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Vol 18 No 5

03 March 2008


 

  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Sarajevo cellist's celebration of humanity

    • Andrena Jamieson
    • 14 March 2008
    4 Comments

    For 22 days, Vedran Smailovic played the cello in the ruined Sarajevo market place to honour the 22 people killed there in mortar fire. The Cellist of Sarajevo is a noble book.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Greed infects the gentleman's game

    • Hector Welgampola
    • 14 March 2008
    1 Comment

    While the reputation of cricket has survived match fixing, doping, secret commissions and money laundering in the past, its status as the gentleman's game appears to be relegated to history. An editorial in Sri Lanka's Daily News asked whether cricket will come to be regulated on the stock market.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Childlike wonder redeems inscrutable Houdini

    • Tim Kroenert
    • 13 March 2008

    Tough times call for tough measures — the McGarvie women comprise a single-parent family in a male-dominated society, so you can hardly blame them for making a living the best way they can. Houdini is all charm and showmanship, with hidden depths and dark secrets.

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  • RELIGION

    Owning responsibility with honest answers

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 13 March 2008
    8 Comments

    It may be tempting to believe that the 4WD we were driving while talking on our mobile phone has bumped over a wombat. Responsibility involves upfront acknowledgement of the negligent behaviour that has caused suffering to others.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    The changing face of Kevin 24/7

    • John Warhurst
    • 12 March 2008
    5 Comments

    Kevin 07 ended his campaign with a wooden and self-absorbed election-night speech. Supporters took a deep breath and hoped 2008 would be better. So far it has been.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    On the night of the fireworks

    • Paddy O'Reilly
    • 12 March 2008
    2 Comments

    We are part of a crowd walking slowly down to the river bank to watch the fireworks. People smile at me, because I am not one of them. I can appreciate this part of their culture, even though I am a foreigner.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    What a progressive economic policy looks like

    • Andrew Thackrah
    • 11 March 2008
    3 Comments

    One of our biggest challenges – tackling climate change – has resulted from the failures of free markets. But Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and other Australian policy makers remain uncertain about how, and to what extent, governments should intervene in the operations of the capitalist system.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Jewish West Bank Settlements a bad but reversible mistake

    • Philip Mendes
    • 10 March 2008
    13 Comments

    Over the years, many simplistic arguments have been advanced in an attempt to justify the West Bank settlement project. None of these arguments had any substance in the 1980s, and they have even less validity now.

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  • ENVIRONMENT

    Rational climate change response requires moral focus

    • Michael Kelly
    • 10 March 2008
    5 Comments

    Disastrous consequences for the environment and humanity are a distinct possibility, if rational activity is not placed in the context of moral values.

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  • RELIGION

    Civil disobedience a democratic safeguard

    • Frank Brennan
    • 07 March 2008
    8 Comments

    Last month, members of the Pine Gap Four 'citizens inspection team' were acquitted in a Darwin court. Parliamentary committees, juries and the citizen's right to civil disobedience are necessary safeguards for liberty when government is tempted to use the legal sledgehammer to crack the nut of political dissent.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Australians shaped by the spirit of place

    • Alexandra Coghlan
    • 07 March 2008
    1 Comment

    Landscape has long been acknowledged as central to Australian colonial history. In contrast to the harsh conditions endured by settlers in Sydney Cove, convicts in Tasmania experienced a veritable Eden.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Ideology not Iran's main game

    • Shahram Akbarzadeh
    • 06 March 2008
    2 Comments

    Iran is presented as an irrational actor, blinded by fanatical rage against the United States and its allies. But geo-strategic factors govern foreign policy-making in Tehran, just as they do in other states.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Autism comedy strikes emotional equilibrium

    • Tim Kroenert
    • 06 March 2008

    The Black Balloon's early '90s suburban locale is a tangible and familiar environment, where intolerance and ignorance brood beneath the surface. Lead actor Rhys Wakefield embodies everything that it is to be a teenager on the brink of adulthood.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    National pride revives Russian soul

    • Ben Coleridge
    • 05 March 2008
    1 Comment

    When it comes to political debate, being a foreigner can be difficult. Former president Vladimir Putin's recent State of the Nation address, made on the eve of his departure from the presidency, called for national unity and 'stable development' to the exclusion of foreign influence.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Lifelong cyclist's test of faith

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 05 March 2008
    5 Comments

    Brakes are useful when riding down a mountain at dusk, but they are not to be taken for granted. The god of cyclists gives and takes away, and punishes and rewards. Eureka Street June-July 1994

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    The diary of clean beginnings

    • Kevin Gillam
    • 04 March 2008

    my words are miscarriages ... I keep my tongue wound in my teeth, ignore the throbbing in the gullett, but symptoms find their opening

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Laziness wrong target for welfare reforms

    • Susie Byers
    • 04 March 2008
    2 Comments

    Reforms need to be proposed with an eye to compassion, providing real skills and training, and dealing with the underlying issues of racism, mental health, poverty, and education. These have a far greater impact on workforce participation than bone laziness.

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  • RELIGION

    Towards a church apology for gay prejudice

    • Donal Godfrey
    • 03 March 2008
    21 Comments

    Clergy signatories to the 100Revs Statement of Apology to the gay community took part in the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras on Saturday. Many Christians long for their churches to be places of welcome for all people and commit themselves to pursuing this goal.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    'Being there and listening' could be Government policy

    • Michael Mullins
    • 03 March 2008
    2 Comments

    'Nothing beats being there and listening. I wonder who cares enough to live with the communities?' If the logic of last month's Parliamentary Apology to the Stolen Generations is translated into Government policy and action, there is every hope that 'being there and listening' could be adopted as an official strategy.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    The lowest of the low

    • Mark O'Flynn
    • 11 March 2007
    2 Comments

    On the Metro in Paris.. a man follows his whiskers onto a train.. He holds out a cardboard cup and declares: I have no money.

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