Keywords: Psychological Torture
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ARTS AND CULTURE
- Tim Kroenert
- 20 June 2013
During a lecture at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden, biologist Geoff Burton speaks of the agonising genetic disorder that claimed the life of his infant son. He insists that his subsequent research into prenatal diagnosis and treatment is not related to eugenics. But merely naming the slippery slope doesn't negate it.
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AUSTRALIA
- Michael Mullins
- 04 March 2013
22 Comments
Opposition Immigration spokesperson Scott Morrison called for a suspension of asylum seekers being released into the community, on the basis of a single violent incident. Fairfax Media showed these people are about 45 times less likely to be charged with a crime than members of the public. A fear mongering politician appears to have more credibility than the facts.
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ARTS AND CULTURE
- Tim Kroenert
- 28 February 2013
After cataloguing the ways in which the film belittles and marginalises the experiences of black slaves, Williams laments the fact that such marginalisation continues to exist seemingly unnoticed in mainstream popular culture. The Oscar awarded to Django Unchained is the epitome of popular culture 'not noticing'.
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ARTS AND CULTURE
- Tim Kroenert
- 08 November 2012
1 Comment
A grief-stricken Amish man stalks and psychologically tortures the man who murdered his daughter. A Vietnamese veteran seeks vengeance on the American soldiers who slaughtered his fellow villagers. But for one alcoholic writer, the idea of absolving violence through violence jars with his pacifistic leanings.
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MEDIA
- Max Atkinson
- 12 July 2012
6 Comments
Any discussion of the morality of torture must distinguish two kinds of justification. The first is concerned with cases so exotic they have nothing to do with the ordinary affairs of mankind, such as the nuclear bomb ticking away in a New York basement. A real-life justification must provide a rationale for a wide range of common garden cases.
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AUSTRALIA
The experimenters' intent was to observe the capacity of first year students to inflict pain by electrically shocking others. Many of the subjects were traumatised as though they had in fact committed acts of torture. Paradoxically the latest revelations may mean the researchers themselves need counselling.
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AUSTRALIA
- Lyn Bender
- 30 January 2012
37 Comments
In his book They Thought They Were Free, Milton Mayor writes of 'the slow lobster boil of erosion of freedom' in Nazi Germany. As a daughter of Jewish refugees I know what this entails. The same process confronts asylum seekers today if we do not begin from a presumption of rights and humanity.
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AUSTRALIA
- Lyn Bender
- 10 January 2012
9 Comments
Employed at the centre as a psychologist, I witnessed riots, hunger strikes, attempted suicides and severe depression. I realised I had a profound ethical dilemma: in being compliant to the administration, I was unable to ensure my duty of care towards these people. So I became a mole. Published 27 September 2011
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AUSTRALIA
- Lyn Bender
- 28 September 2011
12 Comments
Employed at the centre as a psychologist, I witnessed riots, hunger strikes, attempted suicides and severe depression. I realised I had a profound ethical dilemma: in being compliant to the administration, I was unable to ensure my duty of care towards these people. So I became a mole.
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INTERNATIONAL
- Kerry Murphy
- 22 March 2011
6 Comments
The reintroduction of the Complementary Protection Bill to Parliament this week ought be welcomed. Given the protests in Christmas Island, it is clear that the mandatory detention policy is also overdue for reform.
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INTERNATIONAL
- Kerry Murphy
- 20 October 2010
7 Comments
'Karim' is calling every second day now. His protection visa application was lodged six months ago and he was interviewed four months later. He was brutally tortured in his home country and has lived with debilitating trauma ever since. He now thinks his case will be refused because of the long delays in processing.
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AUSTRALIA
- Catherine Marshall
- 31 August 2009
8 Comments
The issue is not whether South African athlete Caster Semenya is male, hyper-androgynous,
or, as she claims, 'entirely female'. More burdensome is the ferocious public response to a
predicament that clearly called for maturity and restraint.
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