Nothing sums up the brutal futility of the Israel/Gaza war more succinctly than Two Brothers, a folk song by UK songwriter Pete Morton. The lyric imagines a mother, fed up with the squabbling siblings, Israel and Palestine: “I don’t care who started it, just try and get along.” Morton’s song has been criticised as ‘condescending,’ that it trivialises a complex Middle East conflict. But the central message – a call for peace – can’t be…
Yes, I did say I’d write the occasional piece, but not always on a Friday. Just deal with it! Before and after the Voice referendum, I was reading an Australian classic, Coonardoo, by Katharine Sussanah Prichard. This dark novel resonated more as we left on the day of the referendum for a western Queensland caravan trip.. At that stage, we did not know that 60%+ of Australians would vote No to the Voice. Our first…
The last episode of this weekly essay was published on September 1, 2023. After nine years and three months of posting a 1200-word essay on random topics every Friday, we are taking a sabbatical. When I say ‘we’ I mean me and my trusty editor, Laurel Wilson. Many thanks to the very many academics and researchers who helped me out, whether they knew it or not! The database will be available here for the foreseeable…
Since this is now the way of the world, I decided to Google myself and ask ChatGPT to write a blog in the style of bobwords.com.au. The topic – ‘saying goodbye’. The following (in italics) was generated in 11 seconds. Hey there, lovely readers of BobWords.com.au! Today, we’re delving into a topic that resonates with all of us at some point in our lives: saying goodbye. Life is an ever-changing journey filled with moments of…