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Search Results: empathy

There are more than 200 results, only the first 200 are displayed here.

  • AUSTRALIA

    Health: Where rights are gifts

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 25 April 2024

    Good health is not an achievement to take credit for. It is something to be grateful for, a sign of good fortune as well as of good living. We must press for health to be seen as a right shared equally by all people throughout the world. And addressing that need in Australia must begin by strengthening our public health system.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Kate Middleton and the end of all boundaries

    • Laura Kings
    • 09 April 2024
    2 Comments

    In a world where the public appetite for private news on public figures is insatiable, how do we foster ethical media behaviour that respects privacy and dignity in situations like this? Would well-wishes for Kate's recovery, even before her diagnosis was public, have been too much to ask?

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  • AUSTRALIA

    40 Days: Reconciliation

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 19 March 2024

    Recognition is not simply an acceptance of facts. It involves also entering the experience of the people affected. Reconciliation must begin with truth telling, flow into empathy, and be followed by a conversation aimed at building decent relationships. 

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Searching for the truth about a wartime massacre

    • Juliette Hughes
    • 15 March 2024
    3 Comments

    Two books about a 1942 massacre of Australian nurses were released last year. One is reliable, the other is notable for factual omissions. If we leave something out, are we then guilty of censorship? Alternatively, if our truth-telling offends someone else, what is our justification for so doing?

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Making sense of Taylor Swift

    • David Halliday
    • 26 February 2024
    1 Comment

    Taylor Swift does something transformative to people like my sister that other pop stars don’t. Other musicians have fans, Taylor has disciples. So what is it about Swift that evokes a sort of conversion experience? Is it just the music?

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  • AUSTRALIA

    When the wheels come off

    • David Halliday
    • 22 January 2024
    1 Comment

    After a minor accident, in the face of institutional apathy, we were treated to a picture of human kindness. It highlighted that, even in a politically divided country, there exists an undercurrent of unity and empathy, often overlooked but ever-present.

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  • MEDIA

    Best of 2023: Thanks to Stan Grant, public intellectual

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 11 January 2024

    The departure of Stan Grant from his role at the ABC following racial abuse triggers collective dismay and brings to light the deeply rooted issue of racism in Australia. His exit from public life is a sobering reminder of the societal toll of bigotry, and underscores the urgent need to safeguard our public intellectuals. 

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    A Christmas Carol and the making of a miser

    • David Halliday
    • 30 November 2023
    2 Comments

    Why another Christmas Carol and why now? This version takes a detour from Dickens’ original delving deeper into Scrooge’s past, painting him not just as a villain, but as a victim of circumstances. It suggests that behind every act we hastily label as ‘cruel’ lies a story of fear and anxiety, and a flesh-and-blood human being. And forgiveness, then, becomes an acknowledgment of our shared human frailty.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    To be Frank: In conversation with Catharine Lumby

    • Barry Gittins
    • 24 November 2023

    Catharine Lumby was a friend and beneficiary of Moorhouse’s mentoring and advice, and before his death, was approached by him to write a warts-and-all uncensored biography. In Frank Moorhouse: A Life, Lumby explores the life of this man of letters in all of its colour and contradiction. 

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    The burden of hope in Charlotte Wood's Stone Yard Devotional

    • Juliette Hughes
    • 17 November 2023

    Stone Yard Devotional is a chronicle of a huge problem in our time: the sense of futility in all our efforts to amend. Wood may make us think, because despair is a constant stalker of the bravest of warriors against the destruction of the planet and the chronic toll of human evil. When compassion becomes a disabling burden, who or what can help?   

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Backwards to go forwards

    • Barry Gittins
    • 16 November 2023
    6 Comments

    How should our nation reckon with its colonial history and its lasting impact on contemporary society? From the stark realities of early settlement to the enduring legacies of injustice towards Indigenous peoples, this piece explores what it means for a country to grapple with its identity amidst a backdrop of change.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    The balance of compassion

    • David Halliday
    • 30 October 2023
    3 Comments

    The Hamas attacks on civilians posed a profound ethical conundrum for some. And it’s been sad to see progressives, who have for years sympathised with the plight of the Palestinian people and followed the actions of hard-line Israeli governments with dismay, attempting to downplay or rationalise the brutality of Hamas. Must empathy for one tragedy necessarily diminish compassion for another?

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