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Author: Michael Mcveigh

  • INTERNATIONAL

    The two worlds of Eurovision

    • Michael McVeigh
    • 16 May 2024
    1 Comment

    Millions around the world tune in for Eurovision each year, making it one of the world’s most-watched non-sporting events. It’s a mess of all that is funny, camp and bizarre. And yet instead of exploring the boundaries of our collective imagination, it's often overshadowed by regional politics and conflict. 

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  • AUSTRALIA

    The paradox of 'wokeness'

    • Michael McVeigh
    • 22 April 2024
    1 Comment

    'Wokeness' is often centred around our need to understand others, particularly marginalised groups, and paradoxially, our inability to do so. The only way to overcome this problem is to find a way to transcend it – to centre our efforts on something greater. What if instead of ‘understanding’, we centre on ‘love’?

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Shifting the goalposts on discrimination and inclusion

    • Michael McVeigh
    • 28 March 2024

    How do we live and work happily together with people whose views on the world and human nature are fundamentally different to our own? Can different beliefs within organisations be lived with, or even celebrated, without necessarily undermining the organisation’s own core mission?

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Setting a higher price on democracy

    • Michael McVeigh
    • 18 March 2024

    The Federal Government looks set to bring in legislation which would make it more difficult for new candidates to put themselves forward in future elections. In a nation where more than a third of voters opted not to vote for one of the two major parties, this should concern everyone.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    On optimisation

    • Michael McVeigh
    • 12 February 2024
    1 Comment

    A coffee shop used AI technology to track and measure the activity of its employees and customers to 'optimise' team performance. Not only does this raise a slew of ethical issues, but also leads us to consider: can the human element that makes a team or business successful ever be truly quantifiable?

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Re-building the commons: In conversation with Joshua Lourensz

    • Michael McVeigh
    • 06 February 2024

    In a world that has become increasingly more divided in the aftermath of the pandemic, Executive Director of Catholic Social Services Victoria Joshua Lourensz is questioning how we might best re-develop a sense of the commons to reignite our communities and foster social responsibility?

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Fargo and reconciling debt

    • Michael McVeigh
    • 25 January 2024

    The world of Fargo, like ours, is a fallen one, and it’s clear at the end of this season that the cycle of violence will continue. But we’re also left with a strong hope that some of the characters might have found a way out of that hellish cycle of debt and restitution. And if there’s hope for them, there’s hope for us all.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Eureka Street person of the year 2023

    • David Halliday, Michael McVeigh, Laura Kings, Michele Frankeni, Andrew Hamilton, Julian Butler
    • 21 December 2023
    10 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 this year's newsmakers.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Die Hard and the impossibility of the 'perfect Christmas'

    • Michael McVeigh
    • 18 December 2023

    In December, the sprint to the end of the year is a drama of timing, perfectly illustrated in Christmas classic Die Hard: In the holiday rush, like Hans Gruber, we plot with precision. Yet life often demands we improvise like John McLane, finding the most welcome gifts of the season in the unscripted moments.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Like the dewfall

    • Michael McVeigh
    • 24 November 2023
    2 Comments

    Australia's victory in the 2023 Cricket World Cup in the face of India's home advantage is a tale of unexpected triumph. This victory goes beyond cricket, illustrating how small factors can drastically influence outcomes, leading to greater lessons on resilience and the surprising nature of grace.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Identity and attack helicopters

    • Michael McVeigh
    • 22 November 2023

    A recent image of an Israeli soldier with a Pride flag in Gaza's rubble recalls Isabel Fall's controversial story, ‘I Sexually Identify as an Attack Helicopter.’ The story and the photo both highlight how symbols of liberation can be co-opted for conflict, underscoring the need to reclaim these symbols for their original, liberating intent.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Someone's daughter, someone's son

    • Michael McVeigh
    • 15 September 2023

    As Australia's 'Yes' campaign adopts John Farnham's classic, 'You're the Voice', it prompts questions of music's role in shaping political sentiment. Amid the cacophony of contemporary politics, can this iconic tune rekindle common ground in an increasingly polarised time?

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