Author: Barry Gittins
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AUSTRALIA
- Barry Gittins
- 17 August 2021
10 Comments
In his 83 years, social psychologist, researcher and author Hugh Mackay has seen the sun rise and set on regimes, ideologies, cults, fads, movements and manias. He has also seen language used to clarify and build common ground, or to confuse and demoralise. One constant throughout these years has been his fascination with how human beings treat each other and their planet, and why.
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AUSTRALIA
- Barry Gittins
- 29 June 2021
27 Comments
We are all beholden to our story of origin and the systemic realities we are born into. Regardless, now and historically, politicians, preachers and pundits sporadically look to reintroduce the discredited dichotomy between the ‘deserving poor and the undeserving poor’. The embodiment of that second label, historically, has been the Jobseeker (Newstart) recipient.
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ARTS AND CULTURE
- Barry Gittins
- 11 May 2021
28 Comments
How do you measure a human? Can you determine their worth by vivisecting the actions of a potentate or a serf? Do we judge by what they’re consuming? Are we truly labelled from birth? Are we assessed by our factions? The absence or presence of mirth?
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AUSTRALIA
- Barry Gittins
- 01 April 2021
11 Comments
We don’t want to admit the truth of who we are as a nation: there are Australians who are violent toward the people they say they love the most. Living among us are those who take what they want, out of entitlement, privilege and the naked use of power.
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ARTS AND CULTURE
- Barry Gittins
- 04 February 2021
2 Comments
All three of us are parents, we’ve all been adversely impacted by COVID-19, and prior to that we’ve shared the usual rough and tumble dynamics of male friendships and bridal party affiliations. We have been in and out of each other’s good books, hard conversations, interpersonal dynamics and orbits. We’ve been through a lot as mates. COVID-wise, though, that affinity has been at a remove.
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ARTS AND CULTURE
- Barry Gittins
- 17 December 2020
5 Comments
What does Christmas mean for you? What does it have in store? Preceding and in the midst of the annual celebration of life and hope that is Christmas, we will always have those, as H L Mencken noted, are obsessed with the ‘haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy’.
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ARTS AND CULTURE
- Vasilka Pateras, Barry Gittins, Racheal Chie
- 10 November 2020
Real power never changes hands. And yet like a spell, we cast our votes in a ballot box for the same corrupt government.
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INTERNATIONAL
- Barry Gittins
- 22 October 2020
1 Comment
The UN describes itself as ‘a global forum where countries can raise and discuss the most difficult issues, including problems of war and peace’. Saving lives that would otherwise be taken in wars is the big-ticket item; the reason the body was formed. So, 75 years on, how would the UN be graded in terms of achieving those five tasks?
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ARTS AND CULTURE
- Barry Gittins
- 03 September 2020
7 Comments
I have been thinking for several months about fathering and wisdom. To my surprise, I found some of Marcus Aurelius’ truisms to be reflected, if erratically, by the pronouncements of my own pater familias, Kenneth Hugh Gittins.
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ARTS AND CULTURE
- Barry Gittins
- 16 July 2020
11 Comments
Identifying the true nature of things, and capturing their horror or charm? Let’s give it a crack. I recognised and recognise still that there are few humans who will ever approach Les Murray's heights of linguistic mastery and vision of life. But one thing I felt I had in common with Les, apart from our shared rustic heritage, was anger.
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ARTS AND CULTURE
- Barry Gittins
- 22 May 2020
17 Comments
As the small-l Liberal who attempted unsuccessfully to stare down the right-wing of the Liberal Party, known to his enemies as ‘Mr Harbourside Mansion’ or as the best Labour Prime Minister to ever lead the Liberal Party (2015-2018), Malcolm Bligh Turnbull was a man who dreamed, spoke and spent big.
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ARTS AND CULTURE
- Barry Gittins
- 06 May 2020
9 Comments
Jacinda Ardern: A new kind of leader is crisp and sharp, explaining the optimism that launched a millennial (and only the second world leader to ever give birth in office) into the highest public office of her land.
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