Vol 20 No 6

29 March 2010

EUREKA STREET TV

Rabbi takes on Religious Right
- Peter Kirkwood
- 09 April 2010
6 Comments
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AUSTRALIA

The crucifixion of Christine Nixon
- Moira Rayner
- 09 April 2010
79 Comments
No firestorm of blame would be raging in the media were Christine Nixon not a woman, a decent and strong woman, a prominent woman and an ethically sound woman of an age and with the experience to possess a raging integrity of her own and, by her very being, to offer ruthless men a soft target.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

The mutant homeless
- Tim Kroenert
- 08 April 2010
In comics, the X-Men's 'mutant' powers make them the target of bigotry. They function as a metaphor for homosexuals and other persecuted minorities. In Micmacs, Bazil, ostracised from his 'normal' life by a bizarre crisis, also finds himself on the margins of society.
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ENVIRONMENT

Choosing the sex of your child
- Kevin McGovern
- 08 April 2010
3 Comments
The media has reported that Australia's ban on couples using IVF to choose the sex of their children might soon be lifted. Some of the supporters of sex selection for non-medical reasons are fertility doctors for whom there is a considerable financial incentive.
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RELIGION

Why Ali fled Afghanistan
- Frank Brennan
- 07 April 2010
21 Comments
On Monday night on ABC1's Q&A, Tony Abbott was asked about the recent wave of boat people including Hazaras fleeing the Taliban in Afghanistan. At the end of one recent meeting in Indonesia, a 15-year-old Hazara named Ali came and told me his heart wrenching story.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

The joys and risks of reading in bed
- Brian Doyle
- 07 April 2010
5 Comments
As a society we fail our children if we do not carefully remove our street clothes, don cotton pyjamas, and crawl into the boat of the bed with a sigh of delight, each and every night, there to voyage, UnKindled, BlackBerryless, PalmPilotless, into the glory of story.
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AUSTRALIA

How to apologise for genocide
- Binoy Kampmark
- 06 April 2010
3 Comments
From Rudd's 'sorry' to the Stolen Generations, to last year's US Senate resolution apologising for slavery, the political apology has assumed freight and relevance. An apology issued in the Serbian Parliament last week is exceptional for its attempt to allow the perpetrator into the moral circle.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Not-quite-right freedom from hunger
- Anthony Lynch
- 06 April 2010
3 Comments
He walked with his back hunched, his lowered head inches above his toes. As if he feared cavities or his own anonymity. That black dog stopping at every fence post.
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RELIGION

Easter's image of compassion for abused and abusers
- Andrew Hamilton
- 01 April 2010
10 Comments
It is appropriate to attend to the complex patterns of sin that are involved in abuse and its consequences. This kind of gaze resists the temptations to deny or to minimise the extent of sexual abuse and the harm done by it.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Hitting back at the men who hate women
- Tim Kroenert
- 01 April 2010
Youthful hacker Lisbeth Sallander is capable of great violence. But often her violence is a response to that which has been inflicted upon her. Her investigation of a decades old missing person case will test her capacity for mercy.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Scenes from a Chinese milk bar
- Vin Maskell
- 31 March 2010
12 Comments
The Chinese couple had kept the shop going for ten years at a time when milk bars have been disappearing off the map. In my two decades in this suburb about eight corner shops have closed. And in the past three years Peter's milk bar, like his wife, was just hanging on.
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AUSTRALIA

Why 'welcome to country' is more than formality
- Tony Smith
- 31 March 2010
9 Comments
Christian prayer at public meetings cannot have the same importance as an acknowledgement of country. Indigenous peoples have a genuine spiritual association with the land. By recognising this, all Australians can be united in a non-denominational spirituality.
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AUSTRALIA

Abbott, Santamaria and Catholic Liberals
- John Warhurst
- 30 March 2010
22 Comments
Tony Abbott had a close association with B. A. Santamaria and personifies church ties with politics through his relationship with the man he has called his confessor, Cardinal Pell. The question is whether Abbott is a one-off or represents a larger group of Catholic Liberals.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

A bishop's first education
- Brian Doyle
- 30 March 2010
13 Comments
Augustine. Wondrous lesson, that man, but he has been imprisoned by theology. Grant me chastity but not yet, everyone knows that hilarious remark.
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AUSTRALIA

Super size fees lead to retirement poverty
- Michael Mullins
- 29 March 2010
1 Comment
The complexity of superannuation products prompts many to choose easy options that attract high fees. Higher fees mount up over many years and significantly affect the quality of life workers are able to enjoy when they retire.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Beyond the global storytelling crisis
- Colm McNaughton
- 29 March 2010
10 Comments
It is becoming clear that we are probably not going to avert cataclysmic forms of climate change. The foundational Greek and Hebraic imaginaries, the mythical narratives that frame western civilisation, can no longer contain, inform and explain what we experience. We need new stories.
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Vol 20 No 6