Arena Magazine articles from August 2006

Arena Magazine archives from August 2006

'Like a diseased people'.(Editorial)
August 1, 2006... In a moment of optimism, Robert Fisk, the well-known Middle East commentator and author, declared the recent outbreak of warfare in Lebanon to be a nasty little war, one that would go away as fast as it came. If this seemed to be possible five...

Old rules, new rules? No rules: bullied by Israel and the US, the international community has failed the Palestinians, and the citizens of Lebanon, Syria and Jordan.
August 1, 2006... The Israeli onslaught on Lebanon has created a mood beyond fury and despair across the Middle East. It is not just that there is no longer a 'peace process'. It is much worse than that. There is no longer any belief in the possibility of a...

www.foxnews.com for instance.(rope)(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... 'There are millions and millions of people on the internet, mainly writing rubbish...' Rupert Murdoch in a speech delivered at Machiavelli's Restaurant in Sydney after The Bulletin named him Australia's Most Influential Person. The...

The future of indigenous Australia: is there a path beyond the free market or welfare dependency for our indigenous people.
August 1, 2006... In recent times, we have seen a growing public discourse, policy debates and much media focus on the social problems faced by many of Australia's remote indigenous communities. Much blame is sheeted home to excessive welfare dependency. This...

Also known as a barbecue.(rope)(fun on weekends)(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... What do you really do on a Saturday night? If we're not seeing friends or family, we might go to the movies or cuddle up at home. I love fantasy, science fiction, mystical-type films. The other night was special; we celebrated winter...

Cold comfort hotel: the Melbourne Commonwealth Games sparked a debate about the strategy of using hotels to accommodate homeless people. But what does 'hotels for the homeless' really mean.
August 1, 2006... Homelessness is largely hidden in the big Australian cities. We don't have the cardboard villages of London and Tokyo. We don't have a visible population of 'shelterless psychotics' causing trouble for ordinary folk. In many ways, we have...

Zarqawi: taking care of business: a kind of dialogue is unfolding in Iraq, writes Daniel Ross, one that draws the opponents of the West in to the system they despise.(Abu Musab al-Zarqawi)
August 1, 2006... Whoever wants to hang his dog pretends to be angry. Proverb, cited by Bernard Stiegler If, as Aristotle said, a life can only truly be evaluated from the standpoint of its end, then the recent blowing-up suffered by Abu Musab...

Drunk on competition: National Competition Policy is undermining the ability of governments to responsibly regulate alcohol.(Viewpoint essay)
August 1, 2006... In April 2006, the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR) and the Alcohol Education and Rehabilitation Fund released a report titled 'Liquor outlet concentrations and alcohol-related neighbourhood problems'. The report found that...

Diamonds are forever: the trial of former Liberian leader Charles Taylor for war crimes is only a first-step towards justice in Africa.
August 1, 2006... On April 4 this year, Liberian leader Charles Taylor made his first appearance before the Special Court for Sierra Leone. The Special Court was set up in 2002 to investigate war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during Sierra Leone's...

Still (between).(Photo Feature)(Izabela Pluta's exhibition)(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... Izabela Pluta is a photomedia and installation artist based in Sydney. Her work is exhibited nationally, and she is currently undertaking an Australia Council for the Arts Studio Residency in Barcelona. Izabela lectures in Photography at the...

A roaring capitalist success story? Often hailed as an example of the virtues of neo-liberal globalisation, neglect of India's rural and urban poor is making growing social unrest inescapable.
August 1, 2006... India presents a bewildering mix of economic advancement and repression --both archaic--infused with callousness. The English-language media are bursting with stories of export achievements, investments in IT and infrastructure, financial...

The Google on Orwell.(//bites: BRIEF NOTES ON NEWS AND VIEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD)
August 1, 2006... According to the recent adverts by AOL, 'Orwell Was Wrong'. The Internet has apparently ushered in an epoch where free speech is unrestricted like never before; its global nature leaves governments powerless against it. We are told that, at...

A little more conversation, a little less action.(//bites: BRIEF NOTES ON NEWS AND VIEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD)(real estate development)
August 1, 2006... Ten years ago resident groups from all over Victoria were battling the Kennett-Maclellan planning regime. Services to country towns were being cut, regional development was ignored and there was no strategy for Melbourne other than growth....

They really are good guys: the contradictions of philanthro-capitalism.(Cooper's Last)(Column)
August 1, 2006... It sounded like a headline from the Chaser or the Onion: 'World's second-richest man donates fortune to world's richest man'. Yet in late June, Warren Buffet did just that, publicly announcing that he would outsource his newly found...

The drift to neo-authoritarianism: we are currently seeing a new form of government marked by the militarisation of social life, limits on parliamentary oversight and the neutering of the media.(Essay)
August 1, 2006... Introduction This short essay focuses upon the way so many Australians have lost confidence in the ability of their elected representatives to provide answers to the problems troubling them. It emphasises that in Australia we have only a...

Comment.(Letter to the editor)
August 1, 2006... In the June-July edition of Arena Magazine, Guy Rundle writes, in an editorial regarding the Euston Manifesto, that one of the international signatories to the manifesto is 'our own imperial feminist Pamela Bone'. I must first advise Mr Rundle...

Anti-Israel bias at the ABC and SBS? Bullying, harrassment and nit-picking are theaffecting the ability of ABC and SBS to report fairly on the Middle East.(Media Bias)(Australian Broadcasting Corp and Special Broadcasting Service )
August 1, 2006... If Arab ambassadors and lobbyists behaved like their Israeli opposite numbers, would we listen to them? Would we respect them? Would we run for cover and print only one side of the story? Would we, hell. Robert Fisk, Independent, 13 December...

Graun em Laip--Land is Life.(PHOTOGRAPHY)
August 1, 2006... Following on from the success of the 2005 'Graum En Laip--Land is Life' speaking tour, AID/WATCH is touring a powerful photography and multimedia exhibition including works by Papua New Guinea community campaigners.Witness the important role...

49 up.(FILM)(Movie review)
August 1, 2006... 49 UP is the 7th film in a series of documentaries that began 42 years ago when Granada's WORLD IN ACTION team interviewed a group of seven-year-old children for a program called 7 UP. Premised on the Jesuit saying, 'Give me a child until he is...

Made in Germany--Architecture and Ecology.
August 1, 2006... Showcasing nine building projects that demonstrate the diversity of German-designed ecological construction methods in recent years.Amongst these are factories, child-care centres, sports halls, private homes in various locations around...

The Yellow Peril.
August 1, 2006... A cautionary tale of religious fundamentalism and the importance of keeping your pants on when climbing a crane. In the very near future, in a society paralysed by fear of imminent terrorist attacks, three Melbourne teenagers plan to destroy...

Climate of gear? Fear of climate: Nonie Sharp reports on what we weren't told before and what we know now.
August 1, 2006... Four Corners Interviewer: Were you ever pressured not to go public on climate change? CSIRO Scientist: Yes. I have been in the latter part of my time with CSIRO. It's 13 February 2006 and a leading climate scientist is speaking on the...

Deliver us.(Poem)
August 1, 2006... Deliver us Egyptian mummies with their bandaged art slumber golden in the Melbourne Museum. Vermeer's suspended love letter and long-ago life brocade the ordinary in antique frames in the Gallery. Haunting vignettes of...

The cultural contradictions of: Christian fundamentalism: in the second part of his essay, Guy Rundle continues to make links between Christian fundamentalism and hyper-modernity.(Critical essay)
August 1, 2006... For many years, the more extreme forms of fundamentalism found their most receptive audiences among individuals and groups damaged or marginalised by the society around them. The lonely, the ignored, the beaten down, criminals, alcoholics and...

Social Alternatives (Vol. 25, No. 1 2006).(Evelin Gerda Lindner )(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... Crossing cultures and history, guest editor Evelin Gerda Lindner has initiated a series of themed articles devoted to the topic of human humiliation, defining the act as 'putting down, holding down and rendering the other helpless to resist the...

Inside Indonesia (July-September 2006).(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... Reforming and reinventing Indonesia's dysfunctional and corrupt legal system is a brave move many believe will bring justice to ordinary citizens after 60 years of authoritarian rule. Yet lawyer Irianto Subiakto claims little has changed in...

New Internationalist (July 2006).(Magwatch)(climate change)(Editorial)(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... 'Carbon offsets not only don't solve climate change', writes New Internationalist's Adam Ma'anit, 'they can even worsen it by delaying the inevitable need to end the fossil-fuel frenzy we're all a part of'. In this special edition on climate...

Chain reaction (June 2006).(Magwatch)(use of nanotechnology)(Editorial)
August 1, 2006... Nanotechnology has the potential to remake the world from the atom up, perhaps having an impact as great as the industrial revolution itself, according to the editors of this special issue. Louise Sales and Olaf Bayer take the reader through...

Playing the man in Timor-Leste: the recent violence in Timor-Leste has been blamed on former prime minister Mari Alkatiri or on political opportunists. Kym Holthouse reveals a more complex picture.(Timor-Leste)
August 1, 2006... Much of the discussion around the recent violence in Timor-Leste, whether in the mainstream media, academic or activist circles, has tended to take the form of a polarised debate spinning on the question of whether the ruling party, Fretilin,...

Not one for romantics, fox news' Bill O'Reilly writes.... 'shutup'!(rope)(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... 'I feel, perhaps I'm being romantic about it, but I feel very confident that good sound honest journalism will prevail in the long term, even though it may not be delivered on destroyed trees.' Rupert Murdoch in a speech delivered at...

Failures of State: a campaign against Aboriginal peoples, cultures and identities is underway in the name of law and order.(Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs )
August 1, 2006... Since mid-May 2006 we have been bombarded with images and statistics of Australia as a 'failed state' for many of the first inhabitants--Aboriginal peoples--living without the benefits of modern citizen services and facilities in working order,...

Matthew Ryan on the treatment of non-Indigenous belonging.
August 1, 2006... The Germans have a word for it: unheimlich. The familiar is made unfamiliar, uncanny: the unhomely home. In the mid-twentieth century, Judith Wright spoke an unacknowledged truth of unheimlich Australia, which is now being re-thought,...

David Potts, The Myth of the Great Depression (Scribe, 2006).(Brief article)(Book review)
August 1, 2006... David Potts, The Myth of the Great Depression (Scribe, 2006) In this social history of 1930s Australia, Potts ventures beyond the usual doom and gloom narrative of the Great Depression. Drawing on years of research at both Melbourne and La...

Helen Caldicott, Nuclear Power is Not the Answer to Global Warming or Anything Else (MUP, 2006).(Brief article)(Book review)
August 1, 2006... Helen Caldicott, Nuclear Power is Not the Answer to Global Warming or Anything Else (MUP, 2006) Nobel Prize nominee and author of bestsellers Nuclear Madness and Missile Envy, Caldicott shifts focus from bombs to energy as she sets about...

Angela Bennie, Creme de la Phlegm: Unforgettable Australian Reviews (UNSW Press, 2006).(Brief article)(Book review)
August 1, 2006... Angela Bennie, Creme de la Phlegm: Unforgettable Australian Reviews (UNSW Press, 2006) A salute to the declining art of the review, this collection brings together some of Australian criticism's most acerbic commentary on literature, film,...

Ken Inglis, Whose ABC? The Australian Broadcasting Commission 1983-2006 (Black Inc Books, 2006).(Brief article)(Book review)
August 1, 2006... Ken Inglis, Whose ABC? The Australian Broadcasting Commission 1983-2006 (Black Inc Books, 2006) Following on from This is the ABC: 1932-1983, this book is the second instalment by Inglis on the history of the ABC. Detailing the managerial...

Barbara Finlay, George W. Bush and the War on Women: Turning Back the Clock on Progress (Zed Books, 2006).(Brief article)(Book review)
August 1, 2006... Barbara Finlay, George W. Bush and the War on Women: Turning Back the Clock on Progress (Zed Books, 2006) Amidst the plethora of books released in recent years on the presidency of George W. Bush comes Finlay's account on what she...

Anthony O'Donnell on Brave New Workplace.(Book review)
August 1, 2006... David Peetz, Brave New Workplace: How Individual Contracts are Changing Our Jobs, Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 2006. Summing up the Holy Roman Empire, Voltaire joked that it was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire. A similar point could be...

Reading between the bullets: the (ir)rational logic of the gun lobby.
August 1, 2006... I have only once been targeted with a gun, but once was enough. I was standing beside a river in a remote mountain valley, in sight of a ramshackle campsite that featured a mildewed auto-tent, battered yank-tank and a haunch of...