Keywords: Nature Is The Enemy
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AUSTRALIA
- Frank Brennan
- 11 April 2014
1 Comment
'Whether or not we have a bill of rights, much of our human rights jurisprudence remains partial, failing to extend rights equally to all. Once we investigate much of the contemporary discussion about human rights, we find that often the intended recipients of rights do not include all human beings but only those with certain capacities or those who share sufficient common attributes with the decision makers. It is always at the edges that there is real work for human rights discourse to do.' Frank Brennan's Blackfriars Lecture
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MEDIA
- Andrew Hamilton
- 26 September 2013
64 Comments
The limitations of Marr's account are the obverse of its virtues. It sifts Pell's motives and words but not those of his critics, and simplifies complexities. The details are designed to imply character. Churches are empty or full depending on the needs of the plot; Pell does not speak but booms. If a cock crows in a distant farmyard it crows for the Cardinal alone. This makes for engaging reading, but demands careful judgment.
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ARTS AND CULTURE
- Barry Gittins and Jen Vuk
- 23 August 2013
3 Comments
Chopper's a racist, self-billed sociopath with acknowledged mental and physical health issues and a highly evolved if bizarre set of moral principles. A raconteur ever-ready to discuss the robbing, bashing, torture, murder and disappearance of various peers and colleagues. Yet he is also a man who recognises the damage done by the spiritual, emotional and physical abuse he took as a child.
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AUSTRALIA
In Orwell's 1984, the daily 'two-minutes hate' sees citizens gather to scream their loathing at images of Big Brother's enemy, Emmanuel Goldstein. The ritual has become so entrenched that what Goldstein is supposed to have said or done has become mostly forgotten and largely irrelevant. So now it is with Rudd.
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AUSTRALIA
- Michael Mullins
- 18 March 2013
11 Comments
During the week, media power brokers portrayed Communications Minister Stephen Conroy as a Stalinist enemy of press freedom. This coincided with an assault on one of its core principles — the protection of journalists' sources — by Gina Rinehart, one of Australia's up and coming media barons. It appears politicians are scared to speak out.
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AUSTRALIA
The disasters in Japan early this year left scenes of destruction reminiscent of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Australian experiences of Japanese wartime cruelty have never been forgotten or forgiven. But the problems are not all on the Japanese side.
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RELIGION
- Frank Brennan
- 09 March 2011
53 Comments
There are homosexual persons who enter into loving, faithful and committed relationships. It is difficult to characterise a law that gives non-discriminatory protection to such couples as 'so harmful to the common good as to be gravely immoral' as Benedict has previously done.
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AUSTRALIA
- Michael Mullins
- 03 May 2010
19 Comments
Increasing the cost of cigarettes hurts the poor more than the rich. Kevin Rudd is acting with the callous efficiency of The Terminator when he
really needs to find a more equitable incentive to give up smoking.
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AUSTRALIA
- Michael Visontay
- 23 April 2010
9 Comments
The salary cap in sport is one of the last remnants of Australian
egalitarianism. This is one of the reasons why the Melbourne Storm's
behaviour is so offensive. It is an offence against one of the values Australians hold so dear, especially at Anzac Day — a
fair go.
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ARTS AND CULTURE
- Tim Kroenert
- 29 October 2009
1 Comment
Three of the most prolific guitarists of the past four decades gather in a warehouse. Three more diverse
musicians you could not hope to find. Most important are the moments that simmer celebrity and artistic pretension down to basic humanity.
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ARTS AND CULTURE
- Brian Matthews
- 11 February 2009
7 Comments
Fires and floods, murderous cyclones, unprecedented storms — none of them confined to their time honoured places and seasons. Nature is no longer our familiar element
and our inspiration. It's running amok.
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AUSTRALIA
- Val Yule
- 18 December 2007
6 Comments
On an anniversary of September 11, President Bush attended a church service that included the Beatitudes as one of the readings. If the preacher had continued on a few verses, he would have been telling the President and people to love their enemies and do good to those that hate them.
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