Vol 29 No 16

11 August 2019

DOWNLOAD PDF

INTERNATIONAL

Death and drones in the Mediterranean
- Ramona Wadi
- 23 August 2019
4 Comments
Opting for surveillance of migrants instead of rescue operations will result in death by drowning, or torture and possible deaths in Libya. For both scenarios, the EU has cultivated its own brand of impunity. Looking away has become politically acceptable, and the bloc can focus on funding the Libyan Coast Guard to do its dirty work.
READ MORE
AUSTRALIA

The secretive business of detention dirty work
- Meg Mundell
- 21 August 2019
8 Comments
If you're not burdened by a conscience, it's a perfect get-rich-quick scheme: offer 'garrison' services to governments reluctant to get their hands dirty. Ensure the vulnerable people you 'manage' are hidden, demonised by politicians and right-wing commentators. Hire cheap labour, minimise your tax, and make millions.
READ MORE
INTERNATIONAL

India embraces 'might is right' in Kashmir move
- Brian Toohey
- 20 August 2019
4 Comments
The changes India is making in Kashmir go well beyond a border dispute with Pakistan. When taken in conjunction with the Modi government's policy of removing large numbers of Muslims from their homes in India, the implementation of its philosophy of Hindu supremacy is drastically changing the character of India.
READ MORE
CARTOON

What’s that he’s parroting?
- Fiona Katauskas
- 20 August 2019
READ MORE
ARTS AND CULTURE

Restoring Australia's cultural ambition
- Esther Anatolitis
- 20 August 2019
1 Comment
At stake here is who takes responsibility for sector development in the arts as both a cultural and an economic good. Because right now, there is no national organisation or government agency whose role it is to take a responsible, long-term, national view, making sure there are programs in place to address key priorities.
READ MORE
RELIGION

Athletes model anarchic cooperation
- Andrew Hamilton
- 19 August 2019
6 Comments
The story illustrates the way in which sport, like so many other areas of life, has allowed itself to be defined as a business whose sole reason for existence is to make people compete against others. To refuse to compete, even if an athlete falls in front of you, is anti-competitive behaviour that must be penalised.
READ MORE
ARTS AND CULTURE

Why people don’t read modern poetry
- Thuy On and Francis Bede
- 19 August 2019
4 Comments
What about compoundnounsthatrunlike this. Something here about the glory of native bush even tho you have never been beyond zone 3 on PT. Add doleful '....' Beckettian misery here. (Phew, your 20th century Lit Minor was not a waste!) So winning so woke you never even zzz.
READ MORE
ARTS AND CULTURE

Women still fighting for territory in unequal AFL
- Erin Riley
- 19 August 2019
The AFL's announcement that AFLX would be scrapped after two seasons, despite heavy media coverage, was a strong indication of the league's commitment to women's football. It now needs to follow up with commitments that reflect the increasing scale and importance of the women's competition to the league.
READ MORE
EDUCATION

Keys to closing the education gap
- Anthony Dillon
- 16 August 2019
10 Comments
We need to change the language from improving 'attendance' to improving 'engagement' — to reflect that schools need to be places of learning for Indigenous children, not just minding centres, and that learning comes with engagement.
READ MORE
ENVIRONMENT

Can weather presenters be climate saviours?
- Greg Foyster
- 16 August 2019
2 Comments
The media often portrays climate change as a political issue. But politicians are the least trusted messengers for climate information. They really turn off the public. The most trusted are scientists, firefighters, farmers and weather presenters. Of these, only weather presenters have a large audience and are already skilled communicators.
READ MORE
AUSTRALIA

Picture is still bleak for people with disability
- El Gibbs
- 15 August 2019
3 Comments
Disabled people in Australia are being locked up, dying young and living in poverty, because they are disabled, and particularly if they are Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander. It's been 11 years since Australia ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, yet disabled people are far from being equal to non-disabled people.
READ MORE
ENVIRONMENT

Power in Rebellion's civil disobedience
- Jacinta Bowler
- 15 August 2019
7 Comments
Extinction Rebellion is the biggest environmental movement we've seen in Australia in years, and the group is well aware of the disruption they are causing — it's baked into their strategy. Is the inconvenience, disruption, and vitriol worth it? Is it actually going to turn public opinion one way or another? History suggests it just might.
READ MORE
AUSTRALIA

Ovarian transplant pitch demonises menopause
- Kate Galloway
- 13 August 2019
5 Comments
As a society we have tended to ignore ageing women, and menopause has been read as a signal of our descent into decrepitude. The sales pitch for a procedure to delay menopause buys into this way of thinking. For many women menopause is not a burden, but a gift: no more menstruation, no more pregnancy, new purpose.
READ MORE
INTERNATIONAL

Australia's illogic over Timor and West Papua
- Pat Walsh
- 13 August 2019
8 Comments
One wonders if the Prime Minister will be aware of the supreme irony of these two events, the lack of logic in Australia's conflicting policies on the fate of the two peoples, and Canberra's flexible approach to the much vaunted international rules based order when it does not serve pragmatic national interests.
READ MORE
RELIGION

Hiroshima and Transfiguration
- Andrew Hamilton
- 13 August 2019
23 Comments
One event, recalling the revelation of Jesus' relationship to God, is a feast of light; the other, recalling man's inhumanity to man, speaks of darkness. Both are pointers to possible human futures: one of glory and the other of annihilation. The history of nuclear weapons and recent developments present this choice more starkly.
READ MORE
EDUCATION

Religious freedom can't trump student health
- Stevie Troy
- 13 August 2019
12 Comments
This is the influence Christian schools retain under current legislation. Faith-based schools are given the right to maintain teachings around sexuality, but that shouldn't be given higher priority than students' wellbeing. It's why I fell through the gaps. It's why 13 years later I and the public health system are dealing with the consequences.
READ MORE
CARTOON

That sinking feeling
- Fiona Katauskas
- 13 August 2019
1 Comment
READ MORE
AUSTRALIA

The contrasting gospels of Morrison and Shorten
- Barry Gittins
- 13 August 2019
6 Comments
In Jensen's take, while Shorten expresses honest doubt and cites Christ's golden rule, care of his Jesuit educators, Morrison indulges in a marathon of spiritual self-indulgence. Morrison masterfully works right-wing media outlets, or is worked by them, with Alan Jones leading the PM through a radio interview 'like Simpson led his donkey'.
READ MORE
ARTS AND CULTURE

Parliamentary circles
- Sandra Renew
- 12 August 2019
2 Comments
On the Circle driving around the Parliament ... you say it's all swings and roundabouts, a circumlocutory carousel, a beauty of tautology, movement continuity ... no pause to merge, roundabout way of saying, you will never be us.
READ MORE
AUSTRALIA

The tweet smell of APS authoritarianism
- Binoy Kampmark
- 12 August 2019
5 Comments
Should a public service have people with political, disagreeable opinions? No, according to the guidelines of employment in the Australian Public Service. The decision of the Australian High Court in the case of Comcare v Banerji is a salient warning to employees in the APS. Obedience, it seems, must be unquestionable and total.
READ MORE
AUSTRALIA

To be or not to be PC
- Alana Schetzer
- 11 August 2019
15 Comments
To accuse someone of being 'politically correct' has become a fast and effective way to shut down attempts to make public spaces safe and welcoming to all people. It means that those whose words and actions are at best thoughtless and at worst discriminatory can continue to avoid having to think about what they said or did.
READ MORE
INTERNATIONAL

Tears in store after Hong Kong chaos
- Michael Kelly
- 08 August 2019
9 Comments
The betting among many observers is that the current chaos will end in tears. The massing of troops at the border is one sign. But the biggest thing that suggests that the PLA will march in and declare martial law is that the Chinese Communist Party has what we call 'form'.
READ MORE

Subscriber login

Vol 29 No 16