Arena Magazine articles from February 2003

Arena Magazine archives from February 2003

Be Australian--be afraid?(anxiety created by national security campaign)(Editorial)
February 1, 2003... The ship has sailed and like the troops on board we other Australians at home are afraid. We are entering a time, under the catch-all legitimation of the `war on terror', that will be marked by constant conflict. When the enemy is indistinct...

In the name of the people.(Editorial)
February 1, 2003... As assaults on what is left of the public sphere are daily renewed, it seems that any political decision can be justified by appeal to `democracy' --understood as the imposition of majority will on the general population. Appeals to `democracy'...

The new killing fields: human catastrophe looms in Iraq: the human cost, the myths of war, the road to hell, and the left and anti-imperialism--a three-way exchange. (on the eve of war).(Medact report)
February 1, 2003... At the time of writing, Iraq teeters on the precipice of war and human catastrophe. A report on the probable consequences of war, released in Britain by Medact (the British affiliate of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear...

War of the worlds: popular culture has long prepared Americans for an `alien' aggressor. (on the eve of war).(Iraq war. )
February 1, 2003... The aliens are among us. Muslim students in California, Muslim captives in Guantanamo Bay or Diego Garcia, Osama bin Laden somewhere in the mountains straddling the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan and Saddam Hussein in Baghdad. The...

The rogue to end all rogues: America's nihilistic hold on WMDS is the key to the insanity of its leaders. (on the eve of war).(War on Iraq. Weapons of mass destruction.)
February 1, 2003... In his State of the Union Speech George Bush left no doubt that the United States will, with or without help, invade and take over Iraq. While there is a heartening resistance to US actions and this declaration of intended war is not yet war,...

American package.(Poem)
February 1, 2003... American Package For Amy and Sherae A package has come from America three days ago and I have not opened it I have not sliced the tape have not peeled back or torn the brown paper. ...

Bali, the left and `anti-imperialism': is Cold War thinking blinding the left to the fact that its enemy's enemy is not its friend? (on the eve of war).
February 1, 2003... Were the ASIO raids on the homes of various Australian residents late last year justified? To any self-respecting leftists the answer is instant. Of course not. How could it possibly be otherwise? Well, I am a leftist and I wrote a critical...

Explanations or justifications? Western governments are the current target of terrorist revolt. But rather than learning from the past, they continue to hide behind a veneer of civilised values and moral purity. (on the eve of war).
February 1, 2003... Meaning and significance are never inscribed in tragic events such as the Kuta Beach bombings on 12 October 2002. They must be imputed to them. What we ultimately choose to make of this devastating attack is important because it will have a...

Deep in the troubled heart of Texas: how the military and the media join forces to promote war in American public life. (on the eve of war).
February 1, 2003... Here in the United States, the liberal-Left and progressive opposition to war suffered a serious setback with the Republican sweep of the 5 November elections. The voter turnout of 78.5 million, or 39 per cent of the enfranchised population,...

The greening of Australian politics: as the greens have moved into the electoral domain, they have expanded the issue of ecology beyond `nature'. (against the current).
February 1, 2003... Every election in the past year has confirmed the Greens as a force in Australian politics, and the principal `minor' or non-governmental party in the political constellation. They have won a Federal lower-house seat, a swag of State seats,...

Clinton's selective memory: views espoused by the former president are incongruous with past actions. (against the current).(Bill Clinton)
February 1, 2003... An unwritten adage of US political life demands that politics stop at the water's edge. To secure national interests and to project a sustainable international commitment, matters of foreign policy should be untangled from opportunistic...

The Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement: free trade, or free access for US companies? (against the current).
February 1, 2003... On an email list recently someone commented that the proposed Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement was not really a feminist issue. I would dispute this, as international relations reflect the power relations which are an integral part...

Smile! You're on mandated camera: across Australia the CCTVs are watching, yet there are no laws to define boundaries of use--are they merely `protecting' us from each other or infringing on our right to privacy and anonymity? (against the current).(closed-circuit television)
February 1, 2003... The expansion of closed-circuit television in Australian public spaces is one of the most notable developments in urban crime control of the past decade. In the 1970s and 80s closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras became a common feature in...

Lucky charms.(Poem)
February 1, 2003... lucky charms Some days I'm tired even before I get out of bed it's on those days I dress in lucky charms. Socks that were my brother's three sizes too big a t-shirt from a man I met one summer in...

Cameron Nolan makes a gruesome proposal. (letters and debate).(Letter to the Editor)
February 1, 2003... I believe that a leader of a country who sends their military into a war which would definitely result in casualties, should be made to cut the throat of an enemy soldier or civilian with their own two hands, in their own office, before signing...

Where can the Liberals go? Asks Patrick Lavelle.(capitalism and Liberal party in Australian politics)
February 1, 2003... Charles Richardson covers the developing crisis in the Australian political landscape particularly with regard to the Liberals (Arena Magazine No. 60). He illustrates the importance of the passage of events and their timing on the decline of...

Graham Ring tells a story which has almost nothing to do with native title.(comments on Indigenous Land Use Agreement)
February 1, 2003... I had my car pinched last year. Bloody annoying. It was the middle of winter and I was studying two nights a week, so it was a real pain to be carless. Naturally I reported the theft to the police. They said they'd do what they could, and would...

Apology to Tim Rowse.(Correction Notice)
February 1, 2003... In Arena Magazine 62 we published an article by TIm Rowse, Treaty Talk: Notes on Three Conferences. The article was published with some errors and with changes that were not approved by the author. To redress this situation, we will publish...

All spent in borrowed times: in the wake of September 11, people were urged to spend as a patriotic duty. The convergence of consumer, citizen, public space and market is drawing closer. but what is the future of consumption in a world where excess is in excess?
February 1, 2003... For weeks I felt the build-up to the big event. It was as if half of Melbourne was hovering outside the doors of the Daimaru department store, just waiting for the sale of the new century. Perched in an office just across the road from...

Dispelling the myths of Timor: in the absence of an effective communications and transportation system, rumours flourish in East Timor. The Australian media has helped to both perpetuate and--in some cases--create these rumours.
February 1, 2003... On Tuesday 20 May last year, the day on which East Timor celebrated its independence, the Age newspaper had at the top of its `Opinion' page an article by Hugh White warning readers of the threat which East Timor's independence posed for...

Bagels & baby juice.(Poem)
February 1, 2003... bagels & baby juice Going for groceries times prior returning with ice cream a mango beer and a blue skirt it is no wonder I do not shop for eggs today. I am so tired my marrow is...

Dying to live: is the war on terror in West Papua an expression of institutionalised racism?
February 1, 2003... How many people have to die in West Papua before Australians take notice and act? After all, West Papua is our closest neighbour, lying less than 200 kilometres from Australian territory. Nevertheless, pick up any newspaper here and you're...

Melinda Hinkson on knowledge, power and possession among the Aborigines.(Book Review)
February 1, 2003... Barry Hill Broken Song: T.G.H. Strehlow and Aboriginal Possession Sydney, Random House, 2002 In the history of Aboriginal/non-Aboriginal interactions Ted Strehlow is a powerfully symbolic figure, and multi-dimensional in terms of the...

Lorenzo Veracini on the political ecology of famine.( Late Victorian Holocausts: El Nino, Famines and the Making of the Third World)(Book Review)
February 1, 2003... Mike Davis Late Victorian Holocausts: El Nino, Famines and the Making of the Third World, New York, Verso, 2002 Davis's book, lately republished in a less expensive edition, explores in detail the interaction between colonial domination and...

Christopher Hawkes on photographic remedies.(Book Review)
February 1, 2003... Annette Kuhn Family Secrets: Acts of Memory and Imagination London, Verso 2002 With Family Secrets: Acts of Memory and Imagination, Annette Kuhn is clearly aiming for a more general audience than her previous writings on film theory have...

Valerie Yule on employee democracy.(Partnership at Work: the challenge of employee democracy)(Book Review)
February 1, 2003... Paul Gollan & Glenn Patmore (Eds.) Labor Essays 2003, Partnership at Work: the challenge of employee democracy. Pluto Press, 2003 The three wise monkeys who are told nothing, shown nothing and can say nothing could be some employers'...

Shannon McDonald on grass-roots feminism.(Women's Web--Women's Stories, Women's Actions)(Book Review)
February 1, 2003... Molly Hadfield and Edith Morgan Women's Web--Women's Stories, Women's Actions Union of Australian Women, Melbourne 2002 Women's Web--Women's Stories, Women's Actions is the first part of an ongoing series of stories by women that have...

Ilona Lo Iacono on a portrait of the writer as a young woman.(Walking through Fire Spinifex)(Book Review)
February 1, 2003... Nawal El Saadawi (trans. Sherif Hetata) Walking through Fire Spinifex Press 2002 This second volume of Egyptian feminist and writer Nawal El Saadawi's autobiography begins in North Carolina in 1993 and moves backwards in time and place,...

He paints cliff edges.(Poem)
February 1, 2003... he paints cliff edges My friend he paints in black and grey monochromes in shades of complexity and shadow. He paints seagulls worldly scavengers the survivors in the...

Remembering the man I never knew. (Red Herrick).
February 1, 2003... My sons are at that age when a boy's mind turns to warfare. Our backyard is strewn with the aftermath of mock battles they routinely conduct with other kids in the neighbourhood. The tree-house I built them is now a camouflaged sniper's nest....