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Keywords: Witnesses

  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    The many sins of Brian Doyle

    • Brian Doyle
    • 16 May 2012
    11 Comments

    I missed my cousin's funeral because I had weekend plans with a girlfriend that I was not man enough to break; and this beloved cousin was a nun.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    What Australia doesn't want East Timor to know

    • Pat Walsh
    • 05 April 2012
    10 Comments

    The famine of 1977–79 cut a swathe through East Timor's civilian population. Having failed to subdue the Timorese, the Indonesian military opted to starve them out. Details from that little-understood period are contained in cables that Attorney-General Nicola Roxon has blocked from public access.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Aboriginal community ditched by church and state

    • Tim Kroenert
    • 24 November 2011
    8 Comments

    The remote community of Toomelah was a state-run Aboriginal mission with a strong church presence. A raft of social problems have emerged in place of the traditional culture that was usurped by these influences. Cultural extinction is perhaps the biggest issue facing such communities.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Mainstreaming evil

    • Michael Loughnane
    • 11 November 2011
    20 Comments

    Journalist Hannah Arendt noted that Nazi 'desk-murderer' Adolf Eichmann did not lack a moral compass — his conscience simply spoke with the 'respectable voice' of society. The case raises questions about whether we might be 'silent witnesses to evil deeds' in our society today.

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  • RELIGION

    Health and equality

    • Frank Brennan
    • 24 August 2011
    1 Comment

    'We need to break down the silo mentality between health, welfare and education. This exists in church agencies as much as elsewhere in society. We must be committed to providing first rate health care to our patients, but also to creating a more equal society.' Text from Frank Brennan's MercyCare Oration.

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  • RELIGION

    Are martyrs good role models?

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 14 July 2011
    14 Comments

    To defend the dignity of the unborn, asylum seekers, prisoners, indigenous people, enemies in war, gay people or the unemployed will invite criticism and rejection. It might be unduly dramatic to describe this as martyrdom, but the example of martyrs can encourage constancy in hard times.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Students in sex work

    • Tim Kroenert
    • 16 June 2011
    4 Comments

    In May a German study revealed that one in three students in Berlin would consider sex work as a means of paying for their education. We've seen similar phenomena in Australia. In Sleeping Beauty, Lucy is a university student who finds herself drawn into working a bizarre niche in the sex industry.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Gospel bit players

    • Philip Harvey
    • 21 April 2011
    7 Comments

    The conventional homily on the miracle of the lame man focuses on his faith and hope. But Irish poet Seamus Heaney draws attention to the faith, hope and charity of the man's friends, who will go to any trouble to help their mate in his hour of need.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Tommy's twin brother Jesus

    • Brian Doyle
    • 18 April 2011
    2 Comments

    Not one soul on that Easter morning long ago cared a whit about theological matters. They did not even care if the thin man once died and rose again. They were there for each other, out of respect and affection, and habit and custom, and because they wanted to give their children a thing they couldn't explain.

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  • ENVIRONMENT

    Sydney's crazy car culture

    • Greg Foyster
    • 06 April 2011
    14 Comments

    Before being elected Premier, Barry O'Farrell described Sydney's new 200km bike network as 'crazy' and an 'inconvenience' to motorists. Given cycling's overwhelming benefits to society, what's really crazy is O'Farrell's populist pledge to keep Sydney car-dependent into the future. 

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Best Of 2010: The thirty good priests

    • Brian Doyle
    • 04 January 2011
    2 Comments

    For every greedy evil rapacious liar priest .. there are thirty great and subtle men .. Who wake alone quite early and don their vocations .. Willingly like a thorny endlessly tumultuous prayer

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    When kids turn evil

    • Tim Kroenert
    • 07 October 2010
    2 Comments

    Lacking the wisdom of experience and anything resembling a positive adult role model, Owen is guided by a yearning for companionship and a budding adolescent libido. These are very human impulses, but no substitute for wise adult guidance or a fully formed moral compass.

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