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Vol 19 No 5

16 March 2009


 

  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    On orphans in Catholic care

    • Philip Mendes
    • 27 March 2009
    1 Comment

    Some enjoyed supportive placements and moved successfully into mainstream society. Others were disempowered and even traumatised by their time in care, and left with serious health and emotional deficits.

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  • RELIGION

    St Mary's, Bishop Robinson and the value of dialogue

    • Frank Brennan
    • 27 March 2009
    42 Comments

    Bishop Bathersby and Fr Kennedy are pastoral, down to earth men. If there had been more dialogue between them, and between Cardinal Pell and Bishop Robinson, the Catholic Church would be more the Church Jesus would want it to be.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Gangsters are people too

    • Tim Kroenert
    • 26 March 2009
    1 Comment

    Let's face it, caricature is easy. Rhetoric that links bikies with terrorism and organised crime makes for sensational news, but good journalism demands more than that. So does compelling storytelling.

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  • RELIGION

    The Pope, condoms and AIDS

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 26 March 2009
    20 Comments

    The Pope's criticism of condoms was forged in a Western context, but reflects an aspect of the African experience of AIDS. There, a value-free Western strategy has been inadequate because it does not deal with important cultural factors.

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  • RELIGION

    St Mary's quite contrary

    • Neil Ormerod
    • 25 March 2009
    44 Comments

    The parish acts as a beacon in social justice and inclusion. It is hard to see why they can't do this without breaking the Church's rules. Dorothy Day of the Catholic Worker Movement managed to marry social activism with a conservative religious life.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Grand Prix: anniversary for a meaningless death

    • Roger Trowbridge
    • 25 March 2009
    2 Comments

    Dennis was the neighbourhood character. Full of good humour, he had a capacity for quipping his way through life — no one out-quipped Dennis. One day Dennis went to the Grand Prix. That evening he did not come home.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    El Salvador: rise of the left

    • Rodrigo AcuÑa
    • 24 March 2009
    1 Comment

    US Republicans lobbied President Obama to impose hardships on Salvadorians livingin the US should the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front win last week's election. When the left did triumph, he did the opposite and congratulated the new leader.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    How poets encounter God

    • Charlotte Clutterbuck
    • 24 March 2009
    2 Comments

    Dawkins would say I am deluded .. in a world unhoused, split between .. those who think they know everything .. those who think they know there is nothing.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Eyewitness to Pakistan turmoil

    • Reuben Brand
    • 23 March 2009
    5 Comments

    The streets of Rawalpindi were now relatively empty, an eerie feeling in a usually bustling city. After slipping past police checkpoints I noticed the city was not completely still. Groups of men roamed the streets, patiently waiting for the call to action.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Outsourcing care

    • Michael Mullins
    • 23 March 2009
    5 Comments

    The Victorian bushfires forced people to think about the costs and values associated with living in the bush. The financial meltdown will in turn make us consider our care for the needy, and how, and indeed whether, we must pay for it.

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  • MEDIA

    Afghanistan's media explosion

    • Jan Forrester
    • 20 March 2009

    Tolo TV is the most popular network in Afghanistan. A young population enjoys its Indian soap operas, racy by conservative Afghan mores. The Government tried to censor Tolo and another leading network. The latter bowed to pressure. Tolo refused.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Journalism's life after death

    • John Cokley
    • 20 March 2009
    2 Comments

    Despite what Big Media bigwigs say, there is an alternative to the journalism of Murdoch, Fairfax, the ABC, BBC, CNN and Reuters. In fact there are many alternatives. This is news to many journalists, judging by the industry moaning.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Exposure: a fable in three parts

    • Tim Kroenert
    • 19 March 2009
    1 Comment

    Be it fact or fiction, there is something humanising in the notion of young Pauline Hanson exposing her not-so-innocence to her then boyfriend's camera.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Why Good Friday should not be gambled

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 19 March 2009
    12 Comments

    Arguments for preserving Good Friday are based on respect for Christians, or the benefits to society of a day free from work. Neither argument is conclusive. Perhaps it is helpful to ask, why should there be any public holidays at all?

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Identity theft: a cautionary tale

    • Roger Trowbridge
    • 18 March 2009
    1 Comment

    Our personal documents had been swept up with assorted hardware and carried away. Only after a sleepless night did the potential for mischief at our expense became clear. The burglars had assumed control of our identities.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Dialogue with the enemy

    • Peter Kirkwood
    • 18 March 2009
    3 Comments

    When asked if America was winning the war in Afghanistan, Obama answered: 'No'. His call for dialogue with the Taliban reflects a form of inter-religious dialogue that goes beyond a lovey-dovey, 'underneath we're all the same' approach.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Black Saturday

    • Tony London
    • 17 March 2009
    2 Comments

    This searing that killed simply by stealing the light and burning up the air they needed. 'This here is where the windscreen melted.' 'It was like they had been cremated in embrace.'

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Irish, prisoners of a sacred past

    • Frank O'Shea
    • 17 March 2009
    5 Comments

    St Patrick holds the Irish in a powerful emotional thrall. Parades all over the world honour the man who brought Christianity to Ireland. This week in Northern Ireland, saintly ghosts of the past have been called upon to bless murder.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Resurrecting the book

    • John Bartlett
    • 16 March 2009
    3 Comments

    The old economic rationalist model favoured by large publishing houses is waning. Enter the small, independent publishers who have a love affair with books, as well as low overheads and the time to lavish care on the books they produce.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Towards a carbon dictatorship

    • Michael Mullins
    • 16 March 2009
    17 Comments

    A business-friendly carbon emissions reduction scheme is an oxymoron. The draconian action which the Government must take will lead to further unemployment and short-term damage to the fabric of society. But there is no choice.

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