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Keywords: Fragility

  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    The House of Many Colours

    • Arnold Zable
    • 09 February 2024
    3 Comments

    'Each day I take time out to sit in each room. I’m gazing at death, but gaze long enough and you forget about death and disappear into the colour of the wall. Give it a try. Who gives a damn?'

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  • ENVIRONMENT

    God in a time of threat

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 12 October 2023
    3 Comments

    Pope Francis' latest Exhortation 'Laudate Deum,' is an evocative sequel to 'Laudato Si’, juxtaposing the urgency of our environmental predicament with the fragility of human hope. Before the upcoming COP28 conference, as nations teeter between action and inertia, the Pope's message is clear: our shared environment, and the most vulnerable among us, hang in the balance.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    On housing bubbles

    • David Halliday
    • 01 September 2023

    Australia's housing market trembles as homeowners confront rising interest rates and mortgage defaults surge. Predicted by some a decade ago, this  shift stems from years of speculative investing and homes transforming into commodities. The challenge now: can policymakers balance housing affordability without destabilising the market's value?

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  • AUSTRALIA

    The refugee children of colonisation

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 20 June 2023
    5 Comments

    Observing World Refugee Week and the Referendum on the Voice to Parliament together is appropriate because the First Peoples and later refugees have suffered in similar ways. Jordana Silverstein's latest book draws striking parallels between Australia's colonial past and the modern treatment of refugee children.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Near life experiences

    • Barry Gittins
    • 18 April 2023

    Near-death experiences can serve as stark reminders of the fragility of life, prompting us to cherish the moments that transcend routine and monotony. Whether it's the wit of a child, the intimacy with a partner, or the tranquility of nature, these moments awaken us to the gift of life. 

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  • RELIGION

    Thereafter

    • Bill Uren
    • 13 April 2023
    15 Comments

    In a world where we are constantly faced with life's fragility, it's no wonder that we find ourselves wondering what lies beyond. Is it the bright promise of immortality, or the endless cycle of birth, life, death, and rebirth? Or perhaps nothingness? When contemplating the 'thereafter,' what can we hope for?

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  • RELIGION

    From dust to life

    • Simon Smart
    • 04 April 2023
    3 Comments

    In a culture that shies away from ageing and death, the annual ritual of Ash Wednesday is a sobering reminder of our vulnerability and mortality. However, it also invites us to reflect on our failures and fallibility, and to recognize that life is not all about us, but about how we relate to others and contribute to their betterment. 

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  • ECONOMICS

    The debt crisis we all saw coming

    • David James
    • 03 April 2023

    As the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, and Credit Suisse poses a renewed threat to the global financial system, the question arises: how can we manage out-of-control debt? With global debt exceeding 230 per cent of GDP, could nationalising banks be the solution to the ongoing crisis, or will the debt merry-go-round continue to spin out of control?

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  • ECONOMICS

    In finance, story matters most

    • David James
    • 16 November 2022
    1 Comment

    Financial markets are made up of human beings and human beings have always been storytellers — long before science, or modern finance, or accounting even existed. Accordingly, the main skill of successful analysts, advisers, financial gurus and commentators is the construction of compelling narratives. They are, if not exactly creators of fairy stories, not too far removed from it. 

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    The hope of remembering

    • David Rowland
    • 10 November 2022
    3 Comments

    When people gather on Remembrance Day, commemorating the cease-fire at the end of the First World War, people take great pains to remember; a small acknowledgement of the horror of war, its loss, sacrifice and suffering. And in that time, it’s also worth pausing to reflect on those for whom wartime sacrifices and suffering are a daily reality. What do these people wish to remember?

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Our frightening times

    • Gillian Bouras
    • 08 November 2022
    8 Comments

    There are a great many despairing people about, with parents of children fearing they have no future; believing that by the time they are grown up the world as we know it will have ceased to exist. Floods, drought, wars, pandemics, climate change. In a world ever smaller and more connected, encouragement is needed.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    The constant remaking of a nation

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 17 August 2022
    4 Comments

    Few Australians of Irish descent will now be familiar with this history and the experience that accompanied it. They would see themselves as simply Australian. But the emphasis on social justice, the recognition of the value of community, and the concern for people who are marginal that are communicated through Catholic schools and the sympathy with the underdog owe much to the Irish heritage.

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