Quadrant articles from January 2005

Quadrant archives from January 2005

Universities from Dawkins to Nelson.(Editorial)(Editorial)
January 1, 2005... THE LAST GREAT upheaval in our universities was that perpetrated by John Dawkins when he was federal Labor Minister for Education. The chief aspect of this was the abolition of the two-tier tertiary system such that overnight the former...

The Da Vinci Code.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2005... SIR: I read with great interest Tom Blackburn's response (Letters, November 2004) to my review of Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code. I thank him for reading my review and taking the time to respond. I hope he doesn't take offence at the following...

The head of state.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2005... SIR: I find myself in rare agreement with Professor Flint that "Australians are not lying awake at night worrying about who their head of state is" (Letters, November 2004). Why then waste another column and a half on precisely this issue? ...

The windsors in the war.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2005... SIR: Peter Ryan writes (November 2004) that Baldwin sent the Duke of Windsor to govern the Bahamas before the Second World War erupted. This is incorrect. After war broke out, the Duke was living in France and was given a sinecure with the...

The problem with democratic personalism.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2005... SIR: After reading Dr Pell's article (December 2004) one of the questions that came to mind was how he plans to bring about the changes of democratic personalism. Dr Pell fervently dismisses the idea of "imposing" morality on society and of...

Fear and homosexuality.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2005... SIR: Years ago I remember a history professor advising a crowded lecture hall that teaching was a boring addition to his job. A university, he claimed, was a medieval community of fearless scholars and we students took up too much of his time....

The psychopathology of terrorism.(Society)
January 1, 2005... THE CIRCUMSTANCES of living in a totalitarian society tend to lead to a group psychopathology. The size of the group and its ethnic, racial or religious identification, are mostly irrelevant. This psychopathology could extend to a nation or...

The manager.(Society)(Short Story)
January 1, 2005... IT WASN'T what he said. It was what he did. Quietly, without fuss, with an apparent end in mind; clear, at least to him. It was almost a demonstration of a personal arrogance; an unstated approach along the lines of "This will happen, and I...

150 years of doing good in the Sudan.(History)
January 1, 2005... The South will be "overwhelmed--and indeed more or less enslaved". --fears voiced by British Foreign Office staffer, September 1, 1943 IT ALL STARTED in Turkey in 1872. General Gordon had just made a nostalgic visit to the Crimea, and...

The Back Window.(Brief Article)(Poem)
January 1, 2005... THE BACK WINDOW A morning soaking in the windowpane Like a photograph; now dripping with ablution From its last bath, and lifted to a line; Details drying in their resolution-- Wattle; mountain sloping to the ocean; ...

Buried Treasure.(Brief Article)(Poem)
January 1, 2005... BURIED TREASURE A prospector over the sand, with metal detector; a blind girl in the lane, feeling through her future, with metal cane.

Feeling crook.(History)
January 1, 2005... "IT IS DIFFICULT to believe that there are worse things than being killed in war," write Peter Haran and Robert Kearney in Flashback: Echoes from a Hard War (New Holland, 2003). But for some veterans of the war in Vietnam, survival has been the...

Blowing My Nose.(Brief Article)(Poem)
January 1, 2005... BLOWING MY NOSE ... as my father taught me outside, right thumb over right nostril left over left he worked outside amongst vines and orange trees I did it walking to an art exhibition not...

Diagnoses.(Brief Article)(Poem)
January 1, 2005... DIAGNOSES Grossly Normal. Euthyroid. Poverty of Movement. Fine Tremor. Intention Tremor. Gross Tremor. Pill Rolling Tremor. Egg Shell Gait. Florid Psychosis. Acute Exacerbation of Chronic...

The limits to Christian political participation.(Religion)
January 1, 2005... FEDERAL OPPOSITION leader Mark Latham does not belong to any religious organisation, nor has he ever studied theology. But this has not hindered him from declaring his opposition to church involvement in political affairs and expressing his...

Towards an enterprise society: the Howard fourth-term agenda.(Politics)
January 1, 2005... JOHN HOWARD'S WIN in October is going to have a profound effect on the political and social structure of Australia for many years. The changes that will ensue are likely to consolidate the position of the Liberal National coalition as the party...

Is the Atlantic rift unbridgeable?(Foreign Affairs)
January 1, 2005... ON NOVEMBER 9, Robert Kagan, regarded as a member of the neo-conservative group identified with Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and other influential officials in the Bush administration, gave the Bonython Lecture in Melbourne. The...

The shady status of the spy.(Law)
January 1, 2005... IT IS AN UNUSUAL TIME when the technicalities of both intelligence and international law are common topics of public discussion. The Australian government, among others, has undertaken to expand its capabilities in clandestine and technical...

How tribal societies operate.(Culture)
January 1, 2005... CAN FAILED STATES and devastated countries (like Papua New Guinea, Iraq, East Timor) be converted into viable civil societies? This pressing question is not just a matter of political and economic solutions--recognising underlying cultural...

Beyond the stereotypes.(Culture)
January 1, 2005... "ABE. Is that short for Abram? That is neither a Muslim nor a Christian name," the Muslim Anglo-Australian said, examining the university letter outlining my research. A faint smile crossed my face as I waited for a follow-up remark. "Ata is a...

Mining and public health.(Science)
January 1, 2005... DURING THE HEAT of the Native Title debate in the early 1990s, a critic described people in the mining industry as vandals. At that time I had been working in the industry for about thirty years. I was a mineral-producing professional mining...

Summer Blonde (January).(Brief Article)(Poem)
January 1, 2005... SUMMER BLONDE (JANUARY) that's the name of the beer served by the brunette barmaid whose every feature says Meridionale straight out of the deep-delved earth of Sicily, Corinth, maybe even Malta dark olive and...

Marking Time.(Brief Article)(Poem)
January 1, 2005... MARKING TIME for Jane and Felicity. I had an office once with a window and a calendar. I spent more time looking out the calendar than the window. Every morning I marked off another day, eager to get to ...

Mosman Bay.(Brief Article)(Poem)
January 1, 2005... MOSMAN BAY from "A Mosman Notebook" We've made a small discovery today. Margaret Preston's View of Mosman Bay painted late in 1929 shows the house we've lived in thirty years. It dominates the skyline like a prow. ...

Sirius Cove.(Brief Article)(Poem)
January 1, 2005... SIRIUS COVE from "A Mosman Notebook" We always know much more than we can see. I've read about these painters and their lives, and looked at photos of the famous camp with all its luxuries, its bit of grandeur, and...

The full taste of meat.(Devine)(Interview)
January 1, 2005... IN HIS PLEASING BOOK about the domestic lives of our pioneers, Black Kettle and Full Moon, Geoffrey Blainey notes that in the 1890s the average Australian ate meat for three meals a day, consuming more than twice as much meat as the average...

On the Circuit.(Brief Article)(Poem)
January 1, 2005... ON THE CIRCUIT to Montri Umavijani and The Noh of a Return I July in Tokyo: another conference, this time a short festival of poets flown in from the whole Pacific rim. Arriving early in torrential summer rain ...

Spring Hit.(Brief Article)(Poem)
January 1, 2005... SPRING HIT It's done it again a sudden blast from the west and the footpaths are full of light and heat a fried-egg breakfast if you could face the glare of light in the morning already thought turn to dark...

What history should we teach?(Education)
January 1, 2005... MOST AUSTRALIANS have an interest in some aspects of history. During the last few years there have even been so-called "history wars" about the impact of British settlement/invasion on the indigenous peoples of Australia. However, although...

The Tearoom.(Brief Article)(Poem)
January 1, 2005... THE TEAROOM The voices of children at play: how soon they are raised in tones of confrontation, and next they might escalate into violence. From the playground, which one can see while strolling in the...

Coats.(Brief Article)(Poem)
January 1, 2005... COATS How it lumbered you-- the ghost of your booze-drowned father slung across your back like a sack trailing his sensitive tobacco-stained hands all the way to the sands of Australia. How I struggled under ...

The doof-doof music: noise, amplified music, and the automobile.(Music)
January 1, 2005... By listening to noise, we can better understand where the folly of men and their calculations is leading us, and what hopes it is still possible to have. --Jacques Attali, Noise: The Political Economy of Music (1985) Without the...

The Deep End of the Pond.(Brief Article)(Poem)
January 1, 2005... THE DEEP END OF THE POND Curious to see how deep was the pond I plunged my hand into the deepest end-- but quickly withdrew when I felt the cold encircle my arm like an icy clamp. Trying again, more...

Remembering Miklos Szentkuthy.(Literature)(Critical Essay)
January 1, 2005... BORN IN BUDAPEST, I lived there until the age of eighteen, when in 1949 I left for the West with my mother. Since then I have lived mostly in Australia. Recently, I returned to Budapest for two months with my Australian wife, Joan. For her it...

Reflections: art inspired by art.(Film)
January 1, 2005... FILM, ONE BRITISH critic wrote, has always been inspired by a mongrel muse. Moviemakers have adapted, copied or remade novels, plays, poems, films from their own studios, films from other studios and films from foreign countries. Not that any...

Was King Arthur a Pelagian?(Film)(Movie Review)
January 1, 2005... THE ARTHURIAN LEGEND is to my mind one of the Western world's greatest treasures, showing within its rich and hybrid body of stories the syncretic genius of the West. Borrowing from diverse cultures, but with a strong base that combines the...

Refinement.(Brief Article)(Poem)
January 1, 2005... REFINEMENT She works her needlepoint so fine Her art conceals its seam. Even that stitch between her ribs Is private as her atrium.

Descent into the Cirque de Navacelle.(Brief Article)(Poem)
January 1, 2005... DESCENT INTO THE CIRQUE DE NAVACELLE Come to the rim of this crater. Look down to the bottom, to that sombre house plunged in shadow next to the dried-up oxbow. Consider the river that carved this amphitheatre and you...

The Sleep of the Upright.(Brief Article)(Poem)
January 1, 2005... THE SLEEP OF THE UPRIGHT A man snared by slumber in a chair in the library has assumed the pose of a swan asleep-- neck curved, head aslant and down. A gawky grace, yet...

Shooting the dog.(Short Story)
January 1, 2005... For Lisa Each time the gravel slid off the shovel it sounded like something trying to hang on by its nails. --Philip Hodgins, "Shooting the Dogs" He was an old dog now, although no one in the district could put an...

My Mother's Tongue.(Brief Article)(Poem)
January 1, 2005... MY MOTHER'S TONGUE Your face is dark blue, mine--blinding white. Sunrays shoot from my eyes. I have twisted a lightning bolt into a spiral and eaten it. From my stomach it gives orders. I who was never hugged...

The Singing Bowl.(Brief Article)(Poem)
January 1, 2005... THE SINGING BOWL I hum "Mama" over and over until the water dances in my copper bowl. I know how to rub the handles so the water rises like a fountain. When I start my hands sting, like that time I...

Twenty-four hours.(Short Story)
January 1, 2005... It's like a punch in your face when he tells you. I can tell you exactly, with great precision. It's fight between the eyes and it rolls around the skull, past the ears to the back. You even get the flash. It's not a great Lennox Lewis haymaker...

Some people.(Short Story)
January 1, 2005... Caspar made us all famous a couple of weeks back? Jenny from Accounts' brother-in-law works for one of the news teams and they came and did a story on him for the news? He hopped around the tables of the care where we all go for lunch and it...

Song of the Innocent.(Brief Article)(Poem)
January 1, 2005... SONG OF THE INNOCENT (Pick-a-side-any-side) I did it out of love for god and country I did it for my children and my wife I did it to secure our nation's future I did it to protect our way of life I saw the troops...

Fragment of a Fisherman's Song.(Brief Article)(Poem)
January 1, 2005... FRAGMENT OF A FISHERMAN'S SONG for David Christopher Williams When Jeffrey was his son He taught the boy to fish. It was in Illinois. "Pick me up, Daddy. Bring the worms to me. Put me in the boat." He...

For Those Who Miss the Sea.(Brief Article)(Poem)
January 1, 2005... FOR THOSE WHO MISS THE SEA Ships pass in my dreams Ships shining red over the rooftops I'm in sad shape I've missed the sea for years I look I look I cry I remember seeing the world first Through the open...

Headache.(Brief Article)(Poem)
January 1, 2005... HEADACHE However beautiful the roads may be However cool the night The body tires The headache never gets tired Orhan Veli, translated from the Turkish by Defne Halman and Chris King

Taking the baby to Coney Island.
January 1, 2005... Among the infinite fears associated with a first baby is the fear that social life as you know it will vanish. Ours did, to some extent, during the first month of Leyla's life, before she had received any vaccinations, when we did our best to...

Malcolm Muggeridge: Mon semblable, mon pere.(Book Review)
January 1, 2005... Malcolm Muggeridge: A Biography, by Gregory Wolfe; ISI Books, 2003, $27.95. I FIRST MET Malcolm Muggeridge (1903-90) over twenty years ago--in the summer of 1983 at his home in Sussex. He was about eighty, and if some of his jokes were...

The natural history of the galah.(Book Review)
January 1, 2005... The Encyclopaedia of Stupidity, by Matthijs van Boxsel; Reaktion Books, 2004, about $30. WE ARE HAPPY to talk about foolishness, even at times to acknowledge our own, but stupidity is humanity's dirty secret. Fools we know about; tradition...

Study of a bohemian artist.(Book Review)
January 1, 2005... Charles Conder: The Last Bohemian, by Ann Galbally; Melbourne University Press, 2003, $39.95. IN THE LAST DECADES of the nineteenth century the French artistic world turned away from tradition, and as with the advent of any new movement,...

The roots of civilisation.(Book Review)
January 1, 2005... After the Ice: A Global Human History 20,000-5000 BC, by Steven Mithen; Phoenix, 2004, $32.95. THERE WAS a TIME when a piece of carefully shaped flint was as essential to man's well-being as the computer chip is today. We see why in Steven...

Have slouch hat, will travel.(Book Review)
January 1, 2005... On the Warpath: An Anthology of Australian Military Travel, edited by Robin Gerster and Peter Pierce; Melbourne University Press, 2004, $34.95. IT IS HARD TO SEE the rationale for this book, which claims to be "an anthology of Australian...

Catullus, today and always.(Book Review)
January 1, 2005... Poems of Love and Hate, by Catullus, translated by Josephine Balmer; Bloodaxe, 2003, about $35. Chasing Catullus, by Josephine Balmer; Bloodaxe, 2004, about $35. Catullus for Children, by Anna Jackson; Auckland University Press, 2004,...

The powerful and the powerless.(Book Review)
January 1, 2005... The Secret History of the Iraq War, by Yossef Bodansky; HarperCollins, 2004, $45. ANTI-TERRORISM EXPERT Yossef Bodansky's 1999 book Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America was prescient in its understanding of the world's now...

House.(Brief Article)(Poem)
January 1, 2005... HOUSE The past rips up into my house like a shark and the sea comes in and it's deep and it's dark and it is icy cold the air itself savage water and only a few faint stars and a wisp of moon ...

Mr Hydes.(Brief Article)(Poem)
January 1, 2005... MR HYDES The park is full of broken-hearted men the tree-veins drip brightness and the benched and sombre-suited men relive their wedding days beneath the glowing arches. Did you know that tears of sorrow...

Writing about war.(Ryan)(Editorial)
January 1, 2005... AT THIS MOMENT (I write on December 5) we are all trying to keep our heads above a tidal wave of publicity about the Eureka Stockade, and attempting simultaneously to manage an avalanche of argument about "What Eureka Means". Some (those...

Woodwind.(Brief Article)(Poem)
January 1, 2005... WOODWIND My didjeridoo Niebelungenlied wallows brooding as Wagner's did. You point to where your back is sore; I press the didj to the spot and pour into the knotted muscle moans, half words, half-animal groans....