Volume 16 No.10
08-Aug-2006
COMMUNITY
When kindness takes over from love
August 07, 2006
Jennifer Sinclair
Harold is Jennifer's father. Over the last few years, he had gradually transformed from husband to carer. He tended to his wife's ever increasing physical needs 24 hours a day until, at 78, he could cope no longer with neither the physical demands nor the emotional assault.
POLITICS
Discourse without dialogue in Australian politics
August 07, 2006
Tony Smith
Former Labor minister John Button anticipated the current low point in political discourse, with defenders and critics of government policy having lost the capacity to engage in dialogue, particularly in the field of public morality.
COMMUNITY
Simple Pleasures: Checking the rain gauge
August 07, 2006
Paul Daffey
In 1999, after a decade of noting rainfall figures for his fellow retirees, a Bureau of Meteorology representative asked Andy Ultri whether he would be interested in joining the hundreds of volunteers around Australia who record official rainfall figures for the national weather bureau.
POLITICS
Darfur's tenuous peace deal penned in blood
August 07, 2006
Ben Fraser
Since the Darfur Peace Agreement was ratified in May, the Sudanese government has variously courted, confused and harangued the international community in an apparent successful effort to create discord in the peace process.
SPIRITUALITY
Angels dance before our eyes
August 07, 2006
Andrew Hamilton
Theologians have taken fire for asking how many angels can dance on the point of a needle. The image of angels on needles may take us closer to reality than it appears.
RELIGION
Why so little moral outrage at the destruction of Lebanon?
August 07, 2006
Andrew Hamilton
Out of the passion of Lebanon, one hopeful image remains. It is the barely restrained rage of UN representative, Jan Egeland, at such unnecessary devastation. It made evident the general absence of moral passion or even reflection on the destruction in Palestine and Lebanon.
NON-FICTION
Different rememberings of the Battle of Long Tan
August 07, 2006
Christine Gillespie
It’s hard to put the dead to rest. 18 August 2006 is the 40th anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan, in which 18 Australian and more than 245 Viet Cong soldiers were killed. There’s an invitation to go to Perth where they’re naming streets in a new housing development after six soldiers who did not return.
ARCHIMEDES
When human life is not really human life
August 07, 2006
Tim Thwaites
The term 'therapeutic cloning' is unfortunate, as it has nothing to do with replicating humans. Researchers undertaking therapeutic cloning would say that the circumstances under which they stimulate human eggs to develop ensure there is no way the result could ever become a human baby.
THE AGENDA
Setbacks in the War for Simple Pleasures
August 07, 2006
Michael Mullins & James Massola
Our 'Simple Pleasures' series is not intended as light relief from the gravitas of many of the articles in Eureka Street. Instead, they ground our more serious commentaries, providing an insight into exactly what constitutes a better world for the human beings who live in it.
POLITICS
Compassion requires more courage than war
August 07, 2006
Katharina Weiss
To fight wars we have to deny our own and others’ humanity. Israeli Defence Force commander General Dan Halutz was asked about his feelings when he piloted a plane dropping bombs on people in Gaza in 2002. His reply was that he felt 'a light bump to the plane'.
POETRY
Three poems from the Centre
August 07, 2006
Juan Garrido-Salgado
Baxter, desert of long sentences / Locked up his youth / Now his eyes are broken wings
COMMUNITY
How to eat simply and well at the same time
August 07, 2006
David Sutherland
In the First World, wealthy people tend to be slim, while many of the poor are obese. This is in stark contrast to poorer countries, where body fat can be seen as a sign of prosperity and good health, and is often considered attractive.
BOOK REVIEW
Beyond the clichés of US colonisation of Australia
August 07, 2006
Michael Ashby
Denis Altman's 51st State aims to undermine the clichés associated with Australian-US Relatons, without underestimating the remorseless destruction of Australian identity, and political and business life, as well as many local norms and icons.
Murakami's elegant connection with contemporary culture
August 07, 2006
James Massola
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman is the 12th book by Haruki Murakami in English translation, and his second collection of short fiction. This collection of short stories spans Murakami’s career, from 1978 when he sold the jazz club he ran with his wife, through to 2005.
FILM REVIEW
Surface reality only in DIY TV
August 07, 2006
Tim Kroenert
DIY programs bulge with all manner of handy hints, as happy hosts clamour to offer their free-to-air advice. But scratch the surface, and even a friendly face can turn ugly on you.
Strong characters outlast cheesy moments
August 07, 2006
Tim Kroenert
Footy Legends has its share of cheesy moments, but as a tribute to working-class Australian suburbia, and a good-natured reflection on the iconic ‘little Aussie battler’, it’s a film that will move and amuse in equal parts.
More challenges than resolutions in Jindabyne
August 07, 2006
Jemma Galvin
Ray Lawrence’s Jindabyne presents more challenges than resolutions. For the questions asked in this film there are no simple answers. This is a film which cautiously reveals a grace in the honesty, pain and acceptance that can come in life, and partnership. It also intimates that there is still a darkness at the heart of this town, and of this nation.
Saint Sophie of the German resistance movement
August 07, 2006
Michael Ashby
For anybody who thinks that Germans were all willing or silent co-conspirators during the dreadful years of World War II, The Last Days of Sophie Scholl is a powerful and apparently accurate narrative of youthful martyrdom, a story that is redemptive for Germans.