Welcome to Eureka Street

back to site

Keywords: Fair Game

  • MEDIA

    When rape is a joking matter

    • Ruby Hamad
    • 20 July 2012
    6 Comments

    US comedian Daniel Tosh sparked a furore with his now notorious rape joke. Many women have at least one story about being inappropriately and non-consensually touched — it first happened to me when I was 13. While jokes like Tosh's perpetuate such a culture, other comedians' 'rape jokes' seek to enlighten as well as entertain.

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    Keeping Conroy out of bed with Rinehart

    • Michael Mullins
    • 06 February 2012
    6 Comments

    Communications Minister Stephen Conroy appears relaxed about Gina Rinehart's move towards control of Fairfax Media because governments are predisposed to placate media owners. A human rights charter could be the only way to maintain media diversity.

    READ MORE
  • MEDIA

    'Fundamentalist' Albrechtsen's Malaysia misfire

    • Max Atkinson
    • 13 October 2011
    6 Comments

    In supporting her opposition to gay marriage, the best Janet Albrechtsen could say was that the opinion was her own, and was 'fundamental'. These remarks shed light on Albrechtsen's bizarre attack on the judges of the High Court over their decision on the Malaysia solution.

    READ MORE
  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    We don't own Amy Winehouse

    • Tim Kroenert
    • 28 July 2011
    4 Comments

    It sometimes seems celebrities are public property. News of the death of British singer Amy Winehouse was met with both grief and jokes. Hearing her father Mitch speak of her as any father would about a child who has died prematurely, grounds her.

    READ MORE
  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Cucumbers and climate change deniers

    • Brian Matthews
    • 08 July 2011
    9 Comments

    European Parliamentarian Francisco Sosa Wagner risked ridicule to defend the honour of cucumbers. He stands in contrast to Christopher Monckton, politician and professional climate change denier who has called Australian economist Ross Garnaut a fascist.

    READ MORE
  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Plagued by mice and climate change deniers

    • Brian Matthews
    • 10 June 2011
    7 Comments

    Considering the severity of South Australia's mice infestation and earlier plagues of locusts, you can be forgiven for feeling positively biblical. Many Australians, some in 'high places', need climate change to demonstrate its presence with such murderous, repeated efficiency.

    READ MORE
  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Shop floor priest

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 15 April 2011
    6 Comments

    Fr Ian Dillon portrayed teaching as a power struggle, with students and teachers pitted against one another. He enjoyed criticising those in power at any level of state and church. His stories would end with a laugh, and his exclamation of delight, 'They really haven't got a bloody clue!'

    READ MORE
  • INTERNATIONAL

    Social change based on the 'view from below'

    • John Falzon
    • 22 December 2010
    3 Comments

      Dylan Thomas wrote that 'A good poem helps to change the shape of the universe.' Our 'good poem' is the listening to, and learning from, the people on the margins. But it will only be a 'good poem' if these whispers are translated into collective action.

    READ MORE
  • INTERNATIONAL

    Understanding Afghanistan's complexities

    • Jan Forrester
    • 22 October 2010
    11 Comments

    The situation in Afghanistan is far more complex than the Australian parliamentary debate seems to credit. The international community and the Afghan government should be starting a bigger conversation about how a more transparent and accountable political culture can be encouraged. 

    READ MORE
  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Fanatic's football fairytale

    • Brian Matthews
    • 06 October 2010
    1 Comment

    Fiction writers have to arrange events so that they achieve the required outcome without stretching credulity. Yet real life routinely throws up sequences so bizarre that a fiction writer wouldn't dare to own them. Try this one. 

    READ MORE
  • INTERNATIONAL

    Delhi's Commonwealth Games refugees

    • Cara Munro
    • 04 October 2010
    6 Comments

    The smell of hot bitumen asserted itself in the chilled winter air. A family of saried women, nimble men and children sifted gravel and carried piles of stones on their heads. The driver, seeing the direction of my gaze, nodded towards the ghostly work party and explained: 'Delhi Games.'

    READ MORE
  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Ratings hog Seven kills Cousins doco

    • Tim Kroenert
    • 26 August 2010
    7 Comments

    Ben Cousins is no angel, but neither is he a demon; just a man with a problem that he's fought to contain. His story has mirrors in the lives of many people who have battled addiction. Seven's treatment of it borders on exploitative.  

    READ MORE