Welcome to Eureka Street

back to site

Keywords: Barack Obama

  • AUSTRALIA

    Dialogue with the enemy

    • Peter Kirkwood
    • 18 March 2009
    3 Comments

    When asked if America was winning the war in Afghanistan, Obama answered: 'No'. His call for dialogue with the Taliban reflects a form of inter-religious dialogue that goes beyond a lovey-dovey, 'underneath we're all the same' approach.

    READ MORE
  • RELIGION

    Obama's challenge to the Church

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 26 February 2009
    22 Comments

    The standard by which the most vocal Catholic Bishops judged Obama was his position on abortion, same sex marriages, and on the use of embryos for research. Obama has done the churches a favour by stealing their clothing.

    READ MORE
  • RELIGION

    Hindu's message for religious unity

    • Constant Mews
    • 05 February 2009

    Obama's inaugural address evoked another great speech. In Chicago in 1893 Swami Vivekananda called for an end to 'sectarianism, bigotry, and its horrible descendant, fanaticism'. Vivekananda's vision was never realised.

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    Why Aussie politicians should learn to party

    • John Warhurst
    • 30 January 2009
    7 Comments

    Obama's inauguration included official ceremonies, public speeches, street parties and ten presidential balls. Such pomp and ceremony is underrated. If he had been sworn in, Australian-style, it would have been a much duller affair.

    READ MORE
  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Obama vs the 'ethic of greed'

    • Bruce Duncan
    • 30 January 2009
    6 Comments

    Obama embraced Christianity because of his involvement with church groups, sustaining the moral vision of oppressed blacks. He has sketched a vision of social renewal that overlaps closely with Catholic and Christian social thought.

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    Obama and Baz Luhrmann's Australia

    • Brian McCoy
    • 23 January 2009
    4 Comments

    Australia Day comes this year shortly after Obama's entry into the White House. Like the child in Australia — a film that captures something of the mixed history of our Australian footprint — Obama embodies the possibility of healing across racial and other divides.

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    Indonesia's Obama dreaming

    • Dewi Anggraeni
    • 22 January 2009
    3 Comments

    In the big cities in Indonesia, most taxi drivers want to talk about the new president in the USA. Obama lived four years in Indonesia, and the country, the people and the culture left their marks on him, too.

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    Grandeur and banality as Obama ascends

    • Binoy Kampmark
    • 21 January 2009
    4 Comments

    One reporter described the crowd gathered for the inauguration as a 'mass of humanity' with 'children living their history'. How Obama's leadership takes shape will be a point of curiosity and perhaps a dread. But in searching for consensus, Obama has started well.

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    Obama's victory for African Australians

    • Saeed Saeed
    • 20 January 2009
    6 Comments

    Upon hearing my ambition to become a journalist, elders in my community suggested I adopt a western pen-name to increase my chances of employment. Obama's win goes a long way to short circuiting the negativity in African Australian communities bred by historical grudges and ineffective social services.

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    Amrozi execution gets Rudd's gloat

    • Michael Mullins
    • 12 January 2009
    1 Comment

    The execution of the Bali bombers is imminent, and Kevin Rudd has encouraged Australians to have the 'last gloat'. The Muslim world will interpret our gloating as Australia's endorsementof the Bush Doctrine in its dying days.

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    Lipstick on America's politcal (dog) collar

    • Moira Rayner
    • 07 January 2009
    3 Comments

    There are lessons to be learned from Sarah Palin's quip that the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull terrier is 'lipstick'. In Western politics, women are acceptable if they look 'youthful' and are attached to powerful men to whose authority they defer. (September 2008)

    READ MORE
  • ENVIRONMENT

    Australia shamed as climate reaches turning point

    • Tony Kevin
    • 05 December 2008
    8 Comments

    Barack Obama has deflected heat off the US at the current climate change conference in Poland. But in true Howardian style, Australia, by sitting on the sidelines, is sabotaging the conference's prospects of real-time progress.

    READ MORE