Vol 25 No 4

03 March 2015

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ARTS AND CULTURE

God's bikie trashes New Age feelgoodism
- Barry Gittins and Jen Vuk
- 13 March 2015
5 Comments
A new book by counter-cultural warrior and Christian God Squad motorbike club founder Rev John Smith says that feeling good about yourself may not actually be that good for you in the long run. It's not that he wants you to be depressed, but rather let your discomfort prompt self-reflection.
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AUSTRALIA

Remote 'lifestyle choices' need careful consideration
- Myrna Tonkinson
- 13 March 2015
13 Comments
The PM's cavalier use of the term 'lifestyle choice' is totally inappropriate when referring to the people who will be affected by the proposed closures of remote Aboriginal communities. Undeniably it is expensive to sustain remote living, and effective schooling and health services are unfeasible. But we must avoid arbitrary decision-making, and implicit disparagement of people in remote communities.
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AUSTRALIA

Nuclear weapons the biggest threat to our security
- Sue Wareham
- 12 March 2015
9 Comments
Competing for attention with the Gallipoli landing centenary is this year’s 70th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. New evidence suggests that even a nuclear war involving a very small fraction of the world’s arsenals would result in the atmospheric accumulation of so much particulate matter from burning cities that there would be reduced sunlight, agricultural decline and famine affecting possibly two billion people.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

A larrikin look at sinful sugar
- Tim Kroenert
- 12 March 2015
2 Comments
Gameau's quest takes him to the Northern Territory, where the prevalence of high-sugar beverages has taken a dire toll upon Indigenous communities, whose access to nutritious foods has been stymied by government policy. Also to America, where he yarns with food industry spin doctors and witnesses the excruciating dental procedure a Kentucky teenager endures to reverse the effects of 'Mountain Dew Mouth'.
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CARTOON

The cutting edge
- Fiona Katauskas
- 11 March 2015
3 Comments
View this week's offering from Eureka Street's award winning political cartoonist.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

How to be a gym junkie and a food junkie at the same time
- Isabella Fels
- 11 March 2015
5 Comments
How I love sweating in the gym. I frantically try to keep going on the treadmill to burn off as many of the naughty calories as I can. I can really feel myself spinning, almost like a spiritual awakening. My personal trainer is my motivator, and in many ways I feel like I have already won the battle of the bulge just by turning up.
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AUSTRALIA

Q&A fails smart women
- Moira Rayner
- 11 March 2015
23 Comments
Annabel Crabb chaired it all really well, but the next day I realised that not only our Foreign Minister, but not one panelist, got one question about their extraordinary achievements. Bishop was managing partner of a big law firm. She has unique experiences and must have views on the world’s problems and their impact on Australia. But nobody asked.
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AUSTRALIA

Good race relations is not just an American thing, it's democracy
- Frank Brennan
- 10 March 2015
17 Comments
Saturday marked the 50th anniversary of the voting right marches across the bridge in Selma, Alabama. The movie Selma is a great though imperfect study in race relations, which is still a hot issue in the US following the spate of police killings of young African American men. Good race relations still has a long way to go, as it does in Australia.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

In awe of David Gulpilil and his barramundi
- Peter Gebhardt
- 10 March 2015
1 Comment
I want to eat a piece of Charlie's fish, speared with a 'dangerous weapon' and coal-charred, in his country. Charlie talked to the fish, 'What a good fish'. Covenant. Better than the white man's supermarket stuff.
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AUSTRALIA

Why Indonesians joke about our Chan and Sukumaran clemency pleas
- Michael Mullins
- 09 March 2015
31 Comments
President Joko Widodo has appeared consistently unmoved by Australia's pleas on behalf of Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan. Many Indonesians look upon Australian protests – especially those of our PM – as a joke. They would take us more seriously if we gave a thought to the nationals of other countries who are also on death row, and made it clear that we are not disingenuous when we talk about the moral abhorrence of the death penalty.
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AUSTRALIA

Who to blame for Aboriginal homelessness
- Mike Bowden
- 09 March 2015
8 Comments
Recently Cyclone Lam devastated large areas of Arnhem Land, resulting in much battered infrastructure in need of restoration. We can’t blame the cyclone itself. Instead, the fragmented way we approach the problem of addressing the needs of the locals is more the issue.
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ECONOMICS

Joe Hockey's crystal ball
- David James
- 06 March 2015
8 Comments
The 2015 Intergenerational Report is reminiscent of a comment by that great 20th century philosopher and baseball player Yogi Berra: 'It’s tough to make predictions – especially about the future.' Many economic commentators have pointed out, rightly enough, that Treasury cannot even get its one year predictions right. Nevertheless, it is worth looking at how the 40 year forecasts are constructed to see the kind of thinking involved.
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AUSTRALIA

Images that empower women
- Catherine Marshall
- 06 March 2015
7 Comments
Studies confirm that sexualised images of slim young women used in advertising and popular culture lead to body dissatisfaction, psychological impairment and eating disorders. A new initiative from the non-profit LeanIn.org is fighting this entrenched culture through a partnership with Getty Images. It has created a photo library depicting females in many sizes, cultures and styles of appearance, but all strong and determined and in-charge.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

The dark side of a migrant's American Dream
- Tim Kroenert
- 05 March 2015
Abel's life is pointedly contrasted with Peter's, a young truck driver who has been the victim of several violent assaults on the job. Peter idolises Abel, for whom the Dream has apparently come true — if Abel can make it, so too can Peter. The problem is that Abel's Dream stands on the backs of ordinary workers like Peter. Peter is a tragic antihero coming to learn that for many, the Dream will remain just that.
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AUSTRALIA

Intergenerational fairness goes beyond economic competition
- Andrew Hamilton
- 05 March 2015
14 Comments
'Intergenerational' goings on are stirring public consciousness. On Thursday, Federal Treasury publishes its five-yearly Intergenerational Report. It provides a framework within which legitimate questions about winners and losers can be addressed, by including action on climate and narrowing wealth and international cooperation, rather than viewing society as merely the playground of competing individuals.
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CARTOON

Pride and prejudice
- Fiona Katauskas
- 04 March 2015
3 Comments
View this week's offering from Eureka Street's award winning political cartoonist.
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AUSTRALIA

State elections the biggest opinion poll of all
- John Warhurst
- 04 March 2015
6 Comments
The Victorian state election that ushered out the Napthine Coalition government last November was a wake-up call for the Federal government. The amazing Queensland state defeat for Campbell Newman in late January brought on on the Spill against Tony Abbott. But the NSW election at the end of this month is an ambiguous marker.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

An ode to WOMAD
- Michelle Coram
- 04 March 2015
7 Comments
WOMAD – World of Music, Arts & Dance – and Adelaide go together in a portmanteau. Amidst the dirt, dust and crowds are moments of connection, transcendence and bliss. The magic happens for all of us in the park: the hippies and the yuppies, the artists and the vollies, the babies and the bats, in different ways and at unexpected times. This four day glimpse of the world as it could be sustains my own soul for a year.
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AUSTRALIA

The Government's delusory tolerance rhetoric
- Kerry Murphy
- 03 March 2015
10 Comments
Prime Minister Abbott's National Security Statement quite rightly spoke of threats to Australia and the need to address them. Many of his utterances might seem uncontroversial: 'Those who live here must be as tolerant of others as we are of them'. But in fact they ignore the way people 'who come here' are treated according to 'how' they came here. The language used to describe them reflects an attitude that is far from tolerant.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Edward Snowden comes around to fix my sick PC
- Catherine Magree
- 03 March 2015
2 Comments
Afterwards we will sip green tea in the sitting room and I'll persuade him that his next exposé must reveal our own torn and twisted hearts straining to escape their ventricular structures in the gaping face of the world's inanimate evil.
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AUSTRALIA

Abbott's ill-judged crusade against red tape
- Michael Mullins
- 02 March 2015
10 Comments
The Prime Minister has been forced to announce a proposal to toughen food labelling laws after the recent outbreak of Hepatitis A was linked to 'Nannas' imported berries. This goes against his resolve to remove red tape that represents 'unnecessary' compliance costs for business. The government has fervently derided red tape and presented regulation as the enemy, without distinguishing between regulations that are redundant and those that are needed to protect the consumer.
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AUSTRALIA

McClure Report a challenge for the new Scott Morrison
- Brendan Long
- 02 March 2015
5 Comments
As the freshly minted Social Services Minister, Scott Morrison has moved quickly to soften the tough stance he took in the Immigration portfolio. But it won't necessarily be easy. Patrick McClure has presented him with a massively controversial report on welfare reform which, if acted upon, would significantly reduce the incomes of a million marginalised Australians.
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Vol 25 No 4