Vol 22 No 2

30 January 2012

AUSTRALIA

Rise of the urban refugee
- David Holdcroft
- 10 February 2012
2 Comments
In the last ten years the world of the refugee has rapidly shifted. The refugee camp is now the exception rather than the rule: 58 per cent of all refugees reside in urban areas, mostly in the rapidly growing slums of the cities in the global south.
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EUREKA STREET TV

Retired bishop confronts militant religion
- Peter Kirkwood
- 10 February 2012
Much reporting in the mainstream media heightens the sense of threat represented by militant Islamic minorities. William Swing, founder of one of the largest international interfaith organisations, seeks to mobilise believers from all traditions to work towards common goals.
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EUREKA STREET TV

Retired bishop confronts militant religion
- Peter Kirkwood
- 09 February 2012
2 Comments
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Sex addiction shame and sympathy
- Tim Kroenert
- 09 February 2012
5 Comments
Brandon's addiction finds several expressions, from excessive pornography use (including on his work computer), to one-night stands, to more deviant behaviours. Shame explores the addict's humanity both frankly and artfully.
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AUSTRALIA

Australia follows US drone lead
- Fatima Measham
- 09 February 2012
27 Comments
Despite Obama's insistance that the use of drones in Pakistan 'is a targeted, focused effort at people who are on a list of active terrorists', civilian casualties are inevitable. Australia is also phasing in the use of drones.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

If Dickens were alive today
- Andrew Hamilton
- 08 February 2012
6 Comments
If Dickens wished to address the deprivation and discrimination suffered by Indigenous Australians and asylum seekers today, he would need to turn to the popular media. But even though he was superbly gifted for the genre, his telly series would most likely flop.
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CARTOON

Leadership challenge open blather
- Fiona Katauskas
- 08 February 2012
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MEDIA

Feminism, Greer and Tankard Reist
- Lyn Bender
- 08 February 2012
33 Comments
Germaine Greer has said she did not want to be a high priestess of feminism. What may have been extracted from her views and the constant evolution of feminism has been diminished by being reduced to a formula such as that used to denounce Melinda Tankard Reist.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Abominable blood ties
- Various
- 07 February 2012
1 Comment
My crumpled iris-rim lip is her lip; the fine spoked wheel beneath my grimacing eye has etched itself deep with years upon her face. The wet red meat of my viscera is made of her, a shy-hood I cannot take off ... Why are you doing this to me?
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MEDIA

Our racist editors
- Geoff Davies
- 07 February 2012
39 Comments
The misreporting of the Australia Day 'riot' is but one example of a growing nexus of hysteria, racism and ignorance in Australian media. It is time to rein in the increasing distortion of our social and political conversations, and require responsibility as well as freedom of speech.
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AUSTRALIA

Harmonising the government bureaucracy symphony
- David Cappo
- 06 February 2012
2 Comments
The Federal Government is using the word coordination a lot. But coordination of health, education and employment services could come to nothing if the coordinating bodies are not given power. And power is the very thing bureaucracy treasures and wants to keep to itself.
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AUSTRALIA

Keeping Conroy out of bed with Rinehart
- Michael Mullins
- 06 February 2012
6 Comments
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy appears relaxed about Gina Rinehart's move towards control of Fairfax Media because governments are predisposed to placate media owners. A human rights charter could be the only way to maintain media diversity.
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AUSTRALIA

Rage against ageism
- Moira Rayner
- 03 February 2012
14 Comments
Michael Gill, former editor in chief of the Australian Financial Review, is suing his former employer Fairfax for age discrimination. I will be praying that the provisions prohibiting age discrimination in equal opportunity laws around Australia are exposed for the pathetic non-protections that they truly are.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Moving on from Tent Embassy tussle
- Brian Matthews
- 03 February 2012
25 Comments
I don't think for one minute that Abbott, in saying it was time to 'move on' from the Tent Embassy, meant it should be ripped down. The ensuing riot occurred because 'moving on' is an imponderable phrase, a synonym for sticking one's head in the sand.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Humanising Hoover and Thatcher
- Tim Kroenert
- 02 February 2012
4 Comments
The problems do not begin and end with badly applied fake jowls. J. Edgar introduces its subject in his later years, reflecting back on his life. This manipulative tactic errs on the side of sentimentality, when Hoover, like Margaret Thatcher, is not a figure to whom sentimentality can be easily attached.
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RELIGION

The problem of goodness
- Andrew Hamilton
- 02 February 2012
11 Comments
The problem of evil has always been with us. The ills that befall us and the monstrous evil that people do challenge the belief that life has a higher meaning, and are corrosive of belief in a loving God. The problem of goodness is rarely spoken of, yet it too presents challenges.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

The crossing guard and the dawdler
- Vin Maskell
- 01 February 2012
8 Comments
He'd pick up sticks and stones, turn them over, put them in his pocket. He was often the last to cross, arriving as the school's public address system played 'hurry up' music at 8:55am. Some people laughed when I said I'd become a school crossing supervisor, but they don't see the things I see.
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CARTOON

Aboriginal Australia's view from the bottom
- Fiona Katauskas
- 01 February 2012
1 Comment
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AUSTRALIA

Catholic social solutions to workplace fairness
- Race Matthews
- 01 February 2012
5 Comments
The worker-owned cooperatives based at Mondragon in Spain have demonstrated great resilience during harsh economic times. Their model based in Catholic social values provides a contrast to the bruising industrial confrontations we've seen in Qantas and Victorian hospitals.
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AUSTRALIA

Opportunists could rule in 'nervous' America
- Tony Kevin
- 31 January 2012
9 Comments
The US today is a nervous nation. The old small town verities and values can no longer be taken for granted in this apprehensive, celebrity-drugged culture. Conceivably, if the economy tanks or there is some destabilising foreign policy crisis, Newt Gingrich could beat Obama.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Dreams of pulling Australia out of its slump
- Ian C. Smith
- 31 January 2012
Although most are probably long dead, they seem happy, even excited. Perhaps they will toss triumphant hats. The wind might favour their team, even steal tossed hats, but not hope.
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AUSTRALIA

Breaking the 'boat people' deadlock
- Lyn Bender
- 30 January 2012
37 Comments
In his book They Thought They Were Free, Milton Mayor writes of 'the slow lobster boil of erosion of freedom' in Nazi Germany. As a daughter of Jewish refugees I know what this entails. The same process confronts asylum seekers today if we do not begin from a presumption of rights and humanity.
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AUSTRALIA

Pope's advice for Gillard and Abbott
- Michael Mullins
- 30 January 2012
16 Comments
Last week Pope Benedict said silence and words are ‘two aspects of communication which need to be kept in balance’. This insight could help political strategists charged with explaining why political leaders are failing to connect with voters.
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Vol 22 No 2