Arena Magazine articles from April 1999

Arena Magazine archives from April 1999

MORAL MAJORITIES.
April 1, 1999... WHY THE FOCUS ON LOLITA, ASKS SIMON COOPER. The month of March was marked by the return of moral issues to the centre of the political stage. After a period in the wilderness, it seems Prime Minister Howard has again found the strength of...

THE ABSOLUTE G-SPOT.
April 1, 1999... THE AGE OF SPIRITUAL MACHINES On Radio National's `The Spirit of Things' American author and computer whizz-kid Ray Kurzweil recently argued that we are about to enter `the age of spiritual machines'. He suggests in his book of the same...

RUBBISHING AUSTRALIA.
April 1, 1999... British Nuclear Fuels (BNF) already holds the title of champion for marine radioactive contamination. The Irish Sea was once reported as the most polluted body of water on earth. For years BNF blithely dumped waste in it from the Sellafield...

WHICH WAY THIRD WAY?
April 1, 1999... CHALLENGING THE STRUCTURES OF GLOBALISM OR EMBRACING MOTHERHOOD RHETORIC? Expressions of a Third Way in politics take many forms, but the growing assumption that a third way is necessary is another matter. It indicates a general...

FOR A DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENT.
April 1, 1999... DEFENDING THE AUSTRALIAN REPUBLIC Kanishka Jayasuriya has mounted a fearful attack on the idea of a directly elected President (`Beware the Fascist Roots of Populism', Australian, 17 February 1999). A directly elected President, we are...

KILLING US SOFTLY.
April 1, 1999... THE CLOSURE OF BILINGUAL EDUCATION PROGRAMS IS AN INJUSTICE IN ANY LANGUAGE. The Northern Territory Government's recent (December 1998) top-down decision to effect the closure of its unique bilingual education programs in which English and...

BAYWATCH.
April 1, 1999... The people of Avalon have every right to feel pleased. A community pulled together to fight for control over their neighbourhood. They held public forums, undertook sometimes heated debate, presented facts, opinions and arguments and came up...

TAKING OUT THE DRUG MARKET.
April 1, 1999... Given the Federal Government's commitment to a market approach to every aspect of life, why doesn't it think about the drug `problem' in market terms? It is probably because in this case we need to address the market by eliminating it. ...

CLIMATE CHANGE OR A CHANGING POLITICAL CLIMATE?
April 1, 1999... Australia's journey on the long road to stabilise greenhouse gas emissions has been one of retreat from international co-operation. Far from educating citizens about the need to address this issue, the current Liberal-National Party Coalition...

AN ADDRESS TO THE PRIME MINISTER.(poem)
April 1, 1999... Tell em to learn to read and rite Johnny. Tell em to pick emselves up by their bootstraps Johnny. But don't worry about whether they've got boots Johnny let alone straps. Don't tell em about another `r' the `r' for reason Johnny...

THE IRAQI PEOPLE ARE SUFFERING.
April 1, 1999... Iraqi refugees who have made their homes in Australia live in constant fear for their families who have remained, not knowing who to fear most -- the American or Iraqi governments. It is little wonder that Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim,...

THE RETURN OF CO-OPERATION.
April 1, 1999... DOES THE PROJECT AT MONDRAGON IN SPAIN OFFER PROSPECTS FOR CO-OPERATIVE RENEWAL, ASKS GEOFF SHARP. Mondragon, a co-operative situated in the Basque region of Spain, is an anomaly. In a period when it may seem that nothing can stand in the...

VIVA TIMOR L'ESTE.
April 1, 1999... BEYOND SILENCE, BETRAYAL, COWARDICE AND MURDER The one theme espoused by leaders of government for more than two decades was that the fate of the former Portuguese colony was irreversible. It was presented to us ad nauseam, with `it's...

A PARADISE CALLED PARQUE PUMALIN.
April 1, 1999... PHILANTHROPY OR COLONIALISM? This article is the first in our series `Alternative Futures'. We invite contributions from writers interested in critically exploring projects, large and small, marginalised and mainstream, that are intended...

CHILDREN ARE US.
April 1, 1999... REFLECTIONS ON THE FUTURE OF THE FAMILY This is the first of our new series `Reflections on the Millennium'. We invite contributions from writers critically analysing the present and future directions of basic institutions and social...

SATIRE.
April 1, 1999... To be sociological and very unsatirical we probably have to consider satire as an aspect of play -- that is as performance, experimentation, pretence. It is a part of the human learning process. Play seems to be the genetically programmed...

LETTERS TO MARCOS.(short story)
April 1, 1999... 1. Letter to Marcos All these years later, Marcos, what about children? In an article in Le Monde you say the women insurgents in your army are not allowed to become mothers, because conditions in the mountains make it impossible to bring...

GOUGH AND JIM.
April 1, 1999... OH, HOW DIFFERENTLY MIGHT THIS STORY HAVE BEEN WRITTEN. A little over three decades ago Gough Whitlam defeated Jim Cairns in a ballot for the leadership of the federal Australian Labor Party. The margin was just six votes. In the following...

HARM REDUCTION FOR WHOM?
April 1, 1999... SOME GUILTY THOUGHTS ON NEW DRUG POLICIES Heroin addiction is a staple story of our media today. It is generally presented with two faces. These faces belong to the grieving parents who give personal histories of trauma and destruction, or...

Darkness and light.(poem)
April 1, 1999... The Mandelbrot Set (Z ?? [Z.sup.2] + C) Something like swallowing dark And its burning light Washes a maverick earth In the spinning concord of infinity Until words find shape To name opposites of order And endless variety. ...

Waco -- The Rules of Engagement.(Review)
April 1, 1999... Waco -- The Rules of Engagement Directed by William Gazecki. 1996. 165 minutes. THE POLITICS OF WACO SHOULD BE RETHOUGHT IN THE LIGHT OF A DISTURBING DOCUMENTARY The recent Sydney release of the documentary Waco -- The Rules of...

Shakespeare in Love.(Review)
April 1, 1999... THE BARD GOES TO HOLLYWOOD AND GETS STRAIGHTENED OUT. The current popular revival of Shakespeare in the cinema has nearly reached its peak. Big-budget film versions of A Midsummer Night's Dream, Hamlet and Titus Andronicus are due for...

Globalisation, Social Movements and the New Internationalism.(Review)
April 1, 1999... Globalisation, Social Movements and the New Internationalism Peter Waterman, London, Mansell (Cassell), 1998. Sections of the book can be found on the internet at Peter Waterman's `global solidarity' website:...

`Paper to Celluloid' Forum.
April 1, 1999... `Paper to Celluloid' Forum. 21 February. Pitt Centre, Sydney. Mardi Gras Film Festival 1999. The process of adaptation from literature to film can be an odd topic for a public forum. This is a specialised area of screen writing. Yet at the...

LIKE A MORTGAGE WITH THAT?(sales practice in Australia's financial institutions)
April 1, 1999... My sister's career with McDonalds was short. One morning the manager called the staff to his office, then locked all the doors. A burgundy Volvo from headquarters arrived, and two burly, crew-cropped men in logoed burgundy blazers were let in....