Bøker av John Stapleton

In the early 2020s Australia was gripped by a madness which was spiritual, administrative, political, social and judicial, making headlines around the world.

"Combining meticulous research with thoughtful personal reflection, this is a devastating indictment of Australia''s response to the Covid pandemic." Steve Waterson, The Australian. "Well researched, courageous and revealing of the truth. One of Australia''s most important books this century. A must read. Unfolding Catastrophe couldn''t be more timely, coming at a pivotal point in our nation''s history." Guy Campbell, GP. Unfolding Catastrophe: Australia aims to dismember the political, administrative and social derangement which has overtaken Australia since the early days of 2020.   Australia''s democracy has proved virus thin. There has never been a more politicised and thereby more disastrously mismanaged disease. Eighteen months on from the country''s first COVID death Australia is almost unrecognisable. The Australian government ignored all the cautionary tales emanating from some of the world''s leading tertiary institutions, all warning that lockdowns were a dangerous social experiment which would do more harm than good. The result has been an authoritarian derangement, with military on the streets, unprecedented levels of highly aggressive policing, a dramatic loss of liberties, thousands marching in the streets and uber surveillance at a level previously unimaginable.  Government overreach has destroyed all the nation''s traditional freedoms, from barbeques in the backyard to going to the beach. By mid-2021 half the population were enduring what amounted to house arrest under some of the most extreme lockdown measures seen anywhere in the world. State borders opened and shut on a single case, tens of thousands of businesses had been destroyed; and the national debt quadrupled. All the while Australia''s Big End of Town grew vastly richer.  Unfolding Catastrophe: Australia tells the story of the nation through the eyes of a retired reporter, switching from street scenes to reportage while incorporating the work of some of the country''s leading journalists and academics. As one of Australia''s most experienced general news reporters, having worked on two of the country''s leading newspapers The Australian and The Sydney Morning Herald for a quarter of a century, John Stapleton is uniquely placed to tell this story. His experience in publishing a wide range of hard hitting material sceptical of Australia''s COVID response in his publication A Sense of Place Magazine forms the backbone of Unfolding Catastrophe: Australia.

Hideout in the Apocalypse is about surveillance and the crushing of Australia's larrikin spirit. The government knew when it introduced the panopticon, universal surveillance, that it would have a devastating impact on the culture. The Australian government has prosecuted the greatest assault on freedom of speech in the nation's history.

The daily robbing, bashing, drugging, extortion and murder of foreign tourists on Thai soil, along with numerous scandals involving unsafe facilities and well established scams, has led to frequent predictions that Thailand''s multi-billion dollar tourist industry will self-destruct. Instead tourist numbers more than doubled in the decade to 2014. The world might not have come to the hometowns of the many visitors fascinated by Thailand, but it certainly came to the Land of Smiles.While the Thai media is heavily censored, and bad news stories about tourists suppressed, nonetheless there is more than enough evidence to demonstrate that something has gone seriously awry with the nation''s tourist industry.In 2014, just as in the years preceding it, there were train, bus, ferry, speedboat, motorbike and car accidents, murders, knifings, unexplained deaths, numerous suicides, diving accidents, robberies gone wrong, anonymous bodies washing up on the shores and a string of alcohol and drug related incidents.Thailand had a dying king and serious succession problems, weak democratic institutions, an economy slipping into recession, faced issues of corruption across many of its key services and was host to international crime syndicates, awash with despised foreigners and drifting perilously towards civil war. Tourists choose one destination over another for a number of reasons, most of which Thailand scores highly on. But on the core issue of tourist safety, Thailand scores very badly indeed.