Quadrant articles from September 2002

Quadrant archives from September 2002

Fertility panic and population decline.(Australia's situation)(Editorial)
September 1, 2002... THE PUBLIC DEBATE about the future of the Australian population, and the birthrate, has achieved unusual force in recent months. As is usual with such debates, rational analysis tends to be swamped by emotional urges, irrational fears, the...

The Australian Pygmies. (Letters).
September 1, 2002... SIR: I was very surprised to see the article by Keith Windschuttle and Tim Gillin called "The Extinction of the Australian Pygmies" (June 2002). Briefly, the authors insisted that the first occupants of Australia were not the Aboriginal people...

Life among the communists. (Letters).
September 1, 2002... SIR: In his criticism (Letters, April 2002) of my article in the January-February issue, Barry York believes me "morally no better than those who attack the dead of September 11" because I criticised the inconsistencies and political double...

Branagh V Olivier. (Letters).
September 1, 2002... SIR: It was a coincidence that you printed Neil McDonald's overenthusiastic account of Kenneth Branagh's Shakespeare films alongside R.J. Stove's review of Kenneth Tynan's diaries (April 2002). Before Tynan mined into the crashing bore...

Deserving librarians. (Letters).
September 1, 2002... SIR: Editorials are an exercise in pomposity at the best of times. But given their usual here-is-the-verdict-from-the-font-of-all-wisdom tone, those who compile them might at least try to get the facts right. Your June effort on the subject of...

God and morality. (Letters).
September 1, 2002... SIR: Exemplifying a common omission, Denis Alexander's discussion (July-August 2002) of the connections between religious and ethical issues does not acknowledge the well-known philosophical argument which strongly suggests that the will of God...

The Anzac tradition. (Letters).
September 1, 2002... SIR: The article by Dr Michael Evans on "Towards an Australian Way of Warfare" (July-August 2002) starts with a review of the manner in which the concept of a "way in warfare" has been developed, and the dependence of such ways of warfare on...

Menzies and Curtin. (Letters).
September 1, 2002... SIR: Thanks are due to Peter Ryan (July-August 2002) for defending John Curtin against David Day's slur that he was afraid of flying. Both Curtin and Menzies as wartime prime ministers had to put their lives on the line by flying overseas, when...

Reviewing practices. (Letters).
September 1, 2002... SIR: I was disappointed when I read Sophie Masson's review of Robert J. Stove's The Unsleeping Eye (June 2002). The review did not seem to me to attempt a reasonable assessment of the book, which I am at present reading. The uncritical...

Abortion and stem cells. (Letters).
September 1, 2002... SIR: I am not convinced by some of the assertions in your editorial (July-August 2002). Given the effect of abortion on a significant number of women undergoing the procedure (see Melinda Tankard Reist's Giving Sorrow Words) and the intense...

Froth and bubble. (Letters).
September 1, 2002... SIR: With reference to Harry Gelber's article "Is Australia's Identity Changing?" (July-August 2002): there used to be a television advertisement for soap showing froth and bubbles on top of greasy plates and glasses immersed in hot water. A...

The supposed rights of the fetus. (Bioethics).
September 1, 2002... ISSUES ARISING from actual or proposed scientific research on human embryos have introduced a renewed urgency to the long-running public policy debate about the moral rights of human zygotes, embryos and fetuses. The debate inevitably provokes...

Antony twinned with Benodet.(Brief Article)(Poem)
September 1, 2002... ANTONY twinned with Benodet As if the sea had gathered itself up and plonked me on the sand like a statue, bragging, Look at that! What a piece of work! Jewelled with sun-drops, gowned in the taste of salt... ...

Afterwards.(Brief Article)(Poem)
September 1, 2002... AFTERWARDS White blossom breaks from the cherry tree's snow. The opulent branches are over-spent; everything turning to water. We go through the conservatory, sun-filled below the bay tree, whose leaves we snap...

The politics of embryonic stem-cell research.
September 1, 2002... ON THE FACE OF IT, Alan Trounson's attack on opponents to his work in embryonic stem-cell research (which appeared in the Australian, 1st August 2002), does not help develop the informed public discussion that is needed about this matter. That...

Souls, bodies and embryos: what has Athens to do with Jerusalem?
September 1, 2002... Quid ergo Athenae et Hierosolymis? Quid academiae et ecclesiae? --Tertullian, De Praescriptione Haereticorum VII WHENEVER DISCUSSION turns to the moral status of the human fetus or embryo, someone is bound to mention the soul, and may...

Trap.(Poem)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... TRAP Winnie-the-Pooh gave him the idea for a pit trap (not for Heffalumps but) for rabbits. I suggested a box trap for bandicoots. His mother thought up a net trap for rock crabs. To no avail. So his yearning...

After the fall. (Tammin, 1946).(Brief Article)(Poem)
September 1, 2002... AFTER THE FALL (Tammin, 1946) More than fifty years ago it was, our old brown car slowed on the long road west, drew up in the gravel of the small town garage in the burnished wheat fields there. ...

The Electrolux judgment and the right to strike. (Politics).
September 1, 2002... A FULL BENCH of the Federal Court (Wilcox, Branson and Marshall JJ), in the Electrolux case (21st June 2002), has widened the grounds under which unions can lawfully "advise" their members to walk off the job and thus bring the employer's...

The Witch's Children.(Brief Article)(Poem)
September 1, 2002... THE WITCH'S CHILDREN It's true we were the children of a witch, And yet we loved her still, for bad or worse. And even now, in hindsight, as we curse The memory of the murderous old bitch, We love that other shape she...

Dancing to the ism of the world.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... INTERNATIONALISM is the world's newest, sexiest "ism"--and, in some ways, is as sinister as the last big "ism", socialism. Like socialism, it's sold as the inevitable scientific and moral trajectory for enlightened people. Like socialism, it's...

Rhipidura Leucophrys and Grallina Cyanoleuca.(Brief Article)(Poem)
September 1, 2002... RHIPIDURA LEUCOPHRYS AND GRALLINA CYANOLEUCA Bright little black-and-white jester and singer of grassy banks and sedge, with their cobweb-wafer and mud-flask nests sharing a tree by the river-edge. Call them...

Portly.(Brief Article)(Poem)
September 1, 2002... PORTLY Portly, rubicund, white-topped, sand-plains' patrician dignitary: the Menzies Banksia.

China: rule of law or rule by law? (Law).
September 1, 2002... THE GENERAL THEME of the Sixtenth Congress of the International Academy of Comparative Law is "Convergence of Legal Systems in the Twenty-First Century". Professor Gabriel Moens, Professor of Law at the University of Queensland and chair of the...

West Kirby Beach by Night.(Brief Article)(Poem)
September 1, 2002... WEST KIRBY BEACH BY NIGHT Walking in the dark of the night's beach, the tide not long gone but gone, and out there something is calling, a seal on the sandbank, some great sea-bird or soul in the pitch. It is the cry...

Remembering My Mother on St Lucy's Day.(Poem)
September 1, 2002... REMEMBERING MY MOTHER ON ST LUCY'S DAY --the shortest day of the year It felt like midnight on the market at the back of Leo's not-very-super-store, midnight or medieval as the light flickered and the gutters blocked...

Get lofty. (Devine).(Sydney's Catholic Archbishop George Pell)
September 1, 2002... NEARING TWO METRES in height, Sydney's Catholic Archbishop George Pell habitually ducks his head even when he walks under door lintels that offer no threat, legacy probably of skull-jarring impacts in a carefree past, and also a reflection of...

Hello Molly Ayre, goodbye Art: the fate of high comedy. (Theatre).
September 1, 2002... DEVOTEES OF TRANSCRIPTESE have enjoyed seeing Gore Vidal, Henrik Ibsen and Ionesco appear in print as Gorver Dahl, Henry Gibson and Ian Esko, and may fantasise that Moliere will complete this jaunty quartet by being listed as Molly Ayre. It...

Failing states. (Foreign Affairs).
September 1, 2002... HOW ARE Tampa and September 11 linked? Not by the claim that there were terrorists on refugee boats. For a more convincing analysis, we can start with Paul Kelly's article "No Refuge from Democracy" (Weekend Australian, 27th-28th April 2002) on...

Was Georges Sorel an Andersonian? (Philosophy & Ideas).(John Anderson)
September 1, 2002... JOHN ANDERSON did not hesitate to adopt, reinterpret and incorporate an idea from another thinker without particular concern for its original context. There is nothing to criticise in that. Creative thinkers do it all the time. With some...

Kulturkampf & the Conservative Hero.(Poem)
September 1, 2002... KULTURKAMPF & THE CONSERVATIVE HERO He sat on a white horse. He wore full armour And held a lance with a pennant flapping from it. He scanned the horizon with hawk-like vigilance, On watch against the Enemies of...

Idolatry, circumscription and possibility: a homily. (Religion).
September 1, 2002... OUR THREE READINGS, this evening, have been Genesis 41:14-40, Galatians 2:9-21 and Luke 24:13-32. Why these three readings, in particular? What is their common theme? Consider that, in the first, Pharaoh has a dream, which neither he nor his...

New Secure Psychiatric Unit.(Poem)
September 1, 2002... NEW SECURE PSYCHIATRIC UNIT It's really very nice they've done a lovely job in the space available. Clean as a new pin in speckled grey and green the plaster dust and red flex swept as far as the door...

Mount Wellington.(Poem)
September 1, 2002... MOUNT WELLINGTON Drizzle on the day before gave the track the give of carpet underfoot going up from the Fern Tree turn off to the Springs. Walking with prehistory overhanging ...

The dreadful orthodoxy. (Literature).(poets and poetry reading)
September 1, 2002... THERE HAS BEEN a significant push in the recent past of Australian literary history to hear poetry performed in front of an audience. This push could be related to the popularity of poetry readings by the "Beat Poets" during the 1960s, or it...

How not to teach film: and Lord Peter on the small screen. (Film).
September 1, 2002... ONCE EARLY in 1981 I found myself at a New South Wales Department of Education think-tank. The subject was a proposed introduction of film studies into the secondary English syllabus. During a discussion session, I asked a senior inspector,...

Distress.(Brief Article)(Poem)
September 1, 2002... DISTRESS She shares her burden-- a small boy with autism, just now diagnosed. And my eyes embarrass me as we speak, until I must turn my head to hide my heart. Oh but why, when I hardly know her, why ...

Two Pictures of Hurt.(Brief Article)(Poem)
September 1, 2002... TWO PICTURES OF HURT 1. I stop to ask if he's hurt, the young man lying on the damp grass at midnight. He says he's thinking about how his life's gone wrong. 2. A young black woman standing...

The choice.(Short Story)
September 1, 2002... Fleur caught the bus to the city. Even though the bus followed the same route as the car journey she particularly enjoyed travelling by bus because she was so much higher and could see more of the landscape. It was a clear sunny day but she...

The three-thirds man.(Short Story)
September 1, 2002... He was dreaming again. No, that would be grossly understating the hopelessness of his present situation. It was a recurring nightmare! Professor Elizabeth Adams and Doctor Richard Barker, both key scientists at the privately-financed...

Occidentophobia in the West.
September 1, 2002... Blaming Ourselves: September 11 and the Agony of the Left, edited by Imre Salusinszky and Gregory Melleuish; Duffy & Snellgrove, 2002, $22. "FAR FROM BEING the terrorists of the world, the Islamic peoples have been its victims--that is,...

The Last Men in Europe.
September 1, 2002... Orwell's Victory, by Christopher Hitchens; Allen Lane, 2002, $29.95. Aldous Huxley: An English Intellectual, by Nicholas Murray; Little, Brown, 2002, $49.95. NO SOONER had the Berlin Wall fallen than the lefties began their campaign...

A Glimpse of Bright Wings.
September 1, 2002... Source, by Mark Doty; Cape Poetry, 2002, about $25. Eulogy for a Private Man, by Fred Dings; Northwestern University Press, 1999, about $35. After the Solstice, by Fred Dings; Orchises Press, 1993, about $30. AMERICAN POETRY is at...

Last Time Round the Galaxy.
September 1, 2002... The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time, by Douglas Adams; Macmillan, 2002, $45. DOUGLAS ADAMS wrote of a universe which was vast, stupid, cruel, unfair, and often blisteringly funny. In other words, he wrote of a...

The Court Martial.(Poem)
September 1, 2002... THE COURT MARTIAL As a result of some boisterous shipboard episode--the details being withheld in order to preserve the illusion of his dignity--my father was arraigned before an air force discipline committee as...

On Fireworks Night.(Poem)
September 1, 2002... ON FIREWORKS NIGHT As stars explode we are living and all these many-petalled flowers light the dark with their brief giving back of momentary powers. This close to silly joy you are learning to die, trouble...

From tiny insects ... (Ryan).
September 1, 2002... THERE FLOURISH upon Earth about 250,000 different species of plants, but sixteen times as many species of insects--that's about four million kinds of the creatures. And of that host, a great proportion live in this country. No Australian who...