Arena Magazine articles from June 2004

Arena Magazine archives from June 2004

The culture of torture.(concern regarding prisioner abuse)(Editorial)
June 1, 2004... Since September 11 the debate on whether to engage in torture in order to save 'citizens and 'civilisation' has been openly considered within the United States--within its media and academic institutions, as well as its frontline military,...

Heinrich Hinze.(Comic)
June 1, 2004... SO, THIS IS "SOVEREIGNTY"... DON'T WORRY... IT'S A LOT EASIER THAN IT LOOKS! [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Iraq: racism and democracy: what is on offer from the US is something other than freedom.(against the current)
June 1, 2004... In all the discussion about the debacle in Iraq, one of the silliest and most offensive arguments that supporters of the US-led invasion have resorted to is that anyone who raises doubts about the prospect of Iraq becoming a liberal democracy...

Crisis in Maluku: from religion to nationalism.(against the current)
June 1, 2004... Between 1999 and 2002 the Maluku islands were divided by a purportedly bitter religious/ nationalist struggle that left over 5,000 people dead and approximately 500,000 people displaced. After two years of relative calm, this inter-communal...

For love alone? Understanding Australia's declining birth rate requires more than simplistic generational generalisations.(against the current)
June 1, 2004... If you thought the Howard Government's changes to family assistance--especially the revised baby bonus payment--reeked of opportunistic vote-buying, save your venom for the true culprits. According to Clive Hamilton, director of the Australian...

A great anomaly: the non-passive Internet: the campaign to quash freedom on the net is moving into top gear.(against the current)
June 1, 2004... Each of the following stories is true, fairly recent and a bit scary. See what you make of them. 1. Electronic voting machines are expected to loom large in the coming US elections. How easy are they to rig? Last year, students at...

A system dependent on charity.(Bites: brief notes on news and views from around the world)
June 1, 2004... An examination of the Howard Government's major health funding decisions over the last eight years reveals the clear but careful intent to gradually strengthen the Coalition's marketplace values. However, for markets to function in the...

Homelessness and mental health.(Bites: brief notes on news and views from around the world)
June 1, 2004... On a cold August night in Sydney 2001, I was walking up the steps that separate Parliament House from the State Library of New South Wales. As I reached the top of the stairs, I counted the number of homeless people resting under sheets of...

Egging on the post-human.(Bites: brief notes on news and views from around the world)
June 1, 2004... Yet another good news story for Victoria on the Move and Backing Australia's Ability: Monash IVF is opening a clinic in collaboration with a hospital in Shanghai (Age, 20/05/04). Following the lead of its close collaborators at the Monash...

Atkins in the super-size era.(Bites: brief notes on news and views from around the world)(Periodical Review)
June 1, 2004... Despite repeated suggestions that it raises levels of heart disease, the cult movement that is the Atkins diet rolls on. Devotees of the low-carbohydrate regime can now eat at Burger King, which provides a no-bread hamburger--as with human...

Prime ministerial indigenous interventions.
June 1, 2004... Spring in the northern hemisphere and autumn in Australia brings prime ministers out to play with the Natives. Australia's John Howard and loyal minister Amanda Vanstone announced their demolition of indigenous representation and vestigial...

Some comments on the blue book on social capital.(comment)
June 1, 2004... Christopher Scanlon's Blue Book on social capital theory in Arena (no. 69) is a welcome opening to a discussion on this phenomenon, particularly in exposing how the concept of 'social capital' is being used by some to 'naturalise' a neo-liberal...

The financial imperative.(comment)
June 1, 2004... I was gratified to read your coverage of events in and pertaining to Iraq, especially after the drip-feed of Zionist propaganda in our daily press. Might I offer an unorthodox appraisal of why the US invaded Iraq and what its ramifications...

Marginalising mothers.(comment)
June 1, 2004... Lindy Edwards (Arena no. 70) astutely poses the question: 'Should children be penalised by the government if their parents don't fit Howard's view of the ideal family?' The difficulties and marginalisation faced by same-sex parents and their...

Of curthoys and canards.(comment)
June 1, 2004... The first responsibility of social critics is to present accurately and fairly the positions they are critiquing. Ned Curthoys does neither in his second attempt in this magazine to defend his involvement in the academic boycott of Israel...

The era of pim fortuyn? Are we on the threshold of a world where cruelty, repression and postmodern consumer culture will live openly side by side?(Editorial)
June 1, 2004... Geoffrey Household's Rogue Male--a boys' own thriller about an honourable man captured while preparing the assassination of a dictator--is forgotten now, but in its day it encapsulated in the neatest possible form the question of the twentieth...

Thinking about privatisation: evaluating the privatised state to inform our future.
June 1, 2004... This paper undertakes several tasks. Firstly, it briefly outlines the privatisation phenomenon and summarises the extent of privatisation policies in Australia against our historical context and today's international scene. Secondly, it...

The neo-liberal fear factory: or how Howard plans to win the election.
June 1, 2004... 'Security' is increasingly central to political fortunes. Howard has made clear that his strategy for the next federal election is "to attack Labor as weak and divided on national security and in the "war against terrorism"'. Security politics,...

Terrorism: what is it and can it ever be morally justified?
June 1, 2004... Today no single issue of public concern seems to be quite as widely and hotly debated as that of terrorism. With good reason: the threat of terrorism has never been as salient and ubiquitous as it seems to be at present. Social sciences...

In Some Restaurants.(Poem)
June 1, 2004... In Some Restaurants shit never happens but for the cab-driver just pulling up outside the seat-belt is crushing his cigs as he looks in to where the music's flowing and there are over-bright faces on hands...

South Africa: after the elections, the continent? New economic and cultural forces are transforming the country in the post-Mandela era.
June 1, 2004... With the elections on April 14 marking a decade of liberal democracy in South Africa, Thabo Mbeki's African National Congress has passed some very impressive milestones. The party has swept to what seems a decisive victory for 'globalisation...

The heart of healthcare.
June 1, 2004... More than other workplaces, public hospitals figure prominently in the public imagination. As the basis for TV dramas through to debates about access, funding and staffing, the healthcare system (and its shortfalls) is standard fodder for...

The age of hyper-cynicism: what happens when we can no longer rely upon what others tell us?(cooper's last)
June 1, 2004... Anthony Giddens recently stated: I doubt that corruption is more common in democratic countries than it used to be--rather, in an information society it is more visible than it used to be. The emergence of a global information society is a...

Kate Cregan and Christopher Scanlon on Piccinini.
June 1, 2004... Patricia Piccinini We are Family Venice Biennale 2003 Bendigo Art Gallery, Bendigo, Victoria 17 April-27 June 2004 Over the past two or three years Patricia Piccinini s exhibitions have been widely covered in newspaper art columns and by...

Nonie Sharp on a sense of place.
June 1, 2004... Do most Australian landscapes remain today largely unportrayed and unsung? George Seddon's thought in Landprints, A Reflection on Nature and Place was hard to dispute even a decade ago. At least for non-indigenous Australia. The story is quite...

Monthly Review--April 2004.(mag reviews)(Periodical Review)
June 1, 2004... This edition of Monthly Review continues its tradition of dedicating the April issue to a particular economic theme. Jobs and employment are the overarching concerns here with three lead articles assessing the state of the US economy from the...

Australian Book Review--May 2004.(mag reviews)(Periodical Review)
June 1, 2004... In this edition of ABR, former Foreign Minister Gareth Evans writes on where we are in the 'War on Terror'; Liz Conor looks at film lecturer Barbara Creed's new book Media Matrix, which passes contemporary media forms and content through a...

Eureka Street--May 2004.(mag reviews)(Periodical Review)
June 1, 2004... On the anniversary of East Timor's independence, Sara Niner looks at the politics of that unsettled country. Meanwhile a photo essay by Rusty Stewart conveys the tension of a peacetime that waits to be shattered elsewhere--the West Bank:...

New Internationalist--April 2004.(mag reviews)(Periodical Review)
June 1, 2004... This special edition of New Internationalist puts a stethoscope to the heart of post-Communist Eastern Europe. It outlines both the successes and failures (though mostly the failures, for they seem to proliferate) of countries that have so...

Meanjin--1. 2004.(mag reviews)(Periodical Review)
June 1, 2004... Themed around the phrase 'Only Human', Meanjin seeks to cast some light on what we now consider 'human'. It features essays and nonfiction pieces carrying titles like 'Mutant, Cyborgs, Al & Androids', 'Becoming Oneself', 'Is Humanism Dead?'...

Spun dry.(necessity of infirmation management)
June 1, 2004... It's not surprising that in the Information Age interest groups have become adept at the manipulation of this fundamental commodity. That manipulation is know as 'spin', because the process rotates truth to the left or, more often these days,...