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Keywords: Aliens

  • AUSTRALIA

    The public, the Church, and asylum seekers

    • Frank Brennan
    • 13 August 2013
    1 Comment

    'Like many Australians, I had hoped that the dastardly plan announced on 19 July would stop the boats in the short term, as a stop-gap measure. It is dismaying to learn that appropriate consultations had not occurred with Indonesia with the result that the very people who were to receive the shock and awe message are yet to receive it. There’s only one thing worse than shock and awe; that’s shock and awe that doesn’t work because you haven’t done your homework.' 43rd Barry Marshall Memorial Lecture, Trinity College Theological School, 14 August 2013.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    The seams of the earth start to bulge

    • Jena Woodhouse
    • 04 June 2013
    7 Comments

    Sometimes the dark bird of discord is loosed, to circle massif and savannah, inciting acts of mayhem, orgies of slaughter. But sometimes the white bird of hope is released and the tears it weeps restore something like order.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Beatitudes for Aung San Suu Kyi

    • Paul Mitchell
    • 24 July 2012

    Blessed are those with empty chests, soles ripped from their shoes, fed to dogs. But most blessed are those who stole the hound scraps, nailed them to their feet and kept on marching.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    All democracies great and small

    • John Warhurst
    • 27 February 2012
    5 Comments

    From strata communities to federal politics, citizens of democracies exhibit similar characteristics. These include limited knowledge and interest, suspicion of office-holders, and assertions of self-interest. Those who stand for election deserve more credit than they often get because they are a small minority.

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  • RELIGION

    A Catholic Social Teaching perspective on the Intervention

    • Frank Brennan
    • 22 November 2011
    1 Comment

    Text from the 4th Annual Gerald Ward Lecture 'How do we design a dignified welfare safety net without becoming a Nanny State? — Lessons from Catholic Social Teaching', presented  by Fr Frank Brennan SJ at the National Library of Australia, 18 November 2011.

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  • RELIGION

    Malaysia solution pros and cons

    • Frank Brennan
    • 27 July 2011
    30 Comments

    The Malaysian solution is unprincipled, but it might just work — stopping the boats. If other countries try to replicate it, we will have to tear up the Refugee Convention and start again. And the plight of unaccompanied minors transported from our shores to Malaysia will be on our conscience. 

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  • INFORMATION

    Refugee persecution is stupid

    • June Factor
    • 18 March 2011
    8 Comments

    A Sydney Morning Herald editorial 71 years ago declared that to persecute refugees 'is stupid from the purely practical point of view'. The practical and humanitarian reasons it outlines for welcoming refugees remain relevant today.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Art by and for the lost

    • George Estreich
    • 01 December 2010
    2 Comments

    The word graffiti encloses a vast spectrum from vandalism to art. At one end, a black slosh across a dry-cleaner's window: no message, only a mess. At the other, a Martian-green man on the side of a defunct warehouse, brooding on a thought as immense as himself.

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  • RELIGION

    Poverty and plenty: where do Christians stand?

    • Frank Brennan
    • 22 March 2010
    2 Comments

    Text from Fr Frank Brennan SJ's presentation Poverty and Plenty: Where Do or Should Christians Stand? at the Centre for an Ethical Society as part of the 2010 Series Forum at the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture, 17 March 2010.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Refugees and other aliens

    • Catherine Marshall
    • 18 August 2009
    5 Comments

    One night 11 years ago I joined members of a local police commando to report on a mission to intercept Mozambique refugees travelling into South Africa. It is easier to 'tolerate the intolerance' in under-resourced, refugee-deluged South Africa than in Australia.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Australian republicans' Ireland envy

    • Frank O'Shea
    • 08 December 2008
    16 Comments

    Most Irish would be content with the suggestion that the push for an Australian Republic was an Irish plot. When Ireland declared itself a republic 60 years ago, it did so without the awkwardness of a referendum or political grandstanding.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Tall tales, but true

    • Kristie Dunn
    • 04 July 2006

    Kristie Dunn reviews Dark Victory by David Marr and Marian Wilkinson.

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