Vol 19 No 10

25 May 2009

ARTS AND CULTURE

Surviving institutional abuse
- Andrena Jamieson
- 05 June 2009
4 Comments
The policy of assimilation made an inhumane idea more important than human beings. Redfern Pastor Bill Simon recovered from his own oppression under Government policies. It's shameful that a miracle was required.
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RELIGION

The 'bad eggs' of Ireland's abuse scandal
- Frank O'Shea
- 05 June 2009
24 Comments
After a lifetime in schools run by religious orders, I am appalled to think abuse against children in institutions in Ireland was 'endemic'. I try to persuade myself that 'Brendan', the saintliest man I ever knew, cancels out the bad eggs.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Intimacy in same-sex friendships
- Tim Kroenert
- 04 June 2009
Peter's a sweetie with the ladies, but never got his head around the whole male bonding thing. So he sets out on a series of man-dates, with the aim of finding a friend. His first attempts are spectacular failures. And then he meets Sydney.
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RELIGION

Dialogue with Rowan Williams
- James McEvoy
- 04 June 2009
7 Comments
The Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams offers a view of dialogue that transcends merely passing information on to a passive listener. True dialogue changes the speaker as much as it does the hearer, and poses a model for better understanding God.
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INTERNATIONAL

No welcome stranger in racist Australia
- Cara Munro
- 03 June 2009
18 Comments
In Melbourne, 2000 Indian students gather to protest a lack of Government response to a spate of violent attacks. I am with them because I am ashamed that a white Christian woman is safer in the military capital of Rawalpindi than these students are on a train in Melbourne.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Make sport, not war
- Brian Doyle
- 03 June 2009
1 Comment
Jimmy was a high school basketball superstar, who went to war after graduating and had both his hands blown off by a mine. Imagine a world where instead of violence, international disputes were decided via epic sports tournaments.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Two poems about women
- Medbh McGuckian
- 02 June 2009
It is as impossible .. To dive into the heart of a woman as to run .. Your head, body and all into her fundament.
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AUSTRALIA

Football, sex and poetry
- Sarah Kanowski
- 02 June 2009
7 Comments
Sex scandals can make celebrities out of the most unlikely figures. But just how similar is the case of the Oxford poetry professorship candidate accused of sexually harrassing his students, and Australian Rugby League's group sex scandal?
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AUSTRALIA

Why ethnic jokes are not funny
- Michael Mullins
- 01 June 2009
24 Comments
Because we lived so long with a policy of assimilation, our ingrained racism takes time to shake. We need public policy that reasserts the principles of multiculturalism. Instead our Prime Minister is caught out making an ethnic jibe.
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AUSTRALIA

Aged care in purgatory
- Scott Stephens
- 01 June 2009
10 Comments
Our failure to care for and honour our elderly is one of the great causes of moral impoverishment in our culture. Lives tempered by age and hard-earned virtue are gifts from God. It is to our detriment that we ignore them.
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ECONOMICS

Toxic economies in history
- Thomas Sullivan
- 29 May 2009
8 Comments
In the 16th century, following its conquest of Latin America, Spain drained the area of its gold and silver. One might suspect that this windfall turned Spain into an economic powerhouse. But some funny things happened when the easy money arrived.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Beginners guide to Middle East politics
- Kerry Murphy
- 29 May 2009
4 Comments
An old joke goes that if you understand Middle East politics, it has not been explained properly. This book places events in their historical context, and illustrates why the conflict, with its religious and political dimensions, is so difficult to resolve.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Predicting Black Saturday
- Tim Kroenert
- 28 May 2009
1 Comment
It's frightening how precisely experts predicted the weather and its impact on the seemingly inevitable Black Saturday fires. A new documentary questions the adequacy of the response, given the veracity of these warning signs.
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AUSTRALIA

Patients lost at the health care checkout
- Frank Bowden
- 28 May 2009
16 Comments
To be a patient is to place yourself in the hands of another, to give them your trust and expect it to be honoured. If you call sick people 'clients' or 'customers' you risk turning healing into a commodity to be purchased — or rationed.
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INTERNATIONAL

Exploding pig flu
- Bronwyn Lay
- 27 May 2009
8 Comments
As Australia deals with its own incursion of H1N1, a strange event on a Geneva-bound train reminds us that this virus is in human hands. Meanwhile the manufacture of a vaccine for the virus raises doubts about medical ethics and equity.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Machiavelli and the jam-makers
- Anna Griffiths
- 27 May 2009
Machiavelli would surely have loved the complex political environment of the community garden. We would have welcomed him on the evening we turned up to strip the apricot tree and conduct a community jam session.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Neither God nor good
- Anne Elvey
- 26 May 2009
1 Comment
copper bands for arthritis .. your child's latest lego .. a pile of ashes at the turn of a lane .. some small thing .. given back at last
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MEDIA

Sri Lanka's war of propaganda
- Paul Farrell
- 26 May 2009
6 Comments
The Sri Lankan Government has been accused of endangering and killing civilians. The Tamil Tigers have been accused of using civilians as human shields. While the fog of war may be dissipating, media on the ground continue to be stifled.
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AUSTRALIA

Lessons from Ireland's sex abuse shock
- Michael Mullins
- 25 May 2009
15 Comments
News of the Irish child abuse report prompted a call for scrutiny of Irish priests now based in Australia. A more far-reaching implication is the need to look at the state of regulations governing care in our entire not-for-profit sector.
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AUSTRALIA

The Pope vs Holocaust deniers
- Nigel Mitchell
- 25 May 2009
7 Comments
The Pope visited the Middle East in an attempt to address the controversy regarding 'Holocaust denier' Bishop Richard Williamson. In the same week, in Australia, 'revisionist' historian Frederick Toben was sentenced to three months in jail.
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