Taking the sting out of nasty surprises
Written by Steven Schwartz on November 24th, 2008
Hello, this is David Myton again standing in for Steven Schwartz.
In her excellent book about the experiences of Soviet soldiers during World War II, Catherine Merridale records the words of the Russian war poet David Samoilov in reaction to the Nazi invasion that began on June 22 1941:
“We were all expecting war. But we were […]
Humanities in the small print
Written by Steven Schwartz on November 6th, 2008
Hello, this is David Myton standing in again for Steven Schwartz while he is away overseas.
In all the discussion leading up to the US Presidential elections some of you may have missed a thoughtful and confronting article that appeared in The Australian’s Higher Education section this week.
It was by Associate Professor John Armstrong, a senior […]
Let’s hope Queen History can rule in peace
Written by Steven Schwartz on October 17th, 2008
In his book The Poverty of Theory the English historian E P Thompson describes history as the “Queen of the Humanities” .
Thompson was right; all other areas of study come together in history – English, politics, economics, sociology, even mathematics and science. Because history is the story of humanity (although I’m told one Macquarie history […]
Australia at war: now that was tough
Written by Steven Schwartz on October 14th, 2008
The stock market’s tanking, the world is slipping into recession and banks are falling over like dominoes. Jobs and credit are getting scarce and pensioners are finding their retirement much less comfortable than they had planned.
The media have turned the volume up to screaming point - talking about “meltdown” and the “unravelling” of our […]
Higher education: less Gekko, more Gandhi
Written by Steven Schwartz on October 8th, 2008
In a speech to a group of business leaders recently, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd linked the turmoil in global financial markets with the 1987 film Wall Street. In the movie, fictional stockbroker Gordon Gekko makes the following speech:
Greed is right.
Greed works.
Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit.
Greed, in all […]
Macquarie writing competition: the winners
Written by Steven Schwartz on September 25th, 2008
I am pleased to announce today the winners in the various categories of the Vice-Chancellor’s Writing Competition. Congratulations to all of you – I have thoroughly enjoyed reading your essays.
There were around 160 entries into the competition, more or less evenly spread across the four categories, with the lowest number being received in the English […]
The alpha and omega of education
Written by Steven Schwartz on September 11th, 2008
At first blush two stories that made the news this week appear alpha and omega apart. But if we dig deep enough, we find there is a real and relevant connection.
The first story concerns a National Church Life Survey which found a decline in the number of people who read the Bible.
The Bible Society chief […]
When central planning turns to farce …
Written by Steven Schwartz on September 10th, 2008
Nobel prize-winner Friedrich Hayek called the belief in the power of government central planning the “fatal conceit”. Today in an article in The Australian I highlight how that conceit led to a farce in medical training.
In short, I describe how federal government planners decided Australian universities were graduating too many doctors. Then a few years […]
Newspapers: why the Hanrahans are wrong
Written by Steven Schwartz on September 8th, 2008
Hello, David Myton here and I’m standing in as guest blogger for Steven Schwartz, who is otherwise engaged today. I help to look after Steven’s web site and perform some other media-related duties here in his office.
Attentive readers (and I’m sure that’s all of you) will recall that a few weeks ago Steven blogged about […]
Let’s make sure democracy is not a fleeting thing
Written by Steven Schwartz on August 21st, 2008
Last night, a celebration took place. It was designed to commemorate the centenary of an event, which, at the time, captured the attention of Australia.
One hundred years ago this week, American battle ships steamed passed South Head on their way into Sydney Harbour. The 16 vessels, belching steam and glistening in the sun, filled the […]