Buy nothing day, buy nothing new month and now the compactors’ year long endeavour to buy nothing at all. But is ‘buying’ in itself all bad? When does our consumerism tip over into a self-fulfilling pursuit?

In 2013 at the Melbourne International Film Festival I watched the greatly moving documentary, First cousin once removed. It centres on the later life and dwindling light of Edwin Honig – American professor, poet, playwright and translator of Portuguese and Latin literature…

Idiosyncratic has excellent etymology. The Greek stems: idios – ‘own’ and synkrasis – ‘mixing together’ crafts an apt description of my experience, as it’s my mix of characteristics/peculiarities…

As Nasser's 'Free Officers' fought the Six Day War with Israel the Suez ground to a halt. Researching the war, I stumbled across a story about the mysterious Yellow Fleet…

An exhibition at the CCCB in Barcelona exploring the concept of cities within cities, temporary cities and the parallel system of commerce and community they create opened eyes to potentially freeing, unregulated alternatives…

When you've answered the big questions you start looking at the little ones and realise, they aren't so little after all. Take your humble bento box, sushi platter, or sushi/sashimi combination and ask yourself…

In Australia, Al-Jazeera was the story, before it was the source of the story. The news about the 'upstart' channel was acerbic, and like Afghanistan, Iraq and Islam, the US administration ambiguously and conveniently linked Al-Jazeera to the 'war on terror'…

It’s one of those incessant cycles. Throughout history, human rights have been won and lost. They have been pilloried, glorified, philosophised and politicised. Over time, my personal understanding of humanity, existentialism and human rights has developed, changed and been challenged…

Over the last decade, Megan Stack has covered the Middle East as a correspondent for the LA Times. Her book, Every Man in this Village is a Liar is a harrowing, heartfelt and insightful account of her experiences during this period…