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Author: Michele Frankeni

  • INTERNATIONAL

    A little more conversation a little less action

    • Michele Frankeni
    • 17 April 2023

    Dutch supermarket chain Jumbo has introduced 'Kletskassa' or 'chat checkouts' for customers who want a little conversation with the cashier. In today's automated world, where human interactions are increasingly impersonal, small moments of human connection can make a big difference in combatting loneliness in our communities.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Happy International Women's Day

    • Michele Frankeni
    • 15 March 2023

    International Women's Day highlighted progress and setbacks for women's rights, with stories of unequal pay, abuse, and education denial. Education and literacy are vital to gender equality, but global access is still limited. As we celebrate the journey towards gender equality, let's remember the distance that remains.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Saying goodbye

    • Michele Frankeni
    • 07 February 2023
    1 Comment

    When she felt she could not fulfil her duties as a leader with the energy and commitment that it required, Jacinda Ardern stepped away from the job. She made a point of saying that though there will be speculation about her walking away, it was nothing more complicated than the job required more commitment than she felt able to bring.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Eureka Street person of the year

    • David Halliday, Michael McVeigh, Laura Kings, Michele Frankeni, Andrew Hamilton, Julian Butler
    • 21 December 2022
    2 Comments

    To close the year for Eureka Street, the editorial team wanted to nominate who we considered to be the Eureka Street ‘person of the year’ based on who we think somehow embody Eureka Street values.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Breaking with bad programming

    • Michele Frankeni
    • 28 November 2022

    Does it matter that the Midsomer episode that has me so exercised didn’t mention attempted rape? After all, the guy was charged with murder — perhaps a more serious charge? And it is only a TV program for heaven’s sake. But even though occurring on a TV program, to not call out attempted rape is to trivialise it.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Three-lie leeway

    • Michele Frankeni
    • 24 October 2022

    How do we go from insisting our children tell the truth, even if it leads to punishment for breaking rules, to casually accepting a lack of veracity from societal ‘leaders’? Why in this age of social media when the mildest of heterodox comments cause a storm of protest do blatant untruths cause not even a ripple? 

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Stray thoughts: Remembering times past

    • Michele Frankeni
    • 20 September 2022

    Out of the blue I was sent a photograph that is nearly 40 years old. Why did this photograph trigger a wave of nostalgia? For me, nostalgia is not something to be sneered at as a longing to return to a forgotten past, but rather respected for allowing us to reflect on remembered joys.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Stray thoughts: Going doolally over a box of fluffies

    • Michele Frankeni
    • 16 August 2022
    1 Comment

    Headlines in print (newspapers and magazines) have some heavy lifting to do. They need to convey the essence of the story in as few words as possible, be enticing and hopefully be funny, clever or both. In traditional news terms, you should know what the story says from the heading, intro and first paragraph. However, the funny thing about being funny (especially with word play) is you’re assuming your audience knows the same things you do.

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  • RELIGION

    Stray thoughts: On using our talents

    • Michele Frankeni
    • 12 July 2022
    1 Comment

    Last week at the Plenary Council Second Assembly, it seems many of Australia’s bishops, for whatever reason, wanted to bury the talents available to them. They voted down motions related to the equality of dignity between men and women. The reaction according to commentators was visceral with members, not just women, upset and angry. It is likely the anger was more potent for the fact that the motions had become so anodyne that many assembly members are probably regretting the parsing and pruning. 

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  • RELIGION

    Stray thoughts: On pronouns

    • Michele Frankeni
    • 14 June 2022
    2 Comments

    On social media, business cards and the bottom of emails nowadays you will often find a bracket with people’s preferred pronouns (he/him or she/her or they/them). Without fanfare, gender neutrality has slipped into our 21st century speech and our unconscious, and it is only when we are confronted with the gender specific language that we realise how we’ve changed. 

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    The war in Ukraine: A Roundtable

    • Andrew Hamilton, David Halliday, Michele Frankeni, Stewart Braun
    • 19 May 2022
    5 Comments

    We are now three months into the Ukraine war. From an invasion it has turned into a war of attrition that has cost many lives, displaced civilians, destroyed cities, and led to sanctions and the making of alliances with effects that have spread suffering far beyond Ukraine. In this Roundtable, Andrew Hamilton SJ, David Halliday, Michele Frankeni and Dr Stewart Braun explore the ethics of the war and likely paths to peace.  

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    The day my phone turned on me

    • Michele Frankeni
    • 28 October 2019
    3 Comments

    Lately my phone has been leading me down some dark paths. The algorithms have become skewed and it has become a lot more conservative. I cannot pinpoint when the change occurred. Was it that time I clicked on the Australian? But how does that account for the links to sites that laud Steve Bannon and question the Pope?

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