Vol 21 No 22

07 November 2011

EUREKA STREET TV

Conversation with a reluctant Australian citizen
- Peter Kirkwood
- 18 November 2011
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AUSTRALIA

Gillard and Obama's mutual exploitation
- Tony Kevin
- 18 November 2011
9 Comments
Australia is now indelibly associated with Obama's strong messages to China in Canberra. We were used. But our government wanted this, because it will all be popular with the middle ground former Labor voters Gillard is trying to win back from Abbott and the Greens.
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EUREKA STREET TV

Conversation with a reluctant Australian citizen
- Peter Kirkwood
- 18 November 2011
Fatima Meesham speaks frankly about the ups and downs of migrating to Australia from the Philippines. She explains that she delayed becoming an Australian citizen until she was satisfied there was enough common ground between her values and those of the Australian Government.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Rescuing JFK
- P. S. Cottier
- 17 November 2011
'Kennedy was a cold warrior, but Johnson took it to the next level. He had the same my-balls-are-bigger-than-yours complex as Dubya.' The narrator journeys into the past in order to produce a kinder America. One that may not throw itself into Vietnam with such lust.
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RELIGION

Panicky in the UK
- Andrew Hamilton
- 17 November 2011
6 Comments
Like the Northern Territory Intervention, the severe punitive responses to those involved in the UK riots bore the characteristics of what is commonly called 'moral panic'. A recent report provides an opportunity to ask how adequate these kinds of response are.
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AUSTRALIA

Eurozone trashed
- Binoy Kampmark
- 16 November 2011
10 Comments
Many Italian protesters have called 12 November a day of liberation. This is a misunderstanding of what has happened. One does not have to be a fan of Silvio Berlusconi's sordid regime to see the madness of austerity that is stripping away the sovereignty of states through the eurozone.
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CARTOON

Australia's Obamalove
- Fiona Katauskas
- 16 November 2011
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Muslim at a Catholic school
- Nadine Rabah
- 16 November 2011
30 Comments
Last year, in year ten, we had a subject called 'Religion and Society'. During a lesson on Islam one of the girls said 'I hate Muslims, the world would be better without them.' I bit my lip, turned around and said 'I'm a Muslim.' Confused, she replied, 'But you're nice.'
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Girding Job's loins
- Brian Doyle
- 15 November 2011
4 Comments
There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job; and he was essentially a blameless dude, and unarrogant, and he was blessed with seven sons, and three daughters, which is a startling number ...
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MEDIA

Peter Roebuck's ordered passion for cricket
- Andrew Hamilton
- 15 November 2011
11 Comments
As a cricket writer Roebuck appreciated that other things in life matter more than sport. But precisely because sport does not matter ultimately, he was freed to take it very seriously indeed.
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AUSTRALIA

Lone media voices keep government bastards honest
- Michael Mullins
- 14 November 2011
6 Comments
Matters of national importance are often unreported or glossed over by the major media outlets because they are considered insignificant or difficult. Without quality journalism, a democratic society would lose its greatest source of independent scrutiny.
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AUSTRALIA

Israel's gay rights sleight of hand
- Ruby Hamad
- 14 November 2011
16 Comments
Israel is using its positive treatment of gays as a means of 'selling' its campaign against Palestinians. Before automatically siding with Israel, the international gay community would do well to consider the ways in which all forms of discrimination are linked.
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AUSTRALIA

Mainstreaming evil
- Michael Loughnane
- 11 November 2011
20 Comments
Journalist Hannah Arendt noted that Nazi 'desk-murderer' Adolf Eichmann did not lack a moral compass — his conscience simply spoke with the 'respectable voice' of society. The case raises questions about whether we might be 'silent witnesses to evil deeds' in our society today.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Existentialism by the bay
- Brian Matthews
- 11 November 2011
1 Comment
Bush towns settle into their landscape. The galvanised-iron roofs and encircling verandahs squat with a certainty and a determination that only nature at its worst — fire or flood — might disrupt. Coastal towns, conversely, know all about the uncertain nature of existence.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Bereaved father's cancer dreaming
- Tim Kroenert
- 10 November 2011
There's nothing to say a father who had hoped for a miracle, but instead watched his child wilt and die. His sleep is filled either with dreams where she's alive, or nightmares where he watches her die all over again. I'm not sure which would be worse: to fear going to sleep, or to regret waking up.
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AUSTRALIA

'Friendless' Iran loves a fight
- Shahram Akbarzadeh
- 10 November 2011
2 Comments
Iran's Islamic regime has been showing signs of fatigue. But threats of sanctions and military action by the international community, prompted by reports that Iran has been designing nuclear weapons, could be its saviour. The regime thrives on this kind of tension.
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RELIGION

Aussie priest's theology of the scrub
- Frank Brennan
- 09 November 2011
10 Comments
I had time to spare, so I grabbed a bite to eat and found a bench in the park opposite the cathedral. I was approached by four young Aboriginal people. I told them I'd come for a funeral: 'You might have known him, Father Mick Hayes?' 'He, that tall grey one? He knew me when I was a little fella.'
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Reinventing Greece's paradise lost
- Gillian Bouras
- 09 November 2011
7 Comments
In their Greek travels, 20th century writers Lawrence Durrell and Henry Miller tried to construct a sort of paradise for themselves. Most foreign inhabitants of Greece try to do the same. I certainly did. I hope now that there is a chance of Paradise being regained.
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CARTOON

Climate (political) science
- Fiona Katauskas
- 09 November 2011
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AUSTRALIA

Why the Carbon Tax is good for business
- Tom Dreyfus
- 09 November 2011
15 Comments
Corporations treat social responsibility as a PR tool or a trade-off for financial success. The truth is that if consumers suffer, so too do the corporations that depend on them. Socially responsible initiatives such as the Carbon Tax will benefit society holistically.
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AUSTRALIA

Asylum seeker Scrabble
- Kerry Murphy
- 08 November 2011
17 Comments
Last week there were three significant events affecting refugees including, tragically, more deaths. The use of language in the debate about asylum seekers is always striking, and has evolved and adapted over the years. It does not always reflect reality.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Agnostic's deathbed
- Lorraine McGuigan
- 08 November 2011
3 Comments
Grabbing my hand you drew a line on your chest, moving on to make the sign of the cross. Or so it seemed. Priest! You want a priest? I said, puzzled yet pleased to read your mind. You rolled your eyes, looked up to the ceiling, slowly shook your head.
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ECONOMICS

Economics as if people mattered
- Chris Middleton
- 08 November 2011
8 Comments
Whatever the merits of Occupy Wall Street, it is far too early to speak of any substantial challenge to the dominance of capitalism. Yet there is a real taste for exploring alternatives. The most influential of faith-based approaches to economic theory is that of distributism.
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ENVIRONMENT

Bad week for Pell and climate change deniers
- Tim Stephens
- 07 November 2011
76 Comments
Around 97 per cent of climate scientists actively publishing in peer-reviewed literature support the thesis that human activities are causing climate change. Cardinal George Pell's position is not an informed scientific view, but is driven by politics.
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AUSTRALIA

Richard Branson's advice to Alan Joyce
- Michael Mullins
- 07 November 2011
11 Comments
As a motivational speaker, Sir Richard Branson tells CEOs that they will maximise productivity and profit if they treat staff as if they were friends. Alan Joyce appears to regard his Qantas employees as the enemy.
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RELIGION

Principles for a coherent refugee policy
- Frank Brennan
- 04 November 2011
13 Comments
It is only because we are an island nation continent that we can entertain the absurd notion of sealing our borders from refugee flows. We must remain committed to resettling bona fide refugees who reach our shores regardless of any regional solutions we put in place to deter them.
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Vol 21 No 22