Vol 32 No 24

04 December 2022

AUSTRALIA

Eureka Street person of the year
- David Halliday, Michael McVeigh, Laura Kings, Michele Frankeni, Andrew Hamilton, Julian Butler
- 21 December 2022
2 Comments
To close the year for Eureka Street, the editorial team wanted to nominate who we considered to be the Eureka Street ‘person of the year’ based on who we think somehow embody Eureka Street values.
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AUSTRALIA

Christmas in the face of uncertainty
- Andrew Hamilton
- 21 December 2022
4 Comments
In 1939, King George VI gave an encouraging Christmas address, speaking after the Declaration of War on the Nazis. The future was uncertain, with no assurance of survival. In Australia we do not face the same immediate threat, but we do share the same uncertainty.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Great southern discomfort
- Barry Gittins
- 20 December 2022
1 Comment
When we reflect on how best to live with the consequences of our shared, bloodied history, The Australian Wars calls for a counter-narrative; a re-positioning and re-phrasing of what has brought us to this point in our oft-stalled journey towards reconciliation.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

A merry little Christmas
- Barry Gittins
- 20 December 2022
1 Comment
There's something to it, the Advent adventure. Its allure transcends and moves us beyond the corny. The sentimental. When we wade our way through the tinsel, the lights and jolly holly, we find there's a deep, sweet magic to the season.
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CARTOON

The Christmas Rush
- Glen Le Lievre
- 19 December 2022
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RELIGION

Significance of Broglio's election for US Church
- Bill Uren
- 14 December 2022
4 Comments
The recent election of Archbishop Timothy Broglio as President of the United States Catholic Bishops’ Conference has significant implications for the United States Church, for the global Church, and potentially for the Australian Church.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Duelling playlists
- Juliette Hughes
- 14 December 2022
1 Comment
Especially around Christmas, we Hugheses tend to get weird about playlists. What music do you want streaming through the house anyway? You can get anything at all on YouTube and Spotify these days. My family members, like me, have always been a tad defensive about playlists although there are a few items we all like. But these are over far too soon, and then the arguments begin about whose taste is more execrable.
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AUSTRALIA

And so this is Christmas Island
- Farhad Bandesh
- 14 December 2022
3 Comments
My name is Farhad Bandesh. For seven-and-a-half years I was not called by my name. The Australian Federal Government took it away and changed my identity to a number. I was COA 060. I am Kurdish and we are a persecuted people.
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ECONOMICS

Russia sanctions reveal growing split in the global financial system
- David James
- 14 December 2022
What the failed attempt to crush Russia’s economy has revealed is that America’s and Europe’s dominance of the global financial system is something of an illusion; more like money changing hands in a giant casino rather than actual wealth.
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AUSTRALIA

Unpacking the Statement from the Heart
- Glenn Loughrey
- 14 December 2022
1 Comment
In reflecting upon the Statement from the Heart, we need to explore what it is, what it is not, and how it works. The creative dynamic of the Statement is that it is a tool of justice and heart-healing. It is restorative justice writ large, involving the elements that make up the process leading to a resolution of the past and a creative response to the future by enacting justice in the present.
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AUSTRALIA

Reconsidering the role of ATAR in Australian Schools
- Sarah Dunn
- 12 December 2022
1 Comment
The Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) is a number between 0 and 99.95, which indicates a student’s position in relation to their peers. Statistics from recent years provide troubling insight into the usefulness of the ATAR system, only further exacerbated by the growing number of dissatisfied students.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Any room?
- John Kelly
- 12 December 2022
In all the rush, the crib’s still housed / from last year in the cupboard . . . I wonder / if in all our frantic preparations – beneath the toys, the tinsel, fairy lights / and all the other trinkets, decorations – there’s still within our hearts / and in our whole wide world, in all we plan and do, / even just a minute’s time for you?
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AUSTRALIA

Best laid plans and parks
- Andrew Hamilton
- 12 December 2022
Parks are gifts, not only of nature but of people who have recognised how important they are for good human living and have guarded them. Recent generations have been less generous in providing parks and in protecting them from encroachment. At a time when the survival of the earth as we know it depends on our treasuring the beauty and delicacy of the natural world, such neglect is disrespectful.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Yellowstone and the Machiavellians
- Juliette Hughes
- 09 December 2022
2 Comments
This year I discovered Yellowstone, and my all-too-easy-breezy dismissal of the series has changed to respect and continuing interest because it has made me think about humanity and the world. It made me reflect on being human, and what (despite and often because of our best aims and intentions) we might have to do in the world to survive.
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INFORMATION

Christmas raffle winners announced
- Staff
- 09 December 2022
Society of Jesus in Victoria–Jesuit Communications Christmas Raffle 2022. Raffle drawn on Wednesday 7 December 2022. 1ST PRIZE WINNER Ticket Number: #2352 from Croydon Park, NSW 2ND PRIZE WINNER Ticket Number: #907 from Bellbowrie, QLD 3RD PRIZE WINNER Ticket Number: #5773 from Deepdene, VIC 4TH PRIZE WINNER Ticket Number: #3713 from Kiama, NSW. All winners have been notified. Congratulations to the winners and thank you to everyone who supported our Christmas raffle.
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RELIGION

Nancy Pelosi and the problem of the pro-choice Catholic politician
- Bill Uren
- 08 December 2022
20 Comments
Nancy Pelosi recently announced her retirement as leader of the Democratic Party in the House of Representatives, proclaiming that she was a wife, a mother, a grandmother, and a devout Catholic. Yet citing her support for pro-choice on abortion, the archbishop of her home archdiocese of San Francisco has forbidden her access to Holy Communion. So, the question remains: what sort of moral reasoning could Mrs Pelosi invoke to support her pro-choice stance?
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AUSTRALIA

How traditional owners won court battle against gas giant Santos
- Binoy Kampmark
- 08 December 2022
3 Comments
Dennis Tipakalippa, a Manupi elder, insisted that he and fellow elders were not consulted over the environmental plan developed by Santos for the Barossa Gas Project off the Tiwi Islands. The Federal Court agreed, finding that Santos had not identified or consulted relevant traditional owners.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Rioting on the equinox
- John Bartlett
- 08 December 2022
so across this bridge of days / lurks a hollowed-out light / picking over the shattered glass of streets / a day when sun / apportions out / this impartial / where the cut & paste / the haste / of swallows is knitting up / all the available light.
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AUSTRALIA

All the world is a stage
- Andrew Hamilton
- 08 December 2022
Once protests would have found expression in powerfully argued and persuasively delivered speeches. Now people look less to the power and skill of the words and more to the gestures in which they are embodied. This precedence given to performative language over deliberative language deserves reflection.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Intimations of immortality
- Gillian Bouras
- 06 December 2022
8 Comments
The child, Wordsworth thought, is able to witness the divine in nature, but gradually this ability fades. Whereas once everything seemed apparelled in celestial light/ the glory and the freshness of a dream, four stanzas end with the questions Whither is fled the visionary gleam? Where is it now, the glory and the dream? We know this development happens to us all.
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RELIGION

The Plenary Council is dead, long live the Synod of Bishops
- John Warhurst
- 06 December 2022
3 Comments
The Synod of Bishops, to which all People of God in Australia have now had their attention redirected after the Plenary Council, is another gigantic exercise in consultation and discernment undertaken by the Church. The possibilities for progress are inspiring, but also hedged around by enormous pressures of time and capacity. In a sense it is the Plenary Council writ large.
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AUSTRALIA

Humanity on display
- Michael McVeigh
- 05 December 2022
1 Comment
I certainly don’t blame anyone for ignoring or boycotting the World Cup; there are plenty of reasons for doing so. But despite efforts of people behind the scenes to focus attention solely on the pitch, if you do pay attention, there are human stories on display, worth your time.
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Vol 32 No 24