Quadrant articles from September 2006

Quadrant archives from September 2006

Islam in Australia.(Editorial)
September 1, 2006... AS WE WRITE, there is a ceasefire, however unsatisfactory, in operation between Israel and Hezbollah/Lebanon. Few really expect this to last, since it is impossible to imagine Hezbollah restraining its more fanatical members (although...

The road to nowhere.(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2006... SIR. The destructive intrusion of postmodern thought into various academic disciplines has recently been chronicled and vigorously dismantled in the pages of this magazine and elsewhere. John Dawson has warned us that truth may be history...

The mystery of HIV/AIDS.(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2006... SIR: Congratulations to Henry Bauer (July-August 2006) for daring to attack the accepted wisdom on HIV/AIDS. I would just like to add a couple of non-technical points. In 1984, American virologist Robert Gallo announced his discovery that...

Life under Hitler.(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2006... SIR: As a German born a year after Hans Faubel, I would like to comment on "Growing Up under Hitler" (July-August 2006). Like his parents, mine sent me to a gymnasium. Unlike him, I grew up not in a provincial town but in Berlin, have Jewish...

Truth in the universities.(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2006... SIR: I am appalled that Quadrant would publish Robert Manne's "Keith Windschuttle and the Khmer Rouge" (June 2006). Manne is trying to justify his argumentum ad hominem on Windschuttle, that he is attracted to extreme positions. Obviously...

ABC bias.(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2006... SIR: As a Catholic I have often been on the receiving end of the ABC's anti-Catholic bias. Take, for instance, Aunty's decision last year not to broadcast from Germany the Pope's World Youth Day Mass, and this in a country of at least five...

Jesus and the Christians.(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2006... SIR: The long letter of P.J. Moss (July-August 2006) deserves a fuller reply but I will only make three points. Mr Moss obviously thinks that the horrors committed in the name of Christianity (the Inquisition) or by people living in so-called...

Real and fake news.(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2006... SIR: Re Peter Ryan's column "Too Many Journalists, Not Enough News" (July-August 2006). Finishing this article, I turned on ABC news to find the second top story on dioxin levels in Sydney Harbour fishermen and their families. I was initially...

The battle for freedom.(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2006... SIR: I have an elderly friend who received a Japanese bullet in the leg at Deniki on the, Kokoda Track while fighting with the famous 39th Battalion, and the last thing I want to do is denigrate the heroism of him or his comrades. However,...

The distant republic.(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2006... SIR: I see more republicans getting excited at the prospect of Australia becoming a republic at the end of Queen Elizabeth's reign. They are right that there will not be another referendum while Her Majesty lives but they ignore the fact that...

The Muslim problem and what to do about it.
September 1, 2006... WHEN I WAS ASKED to give this talk, I hesitated before accepting. I have written previously about Australia's Muslim problem--principally on the opinion page of the Australian, and also, at greater and hence more considered length, in the...

Bali wind-chime.(Poem)
September 1, 2006... Bali Wind-Chime They let it in through Quarantine dam bamboo din She hung it on the clothesline dong billabong And as she did the towels and shirts and underclothing bib biddy girdle ditty daddy bottle dilly...

Standing up to the Islamists.
September 1, 2006... THE SHORTCOMINGS of Islamism are, in the words of not unsympathetic commentators, manifest and legion. Its intellectual, social, political and military failures are, in the words of Alex de Waal: evident not just to political scientists...

In Memory Of Corey Tottenham, 1973-2005.(Poem)
September 1, 2006... IN MEMORY OF COREY TOTTENHAM, 1973-2005 Ubuntu An African word Roughly it means: I am because we are A lovely idea, and true An idea with a view Of all of us And how us makes us I A lovely...

Pallbearer.(Poem)
September 1, 2006... PALLBEARER They are heavy, really heavy 6 men are not for show The weight is a blessing though Because you fear the moment Getting closer, more detailed You fear the stillness of it Like furniture it's...

Black dogs, molecules and madness.(depression causes)
September 1, 2006... Remember that the physiological cause of depression lies in the nerve cells in the brain. When the levels of the brain messengers called neurotransmitters are too low, messages can't cross the gaps between brain cells, and communication in the...

Aphasia.(Poem)
September 1, 2006... APHASIA If you break one of the things then you have the other thing if you break the other thing then you have nothing.

Paternalism reconsidered.(Australia's medical services)
September 1, 2006... IN LAUNCHING Australia's Health 2006, my immediate role is to congratulate the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare for its good work, but my more important duty is to draw some suitable policy lessons from it. By all means let's focus on...

Anniversary.(Poem)
September 1, 2006... ANNIVERSARY Having poured the wine and lit the candles, Our waitress sets a basket of warm rolls Before me, crusts crumbling, the kind that pull Apart in your fingers like cotton wool And fill the room with scent; good...

Overburdened and inert.(Globalisation trends)
September 1, 2006... THE UNITED NATIONS exists in a world of instant communication and multiple voices, a scene crowded with other influential actors and networks, inside and outside government, crossing frontiers with unprecedented ease. It is a world that the...

Not so dire strait?
September 1, 2006... LATE IN 2004 I went to Taiwan for the first time, expecting to find everyone living in fear of what China might launch at its "renegade province". Instead, most people were unperturbed. During a much longer visit early in 2006, I tried to find...

Straying onto hallowed ground.(works on Australian history)
September 1, 2006... PERHAPS IT'S AKIN to a journo straying into the Members' Bar at Parliament House late on a boring night--suddenly caught in the full flush of outraged stares, the rush to evict, indignation filling the crusty air of the appointed heirs as they...

Mammon.(Poem)
September 1, 2006... MAMMON After a carrot On a stick We walk, we walk. Progress, of a sort. But look down: Note the treadmill.

Recuerdos.(Poem)
September 1, 2006... RECUERDOS Swimming around my head, backstroking, I overtake acquaintances and women that I loved in South America. I swim among them incognito, and say, ?Que hay de nuevo? to the women and buenos...

A shortish homage to Geoffrey Blainey.(A Shorter History of Australia, A Short History of the World and A Short History of the Twentieth Century)
September 1, 2006... BETWEEN 1994 AND 2005, and the ages of sixty-four and seventy-five, Geoffrey Blainey published three outstanding literary works, A Shorter History of Australia, A Short History of the World and A Short History of the Twentieth Century. I...

Dedication to a Potter Wasp.(Poem)
September 1, 2006... DEDICATION TO A POTTER WASP Allow me, this day and any other, the energy and dedication of the potter wasp which flies with pellets of clay from the rainforest clearing to this verandah; a loner who has built the cells...

Amphibious ships--bigger is better.(Robert Hill on new ships)
September 1, 2006... IN JUNE 2004, the then Minister of Defence, Senator Robert Hill, announced plans for the Australian Defence Force (ADF) to procure two medium (over 20,000 tonnes displacement) amphibious landing helicopter dock (LHD) ships. First pass approval...

Far Sight.(Poem)
September 1, 2006... FAR SIGHT each summer great-aunt came to stay days before dad would growl not that old maid again we girls would giggle behind mother who was kind slip away to practise going cross-eyed and walking...

On the Woronora.(Poem)
September 1, 2006... ON THE WORONORA Swinging out from the jetty her boat glides slowly with the current outboard motor silent she prefers to row feet braced bare legs stretch out showing varicose veins sun-browned She likes...

Obscurity, alchemy and artifice.(Religion)
September 1, 2006... A RECENT EVENT, the "Crisis, Catharsis and Contemplation" exhibition in Melbourne's St Patrick's Cathedral, has brought into sharp relief the culture wars that divide and bedevil the Catholic Church. The exhibition was part of the annual...

Bears.(Poem)
September 1, 2006... BEARS PawPaw and Paprika, two great bears of the Egyptians of Lancashire, Chohawniskey Tem, the Witches' County, who, when our camp plucked its tents and pulled out its maps, walked steadily with the wagons, ambling,...

Thoov, Aynas.(Poem)
September 1, 2006... Thoov, Aynas Widowed, one-breasted, Penny's world had shrunk to Blackpool. Seventh child of seventh child, she could count on so, so little except second sight, closed her curtains as though for a passing hearse, dealt her...

The gypsy kings.(Six Romani Poems)(Poem)
September 1, 2006... THE GYPSY KINGS Red wagons brush nettle towers, smoking with pollen. Sun drives off the dew. The world steams, shakes with us.

Te Avel Angle Tute.(Poem)
September 1, 2006... TE AVEL ANGLE TUTE Sabalen A sloped road, red winter, every thorn lancet. Ice riming each bared branch; thrushes thaw in their doze as light ripens over alarms of berries in their vermilion despite. ...

Patrin.(Poem)
September 1, 2006... PATRIN or pateran, pyaytrin, or sikaimasko. The marker used by Roma that tells others of their direction, often grids of branches or leaf-twists or bark-binds. Used for passing on news using prearranged...

A Rainbow.(Poem)
September 1, 2006... A RAINBOW The caravans' windows run with pre-rainbow light, that skyline twisting to twine where the women of the gypsy camp sling their yellow washing. Target-practice, they reckon, for the village men, come the drinking...

Doing the shows.(First Person)
September 1, 2006... "HE GOES to the local shows with his father on some Fridays," my teacher at St Joseph's, the Bega convent primary school, explained to the public inspector. He was checking the attendance rolls on a yearly visit. The nuns had us primed to be on...

Had I said: "Sea".(Poem)
September 1, 2006... Had I said: "Sea" she would have fallen silent; lending an ear, I hear her chatting to herself, in a secret meeting so strange and yet so sweet That every time men have wished to get involved They have only picked up...

Groupie.(Helen Garner's work in The First Stone)
September 1, 2006... I HAD COME LATE to Helen Garner's work with The First Stone, a book that sent so many people into a tailspin. The young feminists leapt up and down saying she had betrayed them. For me the book had the opposite effect. It opened out my world to...

D.H. Lawrence: genius or joke?(Literature)
September 1, 2006... MY THEME is from Joseph Conrad and his tale The Shadow Line: "Only the young," he wrote, "have such moments. One closes behind one the little gate of mere boyishness--and enters the enchanted garden. One goes on. And time, too, goes on--till...

My Jewish novels.
September 1, 2006... HOW DID A NON-JEWISH writer come to write two novels about a Jewish family, The First Book of Samuel and its sequel, Theodora's Gift? I never set out to write a novel about a Jewish family or indeed with a Jewish theme. I never really set out...

Warriors.(Kingdom of Heaven)(Movie review)
September 1, 2006... WHEN RIDLEY SCOTT'S Crusader epic Kingdom of Heaven was released theatrically in May last year Sir Ridley, as he had just become, announced that three-quarters of an hour had been removed from the film and this would be restored for the DVD...

In Sight.(Poem)
September 1, 2006... IN SIGHT My therapist's insight Is that I make little contact, Eye contact, that is. She says I thus miss Acceptance, appreciation, Validation and love. But I was never avoiding that.

The Hudson Remembers.(Poem)
September 1, 2006... THE HUDSON REMEMBERS From Riverside Drive, I stared at you until I was in a trance. And the trance-river was long, wide, and glistened like a great tower which reared into the sky. I saw your waves were panes of...

Thirteenth Birthday.(Poem)
September 1, 2006... THIRTEENTH BIRTHDAY She'd wanted her own bike for as long as she could remember At last with some misgivings Dad bought one second-hand and did it up Proudly she rode that day wobbling slightly down a...

Fragment.(Poem)
September 1, 2006... FRAGMENT ... for he was wearing the sable coat he had inherited and beside him, on the table, was the mascara of immaturity.

Stalking Lou Reed in Genoa.(Short story)
September 1, 2006... It seemed amusing to me to make it my mission at the Genoa International Poetry Festival to get a photo of Lou Reed. I got quite above myself when I found out he was the headliner at my first European Festival. I never, in my wildest...

What Modman has wrought.(How the West Was Lost)(Book review)
September 1, 2006... How the West was Lost, by Alexander Boot; I.B. Tauris, 2006, about $80. THIS IS AN ELEGANTLY written elegy for the Christian civilisation which preceded what we now call "early modernity", and the marvellous God-focused architecture,...

Therefore he was.(Descartes)(Book review)
September 1, 2006... Descartes, by A.C. Grayling; Free Press, 2005, $39.95. DESCARTES LED A QUIET, scholarly life, but there are some things which seem out of character. For example, though he was always a devout Catholic, he joined the army of Prince Maurice...

By and large and on the whole.(The Big Picture: Life, Work and Relationships in the 21st Century)(Book review)
September 1, 2006... The Big Picture: Life, Work and Relationships in the 21st Century, by Bernard Salt; Hardie Grant, 2006, $29.95. FOR A NUMBER OF YEARS, Bernard Salt has claimed the title of Australia's leading demographer. In this role, Salt generally...

All we like sheep ...(religious aspects in Australia)
September 1, 2006... I am afraid that he has not been in the inside of a church for many years; but he never passes a church without pulling off his hat. This shows that he has good principles. THUS SAID Samuel Johnson about his friend Doctor John Campbell...