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31 August 2009
Cardinal Pell called some of this year's Blake Prize finalists 'anti-religious' and reflecting 'confusion about what is religious or spiritual'. Religious experience is not confined within the walls of holy buildings. This year's Blake Prize winner attests to this.
Senator Judith Troeth is one of few Liberals who have spoken out against harsh features of immigration policy under Howard. In crossing the floor to vote with the Government this week, she said the Liberal Party 'has a proud story to tell on immigration, but both parties over the last 50 years have written some bleak chapters too'
Merely to write for a magazine with high ideals does not guarantee that you live by them. I recalled this recently when I recognised that I had got the facts wrong in a Eureka Street article. I had to apologise because my erroneous assertion caused avoidable hurt.
The first known suicide document is an Egyptian New Kingdom papyrus entitled 'Dialogue of a World-Weary Man with his Ba-Soul'. In 1996 my sister Jacqui killed herself. Three years later our cousin Andrew did the same thing. Suicide has always been part of the human condition.
As Ibrahim waited for a taxi, he was attacked by four men who had been kicked out of a nearby club. Though severely injured, he continued to fight against his attackers. When police arrived, they sprayed capsicum foam in Ibrahim's face.
Throughout the 19th century, Russians developed a keen interest in Australia, describing it as a 'working man's paradise' and a 'key trading partner for the future'. This forgotten relationship has potential for building a shared future.
With Nelson's departure the Liberals have lost yet another experienced but relatively youthful member of its leadership team. Even if the Party loses the next election they should urge Turnbull to stay on in a lesser role, possibly to serve with distinction in a future Liberal Government.
With your cervical vertebrae upwardly inclined you talk of stars and wonder .. I explain how you are deceived, for we look down, pinned by the force seen as I drop this half-eaten apple at your feet
Last week's sex scandal provides lessons for leaders on both sides of politics. Those energised by quality 'open-source' conversation will speak to the electorate more effectively than those who derive their inspiration from behind the closed doors of either the faction meeting room or the bedroom.
Like many Aboriginal communities, the Western Desert communities of WA's Pilabara are dealing with many pressing local issues. If plans for a national representative body can address some of these without introducing cumbersome structures that will inevitably fail, it will have achieved much.
Many conservative Catholics are sceptical about global warming. For them environmentalism is the new communism. This echoes the paranoia of the '50s and '60s are clear, when anyone with an interest in social justice was suspect.
At the height of Willam Hackett's republican involvements, the Jesuit provincial offered him a choice of silence or appointment to Australia. Through a combination of personal memoir and public history, Brenda Niall unravels the riddles of Hackett's life.
The Rudd Government would be wise to ignore calls to 'bin' UN Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Human Rights' James Anaya's statement on the Intervention. Sometimes it takes an international body to condemn an obnoxious law or practice.
Roo makes a quick buck starring in a porn film. Trisha and Katrina are arrested for shoplifting. Orton and Stacey are runaways from an untenable home life. Blessed finds hope in the cracks between mothers and their teenage children.
Many middle aged males are susceptible to having their egos flattered when women appear to find them attractive. But in the case of politicians, it is possible that the dangers involved make such affairs irresistible.
In Australia it would beggar belief to see elderly nuns directing garden hoses against the fires that threaten their convents. But that is what happened last week in Greece. Australia and Greece resemble each other in many ways, but not in the way they cope with fire.
inventing sins to keep the peace .. Were the priests cheated too, as I was? .. Or did they come to trust a congregation .. by the stories told in confession?
Shariah law in Malaysia has seen Muslims banned from attending a Black Eyed Peas RnB concert, and a woman sentenced to be caned for drinking beer in public. All's not what it seems in this slickly-marketed, 'moderate Islamic' tourist magnet.
There's good reason for East Timor to opt for a tribunal to deliver justice for past crimes. But Australia cannot expect to receive a special hearing. Our attempts to push for justice for the sake of stability would be perceived as a promotion of our own self-interest.
The issue is not whether South African athlete Caster Semenya is male, hyper-androgynous, or, as she claims, 'entirely female'. More burdensome is the ferocious public response to a predicament that clearly called for maturity and restraint.