Vol 22 No 10

14 May 2012

AUSTRALIA

Mythologising the Queen
- Philip Harvey
- 01 June 2012
16 Comments
One curate in our parish claimed to dream about the royal family and believed everyone did. Any easy familiarity I had with an idealised royal family collapsed with the dismissal of the Whitlam government. Malcolm Turnbull is persuasive when he says in Australia there are now more Elizabethans than monarchists.
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EUREKA STREET TV

Tolerance and Islam
- Peter KIrkwood
- 01 June 2012
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EUREKA STREET TV

Tolerance and Islam
- Peter KIrkwood
- 01 June 2012
The tensions that led to this week's massacre in Syria have their roots in centuries old conflict between Shia and Sunni Muslims. Progressive Shia scholar Reza Shah-Kazemi is esteemed for his vision for tolerance and dialogue with other faiths based on Quranic texts.
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RELIGION

The Pope's butler did it!
- Andrew Hamilton
- 31 May 2012
53 Comments
Catholics get used to being asked why they are Catholic. These days, in light of cases of clergy sex abuse and cover-ups, and perceived abuse of authority and contempt for women, the question is more accusatory: 'Why are you still a Catholic?' The recent affair of the Pope's butler provides a way out of this interrogation.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

When kids and cancer is a laughing matter
- Tim Kroenert
- 31 May 2012
Sleepless parents, on the eve of their child's surgery for a brain tumour, confess their fears to each other: that he will die, or acquire a disability. But they turn this, too, into a game. Far from making light of the situation, they find, in humour, genuine solace from genuine fear.
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INTERNATIONAL

Australia and Afghanistan's mutual kindness
- Carmel Ross
- 30 May 2012
4 Comments
Our words are shaped by our thoughts and attitudes, and go on to shape the thoughts and attitudes of those who hear them. Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai's description of Australian aid as 'kind and generous' is, itself, kind and generous. They are words of the heart rather than the strategic mind.
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CARTOON

It's not easy being Queen
- Fiona Katauskas
- 30 May 2012
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ARTS AND CULTURE

The Queen's 60 years of good behaviour
- Gillian Bouras
- 30 May 2012
16 Comments
I went to the breakfast table, where my father was reading The Sun. I was just old enough to read, and knew a screaming headline when I saw one. THE KING IS DEAD. Sixteen months later Queen Elizabeth II was crowned. I told my mother I'd like to be the Queen. 'No, you wouldn't,' she declared.
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AUSTRALIA

Aboriginal Australians inherit racial fear
- Brian McCoy
- 29 May 2012
12 Comments
The shooting death of 17-year-old African-American Trayvon Martin brought to public attention The Talk, an oral tradition where people who have experienced racial discrimination and violence teach their young to be cautious when they are out in public. Aboriginal Australians have their own version of The Talk.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

God gathers dust
- Peter Gebhardt
- 29 May 2012
3 Comments
Never hoards it, for he has new urns to make, for us to admire and, sometimes, to love.
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AUSTRALIA

Mob rule on Craig Thomson
- Michael Mullins
- 28 May 2012
22 Comments
Migrants and refugees find Australia attractive because the rule of law generally functions well. If mob rule prevails, as is threatening to occur in the case of Craig Thomson, Australia will lose its lure and the politicians could finally have their wish because the boats will stop.
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AUSTRALIA

Refugees in the dark over security checks
- Kerry Murphy
- 25 May 2012
5 Comments
Hayder and Mariam were found to be refugees in mid 2009. This year they had their second child. They have patiently awaited their security clearance, but when they make inquiries they are merely told that Immigration is awaiting the security checks from 'outside agencies'. The long process is affecting them mentally.
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AUSTRALIA

Accidental white heroes of Aboriginal culture
- Dean Ashenden
- 25 May 2012
5 Comments
A Yankunytjajara elder has damned a current 'songlines' anthropological study, declaring that 'white do-gooders need their boundaries defined'. Anthropologists, like missionaries, have a mixed record, but are credited by many Aboriginal people for doing more good than they intended or anticipated.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Sandal-wearing pinkos of the modern era
- Brian Matthews
- 25 May 2012
7 Comments
George Orwell lamented that socialism attracted 'fruit-juice drinkers' and 'sandal-wearers'. Former prime minister Paul Keating accused Sydney mayor Clover Moore of being a sandal-wearer and 'muesli-chewer'. 'Sandal wearing' survives nearly a century to be the star insult for each of them.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Traipsing Turkey's deep, dark soul
- Tim Kroenert
- 24 May 2012
1 Comment
A group of men wander the fields and knolls of a Turkish steppe in search of a corpse. Among them, a doctor's willingness to share a smoke with a confessed murderer contrasts starkly with the police chief's latent brutality. In this place empathy seems ever at odds with a world-weariness bordering on apathy.
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EDUCATION

Teaching students to fend for themselves
- Dilan Thampapillai
- 24 May 2012
12 Comments
The lawsuit launched by a student against her former high school for failing to get her into her preferred university reveals how far we have drifted from notions of student responsibility. Teachers do need to be supportive, but they are not the single most important determinant in student outcomes.
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CARTOON

Detention centres' uneasy listening
- Fiona Katauskas
- 23 May 2012
1 Comment
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EDUCATION

Thought under threat at Australia's universities
- Paul Collins
- 23 May 2012
27 Comments
The Australian National University vice-chancellor's proposal to asset-strip Canberra's School of Music prompted the biggest university demonstration in 30 years. ANU isn't the only uni in financial stress, thanks to successive governments' under-funding of tertiary education and user-pays attitude.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

The grand champion of mothers
- Gillian Bouras
- 23 May 2012
7 Comments
When I became a mother for the first time, my mother was there for her baby, not for mine. It had been a difficult birth. 'Heavens,' said Mum, 'You look just as you did after a hard day at school.' 'Oh, Mum,' I said, 'I'm so worried about him.' Mum laughed her head off. 'You're stuck with that feeling now.' How right she was.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Autumn on Australia Street
- Brenda Saunders
- 22 May 2012
2 Comments
I know it's autumn when exotic imports lose their cargo of leaves. Empty branches startle the sky, northern cut-outs curling in the sun catch on fence wire at the school, flooding gutters after rain.
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ENVIRONMENT

Communities cooperating to kick coal
- Colin Long
- 22 May 2012
12 Comments
Mick spent years working for the State Electricity Commission until privatisation saw him made reduntant, prompting years of forced idleness, low self-esteem, financial troubles and family stress. The experience has made him sceptical of politicians coming down to talk about opportunities from the transition to a low carbon economy.
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AUSTRALIA

Give circumcision inequality the snip
- Michael Mullins
- 21 May 2012
64 Comments
Everyone is entitled to bodily integrity, but they also have a right to the best possible health outcomes. When it comes to circumcision, the experts can't agree and infants can't decide, so it's up to parents to make a responsible choice on behalf of their infant sons. But only if they can afford it.
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AUSTRALIA

If Clive Palmer was a High Court judge
- Patrick McCabe
- 21 May 2012
20 Comments
Imagine Attorney-General Nicola Roxon appoints Palmer as the newest High Court judge. Justice Palmer sets about rewriting the law in radical ways, freeing mining companies from regulation and approving disbanding the Australian Greens. Surely such an appointment could be challenged? Actually, no.
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Vol 22 No 10