Vol 32 No 21

23 October 2022

ARTS AND CULTURE

Gloria
- Jamie Dawe
- 03 November 2022
Mum had unshakeable graciousness, although her hand executing cigarette / ballet pirouettes put the fear of foreign emulsification in brothy ox tongue soups / Strong foundations based on love, respect and loyalty with times of grieving — an empath for a neighbour or relative
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AUSTRALIA

Gamification nation
- Cherie Gilmour
- 03 November 2022
1 Comment
Gamification affects almost all our online activities, from communicating to shopping, with gaming elements omnipresent in the form of points, avatars, badges, leader boards, and real-life rewards. Stripping activities of their intrinsic value, virtually any online activity could be transformed into a challenge to win. Yet users make the mistake of focusing on the game rewards without seeing how the game itself is subtly changing behaviour.
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AUSTRALIA

Love, mercy and schadenfreude
- Juliette Hughes
- 02 November 2022
4 Comments
The town celebrated Guy Fawkes day and burned an effigy of the man who tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament centuries before. For days beforehand, even as the holy women left the churches where they had prayed for the release of souls from punishment, children would be dragging carts and prams around with Guy Fawkes dummies they’d made, stuffed with straw and newspaper like scarecrows, easy to burn.
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INTERNATIONAL

Sticking to the environment
- Andrew Hamilton
- 02 November 2022
2 Comments
The campaign against global warming has been heating up, and the latest protests have focused on works of art. Like the burning of books, assaults on paintings seemed to express contempt for human culture at its noblest. But as more details became public, the reality seemed more complex.
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AUSTRALIA

Those with the least are still expected to do the most in the face of inflation
- John Falzon
- 31 October 2022
3 Comments
In the first Chalmers budget we see a firm, albeit modest, assertion of the role of government in the long-term project of exiting the dismal and destructive era of neoliberalism and incrementally creating, in its place, a society where we have the collective resources to care for eachother, our planet and ourselves.
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AUSTRALIA

The Albanese reset: Stopping boats while treating onshore asylum seekers decently
- Frank Brennan
- 28 October 2022
6 Comments
In recent years, Australian policies in relation to asylum seekers and refugees have been unnecessarily mean, cruel and disorganised. The election of the Albanese government provides the opportunity for a reset, putting behind us the past mistakes of both Coalition and Labor Governments in the last 20 years.
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ECONOMICS

Managestocracy
- David James
- 28 October 2022
Who wields the most power in the world? If one follows the money trail, it becomes clear that Western societies have become ruled by a new type of aristocracy: a management aristocracy.
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INTERNATIONAL

When desire meets expectations
- Michael McVeigh
- 28 October 2022
1 Comment
A large part of ending violence against women and children is about convincing men that there’s a more healthy way to live; that there’s a society in which they can feel comfortable in themselves, pursue their dreams, and find love and comfort with others, and feel respected for who they are.
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INTERNATIONAL

Justice as fairness: Why we need to revisit the work of John Rawls
- Matt Gaughwin
- 27 October 2022
3 Comments
Liberal democracies seem increasingly threadbare, insufficiently creating just outcomes for vulnerable people. We need a rejuvenation of stable and fair democracies in which integrity and trust are evident. To that end, I suggest we revisit the liberal egalitarianism of 20th century American philosopher John Rawls.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Seeking meaning behind the monsters in Dahmer
- Paul Mitchell
- 27 October 2022
1 Comment
At the end of the third episode of the Netflix biopic Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, as the ‘Watch Next Episode’ timer ran down, I turned it off and haven’t returned. At time of writing, Dahmer was the number three-ranked show on Netflix Australia. Why are viewers willing to watch? And against the scale of such horror, can there be any redemption?
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RELIGION

Rethinking Reformation
- Andrew Hamilton
- 26 October 2022
10 Comments
What would the world have been like today if the Reformation had not happened? Would it really have been a better Church and a better world? And how, indeed, can we evaluate these enormous historical events?
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ARTS AND CULTURE

The Dadist manifesto
- Barry Gittins
- 25 October 2022
When Kenneth Hugh Gittins is in the room and crash-tackling the conversation, well, eat your heart out Salvador Dali and Walter Mitty. Conversations turn surreal, fact-checking expeditions run aground. A charming teller of truths and tales (some tallish and some Himalayan), this rustic raconteur has perplexed many an audience or congregation and delighted many a grandkid and great-grandkid with his reminiscences.
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INTERNATIONAL

Camouflaged protests: The Qatar World Cup
- Binoy Kampmark
- 25 October 2022
2 Comments
With the likes of David Beckham and Tim Cahill openly supporting the FIFA Men's World Cup in Qatar next month, what of those troubled sporting figures wishing to take an ethical, moral stand against a tournament’s organisers? To that end, a new, disingenuous form of protest has emerged, one of virtuous self-promotion that eschews substantive effect.
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AUSTRALIA

Three-lie leeway
- Michele Frankeni
- 24 October 2022
How do we go from insisting our children tell the truth, even if it leads to punishment for breaking rules, to casually accepting a lack of veracity from societal ‘leaders’? Why in this age of social media when the mildest of heterodox comments cause a storm of protest do blatant untruths cause not even a ripple?
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Vol 32 No 21