Arena Magazine articles from December 2001

Arena Magazine archives from December 2001

Governed by fear.(the war on terrorism and the erosion of civil liberties)(Brief Article)(Editorial)
December 1, 2001... With the collapse of the Taliban and the entry of the Northern Alliance into Kabul, the first moment of a new global historical phase has been completed. In terms of the stated US `war' aims, it can scarcely be called a total victory. At the...

From third way to plan B -- reconstructing the ALP.(Australian Labor Party)(Brief Article)(Editorial)
December 1, 2001... As the ALP enters its third successive term in opposition, the question is, where now for Labor? The argument by senior figures within the ALP at present is that the Tampa debacle orchestrated by Howard, and the events of September 11, cannot...

Clear thinking about indigenous futures.(Brief Article)(Editorial)
December 1, 2001... While the war that isn't a war continues in the global South, the aftermath of war continues in our own South -- in the continued difficulties faced by indigenous peoples, and in particular Aboriginal groups in `remote' areas. Indigenous people...

Clashes and cliches of civilisations: Samuel Huntington's now famous argument has become a key factor in the United States global belligerence, but it is based on a series of false assumptions and half-truths well-suited to Washington's interests. (against the current).
December 1, 2001... In thinking of Samuel Huntington and the current international crisis I'm reminded of that splendid old saying, fine words butter no parsnips. It may be factually true that no parsnip has ever been buttered by fine words, but there's a danger...

The state and terror in the new era: the events of September 11 have given the Australian state a pretext to undertake an unprecedented expansion of its power. Our most basic civil liberties are once again under attack. (against the current).
December 1, 2001... To witness the collapse of the World Trade Centre -- brutal, unprecedented and broadcast live -- was to be propelled towards reaction. The fear, insecurity and uncertainty, captured on camera and replayed again and again to an ever-more alarmed...

Document: Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan. (against the current).(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... The People of Afghanistan Do Not Accept Rule by Northern Alliance Now it is confirmed that the Taliban have left Kabul and the Northern Alliance has entered the city. The world should understand that the Northern Alliance is composed...

Authoritarianism in the name of freedom: how our detention camps breach the most basic human rights. (against the current).
December 1, 2001... Authority is the gravitational force which holds society together: it is a Good Thing. Authoritarianism is an oppressive exercise of central power: it is a Bad Thing. They are both part of the same spectrum. Where is the boundary between...

Plagues and bioethics: John Kinsella. (letters annd debate).(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... PLAGUES AND BIOETHICS: JOHN KINSELLA Recently, I've had to do a lot of travel between America, Europe, and Australia. Every time I enter a new country, I'm made aware of the anxieties of quarantine efficiency. With foot and mouth still...

Race Mathews replies to Owen Gager. (letters and debate).(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... Owen Gager is right. Mark Latham is a member of the Fabian Society. So too is Hugh Emy, who was highly critical of Mark's views in the debate between them which was organised by the society, and can now be read on the society's web site . So...

The assault on humanitarianism ... Stuart Rosewarne looks at Australia's celebration of fifty years of the UN convention on refugees. (letters and debate).(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... Among the many logical anomalies in the Howard Government's approach to refugees, surely the most spurious is the argument that the clandestine entry of asylum seekers breaches Australia's territorial boundaries and undermines Australian...

Deconstructing good and bad Jews: a response to John Docker by Philip Mendes. (letters and debate).(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... John Docker's simplistic construction of Israel in his `Thirteen Untimely Meditations' (Arena Magazine No 55) cannot be allowed to stand unchallenged. Israel is described as `an ethnically absolutist state' motivated by religious bigotry...

What do you think of our view? (letters and debate).
December 1, 2001... Tree vandalism is rife in my suburb. Why? In the early 1990s, when I served on our local council's Parks and Reserves Committee, one case revealed a mounting suburban dilemma. To the ire of our then pro-development council, the committee's...

On the human right to misery, mass incarceration and early death. (social reconstructions).(Australian Aborigines)
December 1, 2001... Of the contribution that Charles Perkins made to Australian society and history in the late twentieth century, I take his political fearlessness most to heart. It is his example of fearlessness that I aspire to, because I believe that...

The truth about indigenous health policy: the right has had great success in portraying indigenous health as a financial disaster. In fact lack of access to services means that more money gets spent on non-indigenous people. Only a National Indigenous Health Plan will change this. (social reconstructions).(Statistical Data Included)
December 1, 2001... Indigenous health is no-one's favorite area in policy. It all seems too difficult. Anxious political advisors are forever searching the policy horizon for a hint of a possible health outcome that can be used to champion their minister....

Aboriginal economy and social process: the indigenous hybrid economy and its sustainable development potential. (social reconstructions).
December 1, 2001... Noel Pearson has done Australia a great favour over the past two years in bringing important issues about the future of remote Indigenous communities to public attention and into policy discourse like no-one else can. Pearson is quite correct...

Serpent in the garden. (social reconstructions).(conference on Australian indigenous policy)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... Between aviation chaos post-11 September and the scrapping of CHOGM on 28 September, a conference `re-thinking indigenous self-determination' took place. It was the first flush of summer at the comfortable college on the lush green Queensland...

A new social left in Italy? Italy's young proletariat battle privatisation and deregulation of public space and services; they are linked by their political radicalism and their desire for freedom.
December 1, 2001... `A thousand human stories' If some form of radical working-class politics continues to exist in Italy today, part of the credit must go to those who run that country's self-managed occupied social centres (CSOA). As Steve Wright explains,...

The road more travelled.(an appreciation of the American experience)
December 1, 2001... Pinto Colvig It might seem strange to begin my story in 1942 but it really was when my life began. The previous twenty-three years had been merely a gestation period and my disgorgement from the Queen Elizabeth (the ship, not the monarch)...

The Enabling State: People Before Bureaucracy. (review: Christopher Scanlon on new labour and the state they're in).
December 1, 2001... Mark Latham and Peter Botsman eds. The Enabling State: People Before Bureaucracy, Annandale, Pluto Press, 2001. On his recent visit to Melbourne the director of the British Fabian Society, Michael Jacobs, described the Blair Government's...

Rope.(quotations)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... FOR EXAMPLE KISSING AND FONDLING MY WIFE-UNIT TAKES UP 14.37 MINUTES OF MY DAY `The world is very inefficient compared with what it could be.' Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, at the launch of the company's new operating system, Windows...

White lines, white lies: rethinking drug and alcohol policy in the contemporary era.
December 1, 2001... 1. HARM MINIMISATION AND PUBLIC POLICY Grazyna Zajdow Notwithstanding the `zero tolerance' headlines so beloved of the tabloid press and television, Australia's official policy towards drug use and misuse, since 1985, is harm...