Arena Magazine articles from June 2003

Arena Magazine archives from June 2003

We did but see him passing by.(resignation of Governor-General Peter Hollingworth)(Editorial)
June 1, 2003... Whatever his sins of commission or omission, Peter Hollingworth has performed one invaluable service to Australia in his role as Governor-General--his passing from the office has exposed and demystified the process by which the Australian...

The question of Cuba. .(supporters must not be silent on human rights issues)(Editorial)
June 1, 2003... Cuba occupies a special--and increasingly vexed--place in the hopes and imagination of the global Left and social movements. When it was clear that the regimes of the USSR could never regain the support of its people, the Cuban revolution...

Blitzkrieg: a new freedom to be feared: the US administration's developing sense of 'freedom' grants license to destroy without taking on any reciprocal responsibility. (against the current).
June 1, 2003... As the Iraqi campaign drew to the end of its first phase, George W. Bush exuberantly declared: 'these are good times in the history of Freedom' and his supporters around the globe agreed. 'Freedom'--from 'they hate us for our freedom' to...

Pax Americana comes to the Middle East: the political aspirations of the Kurds may once again be sacrificed to great power interests in post-Saddam Iraq.
June 1, 2003... As the occupation of Iraq nears completion, the aims of the 'Pax Americana' become increasingly clear. While Bechtel and other American corporations are being given the job of restructuring Iraq in line with the needs of US capital, the Kurds,...

Oil, politics and resistance in the Niger delta. (Document).
June 1, 2003... In 1995, when the Nigerian dictatorship murdered Ken Saro-Wiwa and other Ogoni activists for their opposition to Shell and other oil companies, there was widespread global outrage. Thousands of people held vigils and protests outside Shell...

No horizons: Baxter and beyond: where now for the refugee movement?(immigrants in Australia are subjected to callous treatment)
June 1, 2003... Horizons orient us. For the detainees at the Baxter detention centre, namely refugees that have come to Australia outside the formal refugee programs, horizons can only be remembered or imagined. In one of the most de-humanising functions of...

Poverty in Australia--it's good to talk: perhaps it's time for an inquiry into wealth, rather than another inquiry into poverty.
June 1, 2003... When Richard Hil suggested in Arena Magazine No. 57 that the government was due to 'rediscover' poverty, I suspect he didn't have in mind the desultory debate that ensued soon afterward around the Smith Family's second annual report on...

Now or never for Venezuela: following the turmoil of the last twelve months, Venezuela must decide which way to go.
June 1, 2003... The lockout Six months ago, thing looked bleak for the Bolivarian government in Venezuela. Now it appears to have come through the worst. In the same way that the failure of the 2002 coup allowed the government to rid the military of coup...

The Daily Telegraph and the neocon network: Nicola Nixon. (letters & debate).
June 1, 2003... In a piece of invective published in the Age newspaper, Janet Daley, columnist for the Daily Telegraph, proposes that the 'hysterical anti-war lobby' should now apologise for the fact that, according to her, as opposed to the widely predicted...

Philip Mendes replies to Ned Curthoys. (letters & debate).(Letter to the Editor)
June 1, 2003... Ned Curthoys (Arena Magazine No. 64) claims that the 'prominent Israeli revisionist historian Benny Morris advocates the transferring of Palestinians out of the West Bank'. This is a complete distortion of Morris's views. Curthoys is...

Tristan Ewins replies to David McKnight. (letters & debate).(Letter to the Editor)
June 1, 2003... In the February-March edition of Arena Magazine, David McKnight correctly insisted that 'the enemy of my enemy is not my friend'. A modern, secular Left can have no more sympathy for the former totalitarian state of Saddam Hussein than it can...

Recognising the sacred: Syed Mohammad Ali. (letters & debate).(Letter to the Editor)
June 1, 2003... I remember my Philosophy of Religion teacher, also the Chairman of the Theology Department at Tufts University in Massachusetts, quite well. He often used to mention the fact that Universalists had founded and been major benefactors of Tufts,...

John Howard and the Australian legend: the Prime Minister's political success has been built on the appropriation of myths of nationhood that were once the property of the ALP. The result has been a profound transformation of our political culture.
June 1, 2003... Soon after he became Prime Minister Howard threw his hat into the ring of historical debate, claiming that there had been an attempt 'to rewrite Australian history in the service of a partisan cause'. Some of this was about the reputation of...

Terminal beach: the concept of national identity can be seen as a consensual illusion used to bind disparate entities into a whole that is as vague and problematic as it is unified.
June 1, 2003... A short history of our nation's political life over the last twenty-four months would quickly give the lie to the Blairite doctrine that today we live in a post-ideological age, where all that is left to do is ensure 'responsible' financial...

Collateral damage: Asia and Australia post-Iraq: Australia's unerring support of America's jingoism will have serious repercussions on relationships with our Asian neighbours.
June 1, 2003... There has been some unwarranted Australian triumphalism since it has become apparent that victory is assured in Iraq. The war may have furthered the Bush Administration's aspirations, but it has done nothing to benefit Australia, especially in...

Dreamhouse.(Poem)
June 1, 2003... Dreamhouse The building floats in the landscape in a skin of sheeted iron, its roof curve gently mimicking blue-breasted hills on the horizon. On hot nights, cooled by louvred breezeways, we sit...

The difference between neighbours and friends: Australia and Indonesia need to find a middle ground of understanding within vastly different cultural backgrounds.
June 1, 2003... The sun was slanting under the palm fronds of the roof of Teddy's Bar, overlooking one of the finest anchorages in more than 13,000 islands: Kupang Bay, West Timor. We had fled an East Timor in flames, but an expatriate Australian propping up...

Simon Cooper on extending the half-life of green politics.
June 1, 2003... Amanda Lohrey, Groundswell: The Rise of the Greens (Quarterly Essay No. 8), Melbourne, Black Inc., 2003 Tim Flannery, Beautiful Lies: Population and Environment in Australia (Quaterly Essay No. 9), Melbourne, Black Inc., 2003 It is a sad...

Reading Charles Wright, April 1999.(Poem)
June 1, 2003... Reading Charles Wright, April 1999 The day arrives without its missive, Leaving a mood at the foot of your bed, Just where fairies would greet you, and just as welcoming. The mood rises before dawn, Upright as...

Andrew Scott on the Left in Europe.
June 1, 2003... Geoff Eley, Forging Democracy: The History of the Left in Europe, 1850-2000 New York, Oxford University Press, 2002 The recent positioning of major European nations against the United States of America over the issue of war on Iraq embodies...

David Burchell, Western Horizon: Sydney's heartland and the future of Australian politics.(Book Review)(Brief Review)
June 1, 2003... (Melbourne, Scribe, 2003) David Burchell surveys Sydney's western suburbs--one of Australia's youngest, quickest growing and politically volatile regions--to examine its aspirations and social attitudes, pondering its new-found reputation...

Brett D'Arcy, The Mindless Ferocity of Sharks.(Book Review)
June 1, 2003... (Milsons Point, Vintage, 2002) A sharp and compelling second novel by the Western Australian author, exploring the dark undertow of fear and nihilism running beneath outsider beach communities and their fringe 'larrikin' class.

Grieg, Lewins, White, Inequality in Australia.(Book Review)
June 1, 2003... (Port Melbourne, Cambridge University Press, 2003) An analysis and explanation of inequality, challenging traditional conceptions and providing a new critical perspective. The authors argue that political, economic and social...

David Holmgren, Permaculture: principles & pathways beyond sustainability.(Book Review)
June 1, 2003... (Hepburn, Holmgren Design Services, 2002) This book uses permaculture principles as a framework for an empowering but challenging vision of creative adaptation to a world of reduced energy use. Holmgren builds upon the success of the...

There has to be a better way: a long-term refugee strategy.
June 1, 2003... The long public controversy about the detention of asylum seekers is gradually giving way to debates on other topics--and especially On the prospect of wars which may well produce new waves of refugees. The numbers in detention have declined,...