Quadrant articles from April 2008

Quadrant archives from April 2008

On great prime ministers.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2008... SIR: I thought John Stone's assessment of the Howard prime minister-ship (March 2008) outstanding--insightful, judicious, and balanced. It should remain definitive. John Carroll (Professor of Sociology), La Trobe University, Bundoora,...

The west and genocide.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2008... SIR: I enjoyed reading Mervyn F. Bendle's cogent review (March 2008) of Ben Kiernan's history of genocide, Blood and Soil. Mr Bendle is absolutely correct in stating that the contemporary growth in "genocide studies" has ignored genocides and...

The Follies Bizarre.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2008... SIR: Michael Connor's article "The Follies Bizarre" (March 2008) was a great read. He skewered the prevailing leftist orthodoxy beautifully. The quality of our media, academia, theatre and so-called intelligentsia rightly deserves scorn....

Islam's Trojan horse.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2008... SIR: Professor Johns' "scholarship" (Letters, March 2008) rings dismally familiar to my ears. It is an artificial fog, the sole purpose of which is to obscure, divert and elude the very relevant, pressing and alarming queries raised by Dr...

Opinions and facts.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2008... SIR: It has been said that while people are entitled to their own opinions, they are not entitled to their own facts. I therefore make no further comment on the "opinion" aspects of David Kemp's letter (March 2008), on which your readers can...

Jews in the Spanish army.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2008... SIR: I was surprised to read in Michael Galak's article (December 2007) about the "Jewish regiments fighting alongside Christian defenders... during the Arab invasion of the Iberian Peninsula". Many historians appear to be ignorant of this....

Poetry and prose.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2008... SIR: Just as beauty lies within the eye of the beholder, so does poetry appeal to me through its "metrical composition and elevated tone", as defined by the Australian Oxford Dictionary, which also describes prose as "plain English". No...

Climate change and the IPCC.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2008... SIR: Ray Evans ("The Mad Rush to Decarbonise", March 2008) is just as doom-laden as the "climate catastrophists" that he attacks. He seems to be saying that the generally accepted climate science is all wrong, and even if it's not, we won't be...

John Howard and the constitution.
April 1, 2008... That what we have we prize not to the worth Whiles we enjoy it, but being lack'd and lost, Why, then we rack the value, then we find The virtue that possession would not show us Whiles it was ours. --Shakespeare, Much...

Bird Nesting.(Poem)
April 1, 2008... BIRD NESTING He shinned up for the eggs Lapwing starling jay Blue speckled yellow The infinite possibilities We babbled from our gawping Schoolboy mouths our faces Huddled like eggs in a nest Around...

Responsible government--in dilution.
April 1, 2008... WALTER BAGEHOT, the Victorian expert on responsible government, raised the question in 1867 of whether the English political system was truly one "in which the government was responsible to Parliament, and Parliament was responsible to the...

Trampoline Heart.(Poem)
April 1, 2008... TRAMPOLINE HEART When she thinks of him she's like a child on a trampoline, poised for the fall, preparing for impact. Stomach rising, muscles coiled, one second in crouch, the next in...

Zapped.(Poem)
April 1, 2008... ZAPPED Your blue light flickers, I am mesmerised. Your electricity pulses, I have to come closer. I butt against you, my wings fall off, I land with a click, hard, and bounce a couple of...

The west wind.(Poem)
April 1, 2008... THE WEST WIND beats my breasts and finds the gaps in my clothing. I want to say to these people with their bare feet and large dogs, this is my beach, my peace, my morning! Too lonely to want...

My mother is a mum.(Poem)
April 1, 2008... MY MOTHER IS A MUM. She shops, cleans, cooks, gets sick, keeps cooking. Her life is a sacrifice she is ambiguous about reclaiming. The umbilical cord is never severed entirely, her arms still ache for her ...

The obsession of David Scott Mitchell.(Magnificent Obsession: The Story of the Mitchell Library, Sydney)(Book review)
April 1, 2008... Magnificent Obsession: The Story of the Mitchell Library, Sydney, by Brian H. Fletcher; Allen & Unwin and the State Library of New South Wales, 2007, $59.95. Since it is usual in histories To make a contribution to research ...

Another Redistribution I See.(Poem)
April 1, 2008... Another Redistribution I See Transplant doctors would be able to retrieve organs from people whose heart and circulation have ceased irreversibly but who have not been certified brain dead, under a draft NSW policy that could increase...

Currawong.(Poem)
April 1, 2008... CURRAWONG Sing a song of sixpence, and rookery awry Four and twenty black birds baked in a pie --Most likely currawongs, they're already pied. But blackbirds are black birds, at least on the outside: No peewit-like...

William F. Buckley Jr: a Burke for our times.(In memoriam)
April 1, 2008... IT IS NOT POSSIBLE to write about Bill Buckley without referring to his extraordinary personality, to his loyalty and generosity, to his intellectual courage and cultivation, to his artistic talent and sensibility and to the genius of his human...

The Age of Revolution.(Poem)
April 1, 2008... THE AGE OF REVOLUTION Bliss to be alive: to drink deep Of the headiest of those mixed and long fermented wines: Voltaire, Rousseau, Blake, Tom Paine's Rights of Man, The whole drum-roll: Danton, Marat, Mirabeau, The...

Australia's loss.(Vale Paddy McGuinness)(Obituary)
April 1, 2008... THIS WEEK the parliament has eulogised Bernie Banton, Matt Price, Sir Charles Court and Sir Edmund Hillary, and I rise this afternoon to praise a man equally worthy of parliamentary tribute, namely, the journalist and editor P.P. McGuinness,...

Enemy of Humbug.(Vale Paddy McGuinness)(Obituary)
April 1, 2008... AMONG THE BIG CROWD at Paddy's funeral and staying long at the subsequent wake were John Howard, Tony Abbott, several judges and legal luminaries, the deputy chairman of the Reserve Bank, numerous ex-editors and financial and other scribes. It...

Two plays, two directors: Rock 'n' Roll and The Season at Sarsaparilla.(Tom Stoppard)
April 1, 2008... AT MELBOURNE'S Arts Centre Playhouse the e was a moment of awed silence at the beginning of Tom Stoppard's Rock 'n Roll when Matthew Newton stepped onto the stage. And then chitter-chatter cartwheeled through the auditorium as the deaf...

The Mortuary Fan.(Poem)
April 1, 2008... THE MORTUARY FAN Spindling revolutions blooms of unsettled dust fall on pale faces shadows drawn in blank sockets. though all is cold and still the fan plays another revolution blue light highlights the...

The case for a national security strategy.
April 1, 2008... There are no experts in national security. There are only experts on aspects of the problem. --Harold Lasswell, National Security and Individual Freedom (1950) SINCE THE END of the Cold War, Australian strategic policy has been forced...

Reforming defence.(Department of Defence)
April 1, 2008... Bureaucracy is by nature conservative, lethargic and self-perpetuating merely for its own ends, but survives as long as public opinion can be convinced to accept and support it. --Clark G. Reynolds, Command of the Sea ATTEMPTS TO...

On Teaching a Maths I.E.C. Class after Lunch.(Poem)
April 1, 2008... ON TEACHING A MATHS I.E.C. CLASS AFTER LUNCH What do you see out of that window there? As kookaburras and magpies lure you Away from my lesson to places where Your life's dreams and desires once grew. Come back you...

Time to stop the dreaming.(Australia)
April 1, 2008... FAR BE IT FROM ME to differ from Edmund Burke, but when he said, "People, sir, must never be regarded as incurable", he had not encountered Australia's Aboriginal industry today. Writing here last month about John Howard's approach to...

Under Sentence.(Poem)
April 1, 2008... UNDER SENTENCE At Easter, you learned you would die. It was autumn bright the sky on the day you were told-- the gorse up the hill still gold. Not yet, they insisted, not yet. You might even at times forget ...

Land, work, and bush tucker.(race relations and the Aboriginal people)
April 1, 2008... ROBBIE THORPE, a Victorian Aboriginal activist, is standing in the old stone entrance to 136 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy, in Melbourne. He has is arms held straight out against the side walls, as if crucified. He looks directly into the cameras of...

Keeping a weather eye open.(weather forecasting)
April 1, 2008... HAVE YOU NOTICED how seldom you hear people complaining about the weather forecasts these days? It seems only yesterday that no strong wind, freak hailstorm or lashing rain thundering out of a towering cumulonimbus was not followed by public or...

Abruptly bridged.(Poem)
April 1, 2008... ABRUPTLY BRIDGED "If Rudd is elected, the gulf between the government and the country's creative artists will be bridged." "With the election of the Rudd Government there is some reason to feel optimistic about the future of the...

Sandals.(Poem)
April 1, 2008... SANDALS On the roof of his house, Yusuf the potter is kneading clay for the wheel. From here you can see the Wall and the arch to the mosque thronged by an offering of sandals and heelless shoes: little houses of...

Worm.(Poem)
April 1, 2008... WORM Enveloped tightly in food mingled with indigestible sand. Eat, the only way to move, randomly, enticed by a crack here a succulent morsel there, infinitely flexible, deflected by a stone, a...

The significance of Lepanto.(Battle of Lepanto)
April 1, 2008... SINCE SEPTEMBER 11, 2001, there has been quite an outpouring of books dealing with the historical relationship between Islam and the Christian West. This has included a number of surveys of the history of that relationship, some emphasising...

Bent as an Arrow.(Poem)
April 1, 2008... BENT AS AN ARROW Straight lines may look perfect on paper but All finally fail, veer or peter out. Find a line infinite in rectitude? Pope-to-God, priests quickly offer, but doubt This vertical too, words so fallible...

The fox and the hedgehog.(the life of Sir John Monash and Daniel Mannix)
April 1, 2008... TWO OF THE BEST-KNOWN and most influential Australians, General Sir John Monash and Dr Daniel Mannix, Archbishop of Melbourne, became national and international figures during the First World War, though there could scarcely have been a wider...

The cut-lunch commandos.(wars)
April 1, 2008... A LITTLE WHILE AGO, some memoirs of mine appeared in Quadrant. They were memories of events in which I was both observer and participant. There was one on our Depression; a couple of pieces retailing some experiences of mine in our wartime...

Still Mauve.(Poem)
April 1, 2008... STILL MAUVE A fine mauve moth wet-winged in the pool So lightly lifted out on a pole Plastered there in the hot sun to dry Had little better to do than die. Or so it seemed from the midday shade With lunchtime...

Samovar.(Poem)
April 1, 2008... SAMOVAR My left-over samovar thinks it is an heirloom, connoisseur of dust, and chaperon of 1901. Silvoed with a velvety cloth to a grey plague gleam its empty belly smells of several nowheres. This mottled...

She-Oak.(Poem)
April 1, 2008... SHE-OAK even quarter-sawn like a sliced Queen Victoria cake the Casuarina lacks the grain of English oak the dressed shine of officers in uniform but seasoned the unruly timber can add lustre ...

Moral sentiments.(Society)
April 1, 2008... THE COW BAWLED all night long. Well, from I a.m. to be exact, and since the distance from her yard to my bedroom window was less than fifty metres I didn't get much sleep. In between the vigorous tromboning of the cow you could hear the piccolo...

Of Mountains and Molehills.(Poem)
April 1, 2008... OF MOUNTAINS AND MOLEHILLS On that day we three began our climb, Sir Edmund, the Queen and me: It was a wonderful time back in nineteen fifty three. Sir Edmund, the Queen and me, vertices of a triangle ...

Who wants to teach physics?(Education)
April 1, 2008... WITH THE CONSTANT prattle and media reports concerning the lack of qualified teachers, time is fitting for a personal and experienced perspective on the reasons behind the shortage, especially in physics. Having happily taught physics for...

Love and the morally ambiguous.(patriotism)
April 1, 2008... WHEN LOVE invites Marvell to taste his meat, he takes some convincing before he accepts that, despite being guilty of dust and sin, he is still worthy of the highest love. There is a tendency to think that an entity that has a morally ambiguous...

Czech Republic (2).(Poem)
April 1, 2008... CZECH REPUBLIC (2) As I travelled the countryside Following communism's fall, I was struck by the damage half A century of neglect had done To statues of Christ crucified. Thick lichen, missing faces, limbs, ...

The assonance syndrome.
April 1, 2008... "I'm trying to think of a limerick, "said Eustace. "Something like this: Some kids who played games about Narnia Got gradually balmier and balmier--" "Well, Narnia and balmier don't rhyme, to begin with," said Lucy. "It's an...

Mona Lisa at Renison Bell.(Poem)
April 1, 2008... MONA LISA AT RENISON BELL "Mona by name and nature" was My father's pet pun when his wife, My mother from New Zealand downed The rougher one-horse, West Coast of Tasmania town, his birthplace, with "Convict...

Diagnosing the new British disease.(economic conditions)
April 1, 2008... BEFORE MARGARET THATCHER made great moves to set British Industry to rights, the "British Disease meant strike-happy unions, obsolete industrial plant and work practices, low productivity, and industries ripe for foreign takeovers. After...

A couple of classics.(Middleton's Rousebout, "We Sat Entwined An Hour or Two Together")
April 1, 2008... THERE'S BEEN quite a deal of discussion lately across the spectrum about what the "new" Australian or the "old" Australian should know. Should they know about "the Don"? Who was Australia's first prime minister? There's not much argument,...

Watching The Cherry Orchard.(Poem)
April 1, 2008... WATCHING THE CHERRY ORCHARD The play is almost over, the packing up done: but we wait to see if the impossible but not unimaginable will happen--will Lopakhin propose to the woman who loves him? Alone on the...

Witch Hunt.(Poem)
April 1, 2008... WITCH HUNT You called me a liar; put my hand in the fire-- You're surprised that it came out unscathed. Threw me in a tank to see if I sank And you stood and you screamed while I bathed. Took me up high and told me I...

Spirit Level.(Poem)
April 1, 2008... SPIRIT LEVEL I felt the hand on my shoulder again: The hand on my shoulder And the great rip down reality To show my hidden eyes and ears The world beyond; the other place. A joy and a curse; all I can hear is the...

Fine romances.(Film)
April 1, 2008... EVERY YEAR I tell myself the Academy Awards are simply the opinion of the Hollywood community; that they cost an indecent amount of money that would be better spent making movies; and that they really do not have much to do with the merits of...

Flag.(Poem)
April 1, 2008... FLAG On a towel on the line-- the shadow of a fairy wren, its distinctive upright tail. The towel a flag, now-- luxuriating in the breeze with the emblem of a kingdom.

Gossamer Web.(Poem)
April 1, 2008... GOSSAMER WEB i So sensitive it could detect solar winds-- gossamer web. ii Little spider that web couldn't hold even a mosquito! iii A spinnaker to take me away--the web ...

A man on his own.(Story)(Short story)
April 1, 2008... Anyone who has been widowed, divorced, whatever, finds often that they are being paired off, at dinner parties, nights at the theatre, at race meetings. It can hardly be called matchmaking these days, just the result of tidy minds and...

The dining room.(Short story)
April 1, 2008... Elroy Armitage was free to roam the rooms of the Maid & Bracken Hotel. He could go anywhere he liked. The rooms upstairs, the ground floor and even in the cellar below. But one place he kept right away from was the dining room. In...

At Passchendaele.(Poem)
April 1, 2008... AT PASSCHENDAELE At Passchendaele Memorial Museum A painstakingly reconstructed dugout Stairs and boards and blood and bodies Flash and roar and shake of shell Convey to the visitor, fresh from his rented Peugeot ...

Alas I desire too much.(Story)(Short story)
April 1, 2008... A grimy Victorian building with a slate roof loomed above me like a derelict tomb as I climbed the entrance stairs of the Hackney public baths, passing by whirring gym equipment, men puffing and slumped over exercise bikes. Walking to the...

The Right Word.(Poem)
April 1, 2008... THE RIGHT WORD The Right Word is a bastard conceived in anger and a proper rage, and its parents come from provinces where all rebellions start. The Right Word is worse than pregnancy. The Right Word cannot be...

Views of a moderate Muslim.(People Like Us: How Arrogance is Dividing Islam and the West)(Book review)
April 1, 2008... People Like Us: How Arrogance is Dividing Islam and the West, by Waleed Aly; Picador, 2007, $32.95. WESLEY COLLEGE has done its job well. This prestigious Melbourne private school has produced another star graduate in the Muslim lawyer...

Theory versus children.(The Literacy Wars)(Book review)
April 1, 2008... The Literacy Wars, by Ilana Snyder; Allen & Unwin, 2008, $32.95. Remember that you are a human being with a soul and the divine gift of human speech: that your native language is the language of Shakespeare and Milton and the Bible... ...

Alfred, Arthur and politics.(Book review)
April 1, 2008... Alfred the Great, by Justin Pollard; John Murray, 2005, $29.95. The Age of Arthur, by John Morris; Orion, 1993, $39.95. ALFRED THE GREAT left a warning more than a thousand years ago that Kevin Rudd (and other government leaders) should...

Man in charge.(Book review)
April 1, 2008... Arthur Tange, Last of the Mandarins, by Peter Edwards; Allen & Unwin, 2006, $49.95. ARTHUR TANGE, the redoubtable and to many intimidating figure who sat at the top level of the Commonwealth Public Service from 1954 to 1979, has been...

A bureaucratic holiness.(God's Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible)(Book review)
April 1, 2008... God's Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible, by Adam Nicolson; Harper Perennial, 2004, US$13.95. I FOUND THIS BOOK, published simultaneously as God s Secretaries in the United States and as Power and Glory in Great Britain, hard...

Living faith.(St. Thomas More's Forum Papers, 2005-2007)(Book review)
April 1, 2008... The St Thomas More Forum Papers, 2005-2007; published by St Thomas More Forum, 2007 (available from PO Box 68, Campbell ACT 2612, e-mail: sttmforum@homemail.com.au), $19.95. (The book is also being distributed to bookshops.) THE SEPARATION...

An age of poetry.(The Late Tang: Chinese Poetry of the Mid-Ninth Century )(Book review)
April 1, 2008... The Late Tang: Chinese Poetry of the Mid-Ninth Century (827-860), by Stephen Owen; Harvard University Press, 2006, US$59.95. THE LATE TANG brings to conclusion Stephen Owen's overview of the major changes, vicissitudes, and codification...

Defender of the Jews.(The Myth of Hitler's Pope: How Pope Pius XII Rescued Jews from the Nazis)
April 1, 2008... The Myth of Hitler's Pope: How Pope Pius XII Rescued Jews from the Nazis, by Rabbi David G. Dalin; Regnery Publishing, 2005, US$18.45. RABBI DAVID DALIN, a professor of history and political science, and the splendid Regnery publishing...

History and meaning.(The Death of Adam: Essays on Modern Thought)(Book review)
April 1, 2008... The Death of Adam: Essays on Modern Thought, by Marilynne Robinson; Picador, 2005, US$14. I KNOW THAT SOME READERS will share with me an ill-defined unease about modernity. Unfortunately, as we grow older, it becomes more difficult to...

Our defrauded young.(History's Children: History Wars in the Classroom)(Book review)
April 1, 2008... OF THE TRANQUIL REIGN of Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius, Gibbon tells us that it had "the rare advantage of furnishing very few materials for history; which is, indeed, little more than the register of the crimes, follies and misfortunes of...