Keywords: Hurricane Katrina
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ARTS AND CULTURE
- Brian Matthews
- 24 July 2015
8 Comments
They are ‘coming to get us’, warns our Prime Minister, adapting the ‘bogey man’ mode of our childhood fears to the contemporary narrative of terrorism and violence. The effect of related intrusions on our daily lives is being gradually dulled. The neoliberal dispensation under which we now live both relies on, and encourages, new episodes of normalisation that go far beyond what we've known in the past.
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AUSTRALIA
- Tony Kevin
- 01 November 2012
9 Comments
If citizens of other nations could vote, it should be Obama by a mile! Outsiders are perplexed by polling that suggests a cliffhanger in the contest between the incumbent Obama and the Republican compromise candidate Romney. The issues – many of which are vital for Australia – are clear, but the outcome is not.
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ARTS AND CULTURE
- Tim Kroenert
- 13 September 2012
It is often the poor who suffer most in a disaster. When the polar ice caps melt, rising seawaters flood an impoverished southern American bayou town. The survivors destroy a dam that keeps the nearby city dry and their village flooded. The indictment here of the prosperous West is hard to miss.
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INTERNATIONAL
- Ben Fraser
- 28 September 2010
4 Comments
Amid the horror and gloom there have been moments of inspiration in the flood crisis that have largely gone unreported. While they warmly accept the staples of relief, they know through a history of crippling food insecurity and mass displacement that they are masters of their own destiny.
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RELIGION
- Andrew Hamilton
- 06 May 2009
15 Comments
An American priest reportedly claimed that swine flu was God's punishment for sin. The idea that God might use natural disasters to punish people is repugnant. But at first glance the Scriptures do seem to represent God as doing just that.
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AUSTRALIA
- Michael Mullins
- 09 March 2009
The Victorian bushfires occurred during a time of financial uncertainty, but Australians gave their money generously. It was as if they were consciously and calculatingly investing their funds in the solidarity of the community.
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ECONOMICS
- Les Coleman
- 22 October 2008
3 Comments
Circumstantial evidence suggests that during the past few weeks we have seen a massive manipulation of monetary policy to support US bank stocks. The manipulation has been played out in plain view, which, of course, is the best place to hide a secret.
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AUSTRALIA
- 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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ARTS AND CULTURE
- Tim Kroenert
- 18 September 2006
Despite the bleak prognosis, An Inconvenient Truth is an optimistic film. Al Gore is no doomsday prophet, but an engaging orator who believes humans can change to meet the threat posed by global warming.
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ENVIRONMENT
- Robert Hefner
- 23 April 2006
If our actions are contributing to a climate which makes catastrophic hurricanes more likely, surely we owe it to the dead, maimed and homeless to examine those actions more closely.
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ENVIRONMENT
- Tim Thwaites
- 23 April 2006
Regarding climate change, what we need is not a new way of engineering but a new way of living.
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AUSTRALIA
- Anthony Ham
- 23 April 2006
Niger’s descent to the world’s worst place to live has been paved with greed and good intentions
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