It was a breath of fresh raging air to read Duncan Green’s blog on poorly run conferences. Maybe frustrations can be the first step towards solving the collective action problem of people suffering at horrendous...

South Sudan. As if further commentary was needed, when patently it’s not, here I go…

Apart from a few attempts by a very few people, on every side in South Sudan it seems most people are clear that someone else is the problem. Many people blame the leaders or IGAD ...

In 2007, then Australian Federal Health Minister Tony Abbott was quoted as saying, in relation to the policy of removing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families:

The fundamental prem...

You may have seen the new advertisement for Australian lamb, featuring iconic cricketing legend Richie Benaud, along with Ned Kelly, Captain Cook (Cookie) and others. Presumably it's meant to represent something quintessentially Australian. The 90s/early 00s Qantas ads, featuring ...

Having just returned to my base in the UK from Yei, South Sudan, after spending a month with 70 participants from across the country for a shared journey of listening and dialogue, I’m full of hope for South Sudan, at the same time conscious of how little hope many have.

When I return to my home in Australia, friends inevitably question – with the best of intentions – my reasons for getting involved. For a country that, from one reading (often proliferated ...

I’ve just arrived back in Australia after two years away. I have the good fortune to have been born here, and the luxury (finances permitting) of coming whenever I like.

Australia oozes a sense of comfort. As always, a beautiful country it is still a land of opportunity. A coffee is extortionately priced, but given that this is my only complaint about day to day living since I’ve been home, things can’t be too rough.

Comfort for some, I sh...

Rob Lancaster from Australia was one of the team responsible for training the peace and reconciliation mobilizers. This was his speech to the graduates of the four-week course which concluded on 1 May.

Speech for closing ceremony of Peace and Reconciliation Mobiliser training – Juba, 1 May 2013

There are many South Sudanese in Australia right now, playing a part in writing the newest chapter in Australia’s multicultural history. So it’s a pleasure to...

At a time when much public debate consists of the divisive trading of strongly held (and opposite) opinions, Rob Lancaster asks if there is a better way.

I started writing this article, provoked by a news story about one of Australia’s most well-known and polarizing radio presenters, Alan Jones. Jones has been instructed to apologize pub...

For the last four years, somewhere around the final week of June, I’ve made my way up the mountain from the Swiss city of Montreux, famous for its Jazz festival, to the rather less famous village of Caux, 1,000m up the mountainside towards the distant Rochers de Naye.

I’m not the only one to keep coming back. I roughly calculated that about 100,000 people hours, overwhelmingly from volunteers , are invested in the Caux Conferences each year. It’s certa...