Vol 18 No 8

14 April 2008

ARTS AND CULTURE

Love, lies and cholera
- Rochelle Siemienowicz
- 24 April 2008
The Painted Veil explores the painful dynamics of an unhappily married couple and the broader social issues that impact on their union. Filmed entirely in China, it depicts a country boiling with internal conflict, and a growing resentment of the colonial presence.
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AUSTRALIA

'Meaningless' maths gives way to compulsory multilingualism
- Frank O'Shea
- 24 April 2008
31 Comments
What Mozart and Michelangelo did with music and art, Maxwell and Euler did with numbers. But students would be better off learning a compulsory second language, rather than maths with little real-world application.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Denying the divine
- Adrian Gibb
- 23 April 2008
11 Comments
Through a scientific imbalance, I, and about ten percent of my world's populace, am unable to experience anything beyond normal human intellectual capacity. We became mediators, lecturers, scientists and editors — anything which required a complete lack of spiritual moral parameters.
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AUSTRALIA

Bricks and mortar don't care for children
- Daniel Donahoo
- 23 April 2008
3 Comments
The Prime Minister's proposal for 'one-stop shop' child and parent centres is a big idea, but not a new one. All those early childhood advocates busily patting themselves on the back for getting their issues back on the front page should demand more for the youngest Australians.
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RELIGION

Church's future beyond left-right divide
- James McEvoy
- 22 April 2008
13 Comments
The secular media tends to frame Church politics as a tussle between progressive and conservative. If that perspective is true, both sides of the divide rely upon a shallow analysis of the cultural change that shaped Western society since the 1960s.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Country war memorial
- Bob Morrow and B. N. Oakman
- 22 April 2008
1 Comment
A bunch of plastic pink carnations.. two white roses, limp.. scorched by frost.
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AUSTRALIA

Summiteers treated to mix of showbiz and serious performance
- John Warhurst
- 21 April 2008
4 Comments
Many of those present at the weekend's 2020 Summit struggled with understanding the difference between ideas, policies, visions, aspirations and general directions. The more hard-headed were probably disappointed, just as the others were obviously delighted by the vision statements.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Humanity reflected in the diversity of books
- Brian Doyle
- 21 April 2008
Like people, no book is exactly symmetrical. Often the cover belies the interior, just as the bright faces of people often hide the stories beneath. Many we ignore too easily, a million we will never know, such being the way of the world.
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AUSTRALIA

APEC echoes in World Youth Day idealism
- Tony Smith
- 18 April 2008
2 Comments
In both the Olympic Games and the Catholic Church's World Youth Day, young people advance ideals that could benefit the world. It should not surprise if people committed to international understanding are also committed to universal human rights.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Memorable voices invigorate Ireland Anzacs study
- Brenda Niall
- 18 April 2008
1 Comment
Many Irishmen volunteered to fight for Britain in the First World War. Others took part in the 1916 Easter Rising and subsequent struggle for independence. Like Gallipoli the previous year, the doomed Rising became a legend more powerful than a military success could have been.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Tibet trauma not written in the stars
- Brian Matthews
- 17 April 2008
'Geo-politically astute' astrologer Jessica Murray believes revelations about China's violations against Tibet were prompted by astrological activity. For all their glib outlandishness and pseudo-scientific jargon, contemporary astrologers still fascinate.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

How the West was warped
- Tim Kroenert
- 17 April 2008
Cartoonist Bruce Petty has crafted a film as ambitious and chaotic as its title suggests. Global Haywire pastes talking head interviews alongside outrageous animated satire to create a political cartoonist's answer to a schoolboy scrapbook.
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RELIGION

Female bishop sets Church on wider path
- Charles Sherlock
- 16 April 2008
7 Comments
In May, the Rev. Canon Kay Goldsworthy will become Australia's first female bishop. The role will entail pressures from those opposed to having a woman as bishop, and those who have been waiting for this moment for decades.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Smooth ethical edges give way to corruption
- Moira Rayner
- 16 April 2008
2 Comments
Having a conflict of interest is not, in itself, wrong — it is the potential for wrongdoing and corruption that must be avoided. We are not very good at this in Australia. From July-August 2003
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AUSTRALIA

Anwar may not be Malaysia's political messiah
- Helen Ting
- 15 April 2008
8 Comments
With the expiry of a five-year ban, former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim today regains his freedom to contest a Malaysian general election or internal party election. He is undoubtedly the darling of the foreign press, but many Malaysians doubt his commitment to multiculturalism.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Lotus flowers bloom regardless
- Anne Carson
- 15 April 2008
3 Comments
Our musician guide tells how he was made to smash his violin, his love. Fifty years on and grief still shapes his hands; splinters in his palms.
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AUSTRALIA

Olympic Torch a symbol of oppression
- Michael Mullins
- 14 April 2008
4 Comments
The modern Olympic torch relay was initiated by the Nazi leadership in 1936 to uphold the image of the Third Reich as a dynamic and expanding influence. Those who extinguished the Beijing torch in protest against human rights violations in Tibet recognise its origins and potency as a political symbol.
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AUSTRALIA

Rudd Social Inclusion also makes economic sense
- Paul Smyth
- 14 April 2008
1 Comment
Social inclusion policy represents a chance for the Federal Government to remake the foundations that shape the life of its citizens. Unlike the EU, Australia has recognised the link between social and economic policy from the beginning.
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Vol 18 No 8