20 September 2007
After returning to the US, a former Eureka Street editor had to remind himself "just which side of the language [he] was supposed to be on". All the years in Australia coming to terms with '-re' and '-our' suffixes made finding the 'center' of an American document more 'labor-intensive' than it used to be.
The Howard Government must be given credit for increasing the size of our migration program, including the refugee and humanitarian component. But the deliberations of civil society should provide a fair go for all refugees, including those who arrive by boat without a visa.
Coverage of the South Pacific Games was dominated by an Australian reporter posing a loaded question about RAMSI to the Samoan prime minister. It's a reminder that much remains to be done to positively promote the diversity and spirit of the region.
Digital photography allows the easy recording of almost every moment of our lives. Putting to your dog the proposition 'The unexamined life is not worth living', he would look at you with an expression that respectfully suggested, 'Human beings are so dumb'.
A far reaching social reform such as uniform fertility laws requires sustained debate. It's not up to legislators and medical practitioners to decide what constitutes a proper use of medicine. Medicine is fundamentally a social practice, one whose goals and purposes in which the entire community has a legitimate stake.
The Coalition leadership controversy shows how easy it is to change leaders in a Westminster parliamentary system. A number of senior Canadian journalists were in Canberra. They were staggered at the power vested in the hands of so few.
Writing music and busking now, abstinence and rice have rendered him thin. / The film industry's movers and shakers must seem a long way behind now, his days of editing, a retrospective haze.
Many accept the Federal Government's claim that we're living in an age of great economic prosperity. It they want a new car or a house, they can have it. The reality is that they've never had such unfettered access to borrowed money.
With his shag of grey hair and weather-worn face, Aussie journalist-cum-documentarian pits his astute investigative mind and radical's spirit against no lesser rival than the American political empire.
Superiority and the benevolence of modern science and the health-care system, versus the cruel, more ancient practice of ostracising the sick from civic life.
The internal logic of total security regards the dignity of people who stand in the way, as dispensable. Once respect for some human beings is treated as optional, the human dignity of those offered security becomes equally dispensable.
Earlier this month, a federal parliamentary committee recommended that teachers should receive higher pay, as an incentive to attract quality recruits and to improve retention. But a new policy could undermine the collective quality of school education.
Australia has ceased to believe in a rules-based international order. Our increasing cynicism about the UN, and participation in coalitions with powerful world players, effectively denies our sovereignty. Rudd Government foreign policy would would need to involve more than fine-tuning.
Tim Costello was recently asked whether he thought his brother would ever be Prime Minister. He gave a wry and elegant answer that played with the notion of the difficulty of relinquishing power in the saga of the Lord of the Rings.
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