was more expensive than it should have been because of the ridiculous condition that no school – no matter how high their fees or luxurious their resources – should lose a dollar. That was a waste of scarce funds, but even with its flaws, at least Gonski provided badly needed money to the schools – and students – that needed it most and where it would really make a difference.
Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann
‘Like others on the Osage tribal roll, Mollie and her family members each received a headright – essentially, a share in the tribe’s mineral trust.’
In the 1920s, the Osage Indian Nation in Oklahoma were amongst the richest people in the world. Oil had been discovered under their land, and the headrights could not be sold. They could only be inherited. This was to keep the mineral trust under tribal control, but it resulted in many Osage people being murdered. Just how many were murdered and over what period is not clear. Mr Grann writes that according to most historical accounts, the Osage Reign of Terror spanned from the spring of 1921, to January 1926, but there were other killings.
In this book Mr Grann writes principally about one matriarchal Osage family, about the plan to murder the women in that family, in a way guaranteed to enable their headrights to be inherited. Mollie Burkhardt’s older sister Anna was shot dead, then her mother was slowly poisoned. As the death toll climbs, with more than twenty-four Osage killed as well as almost anyone trying to investigate the killings, the case is taken up by the newly formed FBI. After a bungled start, J. Edgar Hoover, puts Tom White (a former Texas Ranger) in charge of the case. Tom White and his undercover team, working with the Osage, began to expose this awful conspiracy.
Poor Mollie Burkhardt. She discovers that her husband, Ernest Burkhardt, was part of the conspiracy. He and his uncle, William Hale planned the death of Mollie and her entire family, including the Burkhardt children.
If only it were fiction, not fact. Mr Grann sets out the tragedy in a way that is easy to read, even though the scale of it is not easy to comprehend. This tragedy raises so many questions about the treatment of Native Americans, about greed and about systemic corruption. And now?
‘History is a merciless judge.’
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
BRIAN TOOHEY. Building submarines in SA simply sinks Australian dollars | John Menadue – Pearls and Irritations
Despite claims to the contrary by the defence industry minister Christopher Pyne, this sector is not driving growth in the economy or jobs. A defence economics specialist Mark Thompson has debunked…
RICHARD WOOLCOTT. The rise of China and the reaction of the United States | John Menadue – Pearls and Irritations
It has been stated that the Chinese are the “new kids on the block” and are getting a beating from the United States,because of China’s alleged behaviour in the South China seas.
Hardline Christian hoping to replace Triggs | The Saturday Paper
Meet the Pentecostal lawyer West Australian Liberals want to replace Gillian Triggs as president of the Human Rights Commission.
Source: Hardline Christian hoping to replace Triggs | The Saturday Paper
