Vol 21 No 14

18 July 2011

EUREKA STREET TV

The 'Charles Darwin' of human sciences
- Peter Kirkwood
- 29 July 2011
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MEDIA

Julia Gillard vs Kim Jong-il
- Alan Austin
- 29 July 2011
21 Comments
North Koreans admire their glorious leader and his visionary ministers, despite their poor economic and human rights record. By contrast, most Australians despise the current Labor Government, despite the high esteem with which it is regarded internationally. How can this be?
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EDUCATION

Religious education ceasefire
- Fatima Measham
- 29 July 2011
7 Comments
The stoush over school ethics classes recalls the war in US schools over 'creation science' and its place in the curriculum. Christians should support programs that give students opportunities to think deeply about what it means to be a human among other humans.
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EUREKA STREET TV

The 'Charles Darwin' of human sciences
- Peter Kirkwood
- 29 July 2011
Anglican priest Scott Cowdell is a leading proponent of French-American thinker René Girard. He compares him to Charles Darwin due to 'the simple elegance of his theory for explaining a huge amount of diverse phenomena' relating to human motivation, culture and religion.
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RELIGION

Silence for Norway's dead
- Bronwyn Lay
- 28 July 2011
8 Comments
On a quiet Sunday night 25 years ago Julian Knight committed Australia's first urban massacre on the street outside my home. The next morning, strangers — made mute — stood and met the silence of the dead. It is powerful to watch the Norwegian people meet the silence of their dead.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

We don't own Amy Winehouse
- Tim Kroenert
- 28 July 2011
4 Comments
It sometimes seems celebrities are public property. News of the death of British singer Amy Winehouse was met with both grief and jokes. Hearing her father Mitch speak of her as any father would about a child who has died prematurely, grounds her.
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RELIGION

Empathy in Norway
- Andrew Hamilton
- 27 July 2011
18 Comments
It is impossible to explain how one human being can make plans to kill and maim others, and coldly carry them through. Everything suggests the perpretrator of the killings in Norway had imbibed ideas that showed no respect for empathy with people as unique individuals.
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RELIGION

Malaysia solution pros and cons
- Frank Brennan
- 27 July 2011
30 Comments
The Malaysian solution is unprincipled, but it might just work — stopping the boats. If other countries try to replicate it, we will have to tear up the Refugee Convention and start again. And the plight of unaccompanied minors transported from our shores to Malaysia will be on our conscience.
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AUSTRALIA

Refugee lotto
- Kerry Murphy
- 27 July 2011
3 Comments
An old legal maxim is 'hard cases make bad law'. Maybe complex cases compromise policy. Refugee law and policy is complex and the Malaysian agreement signed this week is another example of a compromise on human rights principles for political expedience.
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CARTOON

Cooking up the Malaysia Solution
- Fiona Katauskas
- 27 July 2011
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AUSTRALIA

Fearing America's national debt
- Brian Doyle
- 27 July 2011
8 Comments
America, my country, is teetering on the edge of a dark future. We cannot continue in this fashion, or we will enslave our children and grandchildren to ruinous debt; we will twist their lives in unimaginable ways, because we would not pay our bills or reduce the luxury with which we lived.
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MARGARET DOOLEY AWARD

The ethics of getting a job
- Patrick McCabe
- 27 July 2011
11 Comments
Ignatius of Loyola and Michel de Montaigne both had privileged upbringings. But where Montaigne was committed to personal fulfillment, Loyala was devoted to service. I, too, had a privileged upbrining and education. I'm not yet sure whose example is best to follow.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

No place to talk about death
- Warrick Wynne
- 26 July 2011
2 Comments
The light is falling away with the tide, but the dark shapes are birds going somewhere. the bubbles in the sand small breaths rising into the air ...
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AUSTRALIA

Demystifying famine
- Ben Coleridge
- 26 July 2011
4 Comments
If one were to believe the news cycle, the current crisis in Somalia would seem to have arisen without warning. But it is part of a pattern we have had plenty of opportunity to observe and recognise. In fact Eastern Africa is historically well acquainted with famine.
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RELIGION

Catholic Ireland's watershed moment
- Gerry O'Hanlon
- 26 July 2011
13 Comments
The surprise in the Irish Prime Minister's frank and undiplomatic speech on sexual abuse is that his target was not the Irish culprits but the Vatican itself. He articulated the anger of the Irish people towards the Vatican, which is undoubtedly on a learning curve on these matters.
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AUSTRALIA

Sex abuse action and the seal of confession
- Michael Mullins
- 25 July 2011
29 Comments
Senator Nick Xenophon's call to protect children by ending the seal of confession was an affront to freedom of religion. But he speaks for many Australians, whose goodwill is necessary to preserve such religious practices.
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AUSTRALIA

Taming the pokies
- Jennifer Borrell
- 25 July 2011
12 Comments
Nearly a third of regular poker machine users are problem and at risk gamblers, who spend more than $7 billion a year at pokies, amounting to 60 per cent of total losses. No wonder the gaming industry is threatened by proposed measures aimed at making the machines safer.
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AUSTRALIA

Gender more than anatomy
- Ellena Savage
- 22 July 2011
3 Comments
The Census won't recognise the fact that some people in Australia don't identify as either female or male, and that such people have specific needs. One advocacy group is urging intersex people to list their religion as 'Intersex' in order that their gender is recognised.
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MEDIA

Consumers rule in Murdoch's evil empire
- Catherine Marshall
- 22 July 2011
14 Comments
The public was quick to claim ignorance and condemn the theft of private information by News of the World. But ignorance is no longer an excuse, especially in these post-Princess Diana years where the role of the paparazzi, traitorous friends and dodgy journalists is well-known.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Good journalism and Murdoch's pie-gate
- Tim Kroenert
- 21 July 2011
1 Comment
Rupert Murdoch's News International has found itself with more than egg on its face over the News of the World scandal. As this case reveals journalism at its most prurient and base, a new film pays tribute to journalism at its most noble and courageous.
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MEDIA

Getting the media we deserve
- Justin Glyn
- 21 July 2011
8 Comments
It is easy to wring our hands and blame the media for bias and shoddy practices. But the truth is we like our fix of gossip and outrage, viewed through our favourite political spectacles, and are not always concerned how we get it. That is why tabloids sell.
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RELIGION

Democracy in the Church
- Andrew Hamilton
- 21 July 2011
30 Comments
A petition circulating among Australian Catholics offers a sombre picture of the state of the Church. To some Catholics petitions seem inappropriate. But they have the value once attributed to canaries in the mineshaft: their witness is dismissed at the mine owners' peril.
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AUSTRALIA

Why we're mean to Julia
- Moira Rayner
- 20 July 2011
38 Comments
Those who rise by media approval, will fall by it. Once, talkback radio hosts and reporters drummed up Gillard as tomorrow's PM and the day's bright star in the political firmament. Today she's 'JuLiar', the 'witch', a fallen princess. What went wrong?
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EUREKA STREET/ READER'S FEAST AWARD

Indigenous Australia in 2031
- Lea McInerney
- 20 July 2011
6 Comments
In 2012, the settler people of Australia finally made their peace with their Indigenous brothers and sisters. With this came the discovery of what had been lost, what was missing, what needed to be restored. There was much work to be done and together they made a plan.
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CARTOON

Carbon tax fear going cheap
- Fiona Katauskas
- 20 July 2011
4 Comments
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RELIGION

Churches and the Malaysian Solution
- Frank Brennan
- 19 July 2011
12 Comments
This is not a regional solution to a regional problem, but a bilateral attempt at solving an Australian problem. To stop the boats, one needs to engage in measures contrary to the Refugee Convention. Church groups can not endorse something they know to be either unworkable or immoral.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Boat people poems
- Michael Sharkey and Barry Gittins
- 19 July 2011
Bought after the wreckage of a shoaled first marriage, the becalmed, calming painting survived a bachelor's anchorage, flotsam and jetsam, to find love. Peace. Safe, prized harbour under muted tiles and a stultifying light orb.
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AUSTRALIA

Sharing the carbon price pain
- Michael Mullins
- 18 July 2011
10 Comments
Because the Government will provide compensation for higher fuel bills, there is little incentive to use less electricity. While the Government is to be commended for its attempt to use carbon pricing to redistribute wealth, it is likely the poor will share the greater part of the burden of carbon pricing.
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AUSTRALIA

Remembering Bonegilla's refugee riot
- Bruce Pennay
- 18 July 2011
8 Comments
50 years ago this week, migrants and refugees from Eastern Europe rioted at the Bonegilla migrant reception centre outside Albury-Wodonga. The Federal Immigration Minister said such behaviour was not tolerated in this country, but investigation prompted public sympathy for the demonstrators.
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Vol 21 No 14