Weekly news round up: money woes, Nancy LeVine’s ageing pooches and the SBS show everyone’s talking about

IN OUR news round up this week, we face our fears of yet another global financial crisis, talk about the gripping SBS docu-reality show Go Back To Where You Came From, and introduce a photographer that has touched us with her images of canines past their prime.

Photo: Aun Ngo

GFC II?

Could we be facing yet another global financial crisis?

Possibly so, according to the world’s major central banking organisation, who say current economic trends are beginning to resemble the conditions that led to the 2008 global financial crisis.

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) released its annual report on Sunday, warning central banks worldwide that interest rates must be raised in order to bring inflation under control.

Why is that so?

As stock markets fell in the 2008 crisis, large financial institutions collapsed or were bought out, and governments in even the wealthiest nations came up with rescue packages to bail out their financial systems – many economies began to adopt expansionary monetary policies by reducing interest rates to encourage growth.

“If we are to build a stable future, our attempts to cushion the blow from the last crisis must not sow the seeds of the next one,” the report said.

All eyes on Europe

The state of the Greek economy is exacerbating concerns of an impending financial crisis, and economists are also watching the rest of the eurozone closely.

According to the report, the current turmoil in Greece, Ireland and Portugal “would pale beside the devastation that would follow” a second global financial crisis.

Right place, right time?

Here in Australia, we were fortunate to have escaped the 2008 financial crisis largely unscathed.

In response to the BIS report, Treasurer Wayne Swan said he was confident about Australia’s ability to “withstand any economic problems Europe and other parts of the world are facing”, in an interview with Sky News.

“Fortunately we’re in the right part of the world at the right time. The Asia-Pacific is relatively strong… We are quite resilient here and in the Asia Pacific,” he said.

Read the original report.

Go Back To Where You Came From. Watch the gripping three-part SBS docu-reality series online and find out why everyone has been talking about it.

Go Back To Where You Came From

If you haven’t seen this confronting docu-reality show by SBS, you should – especially at a time when Australia is embroiled in a heated debate over a plan to send asylum seekers to Malaysia for processing.

Not only can you view the three-part series online, you can also immerse yourself in an interactive simulation based on the experiences of real asylum seekers, drawing on statistics and facts about the difficult journeys undertaken by refugees.

The showfollows six ordinary Australians who agree to challenge their preconceived notions about refugees and asylum seekers by embarking on a confronting 25-day journey. Tracing in reverse the journeys that refugees have taken to reach Australia, they travel to some of the most dangerous and desperate corners of the world, with no idea what is in store for them along the way. 

Deprived of their wallets, phones and passports, they board a leaky refugee boat, are rescued mid-ocean, experience immigration raids in Malaysia, live in a Kenyan refugee camp and visit slums in Jordan before ultimately making it to the Democratic Republic of Congo and Iraq, protected by UN Peacekeepers and the US military.

SBS will be airing a special televised forum at 8.30pm tonight (June 28) as a result of the overwhelming response from the series.

Check out Nancy LeVine's ageing canine photography project on the New York Time's Lens Blog.

Ageing canines

Just like people, dogs grow old too, and we’ve been really taken by New York Time’s Lens Blog featuring American photographer Nancy LeVine, which we would like to share with you.

LeVine spent eight years documenting ageing dogs, 10-years-old and above. This touching feature of men’s best friends past their prime reveal a poignant side to life that has often been overlooked.