Search Results: hurricane
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ARTS AND CULTURE
- Barry Gittins and Jen Vuk
- 06 June 2014
2 Comments
When journalist and activist Barbara Ehrenreich was a young woman she came face to face 'with something vast, terrifying and unknowable'. We mustn't take for granted the courage this admission took coming from such a committed atheist. While noting science can 'dismiss anomalous 'mystical' experiences', she wrestles her discontent into submission by boldly declaring that it 'is not unscientific to search for what may not be there'.
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AUSTRALIA
- Jim McDermott
- 08 November 2012
29 Comments
In recent weeks the US Catholic bishops insisted letters be read at Mass pushing congregations to vote Republican. That approach has been repudiated twice now. At some point they would be wise to reconsider their approach. A voice in the wilderness has its place, but so does reasoned, respectful discourse.
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AUSTRALIA
- Tony Kevin
- 01 November 2012
9 Comments
If citizens of other nations could vote, it should be Obama by a mile! Outsiders are perplexed by polling that suggests a cliffhanger in the contest between the incumbent Obama and the Republican compromise candidate Romney. The issues – many of which are vital for Australia – are clear, but the outcome is not.
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ARTS AND CULTURE
- Tim Kroenert
- 13 September 2012
It is often the poor who suffer most in a disaster. When the polar ice caps melt, rising seawaters flood an impoverished southern American bayou town. The survivors destroy a dam that keeps the nearby city dry and their village flooded. The indictment here of the prosperous West is hard to miss.
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INTERNATIONAL
- Ben Fraser
- 28 September 2010
4 Comments
Amid the horror and gloom there have been moments of inspiration in the flood crisis that have largely gone unreported. While they warmly accept the staples of relief, they know through a history of crippling food insecurity and mass displacement that they are masters of their own destiny.
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ENVIRONMENT
- Maryanne Loughry
- 24 November 2009
6 Comments
Visiting Kiribati and Tuvalu it is obvious that both populations are dealing
with overcrowding, unemployment, poverty, pollution, and modernisation.
Climate change is a driver for some of these stressors as well as a
multiplier of their effects.
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RELIGION
- Andrew Hamilton
- 06 May 2009
15 Comments
An American priest reportedly claimed that swine flu was God's punishment for sin. The idea that God might use natural disasters to punish people is repugnant. But at first glance the Scriptures do seem to represent God as doing just that.
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AUSTRALIA
- Michael Mullins
- 09 March 2009
The Victorian bushfires occurred during a time of financial uncertainty, but Australians gave their money generously. It was as if they were consciously and calculatingly investing their funds in the solidarity of the community.
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ECONOMICS
- Les Coleman
- 22 October 2008
3 Comments
Circumstantial evidence suggests that during the past few weeks we have seen a massive manipulation of monetary policy to support US bank stocks. The manipulation has been played out in plain view, which, of course, is the best place to hide a secret.
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RELIGION
- Andrew Hamilton
- 08 August 2007
2 Comments
This year marks the centenary of the birth of Pedro Arrupe, the Basque Jesuit who worked in Japan and later became the Jesuits' Superior General. He was present at Hiroshima on 6 August 6 1945, the day on which the atomic bomb was dropped.
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ENVIRONMENT
- Tim Thwaites
- 27 February 2007
In the past six months, climate change has gone from an idea which may have some future relevance to something which is already happening around us. Each region of the world seems to have had its own epiphany over climate change.
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ARTS AND CULTURE
- Tim Kroenert
- 18 September 2006
Despite the bleak prognosis, An Inconvenient Truth is an optimistic film. Al Gore is no doomsday prophet, but an engaging orator who believes humans can change to meet the threat posed by global warming.
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