Arena Magazine articles from August 2003

Arena Magazine archives from August 2003

The bitter wars of peace.(Editorial)
August 1, 2003... God of our fathers, known of old-- Lord of our far-flung battle line Beneath whose awful hand we hold Dominion over palm and pine-- Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, Lest we forget--lest we forget! Kipling,...

With helpen frens like these... global neoliberalism is creating not only failed states but destroyed societies and no amount of military intervention will fix that.(Against the current)(Solomon Islands)
August 1, 2003... There have been two types of commentary upon 'Helpen Fren', the decision to send troops and police into the Solomon Islands in an attempt to restore order. The first commentary has reflected unease about the decision, especially in its...

Never again? A modest proposal: the question of why we went to war remains unanswered.
August 1, 2003... The banner headline read 'Saddam Falls'. The grainy picture showed a statue, in central Baghdad, pitched face-forward. In scenes reminiscent of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, jubilant Iraqis jumped and danced on the fallen six metre...

Sweet home Ulladulla: the Howard government is on the brink of trading away protection of Australian culture. The case is built on a pyramid of false reasoning.
August 1, 2003... In the course of his essay 'Rabbit: Syndrome: Australia and America', (Quarterly Essay 4, 2001, Black Inc) the historian, biographer and former political speech-writer Don Watson suggested that it was 'both wise and proper' to be on the side of...

about butterflies.(Poem)
August 1, 2003... a butterfly is coupled to a tree leaf disguised not but an all embracing world of which butterfly is colour & grace of tree proud of insects & life humans disguise themselves to attract & kill other & perform proud...

Loving you is like a bad medicine: not to mention the pharmaceutical benefits scheme ...
August 1, 2003... Australia's Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) is acknowledged world-wide as providing Australian taxpayers with access to some of the cheapest pharmaceuticals in the world. One of the principal reasons for the effectiveness of the system is...

Atsic in crisis? tough times for aboriginal self-determination.(Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission)
August 1, 2003... The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) is facing an uncertain future. Over the past eighteen months major upheavals have shaken the confidence of both Indigenous people and the general public in the Commission's capacity...

House of many springs: a former convent hospital in Barcelona becomes another point of light in the global social movement.
August 1, 2003... Can Mas Deu--meaning 'house of many springs' in Catalan--is an incredible squat on the outskirts of Barcelona, Empty for over fifty-three years some of the sections of the awesome sprawling building date from 1610. The valley has been a leper...

Why Ghassan should be boycotting John who should be spurning Ned: Geoffrey Levey.(debate)(Israeli-Palestinian conflict and terrorism)
August 1, 2003... Just when you thought the Israel-Palestine situation couldn't be any more depressing along comes Ned Curthoys' intervention 'An Argument for a Moratorium' in the May issue of Arena Magazine. Curthoys is a signatory to the academic boycott...

Why the northern territory matters.
August 1, 2003... Chief Minister Clare Martin, the Northern Territory 'premier', seems to have the sort of personality to preside over a serious and coherent (rather than merely eccentric and shrill) and inclusive (rather than divisive or redneck) next phase in...

Borders, states, freedom, and justice: what are borders? For many in the movement opposing mandatory detention they are simply expressions of the state. Yet this position cannot give us a coherent and critical politics. Rethinking borders is essential to the project of a genuinely democratic society.(essay)(Critical Essay)
August 1, 2003... The debate about policy on asylum seekers is one that most of those who are opposed to mandatory detention are never going to be comfortable in. It concedes the government's right to decide who is and is not welcome in Australia. It risks...

Too Close to God: for the buried ones.(Poem)
August 1, 2003... Too Close to God for the buried ones We are close. We are very close. The Hubble telescope has revealed still more galaxies and the beginnings of their answers. We've cloned sheep, and more. We're next. ...

New history and the new catastrophe: Ilan Pappe, the new history and the question of Israeli genocide.
August 1, 2003... The Australian--the world--Jewish community lies in moral ruins, dinosaurs in a 'post-Zionist age'. 'Post-Zionist age' is a phrase that will be familiar to informed opinion, that is, to people of intelligence, sensitivity, and conscience...

Performing poverty: if you live in the 'Zoo', you learn to play to the audience.(The Lowest Rung: Voices of Australian Poverty)(Excerpt)
August 1, 2003... In the zoo In 1994, the coordinator of a job program in Mount Druitt developed a support group for long-term unemployed adults. The organisation that helped fund the project asked if he would mind showing the results of his efforts. As he...

Care and catastrophe: fire and the Australian bush.
August 1, 2003... Born and raised in a northern seaside suburb of Brisbane in the 1940s and 1950s, I was a child of both the city and the bush. In those far-gone simpler days, the bush pressed hard on the sprawling outskirts of the city and wilderness was never...

Orwell, whose Orwell? On the centenary of his birth, the complexities and contradictions of St George need to be acknowledged, but so too does his status as a radical and revolutionary.(Biography)
August 1, 2003... W.B. Yeats is said to have fainted when--at a state occasion marking his birthday--he was honoured by a thousand Irish boy scouts reciting in unison 'The Lake Isle of Innisfree'. The event has always stood as the example of colossally missing...

Mr Ruddock revealing his sensitive, caring side.(rope)(self harm and desperation)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... KERRY O'BRIEN: Do you acknowledge that at least in a number of instances self-harm was an act of desperation, not some cynical act to somehow try and fool us into accepting them, but an act of desperation? Do you accept that? PHILIP...

One of those people.(rope)(popping pills)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... 'I was helping out my friend, and she was like, "You've got to try this little blue pill". I could conquer the world if I took those pills! I was thinking of getting diagnosed with ADD just so I could get them, but I don't want to be one of...

Piano concerto for eye of the tiger.(Ian Grainger's view on personal trainers)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... 'The personal trainer is the piano teacher of the 2000s.' lan Grainger, CEO of Fitness Australia, a peak representative body for the fitness industry 'Let's Get Personal', Weekend Australian (Weekend Health section), 14-15 June 2003, I-2.

And besides, schizophrenia went out with fluoro green shirts.(quote from unnamed fashion publicist)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... 'Mood-stabilizing drugs--the breakfast of champions--that's what's still stigmatized. Something like bipolar or, God forbid, schizophrenia, those are very taboo because they're real. It's still cool to be sane. You're just supposed to be sane...

Celebrities: is there anything they don't know?(Gwyneth Paltrow's nutrition rule)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... 'I don't eat candy because I don't think there's any prana, any energy, in it. I try not to eat anything that's toxic.' Hollywood actor and nutrition expert Gwyneth Paltrow 'So Much Money, So Little Taste', Age Good Weekend Magazine, 14...

Memo to the accc: Jill and David's parties are deceptively labelled.(rope)(swinging community with rules)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... 'David's wife Jill accepts "no nonsense" at their regular party, "Debauchery".' Jill and David, hosts of regular parties for Melbourne's swinging community "Swing shift", Age, 19 June 2003...

Martin Flanagan on hope under the microscope.(Hope: New Philosophies for Change)(Book Review)
August 1, 2003... Mary Zournazi, Hope: New Philosophies for Change Pluto Press, Sydney, 2002 This book represents a most interesting project. A young woman, highly educated in a certain tradition of Western thought, experiences three waves of serious...

Harry Throssell on the Tampa post-mortem.(Dark Victory)(Book Review)
August 1, 2003... David Marr and Marian Wilkinson, Dark Victory, Allen & Unwin, 2003. In Dark Victory, leading Australian investigative reporters David Marr and Marian Wilkinson chronicle in awesome detail the period August to November 2001, when Australian...

Race Mathews on back-bench biography.(Ken Fry, member of the House of Representatives)(Biography)
August 1, 2003... Memoirs by one-time Labor ministers have become two-a-penny, but those of backbench MPs remain relatively rare and thereby the more interesting. Those of Ken Fry--MHR for Fraser in the ACT 1974 to 1984--have special significance, consequent on...

Notable publications.(list of recently published books)(Bibliography)
August 1, 2003... Philip Mendes, Australia's Welfare Wars: The players, the politics and the ideologies (UNSW Press, 2003) Philip Mendes considers the roles played by key ideologies and lobby groups in determining welfare state outcomes with specific reference...

The purpose.(Poem)
August 1, 2003... You have always fought against them, Always opposed them, always spoken With the utmost contempt of their motives; Sometimes you have suspected a conspiracy. What you have never suspected is Something...

Under the invisible thumb of the market.(red herrick)(supply and demand of grapes)
August 1, 2003... I score the raw materials I use to manufacture my mind-altering substance of choice from Big Tony. I just place my order over the phone and show up at Big Tony's place with the cash. I've been scoring from Big Tony for years now, so he knows my...