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Keywords: Mask

  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Traversing grief on the Camino

    • Tim Kroenert
    • 03 May 2012
    5 Comments

    Irishman Jack's cynicism has its roots in his hurt and betrayal over the clergy sex abuse scandal within his country. Snide American Sarah's abrasive personality masks numerous hurts. The most extraordinary aspect of religious pilgrimages is the ordinary humanity of the pilgrims themselves.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Getting intimate with the da Vinci robot

    • Brian Matthews
    • 02 March 2012
    3 Comments

    Invisible hands parted my gown and stroked my spine with stuff that was exquisitely cold. 'Put your bum in there,' he said, 'wriggle round till you're comfortable then lie back.' I knew very well that when I lay back, securely anchored by my bum in the space provided, the adhesive would hold me in its grip.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Humanising Hoover and Thatcher

    • Tim Kroenert
    • 02 February 2012
    4 Comments

    The problems do not begin and end with badly applied fake jowls. J. Edgar introduces its subject in his later years, reflecting back on his life. This manipulative tactic errs on the side of sentimentality, when Hoover, like Margaret Thatcher, is not a figure to whom sentimentality can be easily attached.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    The crossing guard and the dawdler

    • Vin Maskell
    • 01 February 2012
    8 Comments

    He'd pick up sticks and stones, turn them over, put them in his pocket. He was often the last to cross, arriving as the school's public address system played 'hurry up' music at 8:55am. Some people laughed when I said I'd become a school crossing supervisor, but they don't see the things I see.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Best of 2011: Revelations of a detention centre spy

    • Lyn Bender
    • 10 January 2012
    9 Comments

    Employed at the centre as a psychologist, I witnessed riots, hunger strikes, attempted suicides and severe depression. I realised I had a profound ethical dilemma: in being compliant to the administration, I was unable to ensure my duty of care towards these people. So I became a mole. Published 27 September 2011

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Agnostic's deathbed

    • Lorraine McGuigan
    • 08 November 2011
    3 Comments

    Grabbing my hand you drew a line on your chest, moving on to make the sign of the cross. Or so it seemed. Priest! You want a priest? I said, puzzled yet pleased to read your mind. You rolled your eyes, looked up to the ceiling, slowly shook your head.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Alzheimer's erosion

    • Vin Maskell
    • 12 October 2011
    9 Comments

    'I've been looking after Vera since 1996. I wasn't going to stop because of glandular fever.' Clyde and I talk sport and the weather but Vera's always on his mind. 'Her memory's gone. I only ask her one question each day. I say, Who's your best mate? And she looks at me as if I'm stupid!' 

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    My brother ill and illuminated

    • Brian Doyle
    • 05 October 2011
    7 Comments

    One time my brother Kevin and our father had a fistfight. Our sister herded the kids into a back room, made us kneel and pray. We could hear crashing; sometimes I still hear crashing when I pray. In his 50s Kevin, who I loved but sometimes disliked, got sick. It looks like he will die before Christmas.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Revelations of a detention centre spy

    • Lyn Bender
    • 28 September 2011
    12 Comments

    Employed at the centre as a psychologist, I witnessed riots, hunger strikes, attempted suicides and severe depression. I realised I had a profound ethical dilemma: in being compliant to the administration, I was unable to ensure my duty of care towards these people. So I became a mole.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Record store pilgrim

    • Vin Maskell
    • 11 May 2011
    5 Comments

    Once, I soaked up so much music it seeped from my pores. A week wasn't complete without buying a few albums, seeing a few bands, talking music with mates until dawn. Now I wonder if my weekly pilgrimage to a city music store is merely a break from the working day, or a respite from fading dreams.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    In defence of people-smuggling

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 24 February 2011
    33 Comments

    Asylum seekers have also always needed help to make their journey to safety. Our people smugglers may be seen as distinctive in that they charge high prices for their troubles. But asylum seekers have always relied on people who exploited them.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Where children used to play

    • Vin Maskell
    • 09 February 2011
    4 Comments

    After she died — her mind went first, then the rest — he moved across town, where he lived in a different type of street. A busy street with traffic and noise. No place for a street party. Once a year, though, he returns to see the next generation of neighbours. New leaves on old trees.

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