NZ shooter: The myth of Australian values
'People as things': a new story after Christchurch
The man in the pork-pie hat
Yarralumla Mosque, the day after Christchurch
"Most manifestly egregious is the fact that not one of these observers has heard the surviving victim's testimony first-hand.'
"This time, the main attacks will be economic and financial, rather than military. They are weapons that Trump, a businessman, understands."
"In this sense we all live downstream, and so it is the best viewpoint for long-term planning of the river system."
"The catastrophic exclusion of smart and original-thinking women from the Liberal Party has predictably caused Babel to totter."
The slimy words are those that convict their targets of simulating virtue. They include the old favourite 'bleeding hearts', the perennial 'political correctness' and the most recently minted 'virtue signalling'. They are slimy because they purport to be counters in rational argument but dismiss opposed arguments without engaging with them.
Penny Wong dismissed Tarrant as un-Australian, a dangerous point given that Australian values have been rather flexible in their deployment. The same treatment is reserved for Anning: 'He does not represent who we are.' The painful truth is that Anning and Tarrant are representative of an aspect of Australian national identity.
A lady with tears in her eyes asked if I was Muslim. I told her that I am. She asked it if would it be okay if she came in and said a prayer. 'Of course,' I replied. She knelt, quietly sobbing, and said a few words. I also knelt and recited a few verses from the Quran. We were complete strangers sharing a unique and emotional moment.
As climate change continues to take centre stage, stepping away from the drivel spouted by leaders and instead highlighting the legitimacy of anti-colonial struggle as the foundation from which to combat all forms of detrimental land exploitation is not just preferable. It is an obligation.
The world leaders who rushed to condemn the Valentine's Day attack have long remained silent on state-sanctioned oppression in Kashmir. That's no longer a surprise; nor is the fact that the attack was covered by every major western media organisation, while the daily injustices perpetrated against ordinary Kashmiris go unreported.
Cuba's constitutional referendum in February displayed overwhelming support for the government. More than six million voted yes, while around 706,000 voted no. The new constitution represents a step forward for the democratic, economic and social development of the country.
In the wake of the Christchurch attacks, I’m not interested in learning how the person who killed those people was radicalised. It’s the oldest story in the world. It’s what happens when you decide the humanity of a group of people no longer matters. I’m tired of that story. I need a new one.
Maybe I'm just a bleeding-heart lefty, but I hope that most people would answer this question with a 'no'. Unfortunately, if you read the comment section of any news story on the recent spate of drug-related deaths at music festivals you will find a mixed response.
Several incidents in Australia this week highlight the inherent challenges of undertaking travel which people in the Australian disabled community have long understood. Travel is neither completely accessible nor inclusive, even in 2019. I know this from experience. I have low vision and I'm profoundly deaf in one ear.
A conservative within a conservative church he was a divisive figure, not just because of his orthodox views but because of the unbending and assertive style with which he promulgated them. Something died in Australian Catholicism with this verdict and Australian Catholics will have to live with that whatever the future turns out to be.
My relationship to Catholicism can be summed up as: I am on the outskirts, yet close and invested enough to care how the Church evolves. Because, it seems to me, how it evolves and the speed at which those urgent and essential changes take place will significantly determine whether it will survive — and whether it deserves to survive.
I've recently been reading about people who disconnect in radical ways, or else manage a balancing act between connection with society and disconnection. The recently deceased Sister Wendy Beckett was one such. So too is Brother Harold Palmer who, like Sister Wendy, began his seclusion in a caravan.
My children will be walking out of school for the School Strike 4 Climate Action. My eldest says she wants 'to protest that adults should actually do something about this planet that is dying, because we're all going to die with it'. She sees climate change action as a black and white issue.
A million dead fish, floating on putrid green water. Images of this ecological catastrophe on the Darling River over summer shocked the nation. Was it the result of drought? Blue-green algae poisoning? After at least four published reports, we know the answers. It's time to state plainly what has been going on, and who is to blame.
While in many ways this decision was uncontroversial — in that it merely upheld an earlier ministerial decision — Chief Justice Preston's judgment was significant in the Australian context both for its extensive reference to climate change and for his honour's clear acceptance of the science.
On the morning of your last day there are eight people, including me and my daughter, who is a music therapist and has played music for people as they die as part of her clinical practice. After discussions during the week, first with you and then with your neurologist, it was decided that she will sing for you and the people with you today.
A small commotion at the doorway of the store catches my attention. A man in a pork-pie hat marches across the threshold. He carries a small back pack and steps with an uneven gait. He has a sure message, calling out a gamely, 'Good morning! Good morning everyone!' He looks about with purpose. Initially no one replies.
The church is an old man with heavy robes. Heavy lidded, head bowed. Stooped. We are twisting, clutching, writhing. Pointing fingers, fists stamping tables or shaking in fury. But the old man is deaf and blind and besides, his head is low, and he sits within a prison cell.
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