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Keywords: Olympics

  • AUSTRALIA

    Planet Football's alternative world order

    • Michael Visontay
    • 11 June 2010
    3 Comments

    In the Olympics, the countries with the biggest populations win the most medals. Not in the World Cup. The United States' underdog status is one of the unifying pleasures of football fans around the world.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Winter Games cool Aussies' long hot summer

    • Michael Visontay
    • 15 February 2010
    1 Comment

    The Winter Olympics make for beautiful television — skiers hurtling down the slopes, snowboarders doing somersaults in the air, skaters dancing on the ice. Yet they occupy an unusual place in our imagination. They feel more like recreation than competitive sport.

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  • MEDIA

    China turns tables on Australia's Indian racism

    • Peter Hodge
    • 27 January 2010
    14 Comments

    When western campaigners used the Beijing Olympics to promote the Tibet issue, the Chinese felt the attention was sensationalist and unfair. So it's no surprise the Chinese media took notice when  violence against foreign students in Australia came to prominence.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Nicolaides free, but writers' persecution persists

    • Arnold Zable
    • 27 February 2009
    8 Comments

    Harry Nicolaides should never have been jailed, and his release is a cause for celebration and relief. Yet it leaves many unanswered questions about the reason for his imprisonment, and highlights the plight of many other persecuted writers.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    No ark in a firestorm

    • Moira Rayner
    • 11 February 2009
    3 Comments

    What can I do, I think, that first Sunday, other than being a nuisance at an emergency centre, or a gawker? I fall into something practical, fostering survivors' dogs and cats, and caring for bewildered companion animals who survived but whose owners didn't.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Olympic Torch a symbol of oppression

    • Michael Mullins
    • 05 January 2009
    2 Comments

    The modern Olympic torch relay was initiated by the Nazi leadership in 1936 to uphold the image of the Third Reich as a dynamic and expanding influence. Those who extinguished the Beijing torch in protest against human rights violations in Tibet recognise its origins and potency as a political symbol. (April 2008)

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Debates a sham, no argument

    • David Rosen
    • 08 October 2008
    2 Comments

    The great 1858 debates between Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas addressed slavery and the future of the union. Today's debates are a sham, excluding third-party candidates and inhibiting meaningful engagement over major issues.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Olympics a good time to start wars

    • Gillian Bouras
    • 15 August 2008
    5 Comments

    Politics is never far from the surface at the Olympics. Even at the so-called friendly Games in Melbourne in 1956, the famous 'Blood in the Water' water-polo match reflected tensions surrounding the Soviet invasion of Hungary ten days before.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Games won't tame China's internet guard dog

    • Cat Juan
    • 11 August 2008
    2 Comments

    The internet was once touted as a force for democracy. China has successfully turned this threat to its own advantage, and could show the way to other totalitarian nations.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Freedom fries not to Solzhenitsyn's taste

    • Michael Mullins
    • 11 August 2008
    1 Comment

    While he was best known for his unrelenting criticism of the Soviet system, Alexander Solzhenitsyn also provided a devastating critique of the excesses of Western capitalism.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Chinese burn for 'political' Games

    • Jeremy Clarke
    • 05 August 2008
    4 Comments

    The torch relay protests unexpectedly strengthened aggressive nationalism, as the Chinese people swung behind the government and its Olympic aspirations. Sport and politics will combine in weeks to come, making for interesting viewing.

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  • RELIGION

    Controversies forgotten amid 'boisterous' WYD celebrations

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 21 July 2008
    11 Comments

    Media coverage before a big event, be it World Youth Day or the Beijing Olympics, always focuses on defects and ideological conflict. Controversies regarding state funding and anti-annoyance laws aside, the young people celebrated WYD in their own way.

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