Amongst the huge backlog of periodicals I am currently skimming my way through is an issue of Target, the quarterly magazine of aid agency TEAR Australia , which celebrates 40 years of TEAR's operation. We've been supporting TEAR for almost 30 of those 40 years, signing up as soon as we had an income in 1983. I love the way TEAR has always focused on working with people and local agencies, and held to its dual role of supporting and empowering people in the third world where the problems are experienced, and working for change in the first world where most of them are caused. Deborah Storie's editorial provides food for thought. We have a lot to celebrate! Yet over recent decades, if conversations linger and range broadly enough, a darker shadow story is also told. Despite all their achievements, people testify that their lives are harder and more precarious, or that they are worried about the future. Why? Common themes across countries and regions emerge. Peopl
'Contemplating the teeming life of the shore, we have an uneasy sense of the communication of some universal truth that lies just beyond our grasp.' - Rachel Carson