Vol 28 No 14

16 July 2018

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ARTS AND CULTURE

Returned soldiers mask sorrows with scams
- Tim Kroenert
- 25 July 2018
2 Comments
This sleight of hand from Albert sets a pattern, as the two go on to collude on an elaborate ruse, selling Edouard's designs for patriotic memorials that they never intend to build. Edouard, having plumbed the depths of opiate addiction, comes alive in the scam, a puckish schemer in a series of elaborate papier-mâché masks.
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AUSTRALIA

A sweet 16th turned bitter with grief
- Catherine Marshall
- 25 July 2018
8 Comments
Today my niece would have turned 16. It would have been a milestone, the teetering point between childhood and maturity. But there was something more formidable facing her, something none of us was aware of. So unbearable and obliterating was it, it would prompt her to end her life just three months after her 15th birthday.
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INTERNATIONAL

Redrawing the lines of Nicaragua solidarity
- Ann Deslandes
- 25 July 2018
6 Comments
In the 1980s, the international solidarity movement for Nicaragua had thousands of supporters, including many in Australia. The nation was undergoing severe repression at the hands of dictator Anastasio Somoza. Fast-forward 30 years and a Nicaraguan rebel movement is again calling for international solidarity.
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CARTOON

A sporting chance
- Fiona Katauskas
- 24 July 2018
1 Comment
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AUSTRALIA

Our government is not family-friendly
- Andrew Hamilton
- 24 July 2018
20 Comments
These changes make political claims to be family-friendly purely rhetorical. Family values do not shape government policies. Often, governments act not to nurture families and protect the traditions of western civilisation but to devastate families and trample on inherited traditions.
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AUSTRALIA

Dismantling Dutton's race-baiting
- Rachel Woodlock
- 24 July 2018
18 Comments
Either they are flat-out wrong, unable to read crime reports or understand what the police and other agencies are telling them (which leaves in question their ability to accurately and intelligently govern), or some apparatchik in the strategy back-rooms has decided it is a good way to garner votes with a 'tough-on-crime' campaign.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

In your absence I sense your presence
- Maureen O'Brien
- 24 July 2018
5 Comments
Our last walk together on a beach takes place on a balmy autumn day. The sun shining, the sea calm. While there is something beautiful about that scene and moment, I wonder, in retrospect, why I said, 'This is almost like being in heaven.' Unconscious, prophetic words, or simply an acknowledgement of perfection in my mind's eye?
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RELIGION

Libertarian case misses euthanasia complexity
- Joel Hodge
- 23 July 2018
11 Comments
Assisted suicide is not just a matter of being given a 'choice'. There is a whole system that would need to be created, with hospitals, doctors, nurses, lawyers, politicians and families all involved in facilitating this choice. Should we be enlisting the liberty of all these people to facilitate this choice?
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ARTS AND CULTURE

The least you can do
- Ouyang Yu
- 23 July 2018
2 Comments
You are saying these people are not good enough because they come from elsewhere. You are saying their English is too creative. You are saying their growing numbers are a constant threat. You are saying they are never as good as you, genetically even. You are saying no.
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ENVIRONMENT

Ethical eating demands more than veganism
- Lika Posamari
- 20 July 2018
11 Comments
If vegans are indeed recognising that 'the protection of the planet is fundamental to protecting both humans and animals', merely taking on a label such as vegan is not enough. We need to consider plants and people along with animals and environmental factors. We need to consider what kind of eaters we want to be.
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RELIGION

Catholic churches confront housing crisis
- Claire-Anne Willis and Denis Fitzgerald
- 20 July 2018
4 Comments
The demand for social housing and the substantial Church investment in land means that housing should remain a significant priority of the Catholic Church in Australia. It is an injustice for some to have more than enough while others lack bare necessities. Compassionate and fair leadership needs to drive social change.
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MEDIA

No media witch-hunt on Wilson
- Suzanne Smith
- 19 July 2018
28 Comments
In May 2018 Archbishop Wilson was convicted of concealing a serious indictable offence relating to the sexual abuse of a teenage boy by a priest in his diocese. Wilson is the highest ranking Catholic cleric to be convicted of such an offence. The Church's response to this episode should be of particular interest.
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ENVIRONMENT

Not owning but belonging to the land
- Fatima Measham
- 19 July 2018
7 Comments
There are severe limitations in the western ways we tend to think about land. Land is conceived in terms of ownership and property — ideas that are implicated not just in colonial histories, but in extractive industries and concentrations of wealth. In this model, land is a fulcrum of power.
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RELIGION

So-called 'witch-hunt' holds Wilson to account
- Peter Gogarty
- 19 July 2018
24 Comments
I am a survivor of sexual abuse. It was me who first made a complaint to NSW police that Wilson knew what Fletcher had been up to, who wrote an opinion piece for Fairfax asking what Wilson knew, who appeared on ABC TV naming the Archbishop. By extension, it must be me who initiated the witch-hunt and stirred up public hysteria.
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INTERNATIONAL

No substance to Trump-Putin show
- Binoy Kampmark
- 18 July 2018
4 Comments
Such gatherings only serve to feed the display of power and displace reality. In truth (dangerous word to use these days), the gathering was treated with an unwarranted seriousness that gave it a credence it never deserved.
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ECONOMICS

Trump's trade attack is off track
- David James
- 18 July 2018
2 Comments
Trump's destruction of the architecture of international trade agreements and reversion to protectionism will expose the complexity of globalisation, but is unlikely to have the effect he is aiming at, which is to bring investment capital, and jobs, back to his country.
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RELIGION

Let's talk about the Catholic bishops
- John Warhurst
- 17 July 2018
28 Comments
The constitutional position of bishops is best illustrated by the Wilson case. The media releases of the hierarchy revealed their impotence. They explained their inaction by pointing out that only the Pope could force a bishop to resign and were reduced to conveying the impression of working behind the scenes to influence Wilson's decision.
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AUSTRALIA

African gang beat-up plays us all for mugs
- Celeste Liddle
- 17 July 2018
16 Comments
Through last week's Sunday Night report on Channel 7, we were treated to another round of fear mongering. Never mind that just last year police admitted that the so-called 'Apex Gang' did not exist. As an Aboriginal woman, I'm tired of being told by politicians and newspapers which other people of colour I'm supposed to scared of.
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CARTOON

Fear and loathing on the campaign trail
- Fiona Katauskas
- 17 July 2018
1 Comment
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Cycling rhythms of eternity
- Deanne Davies
- 16 July 2018
2 Comments
Movements of time — Farewell to ancient granite. Greetings to gleaming streams and striating ribbons of colour.
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RELIGION

Duterte vs God
- Erin Cook
- 13 July 2018
3 Comments
To mark two years as president of the Philippines, Duterte has taken on his biggest sparring partner yet. God now joins the likes of Barack Obama and the UN as targets in Duterte's ranting. It would be laughable if he hadn't spent his presidency turning the country into Revelations, where even priests are being gunned down in the streets.
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MEDIA

Archbishop Wilson: Fair cop or foul?
- Alan Atkinson
- 13 July 2018
51 Comments
I have interviewed Wilson just once, while working for the ABC in Adelaide. I am not a Catholic. I abhor sexual abuse and its concealment. I do not wish to debate the rights or wrongs of resignation but simply reflect on whether the pursuit of Wilson could be described as a witch-hunt and whether he might be a scapegoat for the sins of many.
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INTERNATIONAL

The global push against refugees
- Binoy Kampmark
- 12 July 2018
16 Comments
Cometh the time, cometh the exploitable prejudice. With millions of globally displaced persons, states are retreating from the business of actually treating the condition as one of dysfunction inflicted by war, famine and poverty. It has morphed from a matter of humanitarianism to one of social ill and unease.
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Vol 28 No 14