Ben Apfelbaum

DYMOCKS LITERARY LUNCH : JOHN HOWARD : A SENSE OF BALANCE

 

John Howard appeared at a Dymocks Literary Luncheon in the Four Seasons Hotel to promote his new book A SENSE OF BALANCE. Ably interviewed by David Crowe, Political Correspondent for the Age and the Sydney Morning Herald, Crowe prompted John Howard to articulate some of the themes in the book. 

Mr Howard started on an upbeat note. Despite the harsh rhetoric and bitter divisions between the two major parties there was and will continue to be a great deal of bi-partisan legislation. Obvious examples of this are Defence and Foreign Affairs. Unlike the theatrics of Question Time, much good work is done in a cooperative and communal sense in the various Select Committees. 

When asked why the Liberals lost so badly Howard opined that a clear message on economic reform was not articulated. When asked about the success of the Tiels he said that they looked like liberals and therefore people who felt dissatisfied with the Liberal Party could comfortably vote for the Tiels. As to Mr Morrison’s multi Ministry reign Mr Howard said that he should not have kept it a secret and that he had probably taken too much on.

Above all, he praised Australia’s historic and current electoral voting system and the peaceful transition of power. On foreign affairs, Mr Howard dealt with the growing power of China. He disagreed with the many pundits who believed that this century would belong to China. He strongly believed that American ascendancy would continue due apart from anything else to the fact that American birth rates were increasing, whilst China’s birth rates were decreasing. This would mean that  there would be a smaller number of young people to fuel China’s industrial growth as well as being called upon to call on an ever growing ageing population. Therefore he felt   we should clearly align ourselves with the United States. 

On the question of Taiwan, he did not believe that China would invade it as it is aware that nearly three quarters of the population do not regard themselves as Chinese and that it is a well armed country. 

Furthermore he believes that China has looked at the Russian Ukrainian conflict and seen what a rebellious and fearless population can do to the Russian war machine. 

He believes that the Australian position of ambiguity is the correct one. Without disagreeing with China’s claims on Taiwanese sovereignty it has economic and trade ties with Taiwan acknowledging its democratic tradition. 

On climate change Mr Howard was an agnostic. An expert advisor to the Obama administration had said that there had not been an increase in the number of wildfires. Whether it was a joke or  not Mr Howard said that President George Bush Senior did not like the term bush fires. 

Above all, Mr Howard has been and continues to be optimistic for the future of Australia.

That is why he has dedicated his new book, A SENSE OF BALANCE, to his grandchildren.

 

Published by Ben Apfelbaum

My photography began when my father handed me the proverbial brownie box camera as a child. As cameras developed I went through Fujica and Olympus range finders graduating to my first single lens reflex camera, the Minolta SRT101, the latter being the greatest facilitator to my growth as a photographer. Digital photography has only added to this. I was a regular contributor to Camera Craft magazine (Australian Camera ) for over three years. During Australia’s Bicentennial year (1988) I made it a personal project to document the celebrations. This culminated in the creation of a book of my photos which was published in 1989. The book was called CELEBRATING AUSTRALIA and came with an accompanying calendar. My works have appeared in a number of publications including the coffee book entitled MY AUSTRALIA (1989), publisher Robertsbridge Severn. This book had a preface by the then Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke. I was a co-photographer on a book entitled SYDNEY- DISCOVER THE CITY with text written by Robert Treborlang. Major Mitchell Press was the publisher. Also for two years I was the photographer for calendars celebrating Sydney’s multicultural communities. The two calendars were entitled MULTICULTURAL SYDNEY. My work appeared in a group exhibition held at Sydney’s Town Hall pertaining to the diversity of life in South America to raise money for orphanages there. I have over one hundred photos stored in the New South Wales State Library archive. I had a solo exhibition held in 2007 entitled Ben’s Lens at the Sydney Jewish Museum which celebrated the vibrancy of the Sydney Jewish community. Some of these photos are on the Museum’s permanent display. I have exhibited internationally firstly at the Spruill Gallery in Atlanta Georgia, United States, and in an exhibition entitled Kosher and Co at the Jewish Museum in Berlin. Currently I am a regular contributor to J-Wire and this esteemed publication. To celebrate the opening of a permanent Photography Gallery, the State Library of New South Wales selected 400 shots from its archive of over 2,000,000 images to display in the new gallery. An image of mine was plucked out of the multi million photo archive to be part of the inaugural exhibition.