Eureka Street

Keywords: Elder Abuse

AUSTRALIA

What's an older person's life worth?
- Andrew Hamilton
- 24 August 2015
12 Comments
NT Health Minister John Elferink recently argued that the money spend on the health of the elderly — a million dollars for each person — would be better spent on children. Many Australian politicians and health administrators would secretly sympathise. But underlying this is the twin assumption that the life of an older person is of less value than that of someone who is younger, and that people’s value is measured by their economic contribution.
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Maintaining the humanity of the public square
- Greg O'Kelly
- 01 July 2015
3 Comments
The phrase 'the public square' is peppered throughout Frank Brennan's work. The 1988 film Cinema Paradiso depicts the public square in a Sicilian village over 30 or so years, and its slow and subtle change from a place where human beings gather to laugh, play and discuss. Billboards and garish signs appear and it becomes a car park bereft of its humanity.
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Demanding justice for the small, still voices
- Shannon and Kateena
- 12 June 2015
1 Comment
'In chapter 12 "Respecting Autonomy and Protecting the Vulnerability of the Dying", Frank quoted my grandmother ... "Well there is not much to say about euthanasia is there? Just don't kill people and look after them while they are dying. What more can you say?" Well Grandma, I am not certain that I share your view. Just as Pope Francis did not know all the answers at age 36 years, neither do I.' Frank Brennan's nieces Shannon and Kateena help launch his new book Amplifying That Still, Small Voice.
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MEDIA

Syria's hopeless democracy dream
- Ruby Hamad
- 14 October 2011
8 Comments
My family belongs to the same Alawite religious minority as beleagured Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. There are great and legitimate fears that Assad's downfall will result, not in democracy, but in civil war and large-scale massacres of minorities, including the Alawites.
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EUREKA STREET/ READER'S FEAST AWARD

Teaching children to read the Aboriginal world
- Nigel Pearn
- 18 August 2010
3 Comments
The book was banned after parents complained about its anti-authoritarian attitude: 'Wanja [the dog] loved to chase the [police] van ... to bark at the van ... to bite at the wheel. The police van would drive away.' Like Jewish humour, Aboriginal humour is a response to a history of oppression.
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RELIGION

Speaking for country, speaking for self
- Frank Brennan
- 07 July 2010
Fr Frank Brennan's address to the Melbourne College of Divinity Centenary Conference, Trinity College, University of Melbourne, 6 July 2010.
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AUSTRALIA

Costs and benefits of protest camp
- Marisa Pintado
- 18 May 2006
4 Comments
The fire at the Camp Sovereignty Aboriginal protest action staged to coincide with the Melbourne Commonwealth Games was finally extinguished last week. Some believe it has thrust indigenous rights back onto the political agenda, while others believe the action has inadvertently reversed years of hard work.
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