2003

Sydney Morning Herald story According to some mob called Access Economics, an immigrant benefits the Australian state on average by 250,000 dollars. Apparently, 15-year olds are the best value – unsurprisingly, refugees get the lowest grade in this rather cold-blooded calculus, averaging only A$111,000. So – how much cash are the Australians spending on scouring…

Read More Aussie study shows each immigrant = A$250,000 more to the public purse

Yankee Blog “I don’t recall the site, but I recently saw a comment (perhaps in reference to that Zakaria piece) basically asking why Hu Jintao got a better reception in Australia than Bush. Someone responded by basically dismissing Australians as just too left-wing to worry about. This is the most moronic comment in the world.…

Read More Yanks – Australians too leftwing to worry about!

“The West needs Russian cooperation in the fight on terrorism, it badly needs Russian oil and natural gas because the Middle East is unstable, and is in no position to actively resist a major move by Moscow to dominate and reintegrate the former Soviet republics. Sources close to the Kremlin have expressed the view that…

Read More Mind you – perhaps it wasn’t so weird?

In the non-smouldering aftermath of Georgia’s revolution, a fresh burst of Caucasus weirdness was only to be expected. Fortunately it has so far kept within limits – just a couple of mystery aeroplanes, phone calls to BP-Amoco and sabre-rattling local bosses, nothing too serious. But that was until this truly odd story emerged… “A £2bn…

Read More Yet further Caucasian weirdness – the GRU, the pipeline and the greens..

I’m sure you all know by now that the Georgian president and Soviet statesman, Eduard Shevardnadze, was overthrown by demonstrators enraged by alleged vote-rigging in the recent presidential election at the weekend. After the usual proceedings of post-Communist political theatre – mass demos under the new-old national flag, initial contempt from the boss, then offers…

Read More After “Where is Raed?”, now it’s “Where is Shevardnadze?”