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The organisers of the WYD opening mass did not attempt to integrate Australian elements into the mass, but included them as added extras. The ritual structure of the mass requires creativity to make it connect with different audiences.
It was easy to find the centre of the blast .. an eternity of razed houses, a stony desert .. dead soil, waiting for rain .. I write home often. My letters are cheerful.
This week's international conference in Dublin has agreed on a draft treaty to ban cluster bombs. The Rudd Government has become the bad guy, by ensuring the 'smart bombs' purchased by the former Howard Government were excluded from the treaty.
The abuse of children in remote communities has been the catalyst for revising romantic notion of land rights and self-determination. 2020 summiteers were allowed to dream and strategise about closing gaps while wondering how best to recognise the enduring rights of indigenous Australians.
We are part of a crowd walking slowly down to the river bank to watch the fireworks. People smile at me, because I am not one of them. I can appreciate this part of their culture, even though I am a foreigner.
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?
In the past, Australia has produced a number of theologians and biblical scholars of international standing. But the future is bleak, with 37 per cent intending to retire within five years. Structural rationalisation must start now.
Australia has ceased to believe in a rules-based international order. Our increasing cynicism about the UN, and participation in coalitions with powerful world players, effectively denies our sovereignty. Rudd Government foreign policy would would need to involve more than fine-tuning.
The press coverage of Iraq’s surprise victory in the Asian Cup final was — as Ernst Bloch might have put it — full of utopian sentiment. The win was, admittedly, a remarkable achievement, but one that hardly accounted for the sheer exuberance of the outpoured emotion that followed.
Poems by Heather Matthew.
The proliferation of flags, the singing of national anthems, and the desire to make Anzac Day emblematic of Australian values, all diminish the real humanity of those who have died, in order to allow another generation to inflate its image of itself.
The Prime Minister has used myths surrounding Gallipoli and racial politics to tap into our felt, but barely understood, craving for belonging. The tenuous nature of our sense of community make us susceptible to the fear campaigns that have dominated Australian politics over the past decade.