Vol 20 No 21

25 October 2010

INTERNATIONAL

South Africa shows compassion to Zimbabwean refugees
- David Holdcroft
- 05 November 2010
9 Comments
Zimbabweans have been coming to South Africa for reasons such as political violence, displacement due to land reform, and the collapse of the economy. After initially turning them back at the border, South Africa moved towards a pragmatic 'special dispensation' that was more compassionate, even if the future of the country's refugee rules now remains uncertain.
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EUREKA STREET TV

A hybrid Christianity for Aboriginal Australians
- Peter Kirkwood
- 05 November 2010
7 Comments
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EUREKA STREET TV

A hybrid Christianity for Aboriginal Australians
- Peter Kirkwood
- 05 November 2010
Prominent Aboriginal elder Tom Calma was brought up Catholic but no longer sees himself as a Christian. While he has gravitated towards his Aboriginal spiritual heritage, he envisions a positive engagement between Christianity and Aboriginal spirituality, and urges the Churches to be open to a hybrid Christianity that embraces both.
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RELIGION

Questions miracles raise
- Andrew Hamilton
- 04 November 2010
12 Comments
In the 1970s Latin American theologians began to explore the connections of faith to a public world marked by great injustice. Some of them initially criticised such popular expressions of faith such as devotions, fiestas and processions. The miracles dimension of the coverage of Mary MacKillop's recent canonisation uncovered a similar tension.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Sex, songs and cigarettes
- Tim Kroenert
- 04 November 2010
The Troubled Artist — for whom self-destruction is a necessary by-product of creation — is a cliché whose ubiquity risks robbing it of tragedy. Gainsbourg is portrayed as a swaggering louche, drinking and chain-smoking his way amid a murky and surreal Parisian backdrop.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Greece's wheel of financial hardship
- Gillian Bouras
- 03 November 2010
3 Comments
The Greek population is trying to cope with the consequences of three decades of greed and irresponsibility. My middle son is in the Army; my youngest son is a fire fighter. Both have had their salaries cut by a total of 3000 euros for the year, and more cuts may follow.
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CARTOON

The banks' public interest deficit
- Fiona Katauskas
- 03 November 2010
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AUSTRALIA

Political opposition need not be nasty
- John Warhurst
- 03 November 2010
16 Comments
Adversarial politics can be seen as a necessary and positive aspect of Westminster style parliamentary politics. This does not include needless aggression that is expressed in a nasty tone and apparent anger.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

The inevitability of tears
- Alison Sampson
- 02 November 2010
10 Comments
When my grandparents died earlier this year, I barely cried at their funerals. While reading aloud at my grandmother's, I glanced out at the congregation and saw my grandfather's face shiny with tears, looking up at me ... My voice cracked, but I'm a good girl so I held it together.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Ten short poems
- Various
- 02 November 2010
4 Comments
Lost — Waiting for Spring — God owes me Royalties — Niche — Folding & Flying — Judas and Jezebel — Donne captains a ship of fools — Home — Loose Change — election
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AUSTRALIA

Indigenous jobs another forsaken moral challenge
- Michael Mullins
- 01 November 2010
2 Comments
At the time of the Apology to the Stolen Generations in February 2008, former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd committed Labor to halving the gap in employment incomes within a decade. It is now looking like another great moral challenge that Labor has given up on.
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EDUCATION

Tokenistic action against homophobic bullies
- Fatima Measham
- 01 November 2010
16 Comments
Principals and teachers can keep gay young people safe at school only to the extent that they are also safe in the wider community. While ticking boxes on ‘teacher training, resources and consultancy’ may not adequately address the source of the behaviour of homophobic bullies, such programs remain important.
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AUSTRALIA

John Howard shoe-thrower's moral miss-hit
- Farid Farid
- 29 October 2010
9 Comments
If smelly shoes are the last objects of resistance then the occupation of Iraq will never end. The culturally co-optive nature of benevolent groups to take on causes and speak on behalf of those who allegedly cannot speak for themselves is disturbing.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Hating Canberra
- Ellena Savage
- 29 October 2010
18 Comments
Canberra's bad weather has its benefits: Brisbane was Australia's capital, we might be living in a banana republic whose despotic ruling family would never want to relinquish their grip on leisure governance. The best thing about hating Canberra is that it discourages nationalism.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

No clear villains in Facebook tragedy
- Tim Kroenert
- 28 October 2010
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is reportedly displeased with the film. The decay of his friendship with co-founder Eduardo Savarin during the creation of a site predicated on accumulating 'friends' is the film's greatest irony, and greatest tragedy.
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MEDIA

Wikileaks' problematic moral justification
- Andrew Hamilton
- 28 October 2010
8 Comments
It has been argued that even if the leaks do endanger the lives of some allied soldiers, even more lives have been lost because governments have concealed the reality of the war. This utilitarian argument undermines Wikileaks' claim to be ethically superior to governments.
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AUSTRALIA

The hard life and death of Tyler the Sorrowful
- Moira Rayner
- 27 October 2010
11 Comments
Tyler Cassidy was a very upset, masked child on the day he was shot dead by police. They saw a boy who sounded like a man, playing 'dare' with a deadly weapon. Any parent will know that confronting an enraged teenage boy and advancing on him with threats is not likely to result in submission.
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CARTOON

The return of Honest John
- Fiona Katauskas
- 27 October 2010
2 Comments
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Philosophy of food
- Mark Chou
- 27 October 2010
6 Comments
Epicurus makes clear that food is pleasurable to the extent that it satiates a need. My dad's longing for the foods of childhood has nothing to do with bodily hunger, and everything to do with remembrance of his childhood in Taiwan and of his parents.
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AUSTRALIA

France shows Australia how to protest
- Bronwyn Lay
- 26 October 2010
6 Comments
In Australia a mass strike is unimaginable. The bureaucratic hoops required before a strike can be considered a legal 'protected action' are Kafkaesque. Therefore strikes have become small, localised and limited to issues of contractual entitlements.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Church tourist
- Michael Sharkey
- 26 October 2010
Reflecting on the brutal way the hierarchy treated her, I see the logic of the place she holds in this ambiguous space. Born in murderous times among such vicious things as men become where power is at stake, she stands among the metal, glass and stone ...
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AUSTRALIA

Packer's brave new world of media self-interest
- Michael Mullins
- 25 October 2010
2 Comments
There is credible speculation new part-owner James Packer will use his influence to kill innovation at Network Ten. The authority should respond by enforcing broadcast licence conditions, to ensure Packer's return to significant media ownership is in the public interest and not his self-interest.
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INTERNATIONAL

Social welfare good news stories
- Tony Vinson
- 25 October 2010
3 Comments
The new Jesuit Social Services study Moving from the Edge is not a tale of welfare woe. It is a celebration of lives that have 'come good'. Individuals and families have spoken in a basically human way about their transition from being 'outsiders' to social 'insiders'.
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Vol 20 No 21