Welcome to Eureka Street

back to site
Forgot your password?
Subscribe

Keywords: Dissent

  • AUSTRALIA

    Knowing the needs of refugees

    • Susan Metcalfe
    • 27 June 2012
    22 Comments

    It should be mandatory for anyone writing on asylum seekers to spend time visiting detention centres. Many commentators ignore the hard work of those who have. Moreover the politicians are too poll driven to even explain the human desperation that leads to boat journeys.

    READ MORE
  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Gay Christians' church trauma

    • Tim Kroenert
    • 12 April 2012
    23 Comments

    'God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve,' quips the pastor from the pulpit. The congregation finds this hilarious, but not young gay Christian Ben, who feels secretly shamed. Later, when a string of Christian counselling programs fail to 'heal' his homosexuality, Ben takes to his wrists with a razor blade.

    READ MORE
  • MEDIA

    Syria's hopeless democracy dream

    • Ruby Hamad
    • 14 October 2011
    8 Comments

    My family belongs to the same Alawite religious minority as beleagured Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. There are great and legitimate fears that Assad's downfall will result, not in democracy, but in civil war and large-scale massacres of minorities, including the Alawites.

    READ MORE
  • RELIGION

    Religious groups and the Bill of Rights debate

    • Frank Brennan
    • 18 July 2011

    Speech given by Fr Frank Brennan SJ at the 'Law and Religion: Legal Regulation of Religious Groups, Organisations and Communities' Conference Dinner in Melbourne on 15 July 2011.

    READ MORE
  • MEDIA

    Media gag silences asylum seekers

    • Jo Coghlan
    • 27 June 2011
    19 Comments

    Officially, the ban on journalists interviewing or filming asylum seekers in detention is for the detainees' protection. But it also stops them from sharing their stories with the public. Surely asylum seekers are capable of determining who is and is not acting in their best interests.

    READ MORE
  • MEDIA

    Blogs and monsters

    • Fatima Measham
    • 10 June 2011
    2 Comments

    In declaring internet access a human right, the UN's special rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression insisted that the internet must be maintained at all times 'including during times of political unrest'. He could have said 'especially'.

    READ MORE
  • ENVIRONMENT

    Cardinal Pell's climate hot air

    • Tim Stephens
    • 20 May 2011
    79 Comments

    The difficulty is not his privately-held heterodox views on climate change, but that Australia's most senior Catholic clergyman vigorously advances a position that could be interpreted as a statement of the official stance of the Catholic Church in Australia. 

    READ MORE
  • INTERNATIONAL

    China's 'incremental' democracy

    • Mark Chou
    • 27 January 2011
    8 Comments

    Last week's media coverage of Chinese President Hu Jintao's Washington visit focused on Senator Harry Reid's offhand remarks. Reid called Hu is a 'dictator', describing his government as 'different' to that of the US. But China is on a path towards a form of democracy that may be no less democratic than many western nations.

    READ MORE
  • EDUCATION

    Education in a post-WikiLeaks world

    • Fatima Measham
    • 15 December 2010
    6 Comments

    The National Curriculum has sparked passionate debate. An enlightened society upholds that its young people are more than just future workers; they are human beings first. Unfortunately, it is easier to generate data for the knowledge and skills that we expect of future workers.

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    WikiLeaks and artistic freedom in China

    • Tony Smith
    • 14 December 2010
    6 Comments

    While WikiLeaks' exposures of US government secrets have created a media storm, the case of Chinese Artist Ai Weiwei, which reveals much about the authorities in China, has attracted little comment. China has moved towards capitalism but not democracy.

    READ MORE
  • RELIGION

    Reconciling religion, politics and human rights

    • Frank Brennan
    • 04 November 2010
    15 Comments

    Cardinal Pell, with whom I have voiced disagreement, preached superbly at the mass of thanksgiving after the canonisation of Mary MacKillop. 'She does not deter us from struggling to follow her.' As we wrestle with the common good, let's make a place for all our fellow citizens.

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    France shows Australia how to protest

    • Bronwyn Lay
    • 26 October 2010
    6 Comments

    In Australia a mass strike is unimaginable. The bureaucratic hoops required before a strike can be considered a legal 'protected action' are Kafkaesque. Therefore strikes have become small, localised and limited to issues of contractual entitlements.

    READ MORE
Join the conversation. Sign up for our free weekly newsletter  Subscribe