Preface by Clive Hamilton and Mareike Ohlberg

The comforting belief that democratic freedoms have history on their side and will eventually prevail everywhere has always been tinged with wishful thinking.
World events of the past two or three decades have shown that we can no longer take these things for granted. Universal human rights, democratic practice and the rule of law have powerful enemies, and China under the Chinese Communist Party is arguably the most formidable. The Party’s program of influence and interference is well planned and bold, and backed by enormous economic resources and technological power.
The wide-ranging campaign of subverting institutions in Western countries and winning over their elites has advanced much further than Party leaders might have hoped. Democratic institutions and the global order built after the Second World War have proven to be more fragile than imagined, and are vulnerable to the new weapons of political warfare now deployed against them.
The Chinese Communist Party is exploiting the weaknesses of democratic systems in order to undermine them, and while many in the West remain reluctant to acknowledge this, democracies urgently need to become more resilient if they are to survive.
The threat posed by the CCP affects the right of all to live without fear. Many Chinese people living in the West, along with Tibetans, Uyghurs, Falun Gong practitioners and Hong Kong democracy activists, are at the forefront of the CCP’s repression and live in a constant state of fear.
Governments, academic institutions and business executives are afraid of financial retaliation should they incur Beijing’s wrath. This fear is contagious and toxic. It must not be normalised as the price nations have to pay for prosperity.
Every Western democracy is affected. As Beijing is emboldened by the feebleness of resistance, its tactics of coercion and intimidation are being used against an increasingly broad spectrum of people. Even for those who do not feel the heavy hand of the CCP directly, the world is changing, as Beijing’s authoritarian norms are exported around the globe.
When publishers, filmmakers and theatre managers decide to censor opinions that might ‘hurt the feelings of the Chinese people’, free speech is denied. A simple tweet that upsets Beijing can cost someone their job.

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Thailand: The Varieties of Expatriate Experience


The Tartan Pimpernel

Walter ‘Whacky’ Douglas looked like he was having a fine old time when he was arrested and deported from Thailand in 2014.

Douglas, known as “The Tartan Pimpernel” and once described as one of Britain’s ten wealthiest drugs traffickers, disappeared from official view in the late 1990s after a career linked to narcotics. As one of the world’s principle centres for opium trafficking in the 19th Century, heroin in the 20th Century and methamphetamines in the 21st Century, and with easily bribed officials, Thailand has long proven a comfortable hideout for smugglers.

When he was tracked down to the island of Koh Samui in 2013 Douglas claimed stories about him were grossly exaggerated. “No charges are pending,” he said.

But early in 2014 police raided The Tartan Pimpernel’s villa on the north coast of Koh Samui as well as his nightclub Dreamers, where he went under the name of Bobby Brown.

Whacky Douglas was flown to Bangkok and put on a London bound plane which was met at Heathrow by officers of the National Crime Agency.

Bangkok based British journalist Andrew Drummond wrote that Douglas’s deportation and arrest in police custody had caused a panic among a group of British expats, known to British police, living in an enclave in Bang Rak, Koh Samui, just five minutes from the airport.Courtesy of Buddy Tour All Access Pass


Other expats from Bang Rak had been arrested when they returned to the U.K.

Douglas began his working life as a milkman in Glasgow. He didn’t stay there for long. His record includes arrest and time served for smuggling 18 tonnes of hash, along with ecstasy and cocaine, as well as money laundering to the tune of £150 million, of which he was acquitted. He was also charged with travelling on a false passport.

Douglas was also one of many people interviewed in connection with the 1990 murder in Marbella of Great Train Robber Charlie Wilson. He spent his time between Thailand and southern Spain, where he also owned Dreamers clubs.


“What is the appropriate behaviour for a man or woman in the midst of this world, where each person is clinging to his piece of debris? What’s the proper salutation for people as they pass each other in this flood?” Anon.


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Huge Locust Swarms Threaten Food Security


By Leisa Armstrong of Edith Cowan University

In recent months, food security concerns have emerged for nations across Africa, Asia and the Middle East, as swarms of desert locusts wreak havoc on crops.

While the same level of damage isn’t currently being felt in Australia, the threat of infestations extends to us too. But drone technology is offering up solutions.
Not just a Biblical threat

In January, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) warned rising locust numbers in the Horn of Africa presented an “extremely alarming and unprecedented threat” to food security and livelihoods.

According to the FAO, a swarm of about 40 million desert locusts can eat the same amount of food in one day as about 35,000 people. Swarms can be as large as several hundred square kilometres, with as many as 80 million adults per square kilometre.

Countries impacted by infestations this year include Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Somalia, India, Pakistan, Iran, Yemen, Oman and Saudi Arabia.