Recently added articles from Arena Magazine:
Empires of consumption.(Russia's and China's impact on international trends)(Editorial)
Aug 01, 2008; ... We sit in a pocket of blissful Western ignorance, in little Australia, grown even smaller in the Howard years. It's home, far from the consequences of war in Georgia, the fate of Iran, the oppression of the Muslim peoples of western China. We watch our plasma screens (made in China, as Ned ...
Global financial crisis: stage two.(AGAINST THE CURRENT)
Aug 01, 2008; ... There was always going to be a second round to the financial crisis that has enveloped global markets over the last nine months. The first stage, which ended in March, was followed by a period of consolidation, often interpreted as a sign that the worst was over. The logic of the first ...
Social inequalities in China or crisis for Europe?(AGAINST THE CURRENT)
Aug 01, 2008; ... Readers in the West have for some time now associated the economic ascendancy of China with a proliferation of social conflicts and ongoing abuse of human rights. For those on both the Left and Right, there is a logic of affirmation about such tensions: state-capitalism is at ...
Tyranny in the dock.(AGAINST THE CURRENT)
Aug 01, 2008; ... After thirteen years of running from his crimes, the world's most wanted man has finally been captured. Serbian police made the arrest as this most famous of fugitives got off the number 83 bus in Belgrade. Radovan Karadzic has been wanted by the International War Crimes Tribunal for ...
False dawn, genetically modified future.(AGAINST THE CURRENT)
Aug 01, 2008; ... The Australian community and state and federal governments are being seriously manipulated by the GM industry into rushing unthinkingly into the brave new world of GM food. Despite pumping millions of dollars into research on genetically manipulated crops, government has not properly ...
Moving on, going forward.(AGAINST THE CURRENT)
Aug 01, 2008; ... Everyday we hear the refrain: 'it's better to move on'. Business representatives, sportspeople, media figures--respectable figures who make up the informal, and often formal, commentariat--offer us many iterations of this familiar theme. Perhaps we have heard so many variations of it, with ...
Free market foreclosures.(AGAINST THE CURRENT)
Aug 01, 2008; ... The current US housing crisis grew out of politicised government policy and a shared commitment among business elites to support a laissez-fair, free market, anti-tax economy unhindered by regulations. As David M. Abromowitz, Senior Fellow for the Center for American Progress, has said: ...
Fattest nation in the world?(THE RAW AND THE COOKED)
Aug 01, 2008; ... The long-running media panic around obesity in Australia seemed to reach a crescendo in June when The Age ran with the front page headline 'Nine million Australians are a ticking "fat bomb"'. Normally I'd blame sub-editorial hyperbole for the disturbing image this evoked, but the headline ...
A modest proposal to praise the university administration unconditionally.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
Aug 01, 2008; ... We, the undersigned, would like to take the opportunity to express our undying devotion to the University of Melbourne. In particular, we would like to attest to our unshakable faith in the Wisdom, Courage and Unfaltering Justice of the current University Administration. With ...
A response to Patrick Wolfe.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
Aug 01, 2008; ... I recently acquired my copy of the April-May 2008 issue of Arena Magazine and am interested to comment on Patrick Wolfe's article, 'Robert Manne on Genocide'. This is not in defence of Robert Manne though I am from the same generation--an ordinary Australian growing up in ...
Food Riots: System Breakdown.(EDITORIAL)(Editorial)
Apr 01, 2008; ... The new realisation in the West that the availability of food is a major concern in many countries around the world came with a jolt. Quite suddenly newspaper reports were agog with accounts of food riots in up to ten countries, the fall of one government over food prices and supply, and ...
Why Tibet?(EDITORIAL)(Editorial)
Apr 01, 2008; ... Curious that the business pages of The Age (9 April) should run an article by journalist Michael Backman musing on the Tibet protests and the western attitude towards Chinese suppression of Tibetan culture. It was an ambiguous piece, seemingly recognising the Tibetan right to exist, while ...
Even the Eskimos agree.(climate change)
Apr 01, 2008; ... Over the summer, an advertisement for air conditioners appeared around Australia, spruiking the company (which shall remain nameless) as 'The world leader in air conditioners: even the Eskimos agree'. This message was emblazoned across the image of an Inuit man standing in front of his ...
Iraq: the conquerors return.(AGAINST THE CURRENT)
Apr 01, 2008; ... It has been little over seven months since the British army began their slow and ignominious retreat from Iraq. In September 2007 the bagpipes played with all the expected pomp and ceremony as the union flag was lowered over the military bases of Basra to be replaced by the new flag of the ...
Mr Rudd: nuclear safeguards?
Apr 01, 2008; ... We are often told that the nuclear safeguards system ensures Australian uranium will not be diverted to produce nuclear weapons. But there is a risk of diversion, and claims to the contrary are dishonest. Indeed there is growing recognition of the serious flaws in the safeguards system. ...
Supersizing the US election.(AGAINST THE CURRENT)
Apr 01, 2008; ... The Democratic Party, once so pleased with the strength of its potential presidential candidates, is now in danger of losing the unlosable election. The Texas and Ohio results are rapidly receding into the past without either Senators Clinton or Obama gaining a clear edge; and their ...
Re-localising food production.(AGAINST THE CURRENT)
Apr 01, 2008; ... I was once cornered by a climate sceptic, who proceeded to tell me, at great length, that global warming was just an invention by us 'watermelons' because it gave us a way to scare people into accepting our green Stalinist agenda. It's a great conspiracy theory, and on one level ...
Lower your ears, a photographic series.(Brief article)
Apr 01, 2008; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Over a number of months I documented the simple act of getting a haircut. Using portraiture and evoking the aesthetic of early documentary photography, I photographed the participants of the free haircutting sessions held at St Mary's House of Welcome in ...
False Gods and similes.(LETTERS AND COMMENT)(Letter to the editor)
Apr 01, 2008; ... The problems to be resolved in order to forestall further depredations on the environment of our planet are such that, as Stephen Ames says in 'Instruments of Idolatry' (Arena Magazine 92), we are required to turn our lives around. Towards what, he asks, before suggesting towards a moral ...
Who let the class out?(LETTERS AND COMMENT)
Apr 01, 2008; ... Dave Melzer makes some interesting points in his commentary on Australian cricket, but these sentiments might equally be present in commentaries found in the popular and broadsheet press. This is a shame as what I find lacking in an otherwise useful discussion of Australian cricketing ...