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Keywords: Earthquake

  • AUSTRALIA

    The sinister side of African Aid

    • Ellena Savage
    • 23 November 2012
    5 Comments

    The picture disturbed me: a small child, my own age, sitting beside an infant on the stoop of a simple wooden house with a dirt floor. I cried at their hopelessness, and my helplessness. The point was to make Australian kids aware of their economic privilege. But I wonder if it also made us believe in the weakness of others. 

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    A day in the life of a nun

    • Gillian Bouras
    • 03 October 2012
    6 Comments

    The convent has a history of catastrophe at the hands of invaders like the Franks and the Turks, not to mention the earthquake of 1986 and fires of 2007. There are now only two nuns in buildings designed to hold 100. One announces that she would rather someone plunged a dagger in her heart than be forced to leave.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Racist massacre in the Dominican pigmentocracy

    • Jeremy Tarbox
    • 01 October 2012
    9 Comments

    A Dominican drivers license specifies skin colour: white, light, dark, almost black or black. 'Black' likely brands the holder as a poor and inferior Haitian. Understanding this pigmentocracy is especially relevant now, on the 75th anniversary of the worst peace time human rights abuse of civilians in the Americas during the 20th century.

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  • ENVIRONMENT

    Warm bums and nuclear activism in Tokyo

    • Ellena Savage
    • 11 May 2012
    6 Comments

    I took the train into central Tokyo, my bum warmed by the heated seats. Each time we stopped, the train's engine shut down briefly, and the bum heater switch off for a few seconds. Over the loudspeaker I heard 'Setsuden chu', the catchphrase meaning 'We're currently using less electricity', which is posted all around the city.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Kony collared by the sound of a million Tweets

    • Michael McVeigh
    • 12 March 2012
    7 Comments

    No matter how many people in the West sign on to the viral campaign, bringing Joseph Kony to justice is a complicated prospect. Yet what's most fascinating and exciting about the campaign is the way it has united people behind a single moral purpose.

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  • MEDIA

    Reality trumps Japanese horror stories

    • Stephen Alomes
    • 23 August 2011
    7 Comments

    All too often anxiety trumps reality. In Melbourne in recent years, we received emails from friends overseas worried that we might be affected by the Queensland floods or NSW bushfires, hundreds of kilometres away. Japan has problems, but Japan it is not a disaster zone.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Forgiving Japan

    • Zac Alstin
    • 23 June 2011
    27 Comments

    The disasters in Japan early this year left scenes of destruction reminiscent of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Australian experiences of Japanese wartime cruelty have never been forgotten or forgiven. But the problems are not all on the Japanese side.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Rebuilding Japan

    • Jack de Groot
    • 23 March 2011
    2 Comments

    As airstrikes are launched against Libya, controversy grows around Australia's detention centres, and NSW prepares for its election, Japan will inevitably slip off our news radar. The rebuilding work of grassroots agencies will continue for years to come.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Earthquakes, poets and God

    • Michael Mullins
    • 21 March 2011
    13 Comments

    Most of us vehemently reject claims such as that made by FoxNews' Glen Beck, that the Japan earthquake was the work of a vengeful God. In his Quarterly Essay last week, David Malouf gives a nuanced reading of the position that Beck has bastardised.

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  • RELIGION

    Japan's gods of nature

    • Catherine Marshall
    • 21 March 2011
    5 Comments

    In Japan's relief centres and obliterated streets, there is no news of looting or violence, no shouts of blame, no demands for immediate evacuation and coronial inquests. 'Shinto is a nature religion,' says my guide Yoshiko. 'We give thanks to everything we have.'

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Japan's nuclear distortion

    • Brian Vale
    • 15 March 2011
    7 Comments

    Many Japanese don't trust officials connected to the nuclear power industry because previous radiation leaks were denied or downplayed. It is difficult for those caught in the current disaster to know how to interpret statements from officials using phrases such as 'acceptable levels of radiation' and 'no immediate threat'.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Christchurch's reasonable hope

    • Sande Ramage
    • 23 February 2011
    5 Comments

    Unreasonable hope is when we think God will save Christchurch, or that anything is going to be the same again. Reasonable hope means we become realistic, sensible and moderate, directing our attention to what is within reach.

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