Quadrant articles from June 2004

Quadrant archives from June 2004

The slow suicide of the newspapers.(Editorial)(Editorial)
June 1, 2004... THE MOST RECENT victim of the lynch-mob mentality rife in the Australian media has been David Flint, the chairman of the Australian Broadcasting Authority. He is the chief contemporary villain. The campaign against him has really been inspired...

Fashionable anti-semitism.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
June 1, 2004... SIR: It in no way detracts from Rob Foot's proposition (April 2004), that the virulent anti-Americanism of a discredited Left may be a metaphor for anti-Semitism, to point out that in the letters page of the "liberal" Age, for instance, actual...

Holocaust language and asylum seekers.(Letters)
June 1, 2004... SIR: Even in the distant days when he was an academic, Max Teichmann was hardly famous for giving accurate acounts of other people's views. As his review of The Howard Years (April 2004) demonstrates, his standards have not improved now that be...

Unhelpful assumptions.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
June 1, 2004... SIR: Public discussion of our foreign policy might be more useful, because relevant to the real world in which national governments consider their decisions, if three common assumptions were discarded. One is the left-wing version of aping...

Pointing the bone: reflections on the passing of ATSIC.(Australia)
June 1, 2004... ON AUGUST 21, 1968, Soviet tanks rolled into Prague; First Secretary Alexander Dubcek and several of his colleagues were arrested and taken to Moscow to be threatened and humiliated; and the Prague Spring turned overnight into winter again. ...

Frazer, Wittgenstein and the savage mind.(Culture)
June 1, 2004... SER JAMES FRAZER'S The Golden Bough, a monumental work on the history of magic and religion, first appeared in two volumes in 1890 and, finally, in twelve volumes in 1915. It was instantly acclaimed as a classic and had a huge influence...

Jeogla (2).(Poem)
June 1, 2004... Jeogla (2) Enough to remember how the rising sun melted the morning frost-- of to count the geese walking across the front garden and up to the top paddock. Enough to know that summer and winter ...

War in the time of football.(Sport)
June 1, 2004... WHAT DO THEY KNOW of football who only football know? In Melbourne, where I grew up, Australian rules football is so completely integrated into everyday life that it would be difficult to view the game with any degree of detachment or...

Misrepresentation of a nation: how not to research public attitudes.(Society)
June 1, 2004... THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT recently undertook a massive public consultation exercise--entitled GM Nation?--on public attitudes towards genetically modified food and crops, and there are rumours that elements within the Australian government, or at...

Lisdoonvarna 1942.(Poem)
June 1, 2004... LISDOONVARNA 1942 He'd hook cycle-clips, lucky as horse-shoes, like a black love-heart in his breast pocket and having no bicycle, nor even the front to dab his tie with petrol--walk. September; and the fields...

Turning Over.(Poem)
June 1, 2004... TURNING OVER Almost without waking we relax the vague hold we have on one another, and in loose unison we turn our backs. Asleep, we're half alone and half together. We drift apart like drowsy ballroom dancers ...

Northerly at Night for my father.(Poem)
June 1, 2004... Northerly At Night for my father A warm gale is making the house creak. I think of you half dozing in your half lit hospital bed, the whole night streaming south around you. This weather is a land...

On criticising "judicial adventurism".(Law)
June 1, 2004... THE EDITORIAL "Judicial Adventurism and Public Debate" (Quadrant, January-February 2004) raises some important questions about the speeches and writings of Justice Michael Kirby and judicial decision-making generally. The editorial recognises...

The high ground in the churchyard.(Poem)
June 1, 2004... THE HIGH GROUND IN THE CHURCHYARD This isn't one of those full of tears. I didn't take to him. He was a sleaze. So many of that era are, or were. I wonder in the churchyard at the one or two...

Beach, 4-year-old, winter.(Poem)
June 1, 2004... BEACH, 4-YEAR-OLD, WINTER I roll up the wet sleeve of his windcheater. It unrolls as he pulls away from me. He skips nowhere while I wrestle with his cuff. All he wants is to raise the beautiful spray that flares...

Happy returns.(Poem)
June 1, 2004... HAPPY RETURNS A wedding reception Arranged on the fringe Of the river: Glances exchanged Like light Amongst the silver.

Liberty and paternalism: a reply to Tom Frame.(Philosophy & Ideas)
June 1, 2004... IN A SERIES of recent Quadrant articles I have attempted to analyse a variety of policy issues from a viewpoint that emphasises the values of a liberal society, one in which approval is generally expressed for individual liberty and moral...

Christmas night.(Poem)
June 1, 2004... CHRISTMAS NIGHT From an old trunk Of LPs (and other seeming junk) She lifts the music box. The agony of the grain Twisted through mahogany Seems to strain Against the flow Of time When she...

The complex.(Poem)
June 1, 2004... THE COMPLEX A buzzer and a red light go, when I can turn the handle on the outside face glass door. The next one needs the clanking keys, and slamming with conviction shudders my internal organs. Into the...

Greatly exaggerated reports of the death of newspapers.(Devine)
June 1, 2004... AFTER THE NEW YORK newspaper strike of 1962 had been running for a month of so, James Reston of the New York Times wrote a famous column for his syndication service that took the form of an appeal to Santa Claus: Please do what you can...

On the Asian road to freedom.(Asia)
June 1, 2004... HARDLY HAVE I put down my suitcase when I am drawn onto the balcony by one of the Australia Day fireworks over Sydney--those circuses the authorities inflict on taxpayers with frivolous frequency. As I watch, snippets of conversation and bits...

Without history.(Poem)
June 1, 2004... WITHOUT HISTORY I. By their boots borne south, burdened by musket, Cartridges, kit and the tug in the blood That bound these Bluecoats to beat their way Upstream till at last they gathered themselves By the...

Harbour.(Poem)
June 1, 2004... HARBOUR The weather said an onshore gale. At the far end of the sea wall road the sea had started to explode. I heard the sea wall railings wail. I saw the breakers smouldering under the wind's ferocity. ...

What the sea is for my children, who asked?(Poem)
June 1, 2004... WHAT THE SEA IS for my children, who asked It is a big mirror letting itself go at the edges. It sways with a sort of heartbeat. It grabs you and has you hall laughing as it hauls you in. And our...

The blogosphere: bloggers in their own words.(Media)
June 1, 2004... THE INTERNET is not what both its enthusiasts and its detractors claimed: that is, a world-changing thing, which will fundamentally alter human nature. That's because it is a deeply human phenomenon, not some superhuman agency. If it has had...

Etruscan sepulchre, Boston museum of fine arts.(Poem)
June 1, 2004... ETRUSCAN SEPULCHRE, BOSTON MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS Buried below their bed but gone to dust this cozy marble couple regard each other happily, half dressed as if to say to us "Hello. This is the way we woke day...

Mrs Jackson.(Poem)
June 1, 2004... MRS JACKSON It's as if someone has drilled a hole in her head and drained the knowledge out Masters in Education, sixty years of tertiary teaching six textbooks on Pitman shorthand (a female figure stencilled on...

Managerialism and the Vice-Chancellor.(Universities)
June 1, 2004... UNTIL RECENTLY most university vice-chancellors were appointed to the same retiring age as professors, apart from the Australian National University where vice-chancellors were appointed for seven years only. Before 1980 the two exceptions were...

Public holiday.(Poem)
June 1, 2004... PUBLIC HOLIDAY Woken by an absence I check dawn's signature sounds. The first slow bird calls are in place. Monday's paper thuds upon the lawn. But where's the freeway's distant hum? Ah yes! We have a holiday....

From the notebooks of Anne Verveine.(Poem)
June 1, 2004... FROM THE NOTEBOOKS OF ANNE VERVEINE VI You are dead, therefore I write to you. I am dead, therefore I write to you. Did we ever kiss? The shadow airplane swooped down to smack the tarmac silently. That crash...

Pyrrhic Victory.(Theatre)(Theater Review)
June 1, 2004... SOMETIMES PLAYWRIGHTS find their ideal reviewers. Such is the case with Howard Barker's Victory, currently being performed by the Sydney Theatre Company. In the Australian, April 20, Jo Litson's lengthy review is headed "An Education in Sex,...

The foxhunting country of R.S. Surtees.(Literature)
June 1, 2004... The English country gentleman galloping after a fox--the unspeakable in full pursuit of the uneatable! --Oscar Wilde ATTITUDES HAVE HARDENED and polarised somewhat since Oscar Wilde's good-natured snipe the eccentricities of the...

Caves and coves of myth and mystery.(Travel)
June 1, 2004... CAVES ARE DARKNESS and claustrophobia for some people, endless fascination for others. Although the odd blend of science and sport that is speleology originated among the limestone plateaux of southern France with the revered pioneers Martel...

Pontecorvo's battle.(Film)(Critical Essay)
June 1, 2004... LAST AUGUST the Pentagon's Special Operations Chief screened an important film. The flier described the plot: How to win a battle against terrorism and lose the war of ideas. Children shoot soldiers at point-blank range. Women...

Night talk.(Poem)
June 1, 2004... NIGHT TALK A black night brings out stars which glint like flecks of ore in schist outcrops that stud Rough Ridge and Blackstone Hill and all the other ranges south and west of Oturehua. The night wind's...

Open air prayer.(Poem)
June 1, 2004... OPEN AIR PRAYER In the end, despite its hefty virtue, rectitude will do you in. One's life is a skerrick, but it's still part of the world that does with you what it will. Let's hope for purpose in one's day...

Leila's patch.(Short Story)
June 1, 2004... I'm so glad you contacted us. We have a Mr Zed Rizen for you--non-smoker, social drinker, was a dentist--some trouble with nitrous oxide--some financial trouble--" "Nitrous oxide?" Leila ventured timidly. "Laughing gas, madam. Some...

Going away.(Short Story)
June 1, 2004... The taxi fare from his flat to the Club was always about five bob. It seemed to stay at that for years. And then with metrication (of was it decimalisation?) it started to creep up and up and then it was about five pounds. He had started taking...

Tokyo metro.(Poem)
June 1, 2004... TOKYO METRO Thigh high in uniforms, a posse of pigeon toed girls flirt through text messages & languid blinks. Palm sized grannies fold into bows & nap alongside loyal businessmen who store years of...

Athenian wolves.(Poem)
June 1, 2004... ATHENIAN WOLVES The Greeks in the Zappeion feed A battered old wolf snarling "Set Me free to get my own". In thread Bare, dulling coat, I'm much the same, But better off, having escaped In middle age from...

Maternal grandfather.(Poem)
June 1, 2004... MATERNAL GRANDFATHER The messenger who cleared our fence In one stride said grandad had died, But since I was beneath the house, Intent on sticking mud pies to Floorboards in line with mother's bed, I only got...

The sad and noble music of Michael Oakeshott: politics in an Elgarian mode.(Books)(Book Review)
June 1, 2004... Like most people I am more or less happy when being praised, and not very uncomfortable when being abused, but I have moments of embarrassment when being explained. --Michael Oakeshott Nobody can hope to understand the politics of...

Driving forces.(Books)(Book Review)
June 1, 2004... Car Wars: How the Car Won Our Hearts and Captured Our Cities, by Graeme Davison; Allen & Unwin, 2004, $29.95. THERE HAS NEVER been a more rapid period of social change than the twenty-five years after the Second World War. The twin advances...

The privilege of speech.(Books)(Latin American Writers at Work)(Book Review)
June 1, 2004... Latin American Writers at Work, edited by George Plimpton; Modern Library, 2003, $30.95. THIS IS THE FOURTH book published in this series. The others are: Women Writers at Work, Beat Writers at Work, and Playwrights at Work. Each...

Unities and proprieties.(Books)(The Great Fire)(Book Review)
June 1, 2004... The Great Fire, by Shirley Hazzard; Virago, 2002, $28. ALDRED (an easy first name to mis-spell) Leith, a thirty-two-year-old British Army major who "did not consider himself young" in the spring of 1947, is posted to Kure, in Japan, to...

One of the last great explorers.(Books)(Mawson: A Life)(Book Review)
June 1, 2004... Mawson: A Life, by Philip Ayres; Melbourne University Press, 2003, $34.95. IN HIS Australia Twice Traversed, the unusually recalcitrant and solitary explorer Ernest Giles details with consummate skill his often ill-fated expeditions into...

An Anzac Day revelation.(Ryan)
June 1, 2004... THE BIBLE (Acts 9) tells us that Saint Paul met his dazzling vision on the Damascus road. That happened some 1970 years ago, probably in AD 33, and has been widely discussed ever since. My own enlightenment occurred this year in Melbourne's...