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Vol 18 No 13

23 June 2008


 

  • INTERNATIONAL

    Restocking the global pantry

    • James Ingram
    • 04 July 2008

    In his keynote message to the World Food Summit Pope Benedict XVI called for new strategies to promote food production. Feeding the world population in the coming decades is as big a challenge as climate change, and no less important.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    'Still angry' over Palm Island custody death

    • Pat Mullins
    • 04 July 2008
    4 Comments

    Jeff Waters relates the death in custody of Mulrunji Doomadgee on Palm Island and the acquittal of the police officer involved. Mulrunji's death reflects a nationwide context where cherished institutions of western democracy are unavailable to many Indigenous people.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Egyptian musicians' night in limbo

    • Tim Kroenert
    • 03 July 2008

    From its opening scene, The Band's Visit strikes a tone that is at once funny and sad. The film prods cross-cultural disparity for humour and stirs the humanity of its simple story.

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  • RELIGION

    Catholic teaching affirms freedom that may annoy pilgrims

    • Frank Brennan
    • 03 July 2008
    50 Comments

    The rights of free speech and assembly should not be curtailed because World Youth Day pilgrims might be annoyed or inconvenienced. The NSW regulation is a dreadful interference with civil liberties, and contrary to the spirit of Catholic Social Teaching on human rights.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Paid leave fans the maternal flame

    • Jen Vuk
    • 02 July 2008
    6 Comments

    Parenting deserves more than a bonus, it deserves to be exulted and supported in its many and varied forms. With so many women in the workforce a paid maternity leave scheme is the linchpin upon which other 'family-friendly' policies depend.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Her words' worth

    • Morag Fraser
    • 02 July 2008
    10 Comments

    When we began Eureka Street in 1991, it was a given that we'd publish a cryptic crossword. I like to believe it was divinely ordained that it should be Joan, only and always, who'd keep us gridded, intellectually tempered and clued up.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Saddam's neck

    • Various
    • 01 July 2008

    the noose .. in a loop around his neck .. in a loop on CNN .. over and over again

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Guilt edged leaders

    • Gillian Bouras
    • 01 July 2008
    4 Comments

    'Iguanagate' pariahs Belinda Neal and John Della Bosca can hardly be compared with Bush, Blair and Howard, but they are arguably on the same continuum. Surely the notion that leadership and responsibility go together still has some meaning.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Zimbabwe needs the ballot, not the bullet

    • Oskar Wermter
    • 30 June 2008
    4 Comments

    Gangs of party youth rampage through working class Harare assaulting anyone suspected of voting against Robert Mugabe. When they kill, these youths — uneducated, frustrated, high on Mugabe's ideology of hatred — think they are defending Zimbabwe's sovereignty.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    The place of plastic

    • Michael Mullins
    • 30 June 2008
    2 Comments

    Plastic is for when when durability is required. The use of plastics in the manufacture of household appliances has enabled them to be priced at a level affordable to most people. But single-use bags and bottles are just too costly to the environment.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Democrats' bastard demise

    • Tony Smith
    • 27 June 2008
    6 Comments

    At their best, the Democrats refused legislative trade-offs, viewing compromise as a step towards cynicism. Should deadlocks beset parliament in the months ahead, people may regret the departure of the party that tried to keep the bastards honest.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Aboriginal voices resist colonial history

    • Kevin Brophy
    • 27 June 2008

    Since the 18th century, Aboriginal writers have used the English language to make their presence felt in the face of colonisation. This anthology of Aboriginal writing goes beyond 'literature' to suggest a national counter-narrative.

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  • ENVIRONMENT

    The truth about coal climate 'solutions'

    • Tony Kevin
    • 26 June 2008
    6 Comments

    Prepare for a lot of powerfully funded special interest lobbying against the Garnaut Report when it is issued next week, particularly from the coal industry. Those inconvenienced by change will always shout louder than the majority who stand to benefit from it.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Life becomes her

    • Tim Kroenert
    • 26 June 2008

    Half way through Happy-Go-Lucky, effervescent heroine Poppy encounters a homeless man under a bridge. The scene marks the emergence of a serious subtext in the upbeat film, regarding the tension between personal and social expectations about how best to live.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Incivility trumps the empty dance of manners

    • Brian Doyle
    • 25 June 2008
    5 Comments

    One time we were in a meeting when a very important person proposed a very stupid idea. We knew our uncivil friend would pop a gasket, and he did, albeit in memorably incisive fashion. The silence that followed was a remarkable sound.

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  • RELIGION

    In bed with the secular spirit

    • James McEvoy
    • 25 June 2008
    4 Comments

    A teacher at a Catholic college joked that students turned to Madonna — the pop icon, not the religious one — for spiritual inspiration. Western society may seem to trivialise religion, but a culture of authenticity has developed in which people seek their own way and deepest fulfilment.

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  • RELIGION

    The terror that ended World War II

    • Frank Brennan
    • 24 June 2008
    9 Comments

    Many Australians still believe US President Harry Truman made the right decision in authorising the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Philosopher Michael Walzer calls it an act of terrorism designed 'to spread fear across a nation and force the surrender of its government'.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Taking housing back from the banks

    • Chris Warren
    • 23 June 2008
    13 Comments

    The housing crisis is here, but its effects are just beginning to be realised. A 'common equity' model suggests an alternative means of home ownership that excludes profit-driven banks and lenders, so that housing becomes a right rather than a privilege of the privileged.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    The skinny on 'fat' Australia

    • Tim Kroenert and Andrew Hamilton
    • 23 June 2008
    2 Comments

    A new report reveals Australia's battle with the bulge is reaching crisis point, suggesting our lives of comfort and consumption are catching up with us. The weight problem is a symptom of general problematic attitdues towards human dignity and wholeness.

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