Eureka Street

Keywords: Africa

INTERNATIONAL

Born to rule and crowned in prison
- Andrew Hamilton
- 14 July 2022
3 Comments
The leaders of the past are often referred to as a measuring stick for evaluating the present. Australian prime ministers are routinely compared to John Curtin or Robert Menzies. This coming week calls to mind another leader against whom we might measure others. July 18 marks Mandela Day, an annual international day in honour of Nelson Mandela, the first Black President of South Africa. Mandela had the quality, rare today, of being born to rule.
READ MORE
AUSTRALIA

Deliver us from our necessities
- Andrew Hamilton
- 16 June 2022
After the Election media focus has now switched from the fresh personalities and style of the new Government to the difficulties that face it. These include the financial pressures created by heavy debt and inflation, the constraints imposed by pledges made before the election, an energy crisis, international conflicts and their effects on trade, and differences within the Party. Faced by such challenges the Government is unlikely to be able to fulfil its promises and its supporters’ hopes.
READ MORE
RELIGION

Roe vs Wade: The Bishops’ dilemma
- Miles Pattenden
- 26 May 2022
19 Comments
News leaked earlier this month that the US Supreme Court plans to overturn its most famous decision, that in Roe vs Wade (1973) which protects a pregnant woman's freedom to choose to have an abortion without excessive government restriction. The decision has attracted much criticism both in the past and now on account of its dubious legal reasoning – in particular, its attempt to link the right to abort to a right to privacy which itself was notional and not specified in the US Constitution.
READ MORE
INTERNATIONAL

Let slip the dogs of war: A tale of futility and bloody-mindedness
- Dorothy Horsfield
- 22 March 2022
8 Comments
Moscow-based Director of the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC)Dr Andrei Kortunov warned of its tragic consequences for Russia in an article published four days before the launch of his country’s invasion of Ukraine. The de facto partition of Ukraine, he said, as a result of the Kremlin’s recognition of the independence of the People’s Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk, will signify ‘the final formalisation of the division of Europe’ from which there may be no easy retreat.
READ MORE
INTERNATIONAL

The Russian view on Ukraine: An international law perspective
- Justin Glyn
- 07 March 2022
26 Comments
Ukraine, a site of conflict over many centuries, is once again the scene of battle. First thoughts must be with the civilian population and Pope Francis’ call for prayer is probably the most practical course for most of us far from the action. Unfortunately, while it is clear that there have been casualties, both military and civilian, on both sides, the fog of war makes it very difficult to say more.
READ MORE
ARTS AND CULTURE

Philosophy as a tin opener
- Andrew Hamilton
- 10 February 2022
16 Comments
My ambivalence about philosophy came from my placing a high value on reason and its desire to test its own limits, but simultaneously being inherently suspicious of reasons. They are the stuff out of which the tin-soldiers of isms are created and so often used to patrol the fence that separates acceptable from unacceptable thought.
READ MORE
AUSTRALIA

Does the 'Let it Rip' approach have a eugenics problem?
- Justin Glyn
- 27 January 2022
12 Comments
In the early part of the twentieth century, Francis Galton (a cousin of Charles Darwin) used the latter’s work to argue that human breeding stock could be improved. He would weed out the weakest and the less able and produce a sturdier race. Until recently, the crematoria of Hitler’s death camps were enough to remind most that this was not an idea consonant with actual human flourishing.
READ MORE
INTERNATIONAL

The thawing of a frozen conflict
- Justin Glyn
- 30 November 2021
8 Comments
Global warming, much in the news of late, has been accompanied by another unwelcome thaw. The ‘frozen conflict’ in the East of Ukraine between a Western-backed, Ukrainian nationalist government and Russian-speaking rebels with cultural affinity with Moscow, has been heating up alarmingly.
READ MORE
INTERNATIONAL

Outgrowing apartheid: FW de Klerk
- Binoy Kampmark
- 23 November 2021
51 Comments
The passing of South Africa’s last apartheid president, FW de Klerk, raises pressing questions about a complex historical character who, according to his brother, Willem de Klerk, slowly outgrew apartheid. In a critical sense, he was bound, understandably, by both time and context: race, the need to defend a racial hierarchy, the historical role of a segregationist system that saw his all-white National Party retain power for decades.
READ MORE
RELIGION

Seats at the table: Incorporating diverse identities in a global church
- Michael Furtado
- 11 November 2021
101 Comments
Every Australian diocese and parish already has its particular subcultural identity that inflects its liturgy. Celebration, being the authentic hallmark of a liturgy that reflects identity, must keep pace with a theology that also incorporates the diverse cultural space that the young inhabit.
READ MORE
INTERNATIONAL

In the shadow of SIEV-X
- Binoy Kampmark
- 01 November 2021
38 Comments
Two decades ago, an Indonesian vessel given the name SIEV X sank with loss of life that should have caused a flood of tears and a surge of compassion. Instead of being seen in humanitarian terms, the deaths of 353 people became a form of rich political capital, placed in the bank of opportunism to be amortised at a federal election.
READ MORE
INTERNATIONAL

Booster bandits and booster jabs
- Binoy Kampmark
- 14 October 2021
13 Comments
With the world clearly divided between those vaccinated against COVID-19 and those who are not, ethicists, public health specialists and politicians have become more preoccupied by the prospect of booster shots.
READ MORE

page:

49-60 out of 120 results.

Subscriber login

Keywords: Africa