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Keywords: Pessimism

  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Curing Kerouac's misogyny

    • Tim Kroenert
    • 27 September 2012
    2 Comments

    The book is essentially misogynistic. Women are objects of hedonistic possibilities in the same way that drugs are. Even the Kerouac figure Sal's self-deprecating account of failing to impress a virginal lover manages to marginalise the woman in question. The film seeks to rectify this by giving flesh to its female characters.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    My refugeeness

    • Kim Huynh
    • 17 November 2010
    7 Comments

    My father would harbour a modern sense of can-do-ism and irreverence for tradition throughout his life. It was his vision of a new and better world along with the conviction that his sons had no future in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, that drove us on to that horribly overcrowded boat in 1979.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Inside the student politics bughouse

    • Ellena Savage
    • 10 September 2010
    1 Comment

    University student unions are cesspools of toxicity, sociopathy and tedium. I should know — I'm a student politician. In his latest novel, Chaser alumnus Dominic Knight strikes a balance between sardonic parody and genuine reverence for those whose political conviction outweighs their pessimism.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Tasmanian Church's reverse missionaries solution

    • Tim Kroenert
    • 03 June 2010
    23 Comments

    The Nigerian priests are disturbed that many Australian Catholic parents send their children to Catholic school but not to Mass. The structured religious lives of children in Nigeria mean that one seminary has had to restrict its intake numbers to 90 per year.

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  • ENVIRONMENT

    Australian farmers sold short by cheap food

    • Sarah Kanowski
    • 09 March 2010
    10 Comments

    Throughout his 2007 election campaign Rudd pledged to address 'inflated grocery prices'. But Australians are spending less at the supermarket than ever before. Cheap food has come at a cost to the livelihoods of Australian farmers and the environment.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Dogs at risk in Rudd's 'big Australia'

    • Michael Mullins
    • 26 October 2009
    11 Comments

    Kevin Rudd last week talked up population growth, saying he 'believes in a big Australia'. But we are not well placed to deal with the environmental challenges of a population of 35 million. Road use and pet ownership are among the many aspects of our lifestyle that will need careful evaluation.

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  • EUREKA STREET TV

    Reasons for optimism in Israel and Palestine

    • Peter Kirkwood
    • 28 August 2009
    3 Comments

    Members of the Interreligious Coordinating Council in Israel are remarkably sanguine about the future. Within their lifetimes, they expect peace to reign after implementation of the two state solution.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Economists and other prophets

    • Brian Matthews
    • 12 August 2009
    3 Comments

    Economists are often, sometimes spectacularly, wrong. But like all prophets, they are unabashed by and unpunished for abject failures. They pop up from each new set of ruins, surprised yet unrepentant, princes of a plethora of evanescent predictions.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Indonesia veering towards extremism

    • Peter Kirkwood
    • 07 April 2009
    9 Comments

    This week's Indonesian presidential election ought to concern Australians more than it does. If Muslim radicals gain significant influence, we will have a huge hostile neighbour just to our north.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Laziness wrong target for welfare reforms

    • Susie Byers
    • 04 March 2008
    2 Comments

    Reforms need to be proposed with an eye to compassion, providing real skills and training, and dealing with the underlying issues of racism, mental health, poverty, and education. These have a far greater impact on workforce participation than bone laziness.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Russians voting against democracy

    • Ben Coleridge
    • 12 December 2007
    1 Comment

    Russia's apathetic young people assert that even if they vote, nothing will change. They don't actually want things to change. They compare Russia with the troubled Yeltsin years. The economy and lifestyle have boomed, so why worry about free speech?

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Mark Latham's War on Everything

    • Scott Stephens
    • 14 November 2007
    2 Comments

    Perhaps the clearest indication of the underwhelming torpor that has become the defining feature of the federal election campaign, is the fact that its highlights have been provided by luminaries of Labor past — Paul Keating and Mark Latham.

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