Arena Magazine articles from August 2005

Arena Magazine archives from August 2005

Know your product.(Editorial)(Labour Party's campaign against the Industrial Relations Laws)(Australian Workplace Agreements)(Editorial)
August 1, 2005... Clearly, members of the Howard government have been surprised at the success of the labour movement's campaign against the IR laws--although whether John Howard himself is one of them remains to be seen. Many have forgotten the old pusher's...

Multiculturalism: stones and bones.(Editorial)(Pamela Bone)(John Stone)(Editorial)
August 1, 2005... Before the echo of the London bombs had even begun to die away, local pundits had a suspect in their sights, and a headshot-to-kill policy in their minds for multiculturalism. Pamela Bone was one of the first to suggest that this might be a...

Ripe for a new politics.(Editorial)(Editorial)
August 1, 2005... Watching the tractors and harvesters roll off the Tasmanian ferry in Melbourne was enough to make one think they had come in search of vehicles capable of more than ten kilometres an hour. In fact they were on a mission to link up with...

Arena and the Internet.(Editorial)(Editorial)
August 1, 2005... One of the most cherished pieces of cyber folklore is that the internet will provide the means to reconstruct an ethic of co-operation and reciprocity. The rise of Napster and the evolution to peer-to-peer computing which enable users to share...

Fiona Katuskas.(Lead Graphic)(Cartoon)
August 1, 2005... SALE MINE! MINE! BATTLERS! FAIR GO FOR ALL! ELITES! NO TO U.S. WAR! INDEPENDENT FOREIGN POLICY! UNAUSTRALIANS! ... and THIS WILL HELP US TO IDENTIFY THOSE WHO THREATEN EVERYTHING WE BELIEVE IN... ...

A hidden tipping point? The rise of the non-voting party at the 5 May UK Election has put proportional representation on the agenda, argues.(Against the Current)
August 1, 2005... Since the British general election of 5 May, something quite unexpected has been happening. Everyone knows that Tony Blair's New Labour Party won. But it's becoming clearer that something else won too--not a set of candidates or policy ideas,...

Weakening the brand: changes to accreditation threaten to further erode the idea of the University.(Against the Current)(National Protocol changes)
August 1, 2005... In early June, Melbourne University's Council announced it was winding up the activities of its troubled commercial offshoot, Melbourne University Private (MUP). MUP was established in 1988 in response to the growing demand for customised...

Roundabouts: after the Tampa.(Poetry)(Poem)
August 1, 2005... Roundabouts: after the Tampa We took them out. Just a gap left; a circular groove in the earth where a thousand small feet had belted round and round clinging to the creature's steel bones, paint peeling...

Nelson's lament: despite his protests, the market-driven university is just what the Minster ordered.(Against the Current)(Federal Minister for Education)
August 1, 2005... Universities drive our economic and social development. They pass the soul from one generation to the next . why is it, in a country where we are bleeding in physics and chemistry and biology and humanities and social science, why are we...

Professing ignorance: the case of Andrew Fraser shows the muddied politics of free speech and the university.(Against the Current)
August 1, 2005... Trying to disentangle the facts of the Andrew Fraser case is as difficult as it is vital. Fraser, associate professor of public law at Macquarie University, professes a belief that black people have a lower IQ than white people, with the...

Hidden money: lack of transparency in political donations erodes the democracy that parties are elected to protect.(Against the Current)(extract from report at www.democracy4sale.org)(Excerpt)
August 1, 2005... People or groups who donate to political parties are currently required to report the donation if it is over $1500--a barrier against hidden donations and lack of accountability, right? Wrong. In fact the rules on political donations are full...

Sports Frankenstein: character, commerce and cloning: Lindsay Fitzclarence questions where science is taking us in leaping over our athletic limits.(Against the Current)
August 1, 2005... In the Australian Football League, the selection of new players in the annual 'draft' includes an assessment of 'attitude'. This is deemed to be important because it is a measure of a player's 'coach-ability' or the capacity to listen, learn...

What a carve-up! Customary land tenure in the Pacific is a good basis for evolving and changing societies, which is why the right are so desperate to end it.(Against the Current)(extract from "Privatising Land In The Pacific: a Defense of Customary Tenures")(Excerpt)
August 1, 2005... As Papua New Guinea approaches the thirtieth anniversary of its independence, attention is again focused on the touchy subject of Australian aid. Since independence in 1975, Australia has spent more than $14 billion in real terms on official...

Fitter, happier, more productive: intensive marketing has been in US schools for over a decade. Damien Pitts shows how Australian schools are falling prey to the same forces.(Against the Current)
August 1, 2005... In 1989, Whittle Communications launched a pilot of 'Channel One', a twelve-minute daily news program. The program would be trialled in six school districts from grades six through to twelve. Two of the twelve minutes of program time would be...

Eureka Street July-August 2005.(Mag Watch)(themes)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Ben Fraser laments the demise of intelligent news reporting as quality loses the fight against a bid for ratings. No longer is the 6pm slot on commercial television a time when enlightened audiences come home to be further educated on the...

Alternative Law Journal June 2005.(Mag Watch)(themes)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... The social isolation brought on by religious vilification is preventing Australia's Arabic and Muslim community from participating openly in public life. Raymond Chow states that despite significant public debate, the harmful impact of...

Habitat Australia August 2005.(Mag Watch)(themes)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... As personal debt skyrockets and people are becoming increasingly attached to their personal possessions, Suzie Brown looks at the growth of the small but steady group Downshifters Downunder, who have chosen a simpler, low-consuming lifestyle:...

New Internationalist August 2005.(Mag Watch)(themes)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... August New Internationalist's theme--The Challenge to Violence--is an examination of Nonviloence and alternatives to violence globally. After a stint in Trincomalee, Sri Lanka, writer Chris Richards' relives his experiences with Peters Nywanda...

The neo-con circus: the Forbes Global spectacular at the Sydney Opera House should be quite a show.(Against the Current)
August 1, 2005... In late August the Sydney Opera House will host the neo-conservative lobby machine, Forbes Global. Steve Forbes, signatory of the infamous 'Project for a New American Century', will regale us with his far-right Republican neo-conservativism....

Lesbians: the invisible torture: while lesbians remain outside the scope of social justice reform everyone's civil and political rights remain in jeopardy.(Against the Current)
August 1, 2005... Torture has become a daily headline in our newspapers, and although many are shocked by the revelations of torture at Abu Ghraib, the persistent rumours of torture at Guantanamo Bay and the continuing torture of peoples in many countries, there...

Notable publications.(Do Not Disturb: Is The Media Failing Australia?)(The Collapse Of Globalism: And the Reinvention of the World)(Climate Change Begins At Home: Life On the Two Way Street of Global Warming)(America's Other War: Terrorizing Colombia)(Selling Sickness: How the Drug Companies are Turning Us All Into Patients)(Power, Politics & Culture)(books)(Book Review)
August 1, 2005... Robert Manne (ed.), Do Not Disturb: Is The Media Failing Australia? (Black Inc, 2005) Is the media doing its job when assessing Australian politics? Why are we in an era of shock jocks and celebrity commentators? Are they low common...

Liberal theory of populist relativity.(//bites: BRIEF NOTES ON NEWS AND VIEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD)
August 1, 2005... The peculiar, mawkish spectacle of alpine cattle-folk riding through the streets of inner-Melbourne in mid-June was the stuff of a populist's and nationalist's dream. Protesting against a ban on their environmentally damaging activities in the...

The sleep of reason.(//bites: BRIEF NOTES ON NEWS AND VIEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD)(ethical dilemas for medical researchers)
August 1, 2005... With the Bush government joining the Vatican in opposing stem cell research, biotech researchers are facing a narrowing of options for places to complete their research. One response is jurisdiction shopping--and Melbourne is currently selling...

Wake up to reality.(//bites: BRIEF NOTES ON NEWS AND VIEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD)
August 1, 2005... Welcome to the new era of 'surreality', where we are relating our own realities to the formulaic false realities fed to us by reality TV. During a recent business trip to Sydney, a colleague turned to me at the airport and said, 'it's just like...

Calorie culture.(//bites: BRIEF NOTES ON NEWS AND VIEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD)
August 1, 2005... Dr Atkins' Diet Revolution--the diet which portrayed sugars, bread, rice, pasta, and potatoes among other carbohydrate-rich foods as responsible for obesity and the consumption of high-protein foods as the path to lean heaven--appears to have...

Niger de-politicised.(//bites: BRIEF NOTES ON NEWS AND VIEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... In Niger, as relayed to us by TV news, the women in their colourful kenteare queuing for food, in the face of famine. In Zimbabwe, a family is weeping outside the demolished ruins of their house. The latter is reported as coming from a...

Vanstone's silver bullets: how open is the government to really learning from international indigenous experience?(Senator Amanda Vanstone )
August 1, 2005... Indigenous affairs minister Senator Amanda Vanstone took a break on 31 May from some punishing weeks on the immigration side of her portfolio to show a surprising and welcome official openness to indigenous experience abroad. She told the...

Philip Mendes responds.(Comment)(views on the relationship between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... The synchronised attack by Messrs Ross, Riajansky and Muhamed (Arena MagazineNo. 77) concerning my mildly expressed views on the complex relationship between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism is frankly laughable. I have been regularly...

Eruption point: Bolivia.(Comment)
August 1, 2005... It was interesting and somewhat surprising to find an article about Bolivia in Arena Magazine No. 77 Bolivia Erupts, by Jeffery R. Webber). Bolivia is rarely featured in the Australian media and when this happens, the news is usually related to...

Why the extremism taskforce will fail: Blair is naive to imagine that moderate Muslim institutions can soothe the breasts of disgruntled youth.(http://trawlings the best of the web)(reprint from an article from spiked-online)(www.spiked-online.com)(Reprint)
August 1, 2005... A meeting of British Muslim leaders at Number 10 has agreed to establish a taskforce to confront extremism. Prime Minister Tony Blair explained: 'They will be people who are going to be supported by the rest of us but from the community, able...

After the London bombing: an exercise in avoiding the truth: cultural self-reflection is desperately needed to grasp the crisis of meaning that typifies our world today.(Essay)
August 1, 2005... In the midst of carnage and outrage in many parts of the world and with daily body counts in Iraq often in excess of the loss of life in the London bombings, the endless array of soul-searching accounts and inquiries about the terror seem an...

The phantom solution: Alan Roberts explains the danger of pursuing nuclear power when it will fail to meet both environmental and energy needs.(Nuclear Power)
August 1, 2005... It was once hailed as the solution to humanity's energy demands, promising electricity 'too cheap to meter'. But nuclear power has not lived up to its advance publicity. Thousands of stations, it was confidently predicted, would greet the...

Pan oil Jane.(rope)(Fonda, Jane)
August 1, 2005... Hollywood star and activist Jane Fonda is planning to take a bus tour across America to call for an end to US military operations in Iraq in a move that has already drawn sharp reactions from both the pro- and anti-war camps... 'I have not...

Oil-slicked diplomacy: China's quest for energy resources, whatever the human rights cost, is taking it where western nations will not go.(China)
August 1, 2005... The most oil-slicked imperial power in the world today is not, as some would have you believe, the United States. It is China. The Bush administration's foray into the Middle East may well turn out to be little more than a duty-free shopping...

The poverty of poverty: the 'Poverty Wars' and the strange case of Saunders vs. Saunders are the worst way for progressives to look at inequality in Australia. No wonder the neo-cons like it so much.(The Poverty Wars)
August 1, 2005... The so-called 'poverty wars' got underway late in 2001 following the release by the Smith Family of a major report on the extent of poverty in Australia authored by Professor Ann Harding, director of the National Centre for Social and Economic...

Beauty and misogyny: breast implants, tummy tucks and nose jobs have become socially approved beauty practices in the west, but Sheila Jeffreys argues they are better understood in terms of the United Nations' definiton of harmful cultural and traditional practices.(Cosmetic Surgery)(extract from "Beauty and Misogyny: Harmful Cultural Practices in the West")(Excerpt)
August 1, 2005... According to United Nations documents such as the 'Fact Sheet on Harmful Traditional Practices', harmful cultural/traditional practices are understood to be damaging to the health of women and girls, to be performed for men's benefit, to create...

When the Living.(Poetry)(Poem)
August 1, 2005... When the Living Tong is playing strings in the next room. His teacher was found murdered today, his legs amputated. When the living become the undead the living must become the most...

The rise of expert culture: a public sphere dominated by expert opinion is increasingly incapable of morally or historically grounded reflection.(Cooper's Last)
August 1, 2005... For the last few years, elements of the mainstream church have proved something of an irritant to the Federal Government. Whether it is the fate of refugees, the Iraq war, or the treatment of Aborigines, church leaders have had a prominent...

Kate Cregan on human remains.(A Man After His Own Heart: A True Story)(Human Remains: Episodes in Human Dissection)(books)(Book Review)
August 1, 2005... Charles Siebert, A Man After His Own Heart: A True Story, Scribe, Melbourne, 2004. Helen MacDonald, Human Remains: Episodes in Human Dissection, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 2005. The arrival of Helen MacDonald's Human...

Mullumbimby Madness.(Graphics)(Cartoon)
August 1, 2005... Mullumbimby Madness "So that's how you make chicken stock??!" [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Christopher Scanlon on creative mythmaking.(The Flight of the Creative Class: The New Global Competition for Talent)(book)(Book Review)
August 1, 2005... Richard Florida, The Flight of the Creative Class: The New Global Competition for Talent, HarperBusiness, 2005 Launching the latest in its line of G5 Power Mac computers, Apple stores in the US were plastered with posters of the new...

How to be tabloid: Chapter 1: tabloid radio.
August 1, 2005... Welcome to a rewarding career in tabloid journalism. If you already know on which side your bread is buttered your life will be relaxed and comfortable. However, if you wish to be investigative, courageous, confronting, revealing, caring,...