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Keywords: Public Space

  • AUSTRALIA

    Russia's Soviet nostalgia trip

    • Colin Long
    • 07 July 2009
    15 Comments

    It is strange to see so many symbols of the Soviet past alive and well in Russia. It is too simplistic to say this reflects nostalgia for Soviet times. Much of it is personal nostalgia. The intertwining of private and public memory is complex.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Michael Jackson's tragic gift

    • Tim Kroenert
    • 29 June 2009
    6 Comments

    When celebrities die, public grief is disproportionate, because death reasserts the humanity of one who has seemed beyond it. Jackson had become so far removed from his humanity that the shock of his mortality is even more profound.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Cousins, Chaser and the court of public morality

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 15 June 2009
    3 Comments

    What do footballers who give photographers the bird, comedians who make jokes about sick children, boat owners who bring asylum seekers to Australian shores, cooks who swear, and cricketers who drink have in common?

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Why ethnic jokes are not funny

    • Michael Mullins
    • 01 June 2009
    24 Comments

    Because we lived so long with a policy of assimilation, our ingrained racism takes time to shake. We need public policy that reasserts the principles of multiculturalism. Instead our Prime Minister is caught out making an ethnic jibe.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Matthew Johns is his own best judge

    • Michael Mullins
    • 18 May 2009
    6 Comments

    The public thinks rugby league star Matthew Johns behaved disgracefully in the 2002 Christchurch group sex incident. He has done nothing wrong in the eyes of the law. He needs to imagine that he is on his deathbed and then ask 'what would I like to have done?'

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  • RELIGION

    Confronting economic monsters

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 15 May 2009

    The public's interest in the Budget has been mild, and its disengagement notable. In the shadow of the economic crisis, there is space for deeper reflection on the human condition, which will help us understand why greed and fear so dominate in human affairs.

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  • RELIGION

    Behind the Pope's condom 'gaffe'

    • Michael Czerny
    • 05 May 2009
    2 Comments

    Abstinence and fidelity win little public support in Western discourse, but are increasingly included, even favoured, in national AIDS strategies in Africa. Culture counts, and a condom is more than a piece of latex.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    El Salvador: rise of the left

    • Rodrigo AcuÑa
    • 24 March 2009
    1 Comment

    US Republicans lobbied President Obama to impose hardships on Salvadorians livingin the US should the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front win last week's election. When the left did triumph, he did the opposite and congratulated the new leader.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Why Good Friday should not be gambled

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 19 March 2009
    12 Comments

    Arguments for preserving Good Friday are based on respect for Christians, or the benefits to society of a day free from work. Neither argument is conclusive. Perhaps it is helpful to ask, why should there be any public holidays at all?

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  • AUSTRALIA

    How G-G weakened monarchists' case

    • John Warhurst
    • 13 March 2009
    9 Comments

    Governors-General are appointed under a system that freezes out the Parliament, the Opposition and the people. The controversy over Quentin Bryce's trip to Africa has again revealed the office's vulnerability to partisan politics.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Why humans rule the world

    • Jen Vuk
    • 06 March 2009

    Science journalist Hannah Holmes turns a cool, scientific eye back on us, reminding us of our mammalian origins and bringing us down to size. 'Knobby', pink-skinned and ludicrously top heavy, our peculiarity is also the key to our success.

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  • MEDIA

    The true history of religion on Radio National

    • Paul Collins
    • 25 February 2009
    29 Comments

    The public response to the axing of The Religion Report and other specialist programs late last year by ABC Radio National management was astonishing. But the response of the ABC was abysmal. It is time to tell the whole story.

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