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Vol 19 No 20

12 October 2009


 

  • RELIGION

    Mixed blessings on Anglican road to Rome

    • Andrew McGowan
    • 23 October 2009
    22 Comments

    Liberal Roman Catholics have particular reason to be perturbed at the influx of ex-Anglicans driven not by ecumenical zeal, but by dogged adherence to positions on women's ordination or human sexuality which bespeak a broader conservatism.

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  • EUREKA STREET TV

    John Safran the holy fool

    • Peter Kirkwood
    • 23 October 2009
    4 Comments

    Safran's stunts — such as hoodwinking a Palestinian sperm bank into donating Palestinian sperm to the Israelis, and vice versa — are cringe-making. But they are in the context of a cogent and pithy argument that has serious intent.

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  • RELIGION

    Fallen markets linked to fallen human beings

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 22 October 2009
    9 Comments

    While knowledge of the economy is important, we already have the more essential knowledge we need — about how fallen human beings behave, and about how to control the effects of such behaviour. The tranquillity of greed must not be left undisturbed.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Nominal Catholics' middle-class angst

    • Tim Kroenert
    • 22 October 2009
    2 Comments

    The characters speak dutifully of Mass and Confession, but their Catholicism does not seem to pervade deeply, and contrasts with their unethical lifestyles. The adults, busy jealously guarding their own needs and desires, are oblivious to what their kids are up to.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Child mortality breakthroughs

    • Matthew Smeal
    • 21 October 2009
    3 Comments

    Globally last year, 65 children out of every thousand died before the age of five. Recent figures suggest that, with the right approach, the road to ending preventable child deaths could be a short one.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Harry Potter and other killer serials

    • Brian Doyle
    • 21 October 2009
    6 Comments

    From Pullman's His Dark Materials and Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings to Lewis' Narnia novels or the tale of Mr H. Potter, the series is often where young readers enter the seething and delightful universe of books, in a way that sets them up for life as readers.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Life after gold

    • Jesse Shipway | Maria Takolander | Rodney Williams
    • 20 October 2009

    uneasy in its valley of ghosts .. this gold town lives on beyond bust .. graves cut steep and deep through stone .. some folk buried here standing up

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  • EDUCATION

    Sex, schools and students

    • Fatima Measham
    • 20 October 2009
    7 Comments

    A Queensland father removed his children from a Catholic primary school in protest against the graphic sexual education given to his children. Schools are best placed to cover sexual health because students can be supported in developing a mature sexual ethic.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Stop Sri Lanka, not its refugees

    • Michael Mullins
    • 19 October 2009
    45 Comments

    The Rudd Government is pursuing the same unprincipled border protection strategy for which it criticised the Howard Government. It could better assist these refugees by asking the Sri Lankan Government why so many Tamils are fleeing the country, especially if the war is over.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Breastfeeding is not obscene

    • Catherine Marshall
    • 19 October 2009
    20 Comments

    Whether grotesquely augmented, stricken with cancer or tumbling unbidden from the frocks of soccer wives, breasts guarantee rapt attention. But never are these appendages more hotly debated than when they are being used according to their very purpose and design.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    How to ad-proof your kids

    • Tania Andrusiak
    • 16 October 2009
    5 Comments

    Every year children aged six to 13 spend around $328 billion of their own money, and influence another $2 trillion of parental spending. Children under eight are not equipped to understand an advertiser's intent. They take ads as helpful, truthful information.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Aboriginality's urban outback

    • Pat Mullins
    • 16 October 2009
    3 Comments

    In Mt Druitt lives one of the largest groups of Aboriginal people in Australia. Gillian Cowlishaw shows the hope and despair, the visions and realities, of life in this youthful, growing, struggling and fascinating part of Australia.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Woody Allen's icky philosophy

    • Tim Kroenert
    • 15 October 2009
    3 Comments

    Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm creator Larry David plays a lovable misanthrope in Woody Allen's latest film. The character's fatalistic views on romance take on an uncomfortable air when you recall the seedy aspects of Allen's personal life.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Refugee hysteria breeding Pacific Solution 2.0

    • Kerry Murphy
    • 15 October 2009
    17 Comments

    A hysterical response to the arrival of boats in Australia could undo the progress we have made away from unjust policy. Most asylum seekers have already experienced serious trauma. To return to a temporary visa regime will separate families for years and cause anxiety.

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  • RELIGION

    Strange encounters on the Spanish Camino

    • Tony Doherty
    • 14 October 2009
    5 Comments

    We entered the house expecting the warm hospitality usually offered to weary pilgrims. But a small ancient man barred our way and attacked us with a venom normally reserved for carriers of some ancient plague, snarling like an enraged guard dog.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Why Obama deserved the Nobel Peace Prize

    • Tony Kevin
    • 14 October 2009
    16 Comments

    The Republican Right's claim that Obama has yet to achieve anything is a smokescreen for their rage, for Obama got this award precisely because he is 'not Bush'. To speak a credible language of moral inspiration and hope to the world is an achievement in itself.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    How to talk to Aboriginal students

    • Myrna Tonkinson
    • 13 October 2009
    14 Comments

    Some Aboriginal languages do not distinguish the unvoiced and voiced consonants 'b' and 'p', 'd' and 't', and 'g' and 'k'. Julia Gillard's push to provide 'English as a second language' training to teachers in remote communities can address such language obstacles and help lift levels of Indigenous education.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Turning all the nonsense upside down

    • Lerys Byrnes | John Falzon
    • 13 October 2009
    1 Comment

    We drink. We dance with openly dark angels, strain our ears and wings to listen to the wisdom of the broken and the lost. We will discern the sudden dust we've come from beatifically.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Hey hey it's a human rights violation

    • Michael Mullins
    • 12 October 2009
    20 Comments

    A majority of Australians seem to view the Black Faces segment on Hey Hey as benign, at worst. A Human Rights Charter might amplify the voice of the Koori woman who called a talkback radio station to say the segment had undermined her sense of equality.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    The homeless poet

    • John Falzon
    • 12 October 2009
    5 Comments

    A Japanese homeless man was sending the most exquisite poems to a popular newspaper. There is nothing extraordinary about a person experiencing homelessness producing great poetry. Yet the scenario was regarded with astonishment.

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