Arena Magazine articles from December 2006

Arena Magazine archives from December 2006

Present tense: protest and private meetings in a globalising world.(Editorial)
December 1, 2006... It was pre-dawn cold, and the scene appeared as if from another place and time. The mood was disciplined. The morning was moonless dark. The barricaded street was lit by the searchlights of a police helicopter whirring close overhead. ...

Lead graphic.(Comic)(Cartoon)
December 1, 2006... "I've wrapped up the kids, put them under the tree and told them no peeking until Christmas. That's the plan to get through Silly Season..." [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Playing chicken: how do we tread the finely drawn line between valid critique and religious prejudice? Les Rosenblatt recalls his experience.(Against the Current)
December 1, 2006... The woman said she hated the way some Israeli Orthodox Jews used a sacrificial chicken to help with their purification rituals around the time of the Day of Atonement. Introduced by the Radio National program presenter as a leader of a...

All over red rover? Global justice activists are increasingly taking on local issues.(against the current)
December 1, 2006... The groundswell that occurred at the 'Battle of Seattle' in December 1999 caught the world off guard. Protestors flexed their collective muscle to effectively shut down a major World Trade Organisation (WTO) forum. Following from this, a new...

Actors' equity are investigating Mr Hall's workload.(rope)
December 1, 2006... 'Starring Stephen Curry as Kennedy, Stephen Hall as Bert Newton, Garry McDonald, Shaun Micallef and Steve Bisley, The Kings begins filming in Melbourne on December 4.' 'Graham Kennedy to be suject of TV movie', Yahoo! News, November 27,...

The United States as world's jailer in the 'war on terror': prisons in the US homeland are not very different from those run offshore.(against the urrent)
December 1, 2006... The late Hunter S. Thompson in his last book Kingdom of Fear describes the post 9/11 United States as suffering from a kind of mass nervous breakdown. The paranoia best suited to the progress of neo-liberalism discovers the evil it has imputed...

Unbundling water from land: Susan Hawthorne investigates new water trading arrangements.(against the current)
December 1, 2006... Water is on everyone's lips. Right and Left, farmer and city dweller, big business and green business. Everyone agrees it's a big issue and something needs to be done. And, for the most part, almost everyone seems to be agreeing on what should...

The future of our national icons: 'new' debt is nowhere yet everywhere.(against the current)
December 1, 2006... Recent prospects of a takeover of Coles Myer and now the likelihood of a takeover of Qantas Airlines by what is termed 'private equity' were reported with shock and awe. Not only is our national economic base under threat but, when...

A selection from 'Best Australian Political Cartoons 2006' edited by Russ Radcliffe.(Cartoon Feature)
December 1, 2006... The fourth edition in this best-selling series finds Australia's funniest and most subversive political cartoonists at their sharpest and wittiest. Not just a collection, more an alternative pictorial history--this is an indispensable portrait...

The European cheeseburger.(//bites: BRIEF NOTES ON NEWS AND VIEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD)
December 1, 2006... Thirty thousand people in Federation Square watching World Cup Soccer, the new model A-League opening to large crowds around the country, and by-the-way it's football not soccer, so is the European game finally 'taking-off' and re-defining the...

A matter of conscience?(//bites: BRIEF NOTES ON NEWS AND VIEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD)
December 1, 2006... When Petro Georgiou introduced a private members bill on the issue of mandatory detention of asylum seekers, both Howard and Beazely declared neither party would allow a conscience vote on the matter. Howard was quoted as saying, 'Mandatory...

Housing and human rights.(//bites: BRIEF NOTES ON NEWS AND VIEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD)
December 1, 2006... A United Nations Special Report has criticised the Victorian Government for failing to include a right to adequate housing in its Charter of Human Rights. It has also criticised Australia for failing to provide for a means of justiciability for...

Justifying support for Hezbollah.(//bites: BRIEF NOTES ON NEWS AND VIEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD)
December 1, 2006... This is an edited transcript of an interview with Respect MP for Bethnal Green and anti-war campaigner George Galloway by Sky News Live presenter Anna Botting, broadcast live on 6 August 2006. Botting: How would you justify your support for...

Adapt or die.(//bites: BRIEF NOTES ON NEWS AND VIEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD)
December 1, 2006... A recent headline in the Australian newspaper read, "Adapt or die, says environment report" (6 December 2006). This was in response to the latest environmental 'score card', a report produced for the federal government every five years by an...

Screening out the social: after 50 years of television.(Cooper's Last)
December 1, 2006... Nostalgia is a powerful force, particularly in a culture where everything we take for granted seems under threat. It is a conservative impulse, one that complements the 'relaxed and comfortable' vision of the Federal Government and which masks...

Why Liberation from Dictatorship May Take Some Time.(Poetry)(Poem)
December 1, 2006... Why Liberation from Dictatorship May Take Some Time Our Great and Fearless Leader (may His Name be forever praised!) like a wise farmer has planted many fields full of ears In the particles of dust from the...

Stern's heart of darkness: the release of Nicholas Stern's report on the economic impact of climate change re-ignited political tensions around the issue. Peter Christoff discusses what this means for Australia.(Climate Change)
December 1, 2006... A perfect political storm is brewing in Australia over global warming. After the driest October since 1914, another bout of record high temperatures and the 1000-year drought intensifying the water crises in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane;...

Dissent, Number 22, Summer 2006-2007.(Magwatch)
December 1, 2006... The lead editorial argues that in the interests of educational equality and excellence Whitlam's idea of a Children's Commission and a Schools Commission to examine needs and recommend funding on an objective basis should be resurrected....

New Matilda, Human Rights Act Campaign.(Magwatch)
December 1, 2006... Australia is the only western country without a national human rights act or equivalent. New Matilda has launched a campaign to change that. On their campaign website you can read New Matilda's proposed bill, see an overview of the campaign and...

Crikey.(Magwatch)
December 1, 2006... Free online at Crikey right now, Richard Farmer writes about Australia's history of testing would-be citizens and not stating the real reason for the tests. The publishers of Crikey have also started to unveil the 2006 Honour Roll covering...

Overland, The New Authoritarianism, Issue 185, Summer 2006.(Magwatch)
December 1, 2006... President of Liberty Victoria, Brain Walters SC, asks what are the origins and probable effects of the new authoritarianism on Australian society? David Ritter looks at how the 'war on terror' has been justified in Australia by a radical...

Japan's wishful nuclear thinking: Tony Barrell looks at the problems with expanding the use of nuclear energy in Japan.(Energy)
December 1, 2006... Nuclear power stations now produce about 17 per cent of the world's electricity. In France and Lithuania they provide nearly 80 per cent, in Britain about 25 per cent. In other countries, popular attitudes to nuclear power vary from apathy and...

Independence is like an egg, (once you drop it, you can never pick it up again): Matthew Libbis reports on continuing violence in East Timor.(Timor Leste)
December 1, 2006... The Timorese Social Democratic Association (ASDT) is holding its national congress on the beach in Dili, opposite the offices of the party's leader, Francisco Xavier do Amaral. Men beat syncopated rhythms on drums, women bang gongs. They wear...

The best Australian poems 2006 edited by Dorothy Porter.
December 1, 2006... 'This is not a lukewarm anthology of Golden Oldies and Greatest Hits. From every poet there is a true and fresh note...' So writes Dorothy Porter, introducing her vibrant selection of Best Australian Poem 2006. Ranging 'from knuckle-raw...

Aceh: physical reconstruction and political reinvention: the 2004 tsunami inspired change in Aceh's political situation.(Elections and Violence)
December 1, 2006... The impact of the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami that hit Aceh on 26 December 2004 was immediately visible: the mass of debris where villages and towns had stood, a redrawn coastline and of course the massive human toll in lives and...

Rampage (rated M).(FILM)
December 1, 2006... Maverick Australian war artist George Gittoes brought us the astounding Soundtrack to War in 2004, making several trips to Iraq during the initial US invasion to interview American soldiers, as well as Iraqis, to uncover the role of music in...

Revolutionary Russians Festival.(FILM)
December 1, 2006... From the revolutionary age to the modern day, explore Russia's transformation through the eye of the camera--Russian propaganda movies and contemporary cinema. Where: National Gallery of Australia, Canberra When: Screening on Sundays,...

John Pilger: Freedom Next Time.(FORUM)
December 1, 2006... John Pilger will speak to the themes of his latest book about the enduring struggle for justice and freedom in the face of empire and its deceits. Date: 8 Feb 2007-7:00pm Where: Central Conference Centre, Cnr Swanston and Little...

International Women, Action and the Media Conference (WAM!) 2007.(CONFERENCE)
December 1, 2006... The Center for New Words is hosting the fourth annual Women, Action & the Media (WAM!) conference. WAM! 2007 is an opportunity for women to share ideas and develop skills and action plans to transform the media environment and amplify...

Thinking on Two Wheels: Third International Cycling Conference.(CONFERENCE)
December 1, 2006... This year's Thinking on Two Wheels International Cycling Conference will be hosted by UniSA, which is at the forefront of research, debate and discussion on cycling issues related to health, recreation, community, engineering and sustainable...

The limits of modernity: with environmental catastrophe threatening to undermine the very conditions of existence, Guy Rundle looks at the need for reassessment of the basic presuppositions of modernity.(Essay)
December 1, 2006... Late medieval timepieces are designed so as to hold a measure of the hour, within a measure of the month and year, mechanical sun and moon sweeping over--and within all that a measure of the hour and second. Order within order within order is...

Clinton Fernandes, Reluctant Indonesians: Australia, Indonesia, and the Future of West Papua (Scribe 2006).(Notable Publications)
December 1, 2006... When 43 West Papuans claimed asylum in Australia in February 2006, it marked the beginning of yet another crisis in the fragile relationship with our closest neighbour. Anxious to allay Indonesia's suspicions of Australian motives in the wake...

Seeds of Dissent: 3CR Calendar 2007 Celebrating Radical Australia (3CR 2006).(Notable Publications)(Calendar)
December 1, 2006... This year's calendar celebrates 12 campaigns that changed, and are still changing, Australia. The campaigns range across communities, time and issues: the Gurindji Strike, the Anti-AIDEX Protest, Equal Pay for Women, Green Bans, Queer Rights,...

Various authors, The Best Australian Essays 2006 Edited by Drusilla Modjeska (Black Inc. 2006).(Notable Publications)
December 1, 2006... It has been a good year for essays. The latest Best Essays annual contains life and travel stories, explorations of art and politics, that will illuminate and divert. There is Robert Hughes on Rembrandt, and Gideon Haigh on Google, J.M. Coetzee...

Katharine Rhodes Henderson, Gods Troublemakers: How Women of Faith Are Changing the World (Allen and Unwin 2006).(Notable Publications)
December 1, 2006... God's Troublemakers is based on extensive interviews with 11 women, including: Sr. Helen Prejean, the anti-death-penalty activist; Ruth Messenger, former Manhattan Borough President and now executive director of American Jewish World Service;...

Moving and removing: relocation threatens people's well being.
December 1, 2006... The lead editorial of The Australian recently concluded, '[The] only issue relevant to the broader Australian interest--the appalling state of Aboriginal affairs in the Territory', must be the principal focus of the Northern Territory (NT)...

Foxfall 2: An Aura of Evening.(Poetry)(Poem)
December 1, 2006... Foxfall 2 An Aura of Evening Ascending to anonymity, an 'Australian-born US diplomat' is quoted on the Sydney news as saying the Israeli bombing of Lebanon is not Israel's fault, but that of Hezbollah. His...

Tome Nairn on 'The Queen' as prophetic elegy.
December 1, 2006... The Queen, dir. Stephen Frears, written by Peter Morgan, starring Helen Mirren, rated M The Queen, Stephen Frears' latest feature film, is much more than an elegy for the British monarchy. By recounting in 2006 the real elegiac events of...

Peter Hodge on not being children of a lesser god.
December 1, 2006... Antony Loewenstein, My Israel Question, Melbourne University Press, 2006 Chatting with a colleague several days after the 9/11 tragedy, I broached the issue of searching not merely for the perpetrators of the crime, but also for the root...

Rob Watts on the shadowy role of ordinary people in politics.
December 1, 2006... Judith Brett and Anthony Moran, Ordinary People's Politics, Pluto Press, 2006 There is a certain paradox about the role played by ordinary people in democratic politics. After all, democracy is said to be all about government of 'the...

It's the stars stupid.(rope)
December 1, 2006... 'When I was a child I wanted to... be an astrophysicist. Astrology is similar and correlates celestial happenings with human life.' Dadhichi Toth, Astrologer, 'Your Time Starts Now', Good Weekend, The Age, 4 November, 2006.

Sebastian Job on a vision for a generous America.
December 1, 2006... Michael Lerner, The Left Hand of God: Taking Our Country Back from the Religious Right, Harper, 2006 In the USA, Republican presidencies are now inconceivable without the votes of those millions who take their guidance from the religious...

The Age Book of the Year 2006 Jennifer Maiden, Friendly Fire (Giramondo).
December 1, 2006... "Jennifer Maiden's latest volume of verse, Friendly Fire, turns with passion to issues of morality and politics, and to vexations in her own career. These poems are ambitious and spacious." The Sydney Morning Herald

Finding our future in the past: the history of being adaptable.
December 1, 2006... I'm hunting ancestry and know where to look, though now the house is only a few bricks tumbled among the bracken. The clincher is looming over the stringybarks, just as in the cracked photo in my hand: the huge Scots Pine planted by my...