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Keywords: Compassion

  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    The burden of hope in Charlotte Wood's Stone Yard Devotional

    • Juliette Hughes
    • 17 November 2023

    Stone Yard Devotional is a chronicle of a huge problem in our time: the sense of futility in all our efforts to amend. Wood may make us think, because despair is a constant stalker of the bravest of warriors against the destruction of the planet and the chronic toll of human evil. When compassion becomes a disabling burden, who or what can help?   

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Backwards to go forwards

    • Barry Gittins
    • 16 November 2023
    6 Comments

    How should our nation reckon with its colonial history and its lasting impact on contemporary society? From the stark realities of early settlement to the enduring legacies of injustice towards Indigenous peoples, this piece explores what it means for a country to grapple with its identity amidst a backdrop of change.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Borderline and beyond

    • Neil Jeyasingam
    • 08 November 2023
    7 Comments

    Personality disorders — especially Borderline Personality Disorder — are both ubiquitous and enigmatic, with Borderline cases alone occupying nearly half the beds in the nation's mental health wards. New therapies offer hope, but also cast light on the human need to be seen and understood.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    The balance of compassion

    • David Halliday
    • 30 October 2023
    3 Comments

    The Hamas attacks on civilians posed a profound ethical conundrum for some. And it’s been sad to see progressives, who have for years sympathised with the plight of the Palestinian people and followed the actions of hard-line Israeli governments with dismay, attempting to downplay or rationalise the brutality of Hamas. Must empathy for one tragedy necessarily diminish compassion for another?

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Avoiding the blame game

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 16 October 2023
    13 Comments

    When tragedies unfurl, the rush to apportion fault often overshadows the lives that hang in the balance. It's worth remembering the multi-faceted nature of tragedy, and the human costs behind the headlines. Every story, much like life itself, demands understanding, compassion, and the commitment to build harmonious bonds in the face of adversity.

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  • EDUCATION

    A tale of two school systems

    • Sarah Klenbort
    • 11 October 2023
    9 Comments

    Parents face a complex choice: public or private schooling? Overcrowded public classrooms contrast with well-funded private institutions, revealing inequalities in educational resources. Australia's educational landscape reveals not just a tale of two school systems but the underlying values and priorities of a nation.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Hardened criminals and hardened hearts

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 21 September 2023

    In a better world, people who seek protection in Australia and people removed from prison would not be detained in the same detention centres. But the grounds for differential treatment are not based on the difference between guilty and innocent people; between asylum seekers and 'hardened criminals'. Both groups are worthy of respect and compassion. 

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  • AUSTRALIA

    The Robodebt reckoning

    • Mark Gaetani
    • 02 August 2023
    5 Comments

    Despite causing despair and even leading to lives lost, those who orchestrated Robodebt from 2015 to 2019 appear unrepentant. Yet one fact remains unchallenged: this scheme lays bare a troubling disregard for the dignity of the most vulnerable in society.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Three steps back and one step forward: Three decades of asylum seekers in Australia

    • Kerry Murphy
    • 28 July 2023

    How has Australia's asylum seeker policy changed over the past thirty years? The approach of every government has reflected the shifting political landscapes and challenging humanitarian issues that have continually shaped Australia's response to those seeking refuge. 

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Myths peddling the cycles of cruelty to children

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 27 July 2023
    6 Comments

    In a society quick to categorize children as either good or bad, reform efforts seem caught in a cyclical battle. Children often fall victim to these broad definitions, especially those from disadvantaged groups. What factors cause these cycles of progress and relapse, and how can lasting reform be achieved? 

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  • AUSTRALIA

    The cost of automated welfare

    • David Halliday
    • 17 July 2023

    In the aftermath of the Robodebt scandal, an unsettling public apathy has emerged. Beyond exposing the pitfalls of automated welfare and demanding accountability, the response — or lack thereof — spotlights a worrying indifference towards the disenfranchised.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Who tells your story?

    • Barry Gittins
    • 11 July 2023
    2 Comments

    From our most cherished childhood memories to the hard-won wisdom of our adult years, stories are the threads that bind us together, the tapestries that shape our identities. But who gets to tell these stories, and how are they preserved for future generations?

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