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Section: Australia

  • AUSTRALIA

    PNG needs Channel 7 publicity machine

    • Michael Mullins
    • 16 October 2006

    The bizarre mission of TV host Naomi Robson to West Papua, to "rescue" a young boy from cannibalism, achieved nothing but publicity for Channel 7. If the station really cared about the plight of young people in the region, it would have given priority to coverage of Papua New Guinea's AIDS crisis.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Simple pleasures in Melbourne's North African heart

    • James Massola
    • 16 October 2006
    2 Comments

    It’s the fourth night of Ramadan. As the days begin to get longer, there are further challenges for Australian Muslims. Many young men, low on energy during the day, but emboldened by full bellies in the evening, find themselves at a loose end.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    As other people see us...

    • Morag Fraser
    • 16 October 2006
    1 Comment

    In the Providence Journal, chief political columnist M. Charles Bakst notes that in the Democratic state of Rhode Island, "Bush" is just short of a swear word. The New York Times condemns the Detainee legislation in an editorial headed “Rushing Off a Cliff”. It doesn’t spare the Democrats either.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Onus now on those who supported Thai coup

    • Minh Nguyen
    • 16 October 2006
    1 Comment

    A former army commander who once declared "the army should never be involved in politics", Surayud Chulanont, was appointed Thailand's interim prime minister at the weekend. But the irony of this appointment matters little in a coup marked by paradoxes.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Catastrophe on Australia's doorstep (essay)

    • Peter Cronau
    • 16 October 2006
    2 Comments

    Barely reported by Australia's media, Papua New Guinea's AIDS crisis is on track to cause the collapse of the country's economy, with AusAID forcasting a 37.5% decline in the labour force by 2020.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Sentencing laws will further alienate indigenous Australians

    • Frank Quinlan
    • 16 October 2006
    3 Comments

    Just last week, the coroner’s report into the death in custody of Palm Island man Mulrunji, called for a major overhaul of how the justice system deals with indigenous Australians. Yet in the same week, a Senate Committee began looking into a Bill that will increase the potential for injustice in sentencing decisions affecting indigenous people, and other cultural minorities.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Boys need not be boys forever

    • Tim Martyn
    • 16 October 2006
    2 Comments

    Adolescent boys of Western Kenya's Bukusu tribe are ushered to the threshold of manhood by participating in rituals in which they must endure all without exhibiting pain. Western society lacks procedures in which boys can transform and emotionally re-emerge, ready to carry the burden of male responsibility.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Iconoclasts' challenge to turn the other cheek

    • Michael Mullins & James Massola
    • 18 September 2006
    7 Comments

    When the Jesuits' founder St Ignatius Loyola was on the road riding with a Moor in 1522, the Moor argued that the Virgin Mary was no longer a virgin after Christ was born. The recent former soldier Ignatius wanted to kill the Moor on the spot.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    George W. Bush and "super-sized" war for freedom and values

    • Jack Waterford
    • 18 September 2006

    George Bush, John Howard and others insist that we are winning the long war against terrorists, and, perhaps by body count they are right. But there is evidence that the way we are fighting the war has massively increased popular sympathy for such people in some parts of the world.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    The simple pleasure of collecting an author’s works

    • Paul Daffey
    • 18 September 2006

    Of those who collect books, some might have copies of the 12 novels written by Patrick White. Or the 50 written by Jon Cleary. Few collectors, however, could hope to match Stewart Russell’s collection of books by the late English writer John Creasey, who wrote almost 800 books.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Why Barcelona is everyone’s second favourite team

    • James Massola
    • 18 September 2006
    19 Comments

    The Barcelona Football Club has broken with tradition and gone against the corporate grain of modern sport, making a gesture that will boost efforts to improve the lives of many underprivileged children around the world.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Feature letter: Wadeye youth can master their destiny

    • Brian McCoy
    • 18 September 2006

    A crude distinction between "bush life of their ancestors" and "modern youth culture" makes hunting "ancestral", and heavy metal music "modern", as if modern men don't hunt, and those who do cannot enjoy heavy metal music.

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