Vol 30 No 18

06 September 2020

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ENVIRONMENT

Climate truth should guide recovery spending
- Various
- 18 September 2020
3 Comments
The pandemic has afforded us a preview of how a crisis plays out when the science is not properly heeded. The overwhelming majority of climate scientists have long been sounding the alarm that the health and safety of large parts of the population are at serious risk, both here and around the world. We are already seeing the damage to health and to the environment that they predicted.
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AUSTRALIA

Out of the hothouse, into the garden
- Andrew Hamilton
- 17 September 2020
5 Comments
An everyday exercise in planning and humility is gardening. For amateur gardeners, at least, planning, planting, pruning, watering and placing all have their place. But ultimately the plants make their way and take their individual shape.
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ECONOMICS

Class and COVID-19
- David James
- 17 September 2020
5 Comments
The issue of class, economic inequality, has for some time been conspicuously absent in contemporary political debate. In the wake of COVID-19, which will greatly exacerbate income and wealth disparities, such inattention must be addressed.
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ENVIRONMENT

The virtues of weeds
- Catherine Marshall
- 17 September 2020
10 Comments
The freesias are a delight, for they flower in random places on their knife-edge leaves in yellows and whites and mauves, their beauty absolving them from their dubious classification as weeds. They delight the eye, therefore they are forgiven. But why not the nightshade and the onion weed, with their delicate flowers? What makes a weed a weed, anyway?
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RELIGION

The Catholic Church and modern science
- Bill Uren
- 15 September 2020
250 Comments
Whereas the Vatican II document sought to engage with, and to respect, the autonomy of the modern world and its science, only too many of the Vatican’s official statements over the past fifty years have effectively resiled from that commitment.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Singing the unsung
- Louise Miolin
- 15 September 2020
2 Comments
I stare out the bus window, my eyes chasing raindrops down the glass. They jiggle in unison as we jolt over speed bumps. I imagine they’re dancing along with the songs belting through my tangled earphones. A Carla Geneve lyric catches my attention: It's raining on Tuesday, got my Doc Martens wet. I glance down and smile at my soggy docs.
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CARTOON

It's a gas gas gas
- Fiona Katauskas
- 15 September 2020
3 Comments
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AUSTRALIA

Getting the balance right with COVID-19 and prisons
- Clare Johnstone
- 15 September 2020
2 Comments
With COVID-19 having reached the prison population, the risks for prisoners are real. It is plain to see that prisons are vulnerable environments. Hundreds of people detained in close confined quarters and concerns around hygiene standards and access to masks are but some of the issues that make them fertile ground for the virus to grow in.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Funny, thongs
- Katherine Spadaro
- 15 September 2020
1 Comment
Funny, thongs, how they make that thwack thwack noise: Your ten little pistons push off the ground and the earth calls back a little salute, just a nudge, really: I’m here. So…
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AUSTRALIA

Discussions about euthanasia
- Justin Glyn
- 10 September 2020
9 Comments
While the legislation was proposed as something of a measure of last resort, the numbers already tell a different story. Unfortunately, many of us with a disability look at these figures (and at the proposed legalisation of euthanasia in New Zealand, which will be voted on later this year) with a weary mix of familiarity and horror.
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AUSTRALIA

Support after Suicide report: 'Fighting the system as well as the illness'
- Andrew Hamilton
- 10 September 2020
4 Comments
A recent report from Jesuit Social Services’ Support after Suicide program reflects on the experience of people who have accompanied a friend or family member before, through and after their suicide. At the heart of the report is its insistence on the importance of the human face in health care.
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MEDIA

Australia and China through the ages
- Jeremy Clarke
- 10 September 2020
7 Comments
The China story, described this week by the ABC’s Director of News Gavin Morris as ‘the story of our times’, defies simplistic renderings, however much a significant part of Australian-based commentary masquerades as such. The rapid revolutions of the modern media cycle do not permit much nuance or lengthy historically informed pieces.
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RELIGION

Factions and ginger groups within the church
- John Warhurst
- 10 September 2020
66 Comments
What is happening at the moment is that certain bishops are condemning members of the church renewal movement as pressure groups pushing an agenda, while ignoring the well-known fact that groups with other agendas are widespread within the church.
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AUSTRALIA

Human rights and pandemic lockdowns
- Binoy Kampmark
- 08 September 2020
11 Comments
The Buhler arrest stirred a range of responses from across the political divide, many troubled. Legal representatives and human rights advocates were similarly disturbed by what they regarded as a lack of proportion and restraint in police action.
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INTERNATIONAL

Legacy of disappearances and state violence in Latin America
- Ramona Wadi
- 08 September 2020
1 Comment
The coronavirus pandemic has been utilised by Latin American governments — prominent examples being Brazil and Chile — to militarise societies, criminalise resistance and normalise violence.
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CARTOON

The road to recovery?
- Fiona Katauskas
- 08 September 2020
1 Comment
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Vol 30 No 18