Vol 23 No 8

22 April 2013

ARTS AND CULTURE

Abbott's animal charms
- Barry Gittins and Jen Vuk
- 03 May 2013
5 Comments
Casting a Victorious PM Abbott as a puppet of Pell and Howard, or a fiddler with women's rights, seems risible; Abbott is bound by social restraints after all. Nonetheless, there is something ominous in David Marr's droll observation: 'His values have never stood in his way.'
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AUSTRALIA

Abortion drugs wake-up call
- Kevin McGovern
- 03 May 2013
57 Comments
The risk of physical complications after chemical abortion is relatively low, but real. The likelihood of psychological problems — even profound problems like post-traumatic stress disorder — is much greater. The girls and women of Australia who face an unplanned pregnancy deserve something better from our society than cheap abortion drugs.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Ensnared by sex abuse paranoia
- Tim Kroenert
- 02 May 2013
3 Comments
Kindergarten teacher Lucas' life falls apart after he is wrongfully accused of abusing a young girl. We might feel outraged at his persecution, yet are his persecutors really guilty of anything more than taking a victim at her word? Rather than a cautionary tale, Lucas' story is best viewed as a tragedy.
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RELIGION

Catholicism beyond slogans
- Andrew Hamilton
- 02 May 2013
40 Comments
The future of the Catholic tradition will not rest with Liberal, Conservative or Evangelical Catholicism. Not because those who would define themselves as members of such groupings are liberal or conservative, but because they are essentially reactive. They derive their energy from opposition to the perceived weakness or wickedness of other groups.
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ECONOMICS

Banksters' deadly game of Sheldon's three-person chess
- David James
- 01 May 2013
3 Comments
In The Big Bang Theory Sheldon invents a game of chess which 'utilises a three-sided board with transitional quadrilateral-to-triangular tessellation to solve the balanced centre combat-area problem'. This gobbledegook sounds suspiciously similar to the application of mathematical models to financial securities in derivatives markets.
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CARTOON

The moral deficit
- Fiona Katauskas
- 01 May 2013
1 Comment
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Giving stick to incipient police violence
- Brian Doyle
- 01 May 2013
5 Comments
A nightstick doesn't sound fearsome, but when you see one up close you respect the inherent violence of the thing. I stared at it for a while, contemplating how a burly policeman with his feet set could deliver a cracking blow to a head or a shoulder or an arm flung across your face to protect your eyes and brains.
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AUSTRALIA

My family connection to Aboriginal genocide
- Paul Newbury
- 30 April 2013
24 Comments
My great-grandfather John Eckersley Newbury was a convict and a squatter who became wealthy through a generous land policy and because his wife's family helped set him up on the land. During this period, the Kamilaroi of northern NSW fought a guerilla war of resistance against the British.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Frantic chat on the world wide spider web
- Various
- 30 April 2013
3 Comments
And in the raucosity of blogs, the avidity of trolls, the ubiquity of porn, the vidvidvidity of tubes, the facebookery of profiles, the aviary of twittervation — can the mind still find that space to stretch itself?
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AUSTRALIA

Aged care dirty work done dirt cheap
- Michael Mullins
- 29 April 2013
25 Comments
Wage increases for aged care workers should not be allowed to become yet another laudable but failed Gillard Government initiative that an incoming Coalition government refuses to countenance because of its stated commitment to fiscal responsibility. The dignity of older Australians is not expendable.
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AUSTRALIA

Hope for a Malaysian Spring
- Lily Zubaidah Rahim and Sven Schottmann
- 29 April 2013
1 Comment
Amid democratic transitions in Asia and protest movements in the Middle East, a growing number of Malaysians are unwilling to countenance any further their government's paternalistic politics. Whoever wins next Sunday's election will have the task of forging a new consensus on what it means to be Malaysian.
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AUSTRALIA

High Court hedges bets on free speech
- Patrick McCabe
- 26 April 2013
5 Comments
In 2011 the US Supreme Court found it was not unlawful for members of Westboro Baptist Church to stage inflammatory protests at the funerals of US soldiers, whom the church believes are killed by God to demonstrate disapproval at tolerance of gay people. You might say 'only America', but recently something similar nearly happened here.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

A modest solution to Morrison's asylum seeker woes
- Brian Matthews
- 26 April 2013
9 Comments
If the Shadow Minister for Immigration had read Swift's satirical essay 'A Modest Proposal', a new front in his asylum seeker campaign would have opened up. Spurning Nauru, all he has to do is channel asylum seekers into hunting-specified NSW parks and reserves and let Barry O'Farrell's hunters do the rest.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Refugee's tram ride to freedom
- Margaret McDonald
- 24 April 2013
2 Comments
The city seemed always to sulk under clouds. Only occasionally the sun showed its face, promising something but never delivering: just like his life. He was confused and often afraid. He had not wanted to leave his home, but his family had sacrificed much to send him here, and he was starting to feel he had let them down.
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AUSTRALIA

Abbott's GG gripe reignites republican sentiment
- Ray Cassin
- 24 April 2013
15 Comments
Restarting the republic debate was almost certainly not what Tony Abbott had in mind when he wrote to Julia Gillard about the appointment of our next governor-general. He has unwittingly done Australians a service by reminding us why the people, not politicians, should choose the person who holds the office.
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CARTOON

Anzac Day comes for class war mudslingers
- Fiona Katauskas
- 24 April 2013
1 Comment
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Philosophical kissing
- N. N. Trakakis and Vivien Arnold
- 23 April 2013
4 Comments
'When it comes to the kiss, philosophy has very little to say,' you once protested. 'It would seem that the lovers of wisdom don't know how to kiss!' ... Always longing for union with my other (and better) half, the two pieces, long astray, finally fitted together, mouth-to-mouth ...
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INTERNATIONAL

Real men don't rape
- Andee Jones
- 23 April 2013
8 Comments
A recent study of sexual violence in six Asia-Pacific countries revealed that one in every four men had committed rape. When men who don't rape tell the violent minority that they have no such right, the dreadful statistics will start to plummet.
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AUSTRALIA

The Australian wars that Anzac Day neglects
- Dean Ashenden
- 22 April 2013
24 Comments
Around 20,000 people died in a series of violent conflicts between peoples extending across the entire continent and more than half of our history. We have yet to find a way to remember the loss of those people with anything like the scale and intensity of our other commemorations, such as Anzac Day.
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AUSTRALIA

Australia's 'comfortable' racism
- Michael Mullins
- 22 April 2013
16 Comments
In a week of racist and xenophobic reaction to the Boston Marathon bombing, one US observer commented separately on Australia's racism, describing our country as one of the 'most comfortably racist places' he'd ever been in. Racism is a source of shame in the US, but part of the culture in Australia.
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Vol 23 No 8