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Keywords: Lucky Country

  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    My refugee friend

    • Kerry Murphy
    • 08 June 2011
    9 Comments

    Tuc was an officer in the South Vietnamese army. After the war ended in 1975 he was interned by the North Vietnamese for many years, locked up in a hole in the ground. I asked him how he survived. He smiled and pointed to his picture of the Madonna.

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  • RELIGION

    Islam in denial over burqas

    • Muhammad Izhar ul Haq
    • 07 June 2011
    16 Comments

    Everything Western nations do is analysed by the Muslim world in the light of 'conspiracy theories'. Fanatics present the French burqa ban as a reflection of anti Islamic sentiment. In fact millions of Muslim women in France and elsewhere do not cover their faces.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Dangers of democracy

    • Various
    • 17 May 2011

    You ... are a man of steel with an impotent nation in your care: talk peace; but make strong allies everywhere.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Invisible Indonesia

    • Ruby J. Murray
    • 15 March 2011
    34 Comments

    You'd never know it, but just above Darwin and sort of to the left, there are 17,000 islands with roughly 240 million people living on them. There's more to this 'Indonesia' place than Bali, Balibo, Bintangs, and bombings. We forget Indonesia at our peril.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Another date on the refugee tragedy calendar

    • Kerry Murphy
    • 17 December 2010
    12 Comments

    Let's hope Wednesday's tragic events are not exploited for political advantage. We remember those who died and offer prayers and condolences for their families. For the living, they need to be treated with dignity.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Burmese refugees' Christmas story

    • Duncan MacLaren
    • 13 December 2010
    3 Comments

    Outside: the fish factory that never sleeps. The people working in it are illegal migrants, paid a pittance and treated as sub humans. Only the strong return from the fishing trips. If you are ill and cannot work, you can be tipped into the sea along with the other rubbish for the seagulls.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    France shows Australia how to protest

    • Bronwyn Lay
    • 26 October 2010
    6 Comments

    In Australia a mass strike is unimaginable. The bureaucratic hoops required before a strike can be considered a legal 'protected action' are Kafkaesque. Therefore strikes have become small, localised and limited to issues of contractual entitlements.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Abbott and Santamaria's undemocratic Catholicism

    • Paul Collins
    • 17 August 2010
    26 Comments

    Tony Abbott is wrong to suggest that B. A. Santamaria made Australian Catholicism 'more intellectual'. Santamaria embraced a form of doctrinaire conformism that is the death of thoughtful commitment. It would be worrying if this kind of integralist Catholicism infected contemporary public life.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    The real people of Afghanistan

    • Jan Forrester
    • 28 June 2010
    6 Comments

    I am struck by lurid online comment on whether Aussie troops should go or stay in Afghanistan, a miasma of old-left vs new-right trench exchanges, armchair military strategists and conspiracy theorists. As in the national game of Buzkashi, Afghanistan is a goat carcass fought over by a gaggle of teams.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Christmas cakes in art and war

    • Frank O'Shea
    • 16 December 2009
    3 Comments

    If you ever hear a House Manager admit that her neighbour has made a better Christmas cake, write down the time, place and the names of witnesses, and get it signed by your parish priest. It is the kind of thing that might be useful in the early stages of a canonisation process.

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  • INFORMATION

    In defence of people smugglers

    • Chris Bisset
    • 15 October 2009
    4 Comments

    Kevin Rudd calls them the 'vilest form of people on the planet'. How dare these impoverished, yet slightly entrepreneurial fishermen let their social consciousness blind them from considering the interests of white Australians?

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Immigration reform review

    • Kerry Murphy
    • 11 September 2009
    1 Comment

    On Wednesday, the Senate made two decisions which take immigration reform forward. The reforms were approved with the support of the Greens and Independents, and one Liberal Senator. Reading the Hansard gives some insight into the current debate.

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