“Today I’ve got a real treat for you. I’m going to paint you a picture of what real wealth looks like.” I’ve spoken to a lot of amazing people over the 12 years I’ve written the Barefoot Investor column, but the two hours I spent with legendary ABC broadcaster and garden guru Peter Cundall proved to be one of the most thought-provoking discussions of my life.
It’s time to reduce your risk, if you can – sell your over-priced house and rent, shift your retirement fund to cash. If you have these assets you’ve already gained from the boom, so don’t wait round hoping for more, get out before you lose big time. This time it’s not about dodgy mortgage securities or over-priced internet companies, it’s about fundamentals. Companies are not robust, demand is low, and all sorts of risks lurk in the wings – EU debt, national deficits, indebted governments, vulnerable developing economies, the reversal…read more
After the political manipulation which shaped Turkey’s recent anti-democratic referendum, feminist artist Ekin Onat explains why she faces exile. Ekin’s project “Objection” at The Pavilion of Humanity during the Venice Biennale exposes political lies and police brutality in her home country. The project started with a tree, and the protests that galvanised all but two of Turkey’s 81 provinces in the spring of 2013. “A tree! Green space!” Nothing more radical than the environment, she says. Peaceful demonstrations against government plans to bulldoze the park to build a shopping mall spiralled; mass revolt led to brutal…read more
October 2016 will be the tenth anniversary of Australian Peter Norman’s passing. Most people don’t know Norman. Pictured below, Norman is perhaps “the third hero of that night in 1968,” wrote Italian writer Riccardo Gazzaniga in Griot Magazine. The photo shows John Carlos and Tommie Smith’s rebellious gesture the day they won medals for the 200 meters at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. It’s a powerful image of two barefoot black men, with their heads bowed, their black-gloved fists in the air while the US National Anthem, “The…read more
A classic article from New Zealand’s Broadsheet magazine December 1983, still so relevant today – Christine Bird with help from Lana Le Quesne: I’m a working class feminist. But I’ve been told by feminists that my ideas of class are “male derived” and socialists have said that I’m not “really” working class. I know I’ve listened in vain for the voice of working class women in both the feminist movement and among socialists. I’m writing this article because I feel that working class women at present have no legitimacy in…read more
“There’s you and me and 103 reasons to leave those troubled days behind…” I got tired of posting all the depressing economic news – and I don’t even touch on the depressing race to the bottom for a new American frontman – so for a change here’s live music from local favorite Darren Hanlon with lyrics about rising above our history, live from the tiny Jet Black Cat record store.