Arena Magazine articles from August 2008

Arena Magazine archives from August 2008

Empires of consumption.(Russia's and China's impact on international trends)(Editorial)
August 1, 2008... We sit in a pocket of blissful Western ignorance, in little Australia, grown even smaller in the Howard years. It's home, far from the consequences of war in Georgia, the fate of Iran, the oppression of the Muslim peoples of western China. We...

Global financial crisis: stage two.(AGAINST THE CURRENT)
August 1, 2008... There was always going to be a second round to the financial crisis that has enveloped global markets over the last nine months. The first stage, which ended in March, was followed by a period of consolidation, often interpreted as a sign that...

Social inequalities in China or crisis for Europe?(AGAINST THE CURRENT)
August 1, 2008... Readers in the West have for some time now associated the economic ascendancy of China with a proliferation of social conflicts and ongoing abuse of human rights. For those on both the Left and Right, there is a logic of affirmation about...

Tyranny in the dock.(AGAINST THE CURRENT)
August 1, 2008... After thirteen years of running from his crimes, the world's most wanted man has finally been captured. Serbian police made the arrest as this most famous of fugitives got off the number 83 bus in Belgrade. Radovan Karadzic has been wanted by...

False dawn, genetically modified future.(AGAINST THE CURRENT)
August 1, 2008... The Australian community and state and federal governments are being seriously manipulated by the GM industry into rushing unthinkingly into the brave new world of GM food. Despite pumping millions of dollars into research on genetically...

Moving on, going forward.(AGAINST THE CURRENT)
August 1, 2008... Everyday we hear the refrain: 'it's better to move on'. Business representatives, sportspeople, media figures--respectable figures who make up the informal, and often formal, commentariat--offer us many iterations of this familiar theme....

Free market foreclosures.(AGAINST THE CURRENT)
August 1, 2008... The current US housing crisis grew out of politicised government policy and a shared commitment among business elites to support a laissez-fair, free market, anti-tax economy unhindered by regulations. As David M. Abromowitz, Senior Fellow for...

Fattest nation in the world?(THE RAW AND THE COOKED)
August 1, 2008... The long-running media panic around obesity in Australia seemed to reach a crescendo in June when The Age ran with the front page headline 'Nine million Australians are a ticking "fat bomb"'. Normally I'd blame sub-editorial hyperbole for the...

A modest proposal to praise the university administration unconditionally.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
August 1, 2008... We, the undersigned, would like to take the opportunity to express our undying devotion to the University of Melbourne. In particular, we would like to attest to our unshakable faith in the Wisdom, Courage and Unfaltering Justice of the current...

A response to Patrick Wolfe.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
August 1, 2008... I recently acquired my copy of the April-May 2008 issue of Arena Magazine and am interested to comment on Patrick Wolfe's article, 'Robert Manne on Genocide'. This is not in defence of Robert Manne though I am from the same generation--an...