Vol 21 No 16

15 August 2011

EUREKA STREET TV

Religion and republicanism in Australian politics
- Peter Kirkwood
- 26 August 2011
12 Comments
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AUSTRALIA

Lucking out in Libya
- Binoy Kampmark
- 26 August 2011
2 Comments
Obama and NATO have been lucky that this campaign has worked thus far. To participate in a brutal civil war is always a dangerous game of chance. So far, the rebels have limited their bouts of revenge to arson and looting. A blood bath has not ensued, at least not yet.
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EUREKA STREET TV

Religion and republicanism in Australian politics
- Peter Kirkwood
- 26 August 2011
Political commentator John Warhurst has devoted his working life to observing what motivates politicians, particularly their religious beliefs. He sees an Australian republic as a 'logical, necessary and natural evolution of Australian political and constitutional identity'.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Exploiting the elderly
- Tim Kroenert
- 25 August 2011
1 Comment
Leo's ailing health means he is due to become a ward of the state, forced from his house into a nursing home. He needs personal care that is better provided by loved ones than an institution. But Mike's compassion is overrun by material needs. He decides to exploit Leo's plight.
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RELIGION

Talking back to the Church
- Andrew Hamilton
- 25 August 2011
21 Comments
On Sunday a Gospel story, prison, World Youth Day and a petition to the Australian Bishops calling for renewal in the Church converged in a surprising way. It is daunting to ask others what they think of you, and also to listen to what they say.
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RELIGION

Towards health equality
- Frank Brennan
- 24 August 2011
10 Comments
Factors such as education, housing and connectedness have a big impact on health. There is no point telling an unemployed homeless person: 'Don't smoke, it's bad for you.' It's time the Government made a concerted effort to address the health needs of marginalised groups.
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CARTOON

Convoy of no confidence
- Fiona Katauskas
- 24 August 2011
2 Comments
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AUSTRALIA

Improving the refugee debate
- Kerry Murphy
- 24 August 2011
4 Comments
This week as we mark the 10th anniversary of Tampa, the High Court is hearing a legal challenge to the Malaysian solution and an inquiry into suicide and self-harm in detention is underway. Meanwhile a new report hopes to change the direction of the debate on refugees.
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EUREKA STREET/ READER'S FEAST AWARD

Migrant myths and memories
- Julie McNeill
- 24 August 2011
4 Comments
Sociologist Eva Cox heard all the vitriol about boat people when, as a five-year-old Jewish girl, she fled Nazi Germany and headed to Australia. My nine-year-old mother was a different kind of boat arrival: one of 135,000 'child migrants' imported under the 'Populate or Perish' policy.
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MEDIA

Reality trumps Japanese horror stories
- Stephen Alomes
- 23 August 2011
7 Comments
All too often anxiety trumps reality. In Melbourne in recent years, we received emails from friends overseas worried that we might be affected by the Queensland floods or NSW bushfires, hundreds of kilometres away. Japan has problems, but Japan it is not a disaster zone.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Peter Steele's King James flurries
- Chris Wallace-Crabbe
- 23 August 2011
5 Comments
Even your Trinitarian faith .. Can serve as food .. For those of us who blandly lack .. Such nourishment, or at our back .. Hear the vague tread, the clickety-clack .. Of those great stories .. And gorgeous King James Bible prose.
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AUSTRALIA

Behind Berlin's and Israel's walls
- Binoy Kampmark
- 22 August 2011
8 Comments
Walls are not merely concrete manifestations but cultural and psychological ones. One East Berlin native recalled his mother 'cried for hours when the Wall fell'. Israel, in constructing a wall around Jerusalem, faced a host of issues as complex as those that faced East Germany.
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AUSTRALIA

ABC deaths put journalism in perspective
- Andrew Hamilton
- 22 August 2011
12 Comments
The image of journalism that has dominated the news in the last month has been one of grubbiness, corruption and cover-ups. The of ABC journalist Paul Lockyer in a helicopter crash reminds us how much we are indebted to ordinary, decent and self-effacing journalists.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Alice Springs drinking stories
- Ellena Savage
- 19 August 2011
3 Comments
On my last night in Alice, we went to the pub, and drank and danced with some locals. Patricia, for whom English was a fourth language, had moved to Alice to be with her husband. Her manner of speech was beautiful. When she invited us to her table, she said, 'Come, I'll tell you a story.'
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MEDIA

Abbott's budgie-smuggler blues
- Moira Byrne Garton
- 19 August 2011
12 Comments
Politicians are always pitilessly represented in cartoons. Just ask Kevin 'Tintin' Rudd and Julia 'Nose' (or 'Bottom') Gillard. Portrayals of Tony Abbott in Speedos are not part of a plot to undermine him. The public is able to recognise cartoons as exaggerated political commentary.
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INTERNATIONAL

Australian and South African migrant hostility
- David Holdcroft
- 18 August 2011
6 Comments
Walking home from work in the early evening, 29-year-old Godfrey Sibanda was set upon by a mob, who beat and killed him. Like Australia, South Africa is concerned that it has become the nation of choice for forced migrants. This has caused both social and political unease.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Catholicism at high speed
- TIm Kroenert
- 18 August 2011
5 Comments
Accused of conflating his Catholic faith with indestructibility, Brazilian Formula One driver Ayrton Senna responds, ominously, that he is ever conscious of his own mortality. His story is a tragedy of the highest order. You don't need to be a racing fan to be deeply affected by it.
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CARTOON

The obvious solution
- Fiona Katauskas
- 17 August 2011
2 Comments
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AUSTRALIA

'Boat people' and the ethics of presence
- Andrew Hamilton
- 17 August 2011
29 Comments
Suppose that in France under Hitler's occupation, a bloodied man arrived at our doorstep asking for shelter from a Nazi mob. The claim made by the presence of the endangered and injured man would precede questions of fairness and relative need.
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MARGARET DOOLEY AWARD

Gillard, work and welfare
- Sarah Burnside
- 17 August 2011
8 Comments
Opponents of workplace regulation are well-resourced and powerful. In order to meet them head-on, the Government must do more than invoke the value of hard work. After all, if work automatically confers great dignity, what does it matter that conditions are unsatisfactory?
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Nursing home subversion
- James McPherson
- 16 August 2011
9 Comments
'You've got a wicked mind, Padre.' 'All the wickeder for seeing you.' Enter Big Nurse. Big Needle. Big Sleep. I check the stopwatch when I wake. I do not tell Big Nurse her response time is a personal best.
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AUSTRALIA

An ethical defense of the Malaysia solution
- David Palmer
- 16 August 2011
20 Comments
In this debate, moral passion is common, especially among those who cast themselves as refugee advocates. But moral passion should not be confused with moral superiority. Any claim to occupy the moral high ground in this complex area of public policy is at best brave and at worst self-serving.
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AUSTRALIA

Disaster capitalism on Manus Island
- Michael Mullins
- 15 August 2011
6 Comments
'Disaster capitalism' entails profiting from the misery of others. Papua New Guinea's motives for agreeing to the reopening of the Manus detention centre are economic. By proceeding with the plan Australia would be complicit in the exploitation of asylum seekers for financial gain.
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AUSTRALIA

Myths of wartime good and evil
- Zac Alstin
- 15 August 2011
22 Comments
It is a weakness of human nature that we forgive in our friends what we despise in our enemies. If Germany or Japan had achieved a nuclear weapon and launched it on an Allied city, our condemnation would be unrelenting.
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Vol 21 No 16