Vol 29 No 15

28 July 2019

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AUSTRALIA

The politics of domestic labour
- Nicola Heath
- 08 August 2019
2 Comments
It isn't just mothers and wives who bear the burden. Many households outsource domestic labour to nannies, housekeepers and cleaners. These workers are part of a vast global industry that employs 100 million people around the world. They are usually women from poor backgrounds who are rarely paid well for their labour.
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INTERNATIONAL

El Paso shooting and the rise of eco-fascism
- Jeff Sparrow
- 07 August 2019
4 Comments
The widespread despair about climate change, and the seeming inability of progressives to offer a solution, provides fertile soil for ecofascism to grow. In a sense, given the scale of the crisis, their apocalyptic vision of an environmental race war can sound more realistic than the pallid centrist nostrums that everyone knows won't work.
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AUSTRALIA

Look to Finland for housing solutions
- Dustin Halse
- 07 August 2019
7 Comments
Robert Harris' The Gang of One ranges through Harris' five published books and a number of uncollected poems. Early work grows from his occasionally lonely, knockabout life and reveals not only a talent for catching the essence of fleeting memories and perceptions but also a mordant touch that gives edge to memory.
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CARTOON

Giving it their best shot
- Fiona Katauskas
- 06 August 2019
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INTERNATIONAL

Remember Hiroshima as US nixes treaties
- Tony Smith
- 06 August 2019
7 Comments
The timing of the USA's announcement that it is withdrawing from treaties limiting the nuclear arms race came just a few days before the anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945. The anniversary remains important because it serves as a reminder that nuclear weapons have been used and that they could be used again.
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RELIGION

Plenary Council rocket science a matter of trust
- Andrew Hamilton
- 05 August 2019
48 Comments
The inclusive and consultative processes in the early stages of preparation for the Plenary Council are a vast improvement on previous practice. They express the desire to involve Catholics in the council. If they are simply dropped on completion and not kept alive in the church, however, the trust they have engendered will be lost.
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AUSTRALIA

Why are we so soft on wage theft?
- Nicola Heath
- 05 August 2019
14 Comments
Cook and television presenter Adam Liaw attributed the widespread underpayment of hospitality workers to the complexity of the award system. In my experience, underpayment was simply part of the business model. The mentality was take it or leave it. There was always another uni student ready to take your place.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

An Italian kiss
- Meg Dolan
- 05 August 2019
4 Comments
He proceeded to move in with silence. His eyelash touched her cheek first, then his lips. Only one with an expert heart could get it this right, she thought to herself, as he kissed the right, then left cheek, pressing his fig-lips precisely in the right place.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

New points of view found in translation
- Neve Mahoney
- 05 August 2019
3 Comments
Translations have a knack for defamiliarising English and how we think language and storytelling works. They also expose English-speaking readers to literary movements and times in history of which they might not otherwise have much knowledge. Work is being done to broaden the published translations we read.
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ENVIRONMENT

Climate catastrophe and the irrational race
- Megan Graham
- 05 August 2019
7 Comments
The debate around climate change shows the danger in believing we humans are principally rational. History gives example after example of how our biases can make us do very irrational things. In the words of Dan Ariely, our species is 'predictably irrational'. It is helpful for us to know this, so that we can become better.
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MEDIA

The thief, the party and WikiLeaks
- Binoy Kampmark
- 02 August 2019
4 Comments
The running themes of the Department of Justice charges against Assange are that he is a hacker, an agent of espionage and a danger to necessary secrecy. In so slanting their case, the DOJ hopes to avoid the application of the First Amendment covering press freedoms. The reasoning of District Judge Koeltl suggests this might well fail.
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INTERNATIONAL

'Career' Brexiteers fail the Edmund Burke test
- Max Atkinson
- 02 August 2019
17 Comments
Now that the UK is in the final phase of leaving the Union we should ask, before the bell tolls, how much this misadventure — or folie de grandeur — was due to politicians putting their interests above those of the nation, ignoring democratic theory and long-settled constitutional practice.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

The sometimes ironic perception of 'things'
- Brian Matthews
- 02 August 2019
4 Comments
Robert Harris' The Gang of One ranges through Harris' five published books and a number of uncollected poems. Early work grows from his occasionally lonely, knockabout life and reveals not only a talent for catching the essence of fleeting memories and perceptions but also a mordant touch that gives edge to memory.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Can you hear the gilets jaunes sing?
- Sue Stevenson
- 31 July 2019
6 Comments
A motley crue of people standing as one is very romantic in such a divide-and-conquer age. That they are standing up to Macron, ex-investment banker and now President, and the austerity tactics of a failing economic system is cause for celebration if you happen to love the idea of a fair society and people fighting for its return.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

The saga of zany Granny's memory box
- Gillian Bouras
- 31 July 2019
6 Comments
While this saga was going on, I read an alarming piece about the transient nature of the digital world. Mobile phones get stolen and photos not backed up are irrevocably lost; flash drives and their capacities do not last forever. 'Print out' was the author's advice. Who would have thought?
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CARTOON

ScoMo knows best
- Fiona Katauskas
- 30 July 2019
2 Comments
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MEDIA

The creators of fake news are winning
- David James
- 30 July 2019
12 Comments
They vastly outnumber journalists, their industry is far bigger than the shrinking media organisations, and the concentration of media ownership means that they can do deals with proprietors. Understanding that the trail with fake news leads to the spin doctors can be a useful way to detect what is, and is not, propaganda.
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INTERNATIONAL

Scarf stories: Travelling the material world
- Catherine Marshall
- 30 July 2019
1 Comment
Three times in the past three years I have received a spontaneous gift in the form of a scarf. The gifts came from three different people, on three different continents. As it happens, there's a shelf in my bedroom cupboard stacked with neatly folded scarves and wraps in rainbow hues. Every last one of them has a story to tell.
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AUSTRALIA

US war games test Aus-China relations
- Bevan Ramsden
- 29 July 2019
13 Comments
Every effort should be made to keep Australia out of yet another US war overseas, especially against China. If such a war resulted, the US Marines in Darwin would draw fire on the Northern Territory. For Australia's peace and security, we need to see an end to the stationing of Marines in Darwin and an end to war rehearsals with the United States.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

He rang
- B. N. Oakman
- 29 July 2019
A voice made for poetry, asking of you post surgery, your whereabouts in the labyrinth of cures. I spoke of blind turns and errors, of kindness, though mainly your courage. He recalled his one big scare, declared he'd not want to swap.
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RELIGION

Father Page versus the Bolsheviks
- Nick Brodie
- 26 July 2019
15 Comments
This year marks the centenary of British forces landing in Russia to fight the Bolsheviks. Now, Russia is generally agreed to be interfering in liberal democracies around the globe. A Jesuit priest serving as a chaplain to the British forces helps illuminate this oft-neglected story, and reveals a bit of how the Church was adapting.
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FAITH DOING JUSTICE

Combating crime by restoring relationships
- Andrew Hamilton and Madison Rosaia
- 26 July 2019
6 Comments
When devising policies for people on the margins, Australian governments seem always to settle on punitive measures. Although imprisonment has a place in penal policy, the focus should be on the persons who perpetrate crime and on those who are damaged by it. Penal policy is ultimately about ensuring just relationships.
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Vol 29 No 15