Welcome to Eureka Street

back to site
Forgot your password?
Subscribe

Keywords: Curiosity

  • AUSTRALIA

    Conversations with refugees in PNG

    • Joshua Lourensz
    • 19 November 2019
    5 Comments

    'Refugees/not refugees — here it is all the same,' a man tells me with a shrug. There seems to be both recognition of the impossibility of the situation for all who have been left here — but also an attitude that no one should be left behind.

    READ MORE
  • INTERNATIONAL

    Australia's true relationship with Timor-Leste

    • Sophie Raynor
    • 09 September 2019
    13 Comments

    Australia’s priority is clear: self-protection at all costs, no matter the sacrifice required of Timor-Leste. And it’s a theme that continues today: Australia’s neighbourly relationship with Timor-Leste remains one of taking anything it can, not of sharing like friends.  

    READ MORE
  • INTERNATIONAL

    The politics and ethics of the moon landing

    • Binoy Kampmark
    • 23 July 2019
    5 Comments

    In 1964, sociologist Amitai Etzioni noted the misgivings of the scientific fraternity to the space program. The effort risked losing perspective. An 'extrovert activism' had taken old, obsessed with gadgets, 'rocket-powered jumps' and escapism. In terms of budgetary expenditure, this showed, with NASA spending $28 billion between 1960-73.

    READ MORE
  • RELIGION

    Jack baptised himself

    • Julie Perrin
    • 16 July 2019
    10 Comments

    The first time Jack came to the church he baptised himself. The font was new, the water inviting, and he dunked his ten-year-old head right in. The font had recently been installed in the foyer on a sculpted piece of redgum. The brief for the designers was to make it accessible to all ages. They were delighted to hear of its instant appeal.

    READ MORE
  • ENVIRONMENT

    Big solutions to climate despair

    • Greg Foyster
    • 19 June 2019
    8 Comments

    People are lacking inspiration and courage. So right now, what we need is a solution as big as the problem we're trying to solve, and the best idea on the table is a 'Green New Deal' that combines action on climate change with tackling inequality.

    READ MORE
  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    This bus is a TARDIS

    • Julie Perrin
    • 19 May 2019
    8 Comments

    It wouldn't take much for an accident to happen, for things to fall apart. But today we have the kindly and calm Bus Driver. He wants the bus to do its job, to move as many people as possible on this afternoon when there is only one train line open, where the street is thick with footy crowds.

    READ MORE
  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    The iMirror

    • Damian Balassone
    • 24 April 2019

    To google yourself is the gravest of errors / Your screen is replaced by the mirror of terrors.

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    Philistine invasion is cringe-worthy indeed

    • Brian Matthews
    • 17 December 2018
    7 Comments

    Simon Birmingham's recent vetoing of 11 humanities research projects is a good example of cultural cringe's transmutation into populist philistinism. Scientific research projects are often more opaque to the uninitiated than humanities projects but are usually safe from ignorant criticism because their importance is assumed.

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    Deciding to disclose an invisible disability

    • Fiona Murphy
    • 27 November 2018
    6 Comments

    Most people don't realise that I am deaf unless I tell them. My deafness is invisible. I don't wear hearing aids and my voice (though distinct enough to prompt people to ask 'where are you from?') isn't a typical deaf voice. Every day I make small calculations, assessing every interaction to determine if I need to reveal that I have a disability.

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    Nauru children: Why did we wait so long?

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 03 November 2018
    11 Comments

    To distant observers the hesitation and delay are hard to understand. They ask how it is possible to look on idle and unmoved at children in despair when you are in a position to address the causes of their despair. What is it that enables us to pass by damaged children, untroubled? The answer may lie in the quality of our moral imagination.

    READ MORE
  • INTERNATIONAL

    Ireland's Brexit troubles

    • Rachel Woodlock
    • 02 November 2018
    4 Comments

    It is the ordinary people — the pensioners on trollies, the sick interminably waiting on ever-increasing lists, the patients being treated in understaffed hospitals — who will truly suffer from Brexit's immediate body shocks to an already frail healthcare system decimated by years of austerity funding cuts.

    READ MORE
  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Stories that can save your life

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 31 October 2018
    5 Comments

    McGirr's reflection on the callowness of racist attitudes in Australia is deepened by Conrad's novel, which describes a white man's journey into the centre of black Africa to search for an acquaintance. But it also explores the river of exploitation that connects the Nile to the Thames, and situates the heart of darkness in Europe.

    READ MORE