Vol 21 No 17

29 August 2011

AUSTRALIA

To remember is to pray
- Brian Doyle
- 09 September 2011
3 Comments
To remember the roaring courage of the people who rushed to help, or the people who used their last minutes on earth to call their families and say I love you I love you I will you forever, is to pray for them and us and even the poor silly murderers, themselves just lanky frightened children.
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AUSTRALIA

America changed and still the same
- Jim McDermott
- 09 September 2011
1 Comment
Walking down the streets of New York today, almost everything seems as it was ten years ago. The same honking horns, hustling crowds, mundane and sometimes myopic worries and preoccupations propelling us. I note this with gratitude — our fears have not overcome us.
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EUREKA STREET TV

Muslims' Ground Zero home
- Peter Kirkwood
- 09 September 2011
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AUSTRALIA

What was left behind
- Catherine Marshall
- 09 September 2011
2 Comments
A soft toy. A restaurant menu. A business card. An agony so great it swamped the world. While America was busy hunting down Osama bin Laden, my son and his contemporaries, who were children at the time of the attack, grew up and inherited a world irrevocably changed.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Workplace bullies face to face
- Tim Kroenert
- 08 September 2011
3 Comments
A sacked employee takes out his frustration on his former boss's luxury car. His actions turn out to be simply the end result of an unhealthy workplace culture. Mediation attempts to resolve the conflict through dialogue rather than punishment or retaliation.
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RELIGION

Arrogant ethics
- Andrew Hamilton
- 08 September 2011
24 Comments
When I argued that the Malaysia solution was ethically flawed, I implied that ethical arguments in favour of the solution were unsupportable, and that those who disagreed with me should change their views. That may seem arrogant, but it is the nature of any ethical argument.
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AUSTRALIA

Sects and power in the Arab revolution
- Shahram Akbarzadeh
- 07 September 2011
4 Comments
The unfolding events in the Arab world are not simply about finding a path to democracy and political openness, but a maze of sectarian tensions and regional power-plays. There is widespread consensus that the opening up of the political space will benefit Islamist forces.
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CARTOON

Back to the future on 'boat people'
- Fiona Katauskas
- 07 September 2011
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EUREKA STREET/ READER'S FEAST AWARD

Australia underwater
- Selma Sergent
- 07 September 2011
13 Comments
A lot of people refused to leave. Sydneysiders with waterfront properties could not fathom that the mansions that had cost them millions of dollars were going to be under water. There were stories of eastern suburbs socialites loading their antiques into boats. And drownings. Lots of drownings.
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EDUCATION

Future bites for theological colleges
- Neil Ormerod
- 06 September 2011
11 Comments
The Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency will have real teeth, operating on a risk analysis basis with the power to deregister institutions. In this context Melbourne College of Divinity's historic bid to become a specialised 'university of divinity' is a leap of faith.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Sun blast Eucharist
- Rory Harris
- 06 September 2011
the coast is jagged like a weeping cut .. the high end of town, pizza beer dusk ... it is here we have staked a life, counted off the steps and measured what it is we need ... hands dissolve in prayer.
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AUSTRALIA

The twin terrors of 2001
- Michael Mullins
- 05 September 2011
8 Comments
Before Tampa, refugees were regarded as a positive for Australia's economy and lifestyle. After Tampa they were a threat to our sovereignty that was somehow grafted on to the sense of public malaise prompted by the 9/11 attacks on the sovereignty of the United States.
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AUSTRALIA

The reluctant Australian citizen
- Fatima Measham
- 05 September 2011
16 Comments
2001: Two planes slammed into the World Trade Centre. A Pakistani refugee self-immolated in front of the Australian Parliament. Asylum seekers were accused of throwing children overboard. These events had nothing to do with me, but I absorbed them. I am brown-skinned. I have an Arabic name.
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MEDIA

Steve Jobs' gift to the Church
- Michael Kelly
- 02 September 2011
5 Comments
Co-founder and former CEO of Apple, Steve Jobs, played a pivotal role in the shaping of the publishing and media landscapes in recent decades. The developments initiated by Jobs and Apple are of profound significance for the Church — for better and for worse.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Book junkie's detox nightmare
- Brian Matthews
- 02 September 2011
7 Comments
My wife and I are performing a difficult, heart-rending task: culling our books. There are thousands of them, on shelves and in boxes, some of which were sealed and labelled 25 years ago. I know who to blame for setting me on the path to this agonising task. It was Mrs Murphy.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Life and death on YouTube
- Tim Kroenert
- 01 September 2011
2 Comments
An elderly couple renew their marriage vows, with a few cheeky variations. A young gay man comes out to his grandmother over the telephone. Life in a Day implicitly credits the online world as a physical space cohabited by many and varied individuals the world over.
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RELIGION

High Court grounds Malaysia Solution
- Frank Brennan
- 01 September 2011
39 Comments
From now on, the High Court will apply a very fine tooth comb to any legislation allowing ministers to ship asylum seekers offshore. Unless there were to be a bipartisan agreement in the Parliament or a government deal with the Greens, asylum seekers arriving by boat now need to be processed fairly, promptly, on our terms and on our turf.
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AUSTRALIA

Revisiting South Africa
- Duncan Maclaren
- 31 August 2011
2 Comments
My last visit to South Africa was in 1989 when apartheid was in its death throes. The only difference between then and now in the gap between the poor (mostly black and so-called coloureds) and rich is that some blacks have become the 'nouveaux riches' of the new South Africa.
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CARTOON

Libya's most (and least) wanted
- Fiona Katauskas
- 31 August 2011
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MARGARET DOOLEY AWARD

My Australian Muslim story
- Nadine Rabah
- 31 August 2011
43 Comments
My childhood memories are filled with stereotypical Aussie pastimes such as backyard cricket. But as a Muslim, I do feel like an outsider at times. Why do we constantly have to be portrayed as evil people? 'We're not all like that', I find myself shouting at certain news stories.'
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AUSTRALIA

Australia flouting international law over refugees
- Justin Glyn
- 30 August 2011
9 Comments
By pursuing the refugee swap deal with Malaysia, Australia may be in breach of one of the most serious prohibitions in international law. This raises the question of what Australia's attitude is to other fundamenal norms of international law. This question goes well beyond issues of refugee protection.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Spider monk
- Grant Fraser
- 30 August 2011
2 Comments
Now he is pursed within the curl of his leaf, a monk at watch for those lost souls, whom he might trap in the sneer of his silken intentions.
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AUSTRALIA

Lessons from Bluescope's human crisis
- Andrew Hamilton
- 29 August 2011
11 Comments
Respect for the people whose lives will be affected by the Bluescope crisis should lead us to ask wider questions about the society their children will inherit. The ways in which Australia shapes its economy creates a society in which human beings may flourish or be diminished.
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AUSTRALIA

Rallies take the good fight to Canberra
- John Warhurst
- 29 August 2011
7 Comments
Political rallies are on the rise. That is a good thing. The ones that should really make governments take notice are those that contain not just rusted on party supporters, but people who really are considering changing their vote from the Gillard-Abbott election in 2010.
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Vol 21 No 17