Welcome to Eureka Street
Looking for thought provoking articles?Subscribe to Eureka Street and join the conversation.
Passwords must be at least 8 characters, contain upper and lower case letters, and a numeric value.
Eureka Street uses the Stripe payment gateway to process payments. The terms and conditions upon which Stripe processes payments and their privacy policy are available here.
Please note: The 40-day free-trial subscription is a limited time offer and expires 31/3/24. Subscribers will have 40 days of free access to Eureka Street content from the date they subscribe. You can cancel your subscription within that 40-day period without charge. After the 40-day free trial subscription period is over, you will be debited the $90 annual subscription amount. Our terms and conditions of membership still apply.
19 September 2006
It was hard to notice the recent death of Colin Thiele, arguably Australia's greatest children's writer. In a philistine nation under philistine leadership, Thiele’s quiet cultured tone and its sad silencing could not compete for proper, courteous and deserved recognition with the phony vernacular outpouring that is supposed to be our true voice.
The unrelated cases of the Melbourne schoolgirl, and the Scottish goalie, both invoke two principles that are normally kept quite separate—the right of individual self-expression, and the right of religious freedom.
A visiting Dutch environmental economist says it may be too late to expect governments to wake up to the dire need to make and implement adequate policies. He says it is time for us to "work on our government", rather than wait for the government to work on us, to change the way we live.
When the Jesuits' founder St Ignatius Loyola was on the road riding with a Moor in 1522, the Moor argued that the Virgin Mary was no longer a virgin after Christ was born. The recent former soldier Ignatius wanted to kill the Moor on the spot.
you are crying on your mother's lap / you are holding your father's hand, / and the rise & fall of their voices / binds you to them like blood
The reactions of many Australians to the deaths of a crocodile showman and a racing car driver suggest that media images canonise our secular saints. Meanwhile the fictional Chris Anderson's love for his family and friends, and his integrity and humility, are very appealing characteristics.
Despite the bleak prognosis, An Inconvenient Truth is an optimistic film. Al Gore is no doomsday prophet, but an engaging orator who believes humans can change to meet the threat posed by global warming.
George Bush, John Howard and others insist that we are winning the long war against terrorists, and, perhaps by body count they are right. But there is evidence that the way we are fighting the war has massively increased popular sympathy for such people in some parts of the world.
The story of Irwin's life, already being written, will conclude that he was a good conservationist, a global ambassador for protecting 'dangerous' animals. But how can the owner of a zoo be worthy of such a title? Zoos are enclosures that imply a loss of sanctuary and celebrate the subjugation of nature.
It’s fascinating what travel does for food prejudices. Tripe, abhorrent back in Australia, off-white spongy mounds in parents’ horror stories of post-Depression childhood, was trippa con spinaci on Taverna Guila’s menu.
A crude distinction between "bush life of their ancestors" and "modern youth culture" makes hunting "ancestral", and heavy metal music "modern", as if modern men don't hunt, and those who do cannot enjoy heavy metal music.
The situation in the Palestinian Territories, particularly in Gaza, remains bleak, especially since public sector employees went on strike. What is most worrying about the strike is that it is strengthening the factional divisions and infighting among Palestinians.
Of those who collect books, some might have copies of the 12 novels written by Patrick White. Or the 50 written by Jon Cleary. Few collectors, however, could hope to match Stewart Russell’s collection of books by the late English writer John Creasey, who wrote almost 800 books.
The Barcelona Football Club has broken with tradition and gone against the corporate grain of modern sport, making a gesture that will boost efforts to improve the lives of many underprivileged children around the world.
The outing of popular YouTube personality, Lonelygirl15, as an unemployed Kiwi, has prompted many to ask the obvious question—why are we still so trusting of what we find on the internet?
With my highs & lows / my highs of hot air rising & lifting the alls of my alls or nothings
Finding it hard to write something I like / I tend to revise it a thousand times before I gain peace of mind
Pope Benedict is learning the hard way that interreligious dialogue these days is a complex and delicate business. Though he has now affirmed his respect for Muslims, his decision to quote a polemical medieval text against Muhammad and the Qur’an during a lecture last week remains puzzling.