Vol. 5 No. 6 August 1995 $5.00 New/ Dale Spender's The Soul of Politics Nattering on the Net: Author Tour Jim Wallis, one of the leading Women, Power Christian activists of our time, raises & Cyberspace his voice agai nst the oppression of the weak by the powerful , in his first Is it true that women use technology book for several years, The Soul but men fall in love with it? of Politics. Dale Spender promises to change Responding to signs of cultural the way we think about computers. breakdown in Western societies such ISB N 1 B75559 09 4 pb $24.95 as poverty, racism, violence, sexism , and the absence of community, Wallis shows why both left and right visions • ANTI - NUCLEAR POLITICS are inadequate to the challenge of our major social problems. Daughters of the Pacific A sharp rem inder of the reality behind the deterioration of Zohl de lshtar politics on a global scale, Th e Soul of Politics generates opportunity where there is otherwise crisis. This book breaks the pattern of silence and disin­ formation about the nuclear industry, tourism and other Jim Wallis will be touring Australia on the following dates: political issues that threaten an area covering one-third of Sydney 16- 2l August (Con tact Denis Doherty 02-267-2772) Perth 21 - 24 August (Contact Philip Matthew 09-458-1618) our planet- home to almost six million indigenous people. Melbourne24- 30August (Contact Michael Henry 03-467-1777) ISBN 1 B75559 32 9 pb $24.95 Canberra 30 August The Soul of Politics 0006279384 $22.95 JJPINIFEX is available from SMALL PRESS, BIG ACHIEVER :=: HarperCollinsReligious Tel. 03 9329 6088 • Fax 03 9329 9238 Tel: (03) 9895 8195 Fax: (03) 9895 8182 504 Queensberry St (PO Box 212). North Melbourne, Victoria 305 1

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For more information contact the Information Officer Hofbauer Centre, 93 Alma Road, East St Kilda, Phone (03) 529 7861 Volume 5 Number 6 EURI:-KA SJRI:-Er August 1995 A magazine of public affairs, the arts and theology

CoNTENTS 34 BOOKS Max Teichmann looks into the back­ 4 ground of the controversy over Helen COMMENT D emidenko's The Hand That Signed Th e Paper. 9 Paul Collins reviews Ronald Madra's CAPITAL LETTER The Catholic Church and Anti­ semitism, Poland, 1933-1939 (p36); 10 David Oldroyd is intrigued by Christo­ LETTERS pher Badcock's Psycho Darwinism: Th e New Synthesis of Darwin and Freud 16 (p37). PICK A CARD, ANY CARD Margaret Simons examines the shifting 39 face of allegiance in Australian politics. EXHIBITIONS Michael McGirr goes to a show of 22 mortal dread in Melbourne whilst Beth OBITUARY Gilligan baulks at immortal light in Ray Cassin pays tribute to Dominican Sydney (p40). theologian Yves Congar. Cover: 42 The not so odd couple, 23 FOOD Paul Keating and Jeff Kennett COCONUT REPUBLIC Catriona Jackson and Rosey Golds get Photograph courtesy Th e Age. Moira Rayner reviews the conditions of Photograph p5 by Bill Thomas. their fill at foodie conferences. Cartoons pp7, 29, 30-33 by Peter independence in the Cocos Islands. Fraser. 45 Cartoons ppl l , 12, 28, by Dean 25 THEATRE Moore. Graphics pp16-2 1 by Catri ona ARCHIMEDES Geoffrey Milne reviews the work of jackson. playwright Nick Enright. Photographs pp 16-2 1 co urtes y 26 Th e Age (fo r Elizabeth Proust); TAKING LIBERTIES WITH Peter Singer; the offices of Peter 47 Collins, Bob Debus, Wayne Goss; FRATERNITY FLASH IN THE PAN The Liberal Party of NSW (for john Renewed nuclear testing is only the latest Reviews of the new-release films Priest, Fa hey, Barry Morris, Brendan Nel­ in France's complex relationship with the Death and the Maiden, Ed Wood, Tank son & jennifer Scott). South Pacific, writes Rowan Callick. Photograph p3 7 by Girl, Batman Forever, Mushrooms, Reimund Zunde. Braveheart and First Knight. Photograph of Antonia Bird, p49, 29 Ray Cassin and Tim Stoney interview courtesy Roadshow Film Distrib­ GONE TO THE DOGS the director of Priest, Antonia Bird utors. Peter Pierce checks the pedigree of grey­ (p49). hound racing. Eurek a Street magazine 50 jesuit Publi cations 30 WATCHING BRIEF PO Box 553 LIFTING THE LID Richmond VIC 3 121 Tel (03 ) 9427 731 1 Anne O'Brien finds politics in the polite 51 Fax (03 ) 9428 4450 culture of Australian piano-playing. SPECIFIC LEVITY

V O LUME 5 NUMBER 6 • EUREKA STREET 3 EURI:-KA STRI:-ET C OMMENT FRASER A magazine of public affairs, I he arl s M oRAe and theology Publisher Michael H. Kelly SJ Editor Toxic waste Morag Fraser

Consulting editor A ucusT MAe

4 EUREKA STREET • SEPTEMilER 1995 COMMENT: 2

E DMUND CAMPION War's coiTIITion denominator

J MCS PATR,CKL YNCH" WR

VOLUME 5 NUMBER 6 • EUREKA STREET 5 ~--~~~-----·- · - · -·,------

return, my palate cleansed, revital­ pointed to how Australians had A TIME TO SPEAK ised, whetted to savour to the full shared their food; how they had the joys of a life in the happiest worked together to keep camp sites land in the world.' Alas, it was not free from disease, by contrast with WOMEN RECLAIMING to be. other national groups; and how they sold their possessions (as the Lynch PRIESTHOOD No one knows exactly how Ser­ geant Lynch died. Cerebral malaria, diary also attests) to buy comforts Second Nation al Annual the notification to his family read; and medical supplies for mates who Gathering of Ordination of and that may be so. The final pages were ill. As Paul Keating said last Catholic Women of his diary record the outbreak of year, mateship was never tested so cholera after they were moved to a much as in the POW camps and Saturday August diseased camp. Non-stop rain, ulcer­ nowhere was the triumph of mate­ ated feet and work speed-ups resulted ship so emphatic. So commemora­ 25,1995 in fever. As he grew weaker, he tions of the end of the Pacific war St Aloysius Col lege noticed how many of his comrades should focus on the camps, however undiplomatic that may seem. 47 Upper Pitt Street were dying. His last sentence record­ ed the death that month of 125 men Celebration of mateship is also a Milsons Point 2061 in another Australian force. Then he celebration of the common man. himself joined them. There are glorious names associ

COMMENT: 3 THE MICHAEL PUTNEY CHURCHES: NATIVE To AusTRALIA oR ALIEN INTRUDERS? he •lw Collected papers of a 1994 l l98~:~~"~~~:b~h~~~co~c~c~~~~ ch University of Fribourg, given by had attended, seemed to have re- seminar bring together issues arising from post-Mabo legislati on Metropolitan Damaskinos of solved the major issue which kept and presents alternative views to Tranoupolis, the Greek Orthodox the Eastern and Western churches those fas hionably expressed on Archbishop of Geneva. In it he apart. This was the issue of the national reconciliation. describedalunchhehadhadinRome 'filioque', or the relationship of the Contri butors include former Chief with Pope John Paul II during a con- Holy Spirit to the Father and the Justi ce Sir Harry Gibbs, Professor ference on 'the Holy Spirit'. Son, as found in the Nicene- Geoffrey Blainey, Pastor Paul He had been a keynote speaker Constantinopolitan Creed. His con- Albrecht. with the recently deceased, great elusion was that the Churches of the ecumenist, Yves Congar OP, and the East and the Roman Catholic Church from: The Galatians influential Protestant theologian ought now to move rapidly towards Jurgen Moltmann. reunion. Group The conference marked the Metropolitan Damaskinos then PO Box 226 1600th anniversary of the First Coun- offered the opinion that there was Armadale Vic cil of Constantinople and the 1550th still one major obstacle keeping the anniversary of the Council of two communions apart. When the 3143 Ephesus. Pope asked what this was, he replied: During lunch the Pope remarked 'It's you, Holy Father.' The Pope, he

6 EUREKA STREET • AucusT 1995 explained, then laughed and said he question of the papacy will have to the level of public utterance and hoped that issue might be able to be be faced. In a sense the participants gesture, Po pe John Paul II is resolved as well. wait in hope that the international unequalled in his commitment to Now thirteen years later, one dialogues will solve the problem for ecumenism. It is hard to imagine reads in Pope John Paul II's 12th them . that all these have been but empty encyclical, Ut Unum Sint, the fol­ The way forward to deal with words and actions. lowing words: 'As Bi shop of Rome I this question can only be the way of Perhaps the best context for am fully aware, as I have reaffirmed ecumenism. The Rom an Catholic understanding the positive tone of in the present encyclical letter, that Church can never explain its under­ his new encyclical is a document of Christ ardently desires the full and standing clearly enough or reform N ovember last year entitled in visible communion of all those com­ its practice of papacy decisively English 'As the Third Millennium munities in which, by virtue of God's enough on its own. The fundam en­ Draws N ear.' There is an urgency in fa ithfulness, his Spirit dwell s. I am tal t ruth of the cc umenical this document about what needs to convinced that I have a particular movem ent is that the truth be done if the year 2000, is to be responsibility in this regard, above which will set us fr ee (to ~ celebrated as a Year of Jubilee­ all in acknowledging the ecumeni ­ unite) can only be ( his answer to the crazy, threa t- cal aspirations of the majority of the found togethe r. D ia- G ening views of the yea r 2000 Christian communities and in heed­ Iogue with ' the other' propaga ted by some mod­ ing the request made of m e to find a where mutual ques- ern sects, Christian and way of exercising the primacy which, r1 otherwise. Within the tioning a nd re- while in no way renouncing what is sponse leads to L wide ra nging a nd essential to its mission, is nonethe­ deeper, shared d e m a ndin g less open to a new situation'(95) . perception is renewal he wants The Pope goes on to refer to an not onl y the to see, leadi ng up exchange he had with the Patriarch currently to the year 2000, of Constantinople, Dimitrios I, in recom - are 'ecume nical 1988, when he confessed that the initiatives so that papacy which should have been a we can celebrate service to the unity of the church ~ the Great Jubilee, sometimes 'manifested itself in a ~ if not completely very different light' and that he united, a t least prayed for th e H ol y Spirit to muc h closer t o enlighten all pastors and theologians mended way to undertake inquiry or overcoming the divisions of the of the two communions so that they research in a postmodern world, but second millennium' (34). Given that could seek together ways in which it is also a theologically sound way, there arc only fi ve years to go to the his ministry might accomplish 'a given the Christian belief that the Year of Jubilee, I think this new service of love recognised by all.' Holy Spirit is at work in everyone. encyclical is an attempt to provoke Finally he calls aga in for church What is m ost hea rtening about those ecumenical initiatives he con­ leaders and theologians 'to engage this recognition that the exercise of siders essential to its celebra tion. with me in a patient and fr aternal the papal ministry will need to There is m uch else to refl ect on dialogue on this subject, a dialogue change, is that the interpretation in the en cyclical, e.g. his call for a in which, leaving useless controver­ and recommendation comes from common martyrology. One noticea­ sies behind, we could listen to on e Pope John Paul II himself. Som e wh o ble feature is its emphasis upon the another' (96) . In these two short para­ do not approve of him might doubt Eastern Churches. This is not sur­ graphs this new encyclical has gone his sincerity. Others will be sur­ prising because the division between to the very hea rt of the problem of prised because they do not perceive East and West is the m ost profound division and pointed the way fo rward him as really committed to ecumen­ of all and overcoming it seem s to be to a more hopeful future. ism . a particular desire of John Paul II. At the heart of the division I do not believe his stance in this T his becomes obvious when one between the other great Christian encyclical is inconsistent. It is only glances at another letter, Orientale world communions and the Roman the cl ea rest expression of a profound Lumen, whi ch also ca me out in May. Catholic communion is the role of dimension of his papacy which has This is a letter on the Eastern the Bishop of Rom e. This was m ade been steadily growing since the Churches and m ay well be the most clear in the Anglican-Roman Catho­ beginning. positive statement ever m ade about lic international dialogue and, in one It i always dangerous to try to be them by a Western pope. The title way or another, in all the major dia­ too sure about what is really going translates as 'The Light of the East' logues in volving the Roman Catho­ on in the heart of a leader, secular or and tha t light is praised for lic Church. Even on the local level religious, and to distinguish this from twenty-eight paragraphs. here in Australia, the dialogues the what he or she has to S

V oLUME 5 N uMBER 6 • EUREKA STREET 7 difficulties of taking the hard steps the call by Pope John Paul fo r help in protracted: Gielgud will probably seem to have stalled so many dia­ working out how to exercise his plan the program s to be presented in logues that m an y participants have ministry is enough for m e to keep the first 12- 18 m onths of her succes­ just lost interest or given up. going. For me it is a sign again that sor's reign. ) UL U num Sint is a shot in the God will still surprise us whenever The board's announcem ent set arm fo r weary ecumenists if for no we feel like giving up. • the rumours going again, and at this o th e r rea son than its sh eer Michael Putney is a systematic year's annual general m eeting the enthusiasm. Some passages are less theologian. He was recently ordained chairman, Tim Cox, tempered his exciting, others will be found disap­ a Roman Catholic auxiliary bi shop praise of Giclgud with the comment pointing by some ecumeni sts, but in the Bri sbane archdiocese. that if she stayed there could be 'a continuation of friction throughout the company'. His frankness was astonishing by Australian Ballet C OMMENT: 4 standards, especially since it con­ N EIL TIL LETT cerned som eone who still had 19 m onths to serve in the company's top job. Ballet, hai! Comments from thcanti-Giclgud forces imply that her single-minded absorption with ballet isolates her L ,A umwAN Rmn h'" 1983, not only built the company's from the rea l world in general and promised to nam e a new artisti c financial base; his participation in the 'Australian ethos' in particular. director som e time between Decem ­ artistic decisions helped to spur the By contrast, Ross Stretton, a ber and March . dancers into a strike in 198 1. Golden Age principal often m en­ At the compan y's h1 st general Bah en left the company soon after tioned as her successor, is seen as m eet i ng, in M ay, th e semi ­ Gielgucl arrived in 1983, and his suc­ not just formally qualified- som e­ retren c h e d incumbent , M aina cessors, N oel Pclly and Ian McRae, one to bring new perspectives to Gielgud, defended her record in a have let her formulate artistic policy, artistic policy- but attractively close way that could be interpreted as a within the bo unds o f fin an cia l to being yo ur average Aussic bloke job rea pplication, and som e of her responsibility. (he and hi s wife, for m er AB dancer fans cling to the hope that she will N ooneseriously t ~ Valmai Roberts, have three children ). stay p ut. But a m ore likely outcom e denies that by 1990 ~~ After leaving the AB he danced with is that our nati onal dance compan y Giclgud hac\ restored ~ ~.. .. ~... ·.:;;::~rt a British provincial company and will , fo r the first time in its33 years, th e d e m or alised · ~ the Joffrcy Ballet before becoming a have an Australian m an setting its post-strike company principal with the USA's leading artistic policy. to som ething like company, the A m erica n Ba lle t Yes, the Australi an knight Robert the standards of its Theatre. Fo r the past few years Stret­ Hclpmann did stints, as a soloist and golden age in the ton, now 42, has been the ABT's in pa s de deux w ith Peggy va n Praagh, mid-1970s. But she assistant artisti c director and has at as artistic director, but his contribu­ bas a lso been times been virtually in charge of tion was little m ore than a token. accused of eccentric­ policy. The Australian Ballet was fo und­ ities that supposedly contributed to The Melbourne- based AB is our eel as an an tipodean refl ection of unhappiness am ong the dancers. only truly national performing arts Britain's Royal Ba ll et. It will rem ain Like man y beleaguered institu­ compan y. It tours regul arl y around that way, although the compan y has tions, the Australi an Ba ll et pretended Australia. As our m ain cultural flag­ imposed its own vigo rous character it had no problems of its own crea­ waver, it goes overseas at least once on the basicall y British shape. The tion- it and Gielgud were the inno­ every 18 m on ths. T hi s pleases the advert isem ent for a new director cent vi ctim s o f m a lici ou sl y dancers and, through travel allow­ (appli ca tions closed at the end of last instiga ted m edia speculation. T he ances, boosts their incomes. But the m o nth ) confirm ed th a t a m ain pretence was m aintained by the company's fin ances are showing the requiren1 ent was to 'present an board at the annual general m eeting strain. The AB 's i ncrcasingly des­ exciting and balanced repertoire of last year, soon after the announce­ perate pl eas for m ore help fro m the n ew and existing classical and m ent by the company's star partner­ Federal Government would hardly contemporary ballets'. ship, Li sa Pavanc and her husband get a less sympathetic hearing if the For m ost of the company's 35 G reg H orsm an, that they were join­ company was led by an Australian­ years, that brief has been largely in ing the En glish N ati onal Ballet bc­ especially one born, as Stretton was, the care of three English wom en with ca use of clisagreem cn ts with Gielgud. in Canberra' • bac kgrounds in British and Europea n La st December the boarclmys te­ ballet- van Praagh, Anne Woolliams riou ly announced that G ielgud was Neil Jillett, a M elbourne writer, has and Gielgud. The women haven't to take a slow ride on the skids; she been reviewing the Australian Ba l­ had it all quite their own way. Peter would leave at the end of 1996. let's performances, on and off stage, Bahcn, chief executive from 1966 to (M a tters could be even m o re for more than 20 years.

8 EUREKA STREET • AucusT 1995 Go go Gareth Gareth

Sem" A COMMONWOAUH iliAD' oc Go"

V OLUME 5 NUMBER 6 • EUREKA STREET 9 Le tters

Burel

10 EUREKA STREET • Auc usT 1995 economica lly driven 'de-institutional­ know where I'd rather be. not aware of the developments in the isation' has tramped clumsily through But with Peter's central theme I '60s in which Santamaria and D G M carefully built teams and systems and have no argument: despite the reports Ja ckson were under criticism for being dem oralised a generation of profes­ and the grandstanding, the range of too supportive of the Menzies-big-busi­ sionals. Fifteen years ago Sue would services is still abysmal. The mentally ness forces which seemed so patently have been seen by her home- visiting ill are ill-equipped to represent them ­ to contradict the radical questioning GP (rem ember them1) or collected by selves, their carers are too burnt out of big capitalism that The Catholic an alert cop not neurotic about infring­ to take up the political cudgels, their Worl< er and the Movement both en­ ing liberties, delivered to a hospital therapists are run ragged, and the gaged in during the '40s and '50s. Thus, that always found another bed, and general public remains frightened and O'Farrell wrote of Sa ntamaria in the treated by an experienced psychiatrist. ignorant about a range of disorders that sixties as though he was as obviously The conditions were not ideal, to be will affect one in five Australians. It engaged in the distributist struggle as sure, but there have been winners and is this fear and ignorance that is our he had been in the decades before. The losers in the new deal. greatest enem y, and we will have to apparent 'wedding' of the Movement There are winners and losers in keep striving to dispel it. (transformed into the National Civic new legislation too. It is one thing to Pa ul Dignam Council ) with the Menzies govern­ highlight the shortcomings of mental Hampstead Garden s, SA ment was one of convenience in the hea lth legislation by comparing main, though I was surprised by it with the UN idea ls. It is SAY, THA"I SOUNDS an article last year which another to document large num­ L.\lCE A CLeAR recorded Sa ntamaria's Sunday bers of actual case infringements, Win-\ '(OV , , u-.D\CA\OR. Of A visits to the home of Menzies. RD&US1" F\J1lJRE fO~ and still another to assume that } The Catholic Worker lost its new laws will prevent them . 1\\e we.L~J>.~E s~ct~~ way by adopting the shallower There have been small if dramat­ ) 'left-wing' policies of US 'liber­ ic exceptions in recent decades, al' thought and 'New-Left' atti­ but as a rule far more people suf­ tudes, and so we underwent in fer from not being treated for Australia a partial eclipse of the their illness than from any in­ strong trad itions of Catholic so- fringem ents of their rights when ia! teaching. By this I do not they are treated. Ask them and mea n m erely the Encyclicals their relatives! which were often not as richly On the s ubject of tardive informed as they should have dyskin esia, Peter lapses briefly been, but the enlightened anti- into tabloid journalism !'disturb­ bourgeois and decentralist cru­ ing eviden ce .. unspecified sa de of Belloc and Chesterton, number ... cruelly afflicted' ) and the personalist philosophy when his fa ctual base is a little off . Tar­ of Jacques Maritain. dive dyskinesia (involuntary writhing Permit me to make a final com ­ movements of the lips and tongue) is m ent. Arthur Calwell was harshly a known side-effect of the anti-psy­ Dimmed visions judged, as Griffin rela tes, and I must chotics, occurs with a known preva­ say that because of a personal experi­ lence (perhaps 15% of patients on long From Peter Hu nt ence which my wife and I had of his term therapy) and only very occasion­ I read James G riffin's 'Darkening the kindness many years ago, I know that ally reaches the disabling state to Church Door' (Eureka Street, April be was a gentleman. However, like which he refers. 1995) with fascination. many others, he was nai've about Com­ For m ost patients on anti-psychot­ Having grown up an avid reader of munists. ics there has, until recently, been no The Catholic Worker and News In 1967 in Collingwood Town Hall alternative treatment, and non-treat­ Weekly which both espoused the w ide he took part in a public meeting of the m ent is only occasionally a viabl e op­ distribution of property in small, James Connolly Association, along tion. mixed farming, small businesses, and with Vincent Buckley and a few other In Australia it has been recom ­ co-operatives, I would have liked to luminari es. None of those speakers mended practice that informed con­ have seen more attention to the 'dis­ seemed to realise that this was a Com ­ sent be obtained as soon as practical, tributists' mission of the Melbourne munist organisati on using the Irish but in reality this is usually weeks af­ laym en who were associated with cause as a front fo r Communist influ­ ter the crisis, when the patient regains these papers. The Catholic Worl

V OLUME 5 NUMBER 6 • EUREKA STREET 11 can Steel, while conceding '!an docs an average age in the high 60s .. .'. In Tell the truth an ex cell ent job as <1 s keptic', is high­ fact, the ave ra ge age of m e mbers in ly critical of some 'ill based (a nd fla­ Victoria is 6 ! . H owever, there is a pos­ From D avid Griffiths grantly wrong) statements' in P limcr's itive campaign to encourage younger Thank you fo r printing my letter about p

12 EUREKA STREET • A UG UST 1995 dealings with other individuals or and structure 1991. rest of the national council- consist­ groups attached to AD2000'. Thefacts In 20 years the members' desire for ing of the national president, board and arc-the Victorian state council com­ reform has been stalled by the protract­ two state presidents. The President prises 15 m embers on its executive, eel resistance of a few state council General of the Society was called in none of whom h as any connection presicl cn ts. by the seceded s tate preside nts to with the NCC and we totally deny any During my term it was a group of resolve the conflict. His decision was influence on decisions made by state state council presidents who rejected that the national and seceded state council by the NCC. In fact, it might the stated goals for reform. T o restrict presidents sho uld step aside. The be sa id that the Society of St Vincent and control the reform agenda, th ey national president complied and the de Paul 's connecti on with the Society abandoned consensus in decision mak­ seceded state presidents refused. Con­ of Jesus, via Australian Catholics, has ing and replaced it with voting. When sequen tl y, the national boa rd has been been of greater influence. their attempt to restrict voting on na­ effectively removed. We in the Society of St Vincent de tional council issues to state council What 1 continue to fi nd incredible Paul strive to be obedient to the teach­ presidents only, failed, the Presidents in the entire episode is that no action ings of the Ca th olic C hurch and of Victoria, Queensland, Tasmania and was taken against the secessionists. respect the views expressed in encyc­ Western Australia decided to destroy When will these actions be accounted licals. However, we stand accused in the reform and renewal process and the for? Their dramati c act of secession Eureka Street of 'stubbornly refusi ng national council by seceding. generated an international incident to exa mine at any depth issues of the­ The seceded St

V oLUME 5 N uMBER 6 • EUREKA STREET 13 what is to stop them from seceding incumbents to meet the current chal­ again z Wha t is to now stop lcngesl A few suggestions follow. The Philia Prize conferences, regional councils or dioc· In a post-Fordist era, wh ere there For Creative Initiatives in Religious esan council s from seceding or with· is a micro focus upon the individual holding fundsl enterprise, and upon reducing conflict­ Work in Australia Love demands us to be both chari· ual employee relations, empowering table and just. Too much charity has the workforce, and participative deci­ been served upon the seceded state sion-making, union structures, in presidents and not enough ju stice. response to this, through the amalga­ They hold positions of responsibility mation process, have become more and when they shirked this rcsponsi· centralised and bureaucratic. I recent­ bility, loving justice demanded ly read a report where, through amal­ Nominations for the 1995 Philia Prize accountability to the Society. It is not ga mation and internal power sharing are now open. enough that t hey should be reinstated arrangem ents, a union with 200,000 and the inc ident forgotte n . Their mcm hers h as, at a Federal level, three The Prize w ill acknowledge those who in secession has cost us in money, in Executive Presidents and seven Ass ist­ practical and effective ways have enhanced an damaged reputations to both individ­ ant Federal Secretaries. What docs this appreciation of religion and spirituality in uals and the Society's public image. It say about effective uti.lisation of un­ has also caused disillusionment and ion resources, the priorities of some conternporary Australian life. pain to many members, but most fun­ unions, and the negative conscquenc· damentally it has caused harm to the cs of the amalgamation process? It says For further details and application forms contact: poor and to the Body of Christ in that much of the amalg

Arr.lngt•d by Wonwn .1n d thl' A u ~ 1r ,1 li.m Churl h (\IVATACJ ards have been overwhelmingly suc­ Secondly, we shoul d ensure union Vittori,1 111 ( o-orwr.l tion with Chri <:. ti,ln 1-erninists Grou p" in cessful. structures are lea n yet efficient, well MeiiHJUrnc. Against this background, what can directed and well managed, and t hat be done by the labour movement's their resources arc directed to indus-

14 EUREKA STREET • AucusT 1995 trial pursuits in the field and on the There arc few , if any, in any sph ere sh op floor. An indus trially sound of blue collar, white collar or execu­ union will rea p its own strategic tive employment anywhere along the rewards. po litical continuum that could valid­ Thirdly we should influence the ly argue agai nst educating future em ­ policy makers and the legislature, in ployees about unionism, as there arc the post-primary education sphere, so few, if any, working in Au tralia who as to develop curricula that educate have not been touched by, and bene­ and train current and future genera­ fited from, the positive contribution tions of Australians about the complex of Australian unions. world of Australian work. Reinforcing this last point, I quote Further, future gene ratio ns of the MHR for Bcnnclong, Leader of the workers need to understand that most Opposition, Mr. Howard, who is wide­ products of the education system will ly portrayed as totally anti-union, be employees in som e form, and that (w hich I do not seck to refute, howev­ Melbourne Writers' such employees have co ll ective inter­ er): ests albe it at enterprise, indus try, 'We have no argument with the Festival national or international level. normal activities of trade unions in the These curricula must also ed ucate industrial affairs of Australia. We ac­ about active, responsible, and legiti­ knowledge the social contribution ...... for readers mate unionism, and the achievements made by the trade unions in the past and influences of the labour move­ and the continuing social contribution "Australia's premier literary m ent hi storical ly and currently. This of trade unions in Australia at present.' event" (Hansard Wed. 23 May 1994 pp 2008) This statement, although cast from Sydney Morning Herald an anti-union paradi gm , acknowledg­ es the legitimate place t hat unions occupy in a democracy. Thus the de­ October 16 to mocracy owes it to itself,

V OLUME 5 N UMBER 6 • EUREKA STREET 15 THE NAT ION

M AR ARET SIMONS

Piclz a card, any card

TNYEARS AGO I INTERVIEWED MIKE G oRE, a Gold Coast property developer. Gore was responsible for building Sanctuary Cove, a residential enclave with gates and security guards. The advertisements for Sanctuary Cove read: 'the streets outside are full of cock­ roaches, and some of them are hun1an'. I asked Mike Gore why he supported the Queensland Premier, Sir Joh Bj elke Petersen, and the National Party. I expected him to talk in the usual terms: to say that they go t things done, that they got off the back of business. That they rewarded effort. But Gore said: 'Well it's like football teams, isn't it? You pick one you like, or your family pick it for you, and it's yours. You back it. It isn't any more complicated than that.' Gore also said to me that sometimes, when he was driving, his mind would feel as though it were dissociated from his body. Gore had been told that this was an early sign that the bounda­ ries of the self were blurring. It was a sign of nervous breakdown. I thought he was trivialising politics by comparing it to football. I felt morally superior, with m y firm ideas. Since then I have learned more about football, and perhaps more about political allegiance as well.

O vER THE PAST 10 years, many political bounda­ warfare. N ow the sharpness of class war has been ries have blurred. Nevertheless, we still hunger to blunted, so the party becomes a thing which exists to belong to a tribe. We need to know who we belong to, occupy office, to manage. There is no longer a com­ and what we believe. Us and them is an in1portant mon ideological basis for beliefs. distinction. We don't wa nt the boundaries of self to Having said that, I don't think the da ys of politi­ blur. ca l beli ef arc over. A lot of people thought that in the Arguing about these issues in a pub, I suggested '50s, then got a rude shock in the '60s-' Si nger be­ that allegiance to a political party wa s no longe r a lieves the Greens, and other non-mainstream politi­ rational thing, but rather was a tribal urge. A friend ca l groups, have the potential to change the face of replied: 'There arc still people in the Labor Party who our po litica l duopoly. would never, ever, be in the Liberal Party. Decent peo­ Let us consider the blurring of the boundaries. ple.' Victorians, li ving under a Kennett government all too 'Lauric Brereton? Bob Hawke'' confident about what it stands for, may miss the 'Oh God, yes I know.' extent to which boundaries have blurred. Kennett had Is it irrational' Is faith in a party, no matter how little in common with the Fahey government in New it shifts, a thing of reason, or is it like religious fai th: South Wales, which was blamed for doing too little. a trust in an ultimate purpose, an ultimate good, how­ New South Wales' new Labor Premier, Bob Carr, ever mysteri ous the m oves' has gone on the record as saying he admires Kennett. The philosopher Peter Singer, a former Labor Kennett gets on better with Kea ting than Kea ting docs Party member now running for the Vi ctorian Greens with Go s. Goss is m ore conservative on social issues says: 'The Labor Party was founded on the idea of class than most small '[' liberals.

16 EUREKA STREET • AucusT 1995 In recent months, the senior bureaucrat Ken Bax­ er assorted art heavyweights had been prepared to The shuffled deck, ter has gone from hea ding the Kennett Government's publicly state their support for him. Two decades from left: John Fah ey, public service to working for the NSW Labor Govern­ before, Williamson had been a Gough Whitlam sup­ PeLer Singer, Elizabeth m ent. Elizabeth Proust, one of the most talented porter. Williamson could cross the tribal divide. Most Proust, Peter Collins, Wayne Goss. administrators in Victoria, used to be a lefty. Now of us could not. she is working for, and supporting, Kennett. These We were out of place. We were the group clown moves apparently haven't caused either Baxter or the end of the table, the ones in jeans and jumpers Proust any trouble, however much their and in need of haircuts- slightly belligerent, sending former tribal mates, on the outside, wail and people up, feeling that we were the only real people condemn. there (an unusual feeling for writers). 'This is why we don't vote Liberal,' we said to each other, seeing the D URINC THE NEw SouTH WALES ELECTION campaign, grey heads, hearing the accents, watching our fellow I attended a Liberal Party dinner in one of the most diners give the waiters an unforgivably hard time. marginal seats: m y new home, the Blue Mountains. I The only problem is that som e of us did. Vote was there on behalf of an arts institution on the look­ Liberal, that is. out for more funding. (Remembering the awfuln ess of that dinner now, This was m eant to be a dinner to allow the size­ I narrow my eyes and try to imagine the room full of able Blue Mountains arts community to m eet the members of the N ew South Wales Right of the Labor Minister for the Arts, Peter Collins, but the Liberals Party. I imagine them loud, aggressive, giving the had not been able to get many artists to attend. My waiters an unforgivably hard time .. . ) companions were writers, and the rest of the room Also during the election campaign, I visited the was full of the greying heads of the party faithful. drought-stricken west of New South Wales. It was a Collins' record as a minister was so good that rock-solid National Party seat. I argued with the lo­ the day before our dinner, David Williamson and oth- cals. I told them that whatever their personal con vic-

VoLUME. 5 N uMBE.R 6 • EUREKA STREET 17 tions, they should vote Labor. is one of the few places in the world where it is possi­ Until rural seats become mar­ ble to die in the wilderness within a few kilometres ginal, I said, they would be ig­ of a really good cappuccino. nored. I told them that in the Further up, now more than a 1000 metres above city I had seen real estate the sea, and you are above the snow line. In the upper agents advertise houses Blue Mountains, people look west to the coal-mining 'Close to transport, country around Lithgow. They are unionists and they schools, shops. In mar­ vote Labor. Further west again and you have the old ginal scat.' farming families whose ancestors took up their land Not many of the before anyone had thought of National Parks. farmers could stomach Debus says: 'There isn't a social class or a lobby the idea of voting for group that doesn't have representatives in the Blue the rather gormless Mountains.' The City in the Park seemed as good a sacrificial lamb the place as any to ask about allegiance and ide­ Labor Party was ology. putting up. Also, I realised as I drove W HEN WE TALK ABOUT POLITIC S (or about football) back home, I am we talk about fighting. Fighting for what we care for. a hypocrite. For the right to contest a grand final. For the things in Most of my life I have which we believe. lived in safe Labor seats, and I But nobody really fights. The battles take place have always voted Labor. This time, in the ring or on the field. Political bodies fly through though, I had moved. For the first time in my the air. Immense damage is clone. But, cartoon-like, voting life, I was in an extremely marginal scat, and the people usually pick themselves up, regain their in a state with a hung parliament. For the first time, previous shape and the story goes on. 'I used to be a there was a chance that my vote might just matter. Australia is a country where almost all our vio­ The NSW election was so close that the result lence is intimate. We are bruised by the people we good girl. Obey wasn't known until almost a week after the vote. Af­ know best. Political violence is so rare that it is al­ ter years with a hung parliament, there was no over­ most always either a joke, or cause for a Royal Com­ the school rules. whelming swing, no real will to make a choice. Labor mission. won, narrowly picking up the Blue Mountains among Barry Morris, the former Liberal member for the Be a good girl. other marginals, but for at least two days after the Blue Mountains, is therefore unusual in that he is vote it looked as though Clover Moore, an independ­ associated with unproven allegations of threatening Obey the ent, might be kingmaker, holding the balance of power violence. He has been charged with making death in the lower house. threats against John Pascoe, a Blue Mountains city system. I was Meanwhile, other old loyalties were also in con­ councillor and long-term political enemy, and of one of those kids fusion. Murdoch started to buy the game of Rugby threatening to bomb the council chamber itself. Mor­ League. Politics looked very much like football indeed. ris has vigorously denied the charges, claiming that who if I did well, The successful candidate for the Blue Mountains, he is the victim of a political conspiracy. Bob Debus, says the seat is a political barometer, and The threats over which Mr Morris has been I expected to be a sociallaboratory.The Blue Mountains describes it­ charged were allegedly made by telephone. During self as the City in the Parle Villages are strung along Morris's committal hearing, the court was told the rewarded. ' a highway that still follows the route taken by Went­ calls had been made in fake Chinese and Italian ac­ worth, Blaxland and Lawson when they first managed cents. The caller to Pascoe said: 'Hello you fucking - Jennifer Scott to cross the mountains and begin the conquering of mongrel. I Chinese. I going to fucking kill you.' The the inland. On every side of this causeway, there arc allegations have gained an extra, if unfairly ac\c\c cl, fris­ sheer cliffs and wilderness. Tenuous settlements cling son from the fact that a few years ago the offices of to a narrow strip, with the great silence all around. the Blue Mountains City Council were indeed 'This is a microcosm of Australia,' says Debus. bombed. The culprit has never been found. The lower mountains are rea lly outer suburbs of Although Morris did not face court until after the Sydney-a mortgage and commuter belt. Higher, ncar election, the charges were too much for the Fahey Katoomba and Leura, the air is thinner. The indus­ Liberal government. Morris was pushed out, deeply tries are tourism and retirement, the population a mix resented it and c\ecic\ec\, after some shilly-shallying, of old age and N ew Age pensioners. You can get your to stand as an independent. His posters proclaimed aura balanced for a song. As well, knocking up against him as 'Your Independent Mountain Man'. Morris is the tic-dye T-shirts and the Doc Martens, there is a a very big man. Graffitists crossed out the word 'man'. phenomenon known as the Leura lac\y-well-hcelecl, To talk to him, I drive down the western flank of blue-rinsed and conservative. On weekends and holi­ the mountains, over the rolling hills that were some days the yuppies arrive, bringing Sydney money. This of the first territory settled on this side of the range,

18 EUREKA STREET • AucusT 1995 and up his circular gravel driveway to an ordinary, erty. Morris asks: 'Why do you do this, son ?' The boy suburban-looking brick house. You would not guess says his father is having a homosexual affair, (Morris from this house that Morris is a multi-millionaire. uses more graphic terms) and his mother has taken 'You always get His home is surrounded by the sort of rose garden another m arried m an as a lover. 'I com e hom e and I that only love can grow, set off with blue spruces and tell my wife this and she just about cries. And us not one end of a a view down the slope to a new housing development. able to have kids. That just breaks her heart.' Morris looks like a panda: round body, white hair The sm ooth-haired ginger cat leaps onto Morris's paddock that and caramel brown eyes. We talk gardening for a quar­ lap again, nuzzling the buttons of his bulging shirt. ter of an hour. He tells m e his family is one of the 'You behave,' Morris says. 'Or I'll have to put you on won't grow oldest in the mountains. He tells me this three times. your post.' Inside, the house is crowded with slightly daggy, When Greiner first went for re-election, Morris anything. You comfy furniture. There are macrame pot-hangers. A was told that it was going to be a presidential cam ­ smooth-haired ginger cat jumps on Morris every 10 paign. He draws himself up and imitates a party mind­ have got to put minutes, and is stroked, then put down. In the lounge er: ' "You won't have to be high profile, Barry. Nick room is the most elaborate scratching post I have ever and Katherine are so good. They'll be up the front in fowl manure on it seen. It has three tiers, with platforms, and is covered the reel Ferrari, you will be the old T-Model Ford com­ in carpet. ing up the rear." "Pig's arse", I said.' or something to Morris is an easy interview. He follows his own Morris ran his normal campaign: cloorknocking, track, barely pausing to allow questions. He swears, pushing local issues. H e won the seat in spite of a get it to grow, and excuses his French, touches my forearm from time to huge swing against the government that left it with­ time to emphasise a point, brings his face uncomfort­ out an absolute majority. Had Morris not won the Blue it's still not much ably close to mine. Mountains, Greiner would not have been able to form Morris's father was a Labor man, forced into the government. bloody good. Well coal mines during the Great Depression, but Barry GREINER AND MORR IS GOT ON. Greiner is Morris's it's like that with has always believed in free enterprise. The crystallis­ sort of m an. 'He'd talk to us. He'd say "When you go ing event that drew him into party politics was when doorknocking, wear a suit but don't have your coat people, too.' the Labor governm ent put a tax on truck loads to pro­ on." Put your coat over your shoulder, casual, you tect 'the lazy bluclging sods' in the railways. see. " Politics is perceptions", Greiner said, -Barry Morris Morris knows the Blue Mountains. Town by and perceptions is refl ections, like town, even street by street, he talks about its people. a wall of mirrors. And he was right. We com e to the Leura ladies. 'Oh they get People are like that. together for their garden parties, all piddling in the 'I belong to the Liberal Party same pot, and they say,'-he draws his mouth into because I believe in conserva­ cat-bum lines-' "That Morris, well he is a bit rough tism, and if you work hard, you isn't he? A terribly rough man". But I go down to the are rewarded for yo ur efforts. pub and I talk to the bloke in the singlet, because I You should help other people tell yo u his scratch of the pen is as good as the gar­ but leave them a bit of bloody den-party lot, and if you get his vote it's the vote you dignity. Capitalism must al­ never bloody had.' ways work. You must always He moves on, to the unemployed in Katoomba: hang out your shingle to the 'They make me bloody weep. Grea t strong blokes, world. Making money is like they could lift m e and throw m e, som e of them , just digging drains. You dig a getting the dole. I am not against these people, but drain and the water'll flow they're bloody fleas on a carcass.' down it. Yo u work hard, 'You always get one end of a paddock that won't and the money will come. grow anything. You have go t to put fow l manure on 'When they wanted it or som ething to get it to grow, and it's still not m e to go, when Fahey much bloody good. Well it's like that with people, pushed m e, it could have too.' been handled better. If And the conservationists: 'Well we're all bloody they'd come to m e, if greenies. We never knew ... that's why we couldn't John Fahey had come have kids. We never knew when I was using DDT, it to m e, and we'd gone left m e barren. And here's my wife desperate to have out toge ther, him and kids ... ' Morris draws breath and carries on 'But you've his wife, m e and my go t to live on this planet and get food .... ' wife, and he'd said to Three more times, unprompted, he refers to his m e, "Barry, you've been in the par­ lack of children. ty for 45 years, and I've got to as k you not to He tells a story about patrolling with the Blue run, but after the election I'll put you on a board of Mountains police. They find a boy vandalising prop- one of these privatised bodies or som ething ... "

V oLUM E 5 NuMBER 6 • EUREKA STREET 19 'If he'd said t hat, well I'd have said yes. That's Scott says: 'I used to be a good girl. Obey t he what Labor would have cl one. T hey would have m an­ school rules. Be a good girl. O bey the system. I was aged the situation. Bu t our blokes, they're all worried one of those kids wh o if I did well, I expected to be abou t the ICAC. Oo-cr, corru ption ' Bloody bullshit, rewarded. If I got 70 per cent for an essay and I thought bloody bu llshi t. If you've been in power then there's I should have got 90 per cent, I'd go up and ask why.' got to be a few Jollies along the way. La bor under­ She also used to argue in class, once with a so­ stand that. Our lot don't.' cialist teacher who claimed that crime was the fault Morris sees me off at the door, saying rather sad­ of society. 'I used to say "Well at what point do indi­ ly: 'You can like me or not, but I'm a sincere man. viduals take responsibility for thcmsclvesZ" and my Your body is your front door. The man who tills the views were just rubbished. I suppose those experiences soil is a humble man. I get my living where the bull confirmed in me a view that Labor thinking was about gets his breakfast. Off the bloody grass.' uniformity and mediocrity-that individual difference Am I inventing it, or was there a stillness about was not tolerated, and people in Labor did not think 'I will never live Morris's home? A barrenness. A frustration and a rag­ for themselves.' ing at the things that might have happened, should Jennifer Scott regularly deals with battered wives, in a $5 n1illion have happened, but didn't. and sometimes battered husbands as well. She sees The oldest family in the mountains. No children. de facto couples who did not rea lise the level of their house, but I will And, probably, no future in the push and pull of polit­ legal commitment when they began living together. ical ideas. 'Marriage is better,' she says, but then claims this is fight to the death To my great surprise, I had found Morris hard not a moral but a legal judgment. not to like: but quite probably this was only possible Later in interview, almost in passing, she says for any Australian because his teeth had been drawn. she is a Christian. What sort of Christian? For the to feel that they WilEN MORRI S ANNOUN CED that he would run as first time she hesitates momentarily and looks a lit­ an independent, winning the scat of Blue Mountains tle awkward in answering. Softly, she says 'Born again. 1nay one day be was regarded as Mission Impossible for the Liberal Which would m ake yo u think I should be a Party. In fact, the battle went very close. The woman conservative.' able to do that.' who

20 EUREKA STREET • AUGUST 1995 if you like, that said that doctors were the class ene­ son, and that the allegiances are my. It really stuck in my craw.' no longer a matter of reason. So began his long drift towards the Liberal Party. Naturally, he disagrees. Nelson claim his core values have not changed much 'Certainly, there has been through all this. He believes people are put on the som e convergence on eco­ earth to help others. He says he believes in that much­ nomic policy, but the Carr touted phrase, social justice. Labor government will still So what does it m ean, social justicel be very differcn t from He says: 'I will never live in a $5 million house, Fahey.' but I will fi ght to the death for any Australian to feel How? that they m ay one day be able to do that. What is 'Fahey was going to social justice? Well in the Labor Party the view is that massively privatise public if a person has wealth, then you must get it off them utilities. We won't do and redistribute it. In the Liberal Party the idea is that that.' no matter where you come from, you should have the But isn 't this also sam e opportunities and access to education and Labor Party policy? resources as everyone else, but there is an acceptance ' No. We will not that the outcomes will not be equal. privatise. We will cer­ 'The problem with liberalism is that not enough tainly look at corpora­ people practise it. Liberals have forgo tten what they rising.' H e sees m y really stand for. Yet in other countries peo­ smile, and jumps in . 'But we will ple are dying for what is basically the liber­ not let go of the basic principle of social responsi­ al philosophy.' bility.' We move on to talk about social policy. Here, he 'Fahey was going I HAVE TO WAIT THREE WEEKS to ge t an interview with says, there is also convergence, but that isn't the Labor Bob Debus, the successful candidate for Blue Moun­ Party's fault. 'The Liberals find it necessary to con­ tains. He is the new Minister for Corrective and Emer­ verge with us.' to n1assively gency Services-responsible for every prison riot and 'So why should I vote Labor rather than Liberal privatise public bushfirc, and also trying to hang on to one of the state's on social policy? most marginal seats. One wonders whether Labor is 'Well, I am always left with the impression that utilities. We rewarding or punishing him. One of the green inde­ their heart isn't really in it.' pendents in the campaign, Carol Gaul, has suggested Well, he would say that, wouldn't he? won't do that ... to me that he will shortly move to a safer scat. 'He's Recently, one of my writer friends who broke the very polished and presentable,' she says. habits of a lifetime to vote Liberal said to me: 'I find I We will not She is right. D ebus is running late, and has to cut just can't pluck up the courage to admit it to most short the interview because others arc waiting to sec people. It is extraordinarily difficult. I almost feel privatise. We will him. Nevertheless he does not seem flustered. He ashamed. As though I have broken a taboo.' looks like a spunky sort of headmaster or a thinner Taboos belong to tribes, and so, in a sense, that certainly lool< at version of Dr Finlay. A former ABC journalist, he has is exactly what he had done. taken over Barry Morris's old electorate office. There Back to that Liberal Party dinner. One artist had corporatising." are no pictures on the wall or desk, no sign of regular been approached by the head of the institution I was occupancy or commitment. supporting to come along and talk to Peter Collins. -Bob Debus The Blue Mountains community, he says, expects 'Wh o is Peter Collinsl' she said. personal contact from its MP. 'For the most part I 'He's the Arts Minister.' enjoy it. A few functions I go to really bore me, but 'Oh. All right.' generall y if I go to four or five a week rather than 30 But a day later she rang back to say she really or 40, it is all right, . could not come. 'It's against my principles. They arc And which are the functions that bore himl Liberals, you sec .... ' 'I'm not going to tell you,' he says smoothly, lean­ Sh e knew which tribe she belonged to. She ing back with his hands behind his head. couldn't kick against her own side. Her scratch of the Debus was brought up a Methodist. 'The Meth­ pen would go where it had always gone-to Labor. odist church was quite a good substitute for politics,' This she called principle, as though it were a choice Debus says. It was in church, he claims, that he learnt between good and evil. As though it were a choice. his commitment to social justice. Asked whether he When Labor won, Peter Collins became the Lead­ is still a believer, he borrows som e words from Gough er of the Opposition. And one of the first things Labor Whitlam and says he is a religious 'fellow traveller'. did was cut the Arts budget by more than half. • He agrees with the sentiments, but has lost the faith. I put it to Debus that there is little to choose Margaret Simons is a regular contributor to Eureka between a small '1' Liberal and a pragmatic Labor per- Street.

V OLUME 5 N UMI\ER 6 • EUREKA STREET 21 OBITUARY

W Ny, , CoNe" w" "o'", in er of revelation that would be authen­ the same year as Karl Rahner and Ber­ tically Catholic, but free from the nard Lonergan, the Catholic Church polemical presentations of the Refor­ was embroiled in the Modernist con­ mation and Cou n tcr-Reformation. This troversy. Within three years, Pius X required a better understanding of the would issue his encyclical Pascendi church's patristic and m edieval herit­ Dominici, repudiating the concoction age, and realisation of that project of ideas dubbed 'Modernism' as 'a meet­ gained him powerful enemies. ing place of all the heresies'. When Congar and Chenu became frequent Congar died, in J unc this year, the targets of their fellow Dominican, Regi­ Church had not long been digesting nald Garrigou-Lagrangc, who taught at another sternly reproving encyclical, the Angelicum, the order's university Pope John Paul's VeriLatis Splendm. Yves-Marie Congar OP, in Rome. The Parisians argued that St There are curious parallels between 1904-1995 Thomas's writings had to be under­ the two documents. Consider, for stood in their 13 th-century context, example, this verdict on Pascendi from in 18 70 that ushered in the Third French rather than trea ted as a timeless fount a dictionary of theology that can be Republic and its bitter conflicts be­ of wisdom, and this historical perspec­ found on the library shelves of even the tween church and state. He himself tive threa tened many, for reasons that most narrowly orthodox of Catholic witnessed the even greater debacle of had] i ttle to do with the merit of Tbom­ educational institutions: 'Pascendi the German victory in the Ardennes in ism itself. In 1954 Congar was forbid­ presents the historically sensitive the­ 1940, and as a military chaplain was den to teach, and he spent two years in ologian with insuperable problems to­ sent to Colditz with other French pris­ exile, in Jerusalem , Rome and Cam­ day. Its view of Modernism as a coher­ oners of war. bridge. Officially the condemnation ent, organised movement with the in­ But, like his Dominican teacher was related to his support of the work­ tentionally concealed purpose of over­ Marie-Dominique Chenu, Congar dis­ er priests, but few believed that this throwing Catholicism from the inside tanced himself from those within the was the whole story. is historically unsustainable ... Histo­ French church who hoped for favour The terms of the debate now seem rians of the period can show without from the collaborationist government quaint, and the banner of orthodoxy difficulty that no individual Modern­ of Pctain, and supported the resistance has passed from Garrigo u-Lagrangc to ist subscribed to the system set out in instead. They encouraged the worker Congar himself: the Second Vatican the encyclical.' Readers of Veritolis priests and the Jocists, or Young Chris­ Council's documents on the church Splendor m ay infer that Rome's fo nd­ tian Worker movement, and through and on divine revelation, Lumen Gen­ ness for knocking down straw m en them helped to wean French Catholics Limn and Dei VeTbum, reflect the vi ews (and women?) has not diminished in from a politics of reactionary nostalgia, he developed in books such as To­ the past nine decades. and to seek reconciliation with words a Theology of Lh e Laity (1953 ), It is a sad iron y that the life of their republican compatriots. The Mystery of Lhe Temple (1958) and Congar- who will forever be remem­ Trod iLion and TrodiLions ( 1960, revised bered as a leader of the theological R ECONCILIATION, IN A LL ITS SENSES, in 1963) . renewal that marked the church in the was a keynote of Congar's thought. Indeed, his elevation to the cardi­ middle decades of this century-should Sedan wash istorically a centre of Prot­ nalate last year, though an honour have ended as it began, in a time of estantism in France, and as a boy he richly deserved, seemed to be a kind of suspicion and repression. 'Historically and other Catholics in the town for a declaration that Rom e now regarded sensitive' theologians do not have time celebrated Mass in the local him as 'safe'. Especially, perhaps, since much usc for woolly notions such as Reformed Church, by courtesy of an he was too incapacitated by multiple progress, but they wiiJ at least allow indulgent pastor, because their own sclerosis to write and too old to vote in that som etimes things change for the church had been destroye d . He papal elections anyway. better. One undoubted change for the remained in contact with Protestants The work he began, however, has better is the bet that mainstream (a nd later with the Orthodox and not finished. Yvc -Marie Conga r OP thcologica 1 opinion now accommo­ Anglicans) throughout his theological taught Catholic theologians to think dates judgments such as the assess­ formation: in a Paris seminary from in what is now tactfully called a 'his­ ment of Poscendi just quoted, and this 192 1, after entering the Dominican torically sensitive' manner, and the change is in large part attributable to novitiate at Amicns in 1925, and after chief legacy of that change has been the life and work of Yves Congar. ordination as a priest in the order in the officially endorsed ccclcsiology. It was a life marked by upheavals 1930. But, as VeritoLis Splendor so painfully secular as well as ecclesiastical, and The insights he gained into other shows, the officially endorsed moral each kind fed on the other. Congar's Christian traditions informed the major teaching could do with a little histori­ birthplace was Sedan in the Ardennes, task of his life, the recovery of an cal sensitivity, too. • scene of the German military victory understanding of tradition as the bear- Ray Cassin is a freelance writer.

22 EUREKA STREET • AUGUST 1995 THE R EG ION

M OIR A RAYNER Coconut Republic

T c Qumntine St.,ion on the Coco' [Keelingl Mem orandum of ;Jnclerstanding, WA laws will be Islands has an operating table big enough to take a applied in the islands after 'full consultation with the rhinoceros. The designer must have read Ionesco. This community'-and possibly modified by Common­ is Thea tre of the Absurd. wealth mirror legislation. Thousands of kilometres of Indian Ocean sepa­ Since many of its adult m embers are not rate these islands from the Australian m ainland that functionally literate in English, a DEST law reform they joined in 1984, in a UN-supervised, 'act of self­ section monitors WA enactments. There is no real determination'. Cocos is a coral atoll with a Robin­ capacity for Councillors to do so themselves. son Crusoe past: this is the land once ruled by 'Tuan John' Clunies-Ross, the last of the white raja hs. Cocos' cultural and geographical isola­ tion is acute. Its colonisation began, as Aus­ tralia's did, with involuntary immigration, though the first Cocos Malays were slaves or indentured labour, not convicts. It developed under the paternalist rule of a Scottish-Ma­ la y family which issued its own currency, devised its own laws, and vigorously di scour­ aged trade and intercourse with other com­ munities. The 19th century Cocos culture was preserved, like a fly in liquid sunshine, until the late 20th century. The governance of Cocos is its present­ day obsession. This community is learning what representative dem ocracy m eans. Once, anyone who left- and two- thirds of its population has been forced to emigrate over the last 40 years-would have required 'Tuan John's' permission to return. Now, scores of emigrants want to come home, and the twice-weekly planes are filled with pub- lic servants on fact-finding missions. The Shire Council is deem ed to be the voice of The islands are a Commonwealth Territory, the the people, though it has no more authority than any responsibility of the Department of Environment, mainland, rural shire council. It is consulted on Sports and T erritories (DEST). The Governor in economic growth and development, under the rubric Council also appoints an independent Administrator of competition policy of both Commonwealth, and with the powers of a 'Sanders of the River', though he WA government policy. But 'State' government func­ is, not always subtly, encouraged not to use them . As tions-transport, the environment, assets and servic­ a statutory officer he occupies that poised space­ es- are still basically performed by Commonwealth between the institutions of the professional public agencies. service and the Crown-so detested by all bureaucra ts. The islands are extraordinarily well-serviced, Martin Mowbray, and his predecessors, weigh local with an international airport, a full mess (capable of knowledge against central policy in a balancing act serving hundreds of troops), and fr ee public transport. familiar to any colonial administrator of the late, Soon they may even have a seismological station. The unlamented, British Empire. region is not known for its earthquakes. Since July 1992 Cocos has had a further level of The three-tiered regime of law and administra­ government, with awesome responsibility but limited tion follows the 1991 Report, Islands in the Sun, of real power: an entirely m ale, entirely Cocos Malay, the House of Representatives Standing Committee on 'Shire Council' was elected, under Western Austral­ Legal and Constitutional Affairs. That report recom­ ian-derived Local Government legislation. Under a m ends that the Cocos be brought to resemble equiva-

V OLUME 5 NUMBER 6 • EUREKA STREET 23 lent re mote m

24 EUREKA STREET • A UGUST l995 important: by its design and regulation of the daily enviro nment of its citizens it sets the tone of daily life. His torically, Aus tralian local government activity has been constrained by state government, 1'"M'~Y,~ ~},?,~!~ , !ta~~!~~~;"~'~ed '"'" with limited policy areas and fi nancial capacity-rub­ one of those media circuses that unnerve scientists so much. bi sh collection and street lights, not fam ily law, health Officers of the Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service were wonder­ and education . On Cocos, local government was ing how to generate excitement over World Environment Day. Someone introdu ced fro m above by the Commonwealth, and a at ABC-TV got wind of a community of strange creatures found in the small sign that the host may be rejecting the fo reign Port Davey estuary in Tasmania's remote south-west. Could the ABC tissue has already m anifested. Recently, Cocos Malay perhaps do a segment and use it to publicise Environment Day? residents formed a broad ra nging 'Cocos Congress' The Port Davey community is a kind of 'lost world' where many of seeking a voice by which to comment on policy and, the species are yet to be named. The animals are significant not because explicitly, to represent the interests of the Cocos of their looks but because of their location. Shallow water of no less Malay people. The shire's professional staff already than 20 metres has become home to representatives of groups normally oppose this sign of popular sentiment, seeking to found at depths of more than SO metres (and seldom seen by anyone but portray the group as a kind of ra tepayers' association. marine biologists). It is much more: it is a warning. Many of these species- sea pens, corals, sea fans and the like-attach Can this m odel of two-tiered govern ance, themselves to the sea bed and filter food from the surrounding water. imposing de facto responsibility fo r state-like services They live in waters disturbed only by the movement of passing sea slugs on a ouncil neither de igned nor equipped for it, and skates, and are delicate enough to be damaged by the currents actually work? Cocos' isolation, history, natural generated by a diver's flippers. The marine biologists who found the environment, historical buildings, natural resources community were so concerned at its fragility in the face of human and income earning public enterprises are directly in­ disturbance that they had kept it quiet for 12 years. terrelated with personal loyalties. Council decisions­ But within days of the TV segment going to air in Hobart, the story or fa ilure to m ake decisions-aff ect far more than had been broadcast in Paris and all points in between. The Australian those of orthodox local government. They influence press ran stories which smacked of a marine equivalent of Jura sic Park social relations as well as economic ones. full of 'prehistoric' creatures. Parks and Wildlife began receiving calls The future of this community depends on co-op­ from photographers andre earchers requesting acces to the area. eration and a sense of collective responsibility, No wonder scientists are so suspicious of the media. And yet, perhaps combined with citizenship. As a community, to if the researchers from the University of Tasmania and the CSIRO had preserve their m inute, fragile ecology, the Cocos been less secretive, and had enlisted the aid of the media, the public Islanders cannot m erely pursue economic growth, as could have been safely introduced to these creatures. With judicious use government would wish . Nugget Coombs proposed of the press, perhaps theTa manian Government could have been pres­ in The Return of Scarcity ( 1990 ), that the community sured into full and considered protection. There i a danger now that the be responsible for protecting and improving the whole responsible authorities will be stampeded into something more hurried quality of life; husbanding its re ources with an eye and less appropriate. to the future; ensuring the community benefits fro m Scientists and journalists seem to share a natural antipathy. the 'rent' charged for their use, and using it for public Journalists tell stories to interest their readers. What is interesting, how­ facilities and services, distributing the balance equally ever, may have little scientific import. So journalists are often accused to all its m embers. The present arrangem ents do not of trivialising science. The Port Davey community is significant because look turdy enough for this task on Cocos. The of the opportunity it affords to study typical'deep sea' interactions in islanders' present information about and experi ence accessible shallow water. All the media wanted to talk about was 'strange of citizenship certainly seem too frail. species new to science'. The Port Davey creatures are only 'prehistoric' One of the more recent arriva ls at the Quarantine in the same way that Australian cockroaches, crocodiles and lung fish Station on Cocos was a cargo of goggle-eyed ostriches. are pre-historic-they are animals whose form has not changed marked­ As they were being driven to their temporary hom e ly for millions of years, but they are little different from modem rela­ they twisted and turned those extraordinary necks 360 tives in other countries. degrees, as if in astonishment, peering at jungle and The irony is that scientists and journalists now need each other ky and onlookers, diving benea th the truck's tray, much more than ever in the past. All over the world, a greater and great­ head shaking, beaks aga pe, as if to say, 'These fo lks er proportion of research funding is being handed out on a competitive can't be for real!' They are still there, their past and basis. To gain access to those funds, scientists must show the worth of future in doubt. their research, and widespread publicity is a huge asset. On the journal­ Anyone who thinks these islands are, will ists' side, almost every big story nowadays has a scientific angle-wars, becom e or might remain, a paradise, without the long­ famines, disasters, greenhouse effect, French nuclear testing, the future term plans for their governance being entirely revised, of the forests. might well be shoving their hea ds in the sand. • It's time that both sides learned the rules of both games, for every- one's benefit. • Moira Rayner is a lawyer and freelance journalist. Tim Thwaites is a freelance science writer.

VOLUME 5 N UMBER 6 • EUREKA STREET 25 THE REG ION: 2 ROWAN CALLJCK Taking liberties with fraternity

Where are yom monuments, yom battles, martyrs~ Where is yom tribal memory~ Sirs, in that gray vault. The sea. The sea has locked them up. The sea is History. - Derek Walcott M URUROA IS A NAME that murmurs of unsolved strongly by the Cold War- have been casting around mystery. for new post-Soviet, post-Yankee Imperialist vi llain s. For what can explain either President Chirac' The French, whom m any (by no means all) Austral- hubristic announcement of renewed French nuclear ian tourist appear to believe rude when encountered testing at Mururoa atoll, or the extraordinary outpour- in Paris bistros or galleries, fit the bill. They form a ing of Australian anger that has followed? safe, if impervious (unlike the atoll) therapeutic tar- The virulence of this reaction stunned Canberra, get: white, remote and relatively rich; their crime, the and surprised the rest of the South Pacific, where the most heinous to a generation educated by engaged en- response was otherwise, except in a New Zealand vironmcntalists. marking the tenth anniversary of the sinking of the And, of course, the ocean that separates Australia Rainbow Wanior, subdued. from Mururoa also binds it to Mururoa. By no mis- chance, the Pacific. Perhaps also, Mururoa fits a paradigm of a paradise lost. Bernard Smith, in his great work Emopean Vision and the Sou Lh Pa cific, writes of how Tahitian chieftains became sentimcn­ taliscd Greek heroes for the European explor­ ers of the late 18th century. The French naviga tor Louis de Bougainvillc, after whom the tragic island and the excessive plant with its lurid flowers and rampant thorns are both named, said of Tahiti: 'One would think him­ self in the Elysian fields. ' A century later Paul Gauguin, whose paint­ ings of Tahitians are both m elancholy and celebratory, wrote: 'Close to the parau hut the forest and the coolness begin, and there men and women may be seen in scattered groups, som e busy, some already taking their case, drinking and chattering, with frequent bursts Those few Australians who have retained an in- of laughter. On the beach lie two sisters who have terest in the islands, a region regarded as passe in the been bathing, stretched in unconsciously voluptuous '90s, decade of the thrust into 'Asia', have even been attitudes ... ' quietly gratified to find the Pacific back on some agen­ Such utopias remain powerfully evocative to the das, even under such eli tasteful circumstances. Western, perhaps especially to the Australian, con­ But what has tran formed the news of impend­ sciousness. Bengt Danielsson, a Swedish anthropolo­ ing events 7000km from Australia's eastern shores, gist who sailed with Thor Heyerdahl on the Kon-Til

26 EUREKA STREET • AUG UST 1995 (Mururoa Man Amom): paradise and purgatory. MASTER OF LETTERS IN Those frog bastards' Nuking paradise! The loss is somehow personal. A dream life, however seldom visited, is being expunged. PEACE The chorus swells: 'If it's such a great idea, why don't you go do it in France?' And here the mystery, the mutual incomprehen­ STUDIES sion, thickens. For not only does Jacques Chirac view BY DISTANCE EDUCATION Mururoa as much 'France' as Marseilles, he sees the new program of eight tests as a demonstration of his country's very commitment to the Pacific region, The M.Litt. is nonnally taken externally over two years rather than as a gesture of defiance. and involves three units of coursework and a dissertation France's own imaginative history has been of 20- 25 ,000 words. External students are required to massively informed by its encounter with the South attend the University for five days each year. Entry requires a relevant first degree at an above average level Pacific. It was only chance and the brilliance of James of perfonnance. Preliminary studies are available for Cook that saw Australia become a British rather than students with other backgrounds. a French possession. And New Zealand was an even closer-run affair, with an embryonic French colony For the coming year, the central themes will be: established at Akaroa near Christchurch before the British claim was concluded. peace. justice and development From Rousseau through Picasso, the French sciences, arts and philosophy have been affected con­ peace education siderably by the impact with Oceania. Today French Polynesia, which includes the atoll peacemaking and conflict resolution of Mururoa, is one of ten departem ents et territoires d 'outre-mer (DOM-TOMs) scattered strategically Enquiries: Geoff Harris, Coordinator of Peace around the globe, the remains of the glorious day of Studies, UNE, Annidale 2351. Telephone (067) 73 2414 empire, now comprising 1.5 million people and or 73 2781. Fax (067) 71 1076. Applications close covering a land area of 120,000 sq km. September 30. They range from Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, off N ewfoundland, to islands scattered through the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean, to French Guiana TRICONTINENTAL on the mainland of South America. In the Pacific, the DOM-TOMs comprise the tiny Polynesian islands of The Rise and Fall Wallis and Futuna just north of Fiji, the Melanesian of a Tllicontinental territory of New Caledonia between Fiji and Aust­ ,~ise an~ ralia-like the latter, originally founded as a convict Merchant Bank ne colony-and French Polynesia, containing fall of a Tahiti, to the far east of the Pacific islands. Hugo Armstrong merc~ant

OBERT ALDRICH AND JOHN CONNELL, in France's and !Jan~ R h QD Armstraftg u d Drck 'ross Overseas Frontier, describe the DOM-TOMs as 'either Dick Gross lh h!U ltlt jUIUl tl Ul 11th l1UU1 the vestiges of an outdated and rapacious colonial­ ~IIH TI II 11 1 1111 4 1\0~ l n l 111 ism or, conversely, trump cards which France can play to maintain its diverse political, economic, strategic The first full account of one of the biggest and cultural influence in world affairs'. disasters in Australian banking. Filled with Metropolitan France largely sees its remaining the personalities and extraordinary business colonies as a success story, a demonstration of the dealings, this gripping tale recounts the generosity of French culture- not only through the massive cash transfers that make the inhabitants, at alarming and bizarre circumstances that least on paper, much wealthier than their decolonised brought about this massive debacle, the neighbours, but also through granting the people of like of which should never be seen again. the DOM-TOMs the right to vote and appoint repre­ sentatives in French elections, for which it claims moral superiority over Australia, say, which 'only' RRP $39.95 HARDCOVER allowed Papua N ew Guineans to vote for their own parliaments, not for Canberra. All the remaining DOM-TOMs, except Guyana, MELBOURNE UNIVERSITY PRESS are archipelagos or islands, mostly small, and exports

V OLU ME 5 NUMBER 6 • EUREKA STREET 27 on average cover only 15 per cent of imports (though matic rewards for reinventing its regional role. the ex tent of the latter is boosted by the lavish spend­ It has enhanced its aid program-especially ing of the French public servants stationed there, important for the Noumea-based South Pacific Com ­ largely exempt from tax, and their 'suffering' at being mission-at a time when the USA and Britain were so far from Paris mitigated by generous hardship pulling out and Japan and New Zealand were tread­ allowances). ing water, leaving Australia feeling somewhat exposed The territories also commonly feature relaxed as the dominant remaining donor. racial mixes- with Indonesians, Vietnamese and It was co-operating in an Australian program to Chinese having worked for long in the Pacific. And build closer links with New Caledonia, as the 1998 in New Caledonia, some European settlers referendum on the territory's status, provided for date back six generations. under the Matignon Accords that sealed a ten-year peace pact between Kanaks and settlers, begins to A ldrich and Connell again: 'In some respects the loom. There had been discussion of a joint m oderate DOM-TOMs are 'little Frances' across the seas, platform for the referendum, postponing but agreeing microcosms of the post-industrial, multi-racial soci­ on eventual autonomy-cum-independence. ety that is em erging in France itself. In other respects This renewed French enm eshment with the they are quite different worlds, each unique, with a wider South Pacific also came as, in the '90s, the pre­ sense of identity and interest that often challenges viously relentless move across the region towards the ties that bind France to these remote corners of adoption of those democratic structures that tend to the world.' promote a self-confident nationalism began to falter, with traditional elites-which have historically been A\J5112ALIA'5 M\I)Dl.€. CLA5S RAl,t..lE.S ready to treat with colonial authorities- consolidat­ ing their roles in Fiji, Wes tern Samoa and Tonga. And A6AINS1" 1 HE- fRENCJ\ ! fast growing populations, stagnating econ omics, governance crises and increased pollution have t'M GOING 1'M bo\N(:, prompted the inevitable questions within the I O Gl'lf. UP 1o S'\'OJ' 5t:t(Jfll(:r decolonised Pacific: how did those bright 6lN t ~(, '{'{f;S ''F\L .. tl\ NO\R"/ Independence Day hopes turned sour? 7AII'\1' t..I>U~N\ ~/I..R'If:.S! ,. / V.nu•tu, the fmmet Fteneh-Btiti'h condominium ~ ' ltt (or 'pandemonium') of New Hebrides, has, under the Ill francophone- dominated Government of Prime • Minister Maxime Carlot, become the m ost outspoken advocate of French interests from within the independent Pacific. Carlot, for instance (.following in the authoritarian footsteps of predecessor Walter Lini) recently forbade publicly-owned Radio Vanuatu from covering the regional opposition to renewed test­ ing by France. The French embassy in Port Vila is eff ectively organising the establishment of TV in the country. The president of the governing Union of Moderate Parties has even suggested that if France French Polynesia itself eluded the full m etropol­ found Mururoa too hot to handle, Vanuatu might offer itan French embrace, from early contact when English itself up as a new host for La Bombe. Protestant missionaries made more impact than This is a story which, like France's whole histor­ French Catholics; its leading, Protestant church is ic and imaginative engagement with the Pacific- the today outspoken in its opposition to testing, and its engagement that helped conceive the still potent myth advocacy of greater autonomy. of the noble savage-will not dissolve overnight. It The relationship with Paris was reinforced, how­ will continue to haunt and taunt Australians as they ever-and encumbered with a new, ominous charac­ gaze east from Bondi. • teristic- in 1962, when France began to shift its nuclear testing sites from the Sahara, following Alge­ Rowan Ca llick is Victorian bureau chief of The ria's gaining independence, to Mururoa. The first of Australian Financial Review, and the paper's Pacific 42 tests came in July 1966. specialist. The announcement of eight more explosions Reading: France's Overseas Frontier by Robert came as France, after a decade of Socialist government­ Aldrich and John Connell (Cambridge University promoted detente and greater engagement with the Press), France and the South Pacific by Stephen independen t South Pacific nations- including Aus­ Henningham (Allen & Unwin) and Your Flag's Block­ tralia and New Zealand- was starting to reap diplo- ing Our Sun by Helen Fraser (ABC).

28 EUREKA STREET • AUGUST 1995 SPORT ING LI FE.

PETER P IERCE.

0 n thoee '"""''' nigh" w 9~~ ~ul ~l~ o~~n~"~v~ ~~ht.c ' nove< to bo louod in thowugh the cl ogs were racing, it seemed that grown ferrets, while they were perhaps breds-fawn, brindle and strangely snow-laden winds, straight off Mount the first racing animals to be built up chcquercd in white and black, brindle Wellington, always drove across Hobart's a n c1 h u rri eel a long with s t c roi ds. and w hite. Their trainers arc uniformly TCA Ground. Exposed on a hillside on Although making dogs keen with live clad in sky-blue coats, often donned the D omain, this was also Tasmania's kills occurs still, other antics are more over suits, as they lead the dogs to their premier cricket oval. Here I saw Peter properly the stuff of legend. stalls. In its miniaturised way, clog May make a century in a session; Bob Having worn out his welcome on the racing is as puncti I ious as the ga ll ops. Simpson hoo k Wes Hall for three sixes bauxite at Groote Eylanclt, a mate of If crowds have all but vanished, they that clattered onto the roof of the grey- mine headed to Darwin. There he found were still ra cing that night in Bendigo hound catchingpcn;RohanKanhaiscore himself atafricncl 'sbarbccuc.This incli- and Launceston, at Angle Park in a double hundred against Victoria. vidual had brought a clog up from the Adelaide and Wentworth Park in Syd- Forever subbing his wage to punt, the south and fancied it at the next night's ney. Having purchased my Gold Grey- meeting. Fa lling in with a fe llow dcspcr- hound G uide, I matched wits with the ate near the keg, my mate found that dogs and their connections. In the first he also had an interest in these pro- the lure broke down. Hastily rc-vettcd, cced.ings. Yes, the southern dog shou ld the dogs were under way at last and the win, but the good local had drawn the odds-on Wylie Boy was home by eight one, bega n fast, would be hard to run lengths. S

~ West Indian is the m ost improbable of that the bloke whom he'd met was the Arcadia to Reservoir, Drouin to North the handful of great players to represent judge at the Darwin dogs. This mea nt he Ringwood. They perform for a crowd of the state. International cricket is now drove the lure and adjudicated any dis­ s lip pcrecl greybeards, bangle-clad played at Bcllerivc, and the dog track putes. So it was that when the local dog escapees from the care of the state, hares the Showgrounds with harness jumped, railed and led by four with the professional punters who arc masters of racing. Punters no longer hunch over import trailing, the hare momentaril y the sideways glance and more lost chil­ braziers in the TCA betting ring on chill slowed. The leader paused to pounce, dren than yo u'd find in the Brothers nights and gone ages ago are the book­ the interloper grabbed him in two bounds Grimm. When Whatta Ca rel from makers who accommodated them . and raced away. That night in the tropics Quambatook won the distan ce race In Melbourne, one of the two grey­ there was an ugly demonstration, but (732m ), the pocli um sagged beneath over hound tracing tracks, 01 ympic Park, may the smarties (i nc luding the judge) weight owners. Bookmakers a! tern a tely be doomed, <1 casualty of the Kennett collected. combed and tore their hair, one of them road tunnel. The new eight million dollar a former rails fi elder at Ca ulfi eld now stand will have been built in vain; D og ra cing is literally a backyard reclucccl to betting the concession at the perhaps already has been, to judge by the industry, sustained by miclcl lc-agecl men dogs. C la d in liver y from som e meagre crowd that turned out on the walking their strings in frosty dawn; misbegotten dream of Aboriginal art, late June ni ght when I made my first setting them for the righ t event in town barmen poured decent red wine by the excursion to the clogs for a quarter of a or the bush; waiting until the odds are glass (F lemington take note). century. Notwithstanding I soon ran ri ght. A couple of clogs at Olympic Park One was m oved to a circul a r in to acquaintances. One of them, no had each won more than $100,000, but argument. The clogs survives as an sentimentalist, sa id that however t his is a ga m e where t he money comes in s titution beca use th e re is a n attached he became to the clishlickers from gambling. It is also, pre-emincn tly, A us tralian prole t a riat, while th e which once he trained, m oney ruled: an affair of colours: the red of box one existence of greyhound racing proves 'when the dog was dea d, the dog was (favoured alley at Olympic Park), the that the working class still exists, dead'. Another, having solemnly averred blue, pink, black and white stripes, the however huddled in stereotype as that his brindle bitch had no chance, led green and white of the nine clog, or first shrewd, resilient, hard-bitten, battling, it back a winner at long odds. emergency, reputed to be a top chance if arid-witted. • According to Australian fo lklore, it gets a run bccaus.e owners of another Peter Pie rc e, Eurel

V OLUME 5 NUMBER 6 • EUREKA STREET 29 THE CAROLINE CHISHOLM SERIES: 8

ANNE O ' B RIEN

Lifting the Lid

I t is like! y that over the years between about 1880 and 1960 more Australian girls played the piano for some time in their lives than girls anywhere else in the world, a seemingly innocuous observation, but one which has implications for the histories of both femininity and the culture of religion in 20th century Aus­ tralia. As Jane Campion's film The Piano has shown, piano-playing can be a political activity. In her film it is a surrogate voice for those 19th century women who were unhealthily restrained. Although it could hardly be claimed that there is a thriving industry of historical writing on piano-playing in this country, it has cropped up every now and again and Campion's optimistic perception of it stands out against this stream. Humphrey McQueen, in A N ew Brittania, saw the piano as epitomising a cloyingly nasty kind of desire for status; Roger Covell, in his general history of music in Australia, sees it as typifying the derivative nature of Australian culture­ its ubiquity a symbol of immigrant grief; historians of women's education have tended to include music as an 'accomplishment', training women for ladyhood, both symptom and cause of women's restriction.

But Campion is not entirely on her own: back in 1984, Marjorie Theobald called for a reassess­ m ent of 'accomplishments' education, seeing it as a significant precondition of late 19th century Australian feminism; more recently Penny Russell has described the way the piano allowed Grace Rusden a form of self-expression in 1860s Melbourne, at a time of her life when she was particularly entrapped. Perhaps the popularity of Campion's film stems not only from its own artistry but also fro m the resonances it invokes in Australian audiences. Using the piano as a symbol of personal liberation when, in a dominant strand of our culture it has been projected as the opposite, is a natty device. The film touched a chord: perhaps the Campion perception is closer to the historical experi­ ences of Australian women than most historians have acknowledged. The abundance of pianos in colonial Australia was well attested by contemporary travellers. R.E.N. Twopeny thought in 1883 that 'almost every working- man has his girls taught to strum the piano.' Frenchman Oscar Comettant, a m ember of the International Jury judging art at the 1888

30 EUREKA STREET • AUGUST 1995 Centenary Exhibition in Melbourne, and well-placed to make the European comparison, wrote in 1890 that music was more widespread in Australia than anywhere else in the world: 'even the hum­ blest farmer will have the inescapable piano.' The plethora of pianos was at least in part a product of that long period of economic growth lasting from the 1850s to 1890, which reached its height in Marvellous Melbourne in the 1880s, during which decade, Graeme Davison has found, the number of pianos imported into Melbourne increased from 1248 in 1881 to 5170 in 1889. Local entrepreneurs responded to demand. In Mel­ As fane Campion's bourne George Allan, and in Sydney WH Paling, set up shop, aware of the fortune to be made by selling sheet music, pianos and tuition. By the turn of the century the most popular pianos were still film The Piano has German- relatively cheap- but in Sydney in 1902, sewing machine manufacturer and piano maker Octavius Beale, founding President of the Federated Chambers of Manufacturers, patented his all-iron shown, piano-playing tuning ystem in his piano factory at Annandale and made a sizeable fortune. But the continued presence of the piano in the lives of o many Australian women during the can be a political 20th century can also be traced to its institutionalisation within Catholic girls' schools. Comettant thought in 1890 that piano teachers were legion: 'you only have to tap your foot on the ground and activity. In her film they come out', but although private music teachers remained, their impact was swamped by the convent indu try. it is a surrogate voice For the orders of nuns imported into the colonies to staff the separate system of Catholic educa­ tion from the 1880s, music teaching was their financial survival-and their independence: without for thosel9th century it they would be 'thrown upon the kindness of the Bishops in order to pay their way' as one nun put it in 1911. But independence had its price, particularly in the rural diaspora. In Roads to Sian Rosa women unhealthily MacGinley traces the fate of two convents of the Presentation order established in rural NSW in the 1920s, one at Urunga 200 kms south of Lismore and one at Darrigo 30 kms inland from Urunga. restrained. Their financial hardship-kept under control by long hours of listening by the keyboard- mirrored that of the selectors who e children they sought. Not all orders readily embraced the teaching of piano. The original rule drawn up by Mary MacKillop and Julian Tenison Woods expressly forbade the teaching of music because-like Hum­ phrey McQueen a hundred years later-they saw it as essentially divisive. As Marie Therese Foale has pointed out in The fo sephite Story, Mary wanted to create an egalitarian institute, without divi­ sion between choir sisters and lay sisters (in the climate of the tim e, music teachers m ay have been more highly regarded than others) and without division between fee-paying piano learners and the very poor who could pay nothing. This indigenou order, founded to teach the poor, shared a distaste for piano-playing with the first French Sisters of the Sacred Heart, imported to teach the rich. Mere Vercruysse, founding Superior, wrote home in 1882 that the colonials 'seem to attach value solely to appearances and what is external', citing music lessons as the evidence, horrified at the amount lo­ cals were willing to pay for lessons for their daughters. Mary MacKillop's fears of the socially divisive potential of music seem not to have haunted the Irish-founded orders that dominated the Catholic education system in Australia. It was so lucrative they could not- in that near century without government funding-afford to reject it. Furthermore it was perceived by the more combative bishops particularly in the heated and structurally formative 1870s-as a drawcard for winning pupils away from the state ystem . One of the most important sources of conflict between Mary MacKillop and Matthew Quinn, Bishop of Bathurst, was that of music teaching. H e wanted to capitali se on the colonial desire for piano-playing daughters to win pupils for the parallel Catholic system then taking shape. Like many Catholic bishops,he wanted the state system to fail.

BY1889 , the Sisters of St Joseph resolved that music could be taught by the sisters 'where neces­ sary or advisable'-in short, for the m oney to be made. But music remained an ambiguous blessing­ lucrative teaching on the one hand, but slightly suspect educationally on the other. A resolution was passed at a Catholic Educational Conference in 1911 stating that, in the secondary curriculum, 'too much time should not be devoted to music and to preparation for examinations in music as thereby the general education of the child may suffer.' But relative to the state education system, music was given much greater importance in Catholic girls' schools. Ev en into the mid-20th century there were those within the liberal reforming state who still associated music with that elitist and frivolous accomplishment education which its pioneers had tried to eradicate at the end of last century. In 1952, Arundel Orchard, a former Director of the NSW Conservatorium of Music, was pleased to

V OLUME. 5 N UMilER 6 • EUREKA STREET 31 write in his classic Music in Australia, that 'the old fashioned ideal of music merely as "an accom­ plishment for yo ung ladies" is rapidly passing away.' The systematic examination of instrumental proficiency from the late 19th century can be seen as part of the move away from music as an 'accomplishment', a trifle, an amusement for the well-to-do idle. An exa mination system had been run from Trinity College, London, from the 1870s, which had the effect of formalising the teaching of music to some ex tent, and, as Beverley Kingston has pointed out in the Oxford History of Australia vol3, of providing girls with their first ex perience of compet­ itive entry to the professions. But after 1906 when Allans and Co. started publishing examination pieces set by the newly established Australian Music Examination Board in easily obtainable form, that formalisation was democratised further and the daughters of aspiring bourgeois families could play pieces of Mozart ('Rondo alla Turca') and Beethoven ('Fur Elise') as well as 'reveries' and nocturnes by a variety of le ser-known composers.

N uns won a reputation for being fine teachers of music. Each state or region had its champion convent: 'The Shield', the annual prize given to the school with the highest grades by the AMEB in NSW, was awarded 22 times between 1929 and 1952 and 19 of these times it was awarded to one of the schools of the Parramatta Sisters of Mercy. It was a reputation sustained by self-advertisement: Catholic newspapers printed the numbers of examination honours and distinctions won by students at Catholic schools. And it was a reputation which promoted inter-convent rivalry: 'It was not easy', writes Madeleine Sophie McGrath in These Women?, 'for those not educated within the Parramatta musical tradition to be accepted as competent teachers by the congregation'. None of this is to claim that the systematic, exam -oriented music teaching which dominated the convent tradition was exclusive to it. At MLC Melbourne, Miss Ruth Flockhart was a legend in her own time, comparable with any of the famous nuns at Parramatta. Given the class background of both Catholics and Methodists in Australian history, their common aspiration for piano-playing daughters is perhaps not surprising, though Church of England girls' schools also claimed excell ence: Arundel Orchard commended Perth College as having 125 piano pupils in 1952. It was in the small, very exclusive non­ denomina tiona! schools like Frensham, that competitive examinations of any kind were thought demeaning; single-mindedly determined piano pr

32 EUREKA STREET • AUGUST 1995 relationships in so many other areas. Of the m any romantic stories told abou t pianist Eileen Joyce, it is true that she was given her first important start after the Loreto nuns who took her into their school in Perth invited Percy Grainger to the convent to play-and to hear young Eileen. What did all this piano-playing mean? While the autobiographical responses of convent educat­ In rural areas the ed girls to their schooling has ranged over a wide spectrum, from rage to earnest defence, few have committed their musical education to paper. But if you accept even a diluted version of Campion's convent was the representation of femininity and music, it can mean that convents were potential seed-beds of per­ sonal empowerment. only place to go Convent girls got Bach and Beethoven and a sensual engagement unparalleled in other subjects. for piano lessons. They also got 'The Rustle of Spring' and 'Bells across the Meadows' as Astley's novel shows. But the high/lowbrow divide is of limited usefulness when understanding the significance of music to young One consequence women. Astley's fabulously eccentric character Bonnie retrospectively reviles 'Rustle' in conversa­ tion with her daughter- ' all those pieces were gentle nature scenes, tralala, English, non-Australian of this was that in flavour and with pastoral evocations un likely to arouse our senses. This is sex instruction, dar­ ling'-and yet, as a young girl she had learnt it on the sly and in a later conversation refuses to make the convent acted fun of it. When Henry Handel Richardson was a student at PLC Melbourne in the 1880s she was 'made to feel very small' for bringing with her from the bush the 'Carncvals de Venice' and similar as a link between 'extravagances' and was soon schooled in Bach and Beethoven. It was that music which she took with her to Leipzig, but her early exposure to 'extravagances' in rural Victoria had kindled her love of the often separate music. To the 14 or 15-ycar-old girl with either talent or tenacity or both, piano-playing allowed the worlds of possibility of total absorption in a private world, a world whose tone and character one had power to shape. Closer to home, the world of high and lowbrow was straddled to her own satisfaction by Joan Protestant and Esmonde, whose daughter Claire McCoy has documented her mother's life as part of an MA at UNSW. As a promising young convent-trained pianist in the 1930s and 40s, Joan Esmonde gave Catholic over recitals for the ABC and the Conscrvatorium, until marriage and children forced her to quit- except she didn't quit. She spent the rest of her life playing the piano, adapting her talents and training, periods of alleviating domesticity. She played music at home with the kids, at their schools, for charity and loca l musical societies. Her musical life straddled not only the high/low divide, but, like so much of fluctuating mid-20th century women's experience, the perceived gap between public and private. This is not to suggest the empowerment of music as exclusively female. In his autobiography, sectarianism­ Geoffrey Dutton writes that after he started music lessons with William McKie at Geelong Gram­ paradoxical given mar 'suddenly there seemed to be a future': 'What I glimpsed in my own efforts, and in singing in the choir, opened into the h uge la ndscapes of the works of the great composers.' But Dutton was excep­ that most orders tional, as indeed Geelong Grammar under J.R. Darling was exceptional-not least for having as fine a teacher as McKie, later organist at Westminster Abbey, on its staff. Indeed one of the great trage­ were semi-enclosed. dies of Australian patriarchy, particularly as fostered in private boys' schools, has been the opposi­ tional nexus between sport-always victor- and the arts. Over the formative modern period in Australian history it was girls who,in the main, have played the piano. And it is nuns who, in the main, have taught them.

E rhaps the piano fos tered a particular kind of feminine aesthetic suitable for Australian condi­ tions. The Australian girl at the end of the 19th century, as Severely Kings ton has shown, was though t to be a 'good sort', a natural. Her prototype was Norah, Mary Grant Bruce's 'Little Bush Maid'. Growing up in the m asculine world of a prosperous station in northern Victoria, motherless, but with her father as her 'principal mate', she had grown up ' just as the wild bush flowers grow- hardy, unchecked, almost untended'. N aturally musical and thus self-taught, piano-play in g was compati­ ble with her unchecked activities while also essentially redeeming of her fe mininity-her 'one gentle passion.' For generations of Australian girls the 'Little Bush Maid' was their own version of the Australian type. In m any ways N orah's piano-playing encapsulates that tension between the lady-like and the liberating which has m ade it such a widely-practised hom e industry in 20th century Australia. •

Anne O'B ri en teaches Australian history at the University of New South Wales. Author of Poverty's Prison (MUP, 1988) she is currently researching the historical link between religion and secular culture.

V OLUME 5 N UMBER 6 • EUREKA STREET 33 R EVIEW ESSAY

M AX T El H MANN Fault lines

H mN Q ,M,DCNW,' Qooon,. as a bonus, a religious Kampf. Thank munists elsewhere. Their moti ve? lander of Ukrainian-Iri sh descent, God Dr Tudjman onl y stayed here Revenge for the jewish-ca used fa m­ published The Hand That Signed for six da ys . And don't ask which ine and the persecuti ons under Sta­ The Paper, a novel which last yea r God. lin . Ev e rybody had trea ted t he won the Au tralian Vogel Literary The work being fought over is a Ukrainians as animals- the Ru s­ Award, this yea r the Miles Franklin novel, not an historical essay or a sians, the Jews, even the Germans, Awa rd and the ASAL Gold Medal. political tract, so should be evaluat­ behind their eyes, saw them as sav­ After the Franklin, Australia's ri ch­ ed as a novel per se . But it is a fu nn y ages, as animals. So ... that i how est literary pri ze, all hell bro ke loose, sort of novel. A fa ction Demidenko they behaved- the Legion of th e Lost. and Demidenko, the book, and the calls it: part fa ct, part fi cti on. An There is truth in this, but is there Franklin Awa rd panel, have become histori cal novel, m ay be? But the enough ? the centre of a fierce and ge nerall y history cannot be made up- it needs Some correctio ns and additions ca ntankerous argument. to confo rm to the hi storical ' facts'. to Demidenko's hi story: The accusa tions of the critics arc Otherwise we ca ll it som ething • Anti-Semitism was present in the these: covert anti-Semitism, falsify­ else- a Romance, for example. Some Ukraine for three centuries. The ing or just being wi lfull y ignorant of ro mance, this one. But there arc also Czars condoned, but controll ed it. history, and of seeking to defend, if politica l implica tions and moral When the Civil War occurred, with not the acti ons, then the persona of issues at the core of Demi - total chaos in parts of the Ukraine, war-time Ukrainian gcnocidists and denko's novel. massive numbers of Jews were ki li ed, coll aborators with the Nazis. by the Ukrainians and White Rus­ O ne ques ti on asked by onlookers T liE PLOT LI NE TAKES US fr om sia ns. The C hcka killed Whi te has been, why jump on her now, co ntemporary Australia, and the Russians, Ukrainian and politica l when the book had been quietly drift­ yo ung girl whose Ukra inian uncle i opponents. ing away? One answer is, the Miles to be charged as a war criminal, and With the imposition of firm Com­ Franklin Award made it mandatory a father who just might be, then to Ill unist rule, the age-old sport of ki I l­ to expose the au thor, book etc., for war-time Ukraine where the atroci­ ing Jews, (pogrom is a Ru ssian word ), silence would uggcst she'd go t it ties occurred. That is, the destruc­ was stopped, onl y to resume when right. Further sil ence would legiti­ ti on of so many of Ukraine's Jews, the Communists left. Wh en they mise her. So, the Jewish communi­ by the Ukrainian S . . and the Ger­ returned, chasing out the Nazis and ty, and they arc the ones most aff ect­ man S.S ., as part of the Holocaust, of the Ukrainian S.S. , the killing and ed, had to speak out. Another sug­ the Final Solution. (This will be news the revived anti-Se mitism stopped gestion is that the timing of this to those still denying the Holocaust, once more. (In cidentally, contempo­ campaign- for it quickly developed but then they'll say it's just a novel. rary Ukraine seems pretty free of into one-just happened to coincide As were the Protocols, before the anti-Semitism .) with the second reading of the Racial Bl ack Hundreds fi xed them up .) • The Czars rul ed by play ing thei r Hatred Bi ll in the Senate. T he re are fl a hbacks to th e minorities off aga in st one another. I sa id the Jewi sh community wa s drea dful Ukrainian famine of the Poles came to a bho r Russia ns, the group most affected, but of course early 30s, and the deportation of the Ukrainians, jews, Lithuanians, and Au strali a's Ukraini an community kulaks. Millions of Ukrainians di ed Germans. Ukrainians didn' t li ke are equally concerned. T hey feel they of starvation, and this was either Russians, Poles, Jews, had little time arc being stigmati sed, as they felt planned or allowed to happen by for Tartars and Kalmuks- but liked they were during the war crimes Stalin, through his henchman, the Germans. The Baits ... why go on ? trials, and as they were when they Jew Kaganovitch, o Demiden ko's T hen there was the Turkish ques­ came here, straight after the war. So characte rs claim .The whole repres­ tion. The whole empire seemed like Ukrainians too hav e broken their sive under-stru cture was domina ted a laboratory for producing ra cism, si lcnce, protested, and supported Ms by Jewish Communists, who hated anti-Semitism and reli gious hate­ Demidenko- a di saster! So much for the Ukrainians. So when the Nazis traditions very diffi cult to erase. multiculturali sm, which is supposed hit town th e Ukrainians were • There was virtuall y institutional­ to make this sort of thing less likely. all owed o r e ncouraged to ta ke ised anti -Semi tism in post WW 1 Po­ I happen to believe that multicultur­ revenge on the Jews and Commu­ land, Hungary, Romania, and pow­ alism makes it more likely, for we ni sts. Local boys were then en­ erful anti-Semitic cultural form a­ get, in practice, multi-nationalism, rolled- and volunteered willingly­ ti ons in the Baltic States, Austri a often compounded by the makings to join the S.S ., and carry on the and Slovakia. (Don't blame the Czar.) of a I

34 EUREKA STREET • A UGUST 1995 and the Nazis took over, those who'd What should we do, what can we start thinking of ways of shooting hated Jews had their chance to do it say, about such men ? At this stage, the messenger. Maybe something themselves, or help the Germans. we should do nothing. It's 50 years like that happened here. More than half the Waffen SS-39 too late, as I think lsi Liebler said. We are likely to ge t more of these divisions in the fi eld in 1945- The belated decision to go for them books from ethnic citizens- getting weren't Germans. There were three now is like letting this book alone it off their chests, telling us how it Dutch, three Hunga rian, two Bel­ for a perhaps unconscionable time, really was, trying to clear the com­ gian, two Russian, two Latvian divi­ then suddenly collecting a posse from munal name, or someone's name. sions. G roups from Serbia, Croatia, The Age and The Sydney Institute. A Or saving another community's past. Albania, Bohemia, Estonia, Italy, bit sus? Talking about events of 50 years ago, France, Finland. Danes, Norwe­ m aintaining the rage- for ex­ gians, Bosnian Muslims, and ample, making the Holocaust Ukranians. No Pol ish SS. Why do seem the most central, topical we only get Ukrainian war crim­ and urgent iss ue-what inals; why arc they the great mon­ Knopfe lma c h er called th e sters? Has someone had it in for Holocaust industry- guaran­ them? Is it like the search for a tees a permanent supply ofracc scapegoat in the film Colonel libels. And that doesn't ca ll fo r Redl, where the spy for the Rus­ a Racial Hatred Bill, which sians has to be someone from the under present circumstances Habsburg Empire's most vulner­ might seem like setting the able minorities-people who wolves to look after the sheep, can't talk back, who are marginal. in order to drive away a few A Jew? No- Franz Josef protects mangy dogs. It mea ns address­ them. Ah- a Ruthenian! Has it ing the present day, and its perhaps gone like that in su nny horrors. Australia, with these potentially I remember a conversation divisive war crimes proceedings? about the war with Shimon No wonder Frank Knopfelmacher, Peres in the Southern Cross who knew Europe so well, saw Hotel in the early '70 . I said these trials as a trigger for race there were 73 million dea d libels. from the last war. He corrected The novel is broken into bits, me, pointing out, rightly, that cameos, happenings, with enough the true number was 38 mil­ sex a nd violence to suit an y li on- 73 was the total war dead Painting habitue of splatter movies and total­ What to say ? Perhaps a quote for the century so far. Ea rly in Robert by Marc Chagall ly violent video games, upon which from a lecture given by N orman McNamara's new book, he says there courtesy of the many of our children and yo ung peo­ Davies at the Polish Consulate in have been 160 million dead as the Jewish Museum ple now feed. Th ey might read this Montreal, in conjunction with the result of this cen tury's wars. book unmoved- assuming they read local Polish-Jewish Society, August Progress! Isn't this perhaps books- but I found it harrowing and 16, 1994, could suffi ce. 'All commu­ more important- the kili- slightly repetitive. She doesn't leave nities (in Eastern Europe) suffered ings going on now? her uncle hero/anti-hero a feather to appallingly. Bystanders in one oper­ fly with. He bayonets babies, is trig­ ation became victims of the next. A EJNA LL Y, I ALSO REMEMilE R, not SO ger-happy, and co uld put Charles community that was victimised in long ago, when an unspoken condi­ Manson to shame. But he's hand­ one round could spawn murderers tion of settling here was leaving all some, great in bed, generous, gets later on. To confine one's sympa­ your old country's quarrels and feuds killing fatigue a nd increasing thies to just one group is to miss the and grievances behind. And a feud remorse at the end. On the way, he essential truth.' Perhaps the whole carried on over generations is a has lost family and the two women thing should stop there. vendetta. You did not expect your he loves. A burnt-out killing ma­ Demidenko sets one nice moral hosts to either take on or listen to chine, he escapes, to end as a model problem. If you discover a loved or your old causes. Wcare not the waste­ citizen in Australia. respected parent has, in the di stant paper basket for other people's Had life treated him differently, past, been a criminal- a murderer, a pasts- the meat in other people's he would have behaved differently, mother, a camp follower, a collabo­ sandwiches. If they want to fight, let argu es the author, for he had the rator- what should you think, or them leave the pub. Or join the makings of a fine man. He was a feel? Or, a Jewish father a kapo- and army- anyarmyexccptours. • puppet of malign forces, a victim, there were many? What would yo u like so many of the other . True­ think? I imagine yo u'd d ny it; then Max Teichmann i a Melbourne but so were those they killed and say there were extenuating circum­ writer and reviewer. tortured, in the quite straight-for­ stances. Finally, you'd say the oth­ Th e Hand That Signed The Paper is ward sense of victim . ers were just as bad. You might even published by Allen and Unwin.

VOLUME 5 NUMBER 6 • EUREKA STREET 35 BooKs: 1

P AUL C OLLI NS How- hate was learned

they w ere the en emies of Christians. 'N mTmmNc pmlld L "'" The Catholic C hurch and C hurch leaders stressed that 'so long between the argument over H elen D emidenko's book, The Hand That Antisem itism, Poland 1933-1939, as Jews remain Jews, a Jewish prob­ Signed The Paper, and a recent major Ro nald Ma dras, H a rwood lem exists and will continue to exist', Aca de m ic Publis he rs, C hur, study of Polis h Catholic a nti­ but that this sh ould not be used as an Sw itze rl and, 1995 ISBN 3 7186 Scm it is m by Ronald Madras, a leader excuse for attacking Jews. 5568 3 (Ava il a bl e t hro ugh in Catholi c-Jewish dialogu e in the The essen ce of this Catho lic Harwood Academic Publi shers.) United States and Professor of The­ ambivalence was expressed by the ological Studies at Saint Lo uis sm all towns and cities'. Pilsudski's Polis h Primate, Cardinal August University. aim was to recon cile and integrate Hlond, Archbis hop of Gniez n o­ Poland had been restored as a the minorities, but this was thwa rt­ Poznan, in a pastoral letter (29 Feb­ nati on aft er the First World War ed by political and economic prob­ ruary 1936). H e says: after almost 140 years of partition. le ms. Poland's population was then In 1920 the n ew nation was invaded 27 million. It is a fact that jews arc wag ing by the Soviet Union, but unde r the Given tha t Poland was the main war against the Ca tholi c Church, leadership of Marshal Josef Pilsud ki locus of the H olocaust, it's easy to t hat they arc steeped in the Poles were able to ga in much fo rget that throughout the Middle free-t hinking, and constitute the Russian te rritory in the Ea st which Ages the country had been a refu ge va nguard of atheism, the Bo lshev ik brought White Russians, Ruthenians for Je ws expelled fr om Western move men t, and rcvolution

36 EUREKA STREET • A UGUST 1995 BooKs:2.

DAVID OLDROYD

Minds, monlzeys and ITiachines

Ewn >ND M"' h.vc been surprisingly comfortable bedfell ows Psycho Darwinism: The New in the m etaphysics of many intellec­ Synthesis of Darwin and Freud, tuals. Darwin and Freud have not Christoph crBadcoc k, HarperCol­ lins Pub lishers, London, 1994. been such obvious companions. Au ­ ISBN 0 002 553 328 7 RRI' $3 9.95 thors such as Frank Sulloway have shown that Darwin had a profound Oxford. C ronin has written recently influence on Freud. But that's just an on the theory of sexual selection in histori cal fa ct, and not likely to shake her book Ant and the Peacock. And one's m etaphysics. The idea of an she, Dawkins, and Badcock all interesting, perhaps persuasive, syn­ subscribe to the h ypothesis that thesis of Freud and Darwin didn' t genes (not individuals or groups) are strike m e as a possibility before read­ the true units of natural selection ing this book. Now I'm not so sure. Like Cronin, Badcock li kes the idea Su c h s imulations h a ve been 'Bu t do not chimpanzees At least I'm persuaded the idea isn' t of sexual selection in the form stated perfo rm ed, n o tably by Ro bert exhibit some self­ cranky. by the great geneticist, R. A. Fisher, Axelrod (not to m ention an excell ent consciousness!' Badcock is a prolific and attrac­ referred to further below. honours student of mine last year, - David Oldroyd tive writer. According to the blurb of Darwin thought the individual Lee Barkman). Following Axelrod, Psycho Darwinism, he ' t eaches was the entity towards which natural Bad cock describes his own computer Animal photgraph, psychoanalysis and evolutionary sel e ctio n i s direct e d . But for simulation of the 'ga m e', and shows one of a seties, by science to psychologists and social Dawkins, individual bodies are mere that a policy of Tit-for-Tat ca n be Reimund Zunde scientists' at the London School of 'vehicles' for the carriage of genes. m o re s u ccessful than be ing a Economics. I suppose this would have Successfu lly surviving and perpetual 'sucker' (always turning distressed Sir Karl Popper, who propaga ting bodies do the job that the other check), or a totall y unco­ taught at LSE and thought Freudian­ the genes therein 'intend'. Evolu­ operative player who always 'de­ is m was the paradigm case of tion is the outcom e of the successful fects'. So perhaps, a Dawkinsian so­ unfalsifi able, pseudo-science. But or uns uccessful transmission of ciobi ologist might say, we have genes Popper died last year, and things genes from one generation to the that impel us 'vehicles' to play Tit­ m ove on. It's a nice question wheth­ next. It ca me as a surprise to be for-Tat in our everyday interactions. er Badcock's synthesis is fa lsifiable inform ed by Badcock that Freud had In fact, that is how most of us live. science or metaphysical pseudo­ actually written : 'The individual ... First cooperate, but if that co-opera­ science. Either way, it's interesting. is the m oral vehicle of a (possibly) ti on is not reciprocated, turn nasty' Actually, there's a third compon­ immortal substance- like the inher­ Such Tit-for-Tattish ' ve hicles' ent to Badcock' s synthesis: the itor of an entailed property, who is may facilitate the transmis­ current hypothesis, popular among only the temporary holder of an sion of their genes into fu - cognitive scientists, that the intellect estate that survives him'. Perhaps ture generations. is analogous to a computer. Brain as there's a s tronger connection hardware, mind as software. On this, between Freudianism and Darwin­ BADC OC K TH EN D EVE LO PS his argu­ m ore below. (O ne should note the ism than I'd realised' ment som ewhat as follows: Language mind has long been compared with One of the major problem s of supposedly originated as a m ea ns to contemporary bits of technology: Darwin, for ethicists, and for assist us, as social animals, to sur­ bells vibrating as resonators, tele­ sociobiologists, is altruism. Turning vive-for example by indica ting phone exchanges; now computers.) the other cheek is not sensible, as where food might be found (as bees Badcock take his Darwinism Nietzsche pointed out long ago. Far are said to communicate with their seri ously, in modern sociobiological better is the policy of 'Tit-for-Tat', waggle dances). And language mi ght form of the brand favoured by Richard as can be shown by computer simu­ be a 'pre-adaptation' to conscious­ Dawkins of Selfish Gene fame, and lation in the so-called problem of the ness, first developed for such simple H ele na Cronin, a colleague of 'prisoners' dilemma' (exemplified communication and subsequently Badcock at LSE and of Dawkins at dramatically in the plot of Ta sca) . taking on another aspect/function:

V O LU ME 5 N UMllER 6 • EUREKA STREET 37 consciousness. (L ikewise, an ele­ ca n't be accessed easily or immedi ­ tivc'. For a breast-fed child, 'what phant's nose was adapted and modi­ ately when required. There's also comes out' ca n onl y have gone in as fied so that it became a kind of the word processor's operating sys­ milk! So the child ca n perhaps gain a limb.) This is a substantial tem which the user doesn't require bit more food by not excreting. Lat­ It came as a just-so story, but Badcock to examine directly and in fact ca n­ er, it may ga in some advantage by m akes it seem at least plausi­ not norm ally do so. Or there's 'hid­ intruding on its parcn ts' in tcrcourse: surprise to be ble-more so than Kipling's den text'. Freud would surely have Freud's infantile voyeurism. This story of the Elephant Child. loved to possess a Macintosh 1 needn't be an indication of preco­ informed by (But do not chimpanzees, for Freud discussed the id (instincts, cious sexuality, but simply a device example, exhibit som e self­ drives, the unconscious including to try to deter the advent of Badcock that consciousness I) the repressed unconscious), the ego a rival sibling. Now, with language and (t he self), and the super ego (the con­ Freud had co nsciousness there is of science, which monitors the ego). D ARWIN PROPOSED A TI I EORY of course the possibility, or like­ Badcock ingeniously offers as com­ sexual selecti on to account for the actually written: lihood of deceit. And in play­ puter analog ues the ID ('intern al seemingly disadvantageou s struc­ ing ga mes of 'Pri soners' Di­ drive'), the EGO ('executive go vern ­ tures such as the male peacock's 'The individual lemma' (i.e., living our every­ ing organisation', or computer oper­ tail. H e thought that the females day li ves) there is a perpetua l ating system), and the SUPERvising 'chose' the ones with the biggest and ... is the 1noral 'arms race' between deceiving EGO. T he third of these analogies is best tails, giving the well -tailed and detecting the deceptions. constructed by reference to compu­ males a reproductive ad van t

38 EUREKA STREET • AucusT 1995 EXHIBmoNs: 1 MrcHAEL McGIRR Badcock draws attention to som e R§!?UBLIKOSTERREI<::g evidence, favourable to Freudian the­ ory, which suggests that sibling incest is by no m ea ns unknown his­ Shop of Horrors torically, and that marriage between co usins is fa voured in some socie­ THE souNT CLASS>CS, when someone collapses into a swoon there's ties, even being prescribed by IN m arriage rules in several traditional often a letter in the picture. The letter falls to the floor and the friends societies such as those of som e rush off for smelling salts. At least the letter is out of the envelope be­ Australian Aborigines. fore it does damage. The current exhibition at Australia Post's Philatelic Whether Badcock or Wester­ Gallery in Melbourne, 'Little Horrors', (until22 August) wants your brow marck is correct is a question which to furrow as soon as you look at the stamp. remains open, and I won' t pursue it It's hard to imagine. The stamp in the corner used always to attract here. For the present purposes, I will the attention of collectors. This is seldom the case these days. Australia dwell on the attempt made by Ba d­ Post has drenched the gentle, slightly obsessive, art of philately with cock to vindicate Freud by means of consumer products. We philatelists used to be gatherers. We've been m odern sociobiology and the com ­ turned into hunters. puter model of the mind favoured by Take the recent issue to celebrate the centenary of cinema. Aus­ many cogniti ve scientists. tralian stamps tend to be conscientiously patriotic. On this occasion A lot of Psycho Darwinism's ar­ there are five stamps, featuring five Australian films: Tlle Story of the guments are persuasive if one accepts Kelly Gang, On Our Selection, Jedda, Picnic at Hanging Rock and Strictly sociobiology and if one likes the com­ Ballroom. With the stamps come not just presentation packs and first puter model of the mind. But socio­ day covers, but also displays, postcards and, in this case, an exhibition. biology (of the fo rm fa vo ured by Bad­ Towards the end of 1993, an issue of stamps featuring the Australian cock ) is highly contentious so far as Dinosaur Era rode the success of the film Jura ssic Park. 'Stampasaurus' the selfish gene hypothesis is con­ month was declared. There was a wall chart, a book and a video all aimed cerned and philosophers of biology at young people. Australia Post's publicity declared candidly that dino­ continue to argue whether genes, individuals, groups, species, or even saurs were the flavour of the month and that their research showed that ecosystems are units of selecti on. 65% of collectors took up the hobby by the age of ten. Meanwhile, another As fo r the computer model of the survey showed that last year's issue depicting our home-grown spooks, mind deployed by Badcock, som e the bunyip, was the least popular of the year. Doubtless it needed a bunyip respected authors such as Gerald movie to kick it along. Edelm an think it quite wrong. Ed el­ 'Little Horrors', curated by Elizabeth Gertsakis, docs get you to look man favo urs an evolutionary proc­ twice at stamps. It treats them as miniature works of art and mixes and ess for the development of the mind, matches various ones from around the world with stills from Australian but it works by a form of associa­ horror films. So you see the body of an aboriginal lying on a table (The tioni sm in a manner very different Chant of Timmy Blacksmitll) next to a stamp from Cameroon which from that implicit in Badcock's the­ features Rembrandt's painting, The Anatomy Lesson. You see paintings ory. The Macintosh model is by no featuring aboriginal rock painting next to the ersatz cave paintings that mea ns the only one on cognitive appeared in The Last Wave. You see a wartime German stamp, depict­ science's supermarket shelf. ing a tank, next to the Volkswagen which grew spikes in Tlle Cars tllat Such caveats notwithstanding, I Ate Paris. A forerunner of cinema called the zoetrope has been used to found Psycho Darwinism an auda­ turn a couple of stamps into moving pictures. There is a resume of Ned cious and engrossing book. It's an Kelly's legacy to film, including the suit Yahoo Serious wore in Reck­ ingeni ous synthesis. Darwin, Freud, less Kelly, before you come across Ned's incarnation in the latest issue. and the sociobiologists all come out Of course, part of the purpose of an exhibition like this is also to of it quite well. So too does Bad cock. promote the current stamp issue, an event which is now akin to the He has now launched his synthesis. release of a book or, dare I say it, a movie. No harm in that, I suppose. It'll be interesting to see whether it The quality of our stamp design is so high that it deserves to be bragged sails successfully, founders, is sunk about. But imagine paying $11 for a movie ticket and not going in to see by enemy fire, or simply gets lost up a creek. Have a look and see what the film because you want to keep the ticket. This is what philatelists you think. • do. Then imagine that the movie house gets wise and produces tickets in many shapes and sizes. The price of a stamp is, of course, not the cost of the stamp. It's the cost of sending the letter or parcel which the stamp covers. When you take the stamp home and put it in an album, someone makes a killing. So we philatelists need to be enticed. Stamps used to be David Oldroyd is Professor of History produced as a matter of necessity. Now they are slightly anachronistic. and Philosophy of Science at the They are kept alive as a form of entertainment. And profit. • School of Science and T echnology Studies, University of NSW. Michael McGirr SJ is Eureka Street's resident philatelist.

VOLUME 5 N U MBER 6 • EUREKA STREET 39 EXHIBITION S: 2

B ETH GILLI GAN Thoroughly postmodern Mary

/I wt>N "" w<

40 EUREKA STREET • AUGUST 1995 says Fowler. In the secti on of the cricket, skipping and chases is an One room in Alma Cottage, enti­ exhibition on Mary's early life, for anachronism. Without a label, it is tled by Sattler 'nuns having fun', is example, there are family photo­ left to spea k for itself. devoted to recent history; it con­ graphs, the mitre of her confirming In Alma cottage where Mary tains a few enlarged photographs bishop, a missal, a plate and a vase MacKillop spent her last years and without labels or dates. The final all jumbled together-som e with la­ died, an elaborate full wall of a exhibit 'Today's Sisters keep up the bels, some without. A few supposed kitchen has been constructed com­ Work' is an attempt at staging conti­ 19th century toys and a sewing sam­ plete with oven, cupboards and do­ nuity. Mounted black-and-white pler are given spatial prominence mestic objects. There was no kitch­ photographs, unlabelled and left to and their inclusion suggests an asso­ en in Alma cottage. spea k for themselves arc entitled 'A ciation with Mary MacKmop. In fa ct, According to Tony Sattler, the Day in the Life of a Sister of St they're props. Who knows if they arc sisters weren't keen to pursue the Joseph'. They arc m ea nt to be repre­ even of her time? miracle theme in the exhibition. And sentative of the 1300 'Brown Jocys' A close inspection of the descrip­ historians might have taken a rather in Australia today. The last 80-odd tive wall panels and labels oft en re­ 'earthl y' approach. Designer Peter years of the order's work have been veal them to be out of sequence, or England went for a son et lumiere rendered invisible. The exhibition is incorrectly located. Sattler says: 'We show without the customary ruins. a political statem ent of the owner- tried to cut the reading ship of the MacKillop stuff right down.' But in­ tradition and the serv­ stead of editing the pan­ ice work still going on, els the decision was made but it completely to shrink them. The point misses the opportunity size of the type on the to construct displays labels is so small the vis- • relevant to the contem­ itor can hardly read it. ...._ porary issues of i njus­ The haphazard design

VOLUME. 5 N UMBER 6 • EUREKA STREET 41 Fooo: 1

C ATRIONA JACKSON

Angst over antipasto

T,MOM,NT T "vo''' vegeuci­ continually surprised by what I go t! em erging theories of nutrition played an antipasto was placed in front of For a start, everyone was thin. To in the formation of the ba sic wage. him he began muttering, 'This is keep things that way lunch consist­ He explained that energy was bro­ terrible. Oh no, this really terrible.' ed of 'gourmet' croissants with ken up into what were called ' man He hopped up and down in his seat, alfalfa, and tinned orange juice, fo l­ units', and the amount of money trying to attract the waiter's atten ­ lowed by instant coffee. The lady on required for food was based on the tion, his eyes riveted on a small hill my left opened conversa tion by an­ cost of enough 'man units' needed to of olives at the centre of the dish. nouncing she'd yesterday baked her perform a day's work. H e also Others at the table were mystified. first sourdough loaf. On my right, a touched on the ocial control that But I knew what the problem wa s. girl clad from head to foot in leopard went with growing central owner­ Trevor and I were neighbours at skin explained she'd just completed ship of the fo od supply. Newcastle table. After a polite exchange of a fo ur-year degree in Food was one of the few places bosses names he told m e that the three T echnology. One of her projects had couldn't strike-break, because the senior m en in his family had died been to produce eight cans of cream locals were able to stay out, fe eding from heart disease due to high blood of celery soup. 'It was disgusting,' themselves out of their pressure. At 75, he had normal lev­ she said. In the speakers' pavilion a back-yard vegetable plots. els, due to abstinence from salt. clutch of sleek ladies laughed up­ Trevor signalled his ongoing vigi­ roariously at some poor sod's asser­ C ULINARY HI STORIANBarbara Sa n­ lance by detailing the sodium con ­ tion that, 'there are no calories in tich continued the historical theme, tent of every item on the table. vegetables'. focusing on the history of Au tral­ 'Thank God there's no salt in red T he papers began and my uncer­ ian dietary advice drawn from her wine', I thought as I ordered a bottle tainty dissipated. Writer Marion n ew book, What th e Doc tors to share with my statuesque female Halligan had us all agreeing that not Ordered, 150 years of Dietary ad­ friend. But wait, said Trevor, hadn't even foodies actually mal< e the im­ vice in Australia. San tich's boo k is a he better go thirds with us, given the possibly fiddly recipes in the glossy comprehensive and amusing account latest research on safe levels of alco­ food magazines-we consume of Australian nutritional 'wisdom', hol consumption for women, and merely by reading them. A lone dis­ stretching from the da ys when shea r­ had we realised that just before a senter said he had indeed attempt­ ers put away over a kilo of meat a woman's period, her tolerance and ed a Vogue orange and arborio rice day, to the ca lori c-counting 1990s. capaci ty halved' tart, and ended up with crunchy yel­ In the nineteenth century there Thi was Food, Diet and Pleas­ low rice pudding. wa no ' cience of nutrition': in­ ure, my first conference dinner, and Halligan was follow ed by tax law­ stead food was studi ed as a branch of my first foo d conference. If I hadn't yer, Jonathan Todd, who briefed us chemistry. Chemists soon broke food known quite what to expect, I was about food, class and the role that continued p44

42 EUREKA STREET • AUGUST 1995 Fooo: 2 RosEY GoLDS Land of the licorice pengu1n• some pure beeswax hand-cream. As picked up a few leaflets from the G Hmou' Dresembles" wh' at I imag- we said good-bye the man called out 'Eating Out in Singapore' display. ine a UFO car park m ight cheerfully in the distance, 'Watch I've noticed that usually at these look like. And, there's no out for the bees with that crea m . It's kinds of shows there's at least one do ubt, it w ou ld be like a magnet for them! ' We looked group who are somehow out of kilter s atisfying for urban e down at our purchases with less en­ with the rest. Perhaps they got wind Mclbournites who want thusiasm. of the Family Circle Food Show all their notions of Syd­ Around the corner was the NSW through a friend and somehow go t ney as a vulgar, empty Cake Decorators' Association. This the wrong end of the stick. Perhaps city confirmed. group displayed the most remarka­ they took the wrong turn at Audito­ A rather striking yet ble, detailed miniature landscapes rium B. intangible feature of the sculpted out of sugar. When I ap­ Enter the celebrity cooks. First urban design of Darling proached the display stan d, two up was Geoff Jansz, the handsom e Harbour is that wherever plump, industriou s, middle-aged young chef from Channel Nine, who you are, you 're somehow ladies were sculpting miniature pen­ off ered a thousand dollars to anyone not where it's happening. guins for a South Pole cake. When I who could lend him a small box of 'It' in m y case wa s the asked them how they m ade t he tiny tissues (apparently he had mislaid Family Circle (Entertain- birds they illustrated their excep­ this vital tool in the crea- ing and Appliance) Cook­ tional dexterity with liquorice. 'You tion of meringue puffs). ing Show. My sister and 1 trudged use icing sugar for the eyes', they through what seem ed like a thou­ told m e blandly. What struck m e G EOFFTOLD US T HAT a m an in the sand auditO riums, artificial lakes, about the NSW Cake Decorators' previous session had complained, circus perfo rmers and record shops Association was the skill, commit­ 'You TV people are all the same. until we ca me closer to something m ent and imagination with w hich When you're on TV you smile all the called Exhibition B. they approached their work. Yet time. But you didn't smile once dur­ Ex hibition A, incidentally, was when you referred to their suga r ing yo ur dem onstration. N ot once!' hosting the Australian Travel Show. sculptures as art they were amazed. Geoff was followed by Lady Flo It featured over 140 countries enca p­ In no way did they consider them ­ Bj elke-Petc rson and h er fam ou s sulated in 140 tiny petitioned rooms. scl ves artists. They were just putting pumpkin scones. Lady Flo is a gifted Bulgarian fo lk singers danced to taped into practi ce their enthusiasm for a performer. She has a rem arkably un­ music on the outdoor stage ncar the skill which had been passed on to affected m anner, exemplifying the entrance in a mov ing attempt to them from a m other or an aunt. I was golden rule that to communicate to entice people to visit Bulga ri a. Peer­ reminded briefl y of the Fren ch con­ a large audience effectively, yo u must ing suspiciously at them fr om back ceptual artist Duchamp and his the­ pretend that you're only talking to stage were two Papua N ew Guinea ories about intentionality before one person. We all fe lt like Joh. N o men, dressed in national costume­ m oving on to the adja cent stand. kidding. She told us that she pre­ grass skirt, tribal beads and fea thers N ext up I spoke to a young wom­ fe rred to cook scones with a Mix­ etc-sm oking cigarettes. Passing an about vegetables. N ot just any master (apparently this is quite un­ through Audi tori urn A, I was some­ vegetables but certified orga nic veg­ orthodox) and that she had oft en how sorry I wouldn't be writing about e ta bles 1 Th ei r e mph a tic fl yer mentioned this in previ ous cooking it. scream ed: Unlike som e 'organic' demonstrations. Recently, to her de­ But as it turned out, the Family deliverers, we will never substitute light, the Mix master people had pre­ CiTcle Cooking Show was no less with non-organi c produce! Contrast­ sented her with a brand new Mix­ extraordinary. One of the best things ing with their militant leafl et, the master. 'When I was in politics they about go ing som ewhere yo u young woman I spoke to was softly would have scream ed Corruption ! wouldn't ordinarily, is that yo u're spoken and tolerant. Despite her Corruption! But that's all over now,' introduced to wholesub-culturcs you passionately held convictions, she she explained cheerfully. never knew existed. I m et, for in­ was sympathetic to her ideological Finally, Bernard King, connois­ stance, a rather inspired man, fr om enemies. 'I understand why farm ers seur on all m atters of refined living, the N orth Shore Beekeepers' Associ­ are so reluctant to tu rn away from de m on s trated h is flambe o f ation who, was keen to dem onstrate chemicals. After all they have such a strawberries. The interesting thing the diverse uses of bees-wax. After tough time as it is. It's just that these about Bernard Ki ng is that while he listening polite]y to his detailed ex­ chem icals are killing people.' has a go at almost everyone in the planations, my sister and I bough t After this sobering encounter I continued pg 44

V OLUME 5 N UMBER 6 • EUREKA STREET 43 from p42 them selves reel, or perhaps purp le in down into components we now call the face, it seems that the Am eri ­ proteins, fats and carbohydra tes. It cans have had the last word. In Hun­ wasn 't until the discove ry of vita­ gry jack's outlets

44 EUREKA STREET • AucusT 1995 Have faith in good worlzs L'" D

V oLUME 5 N uMBER 6 • EUREKA STREET 45 will give it yet another separate pro­ there is another flashback to 1962. memory is one of the greatest joys in duction in October. Along the way, The other little girl from the open­ Good Wml

46 EUREKA STREET • AucusT 1995 Powu and the Glory, Diary of a dictatorship. Country Priest, The Cardinal to Late one night Gerardo arrives at name a few.) When an individu­ their remote home accompanied by alistic interpretation of the Roberto Miranda (Be n Kingsley). church's m oral teachings means Paulina is panic-stricken, believing acquiescence in the injustices she recognises Miranda's voice as of the wider society? (On the that of a sadistic doctor who some Waterfront, Romero, Raining fifteen years previously had tortured Stones)! her while she was blindfolded, to the If Priest has struck a raw accompaniment of Schubert's Death nerve in som e Catholic circles, and the Maiden. it cannot be because raising such What follows is a bea utifully questions is a novelty. (Though scripted piece of drama, with the this film pushes each of them a action compressed into one night. tad further: the confessor's Paulina assumes the role of right­ dilemma becomes not just eous avenger and puts Miranda on naming the criminal but naming trial; probing and tormenting the the crim e, and thereby saving doctor to force a confession. The the victim; celibate an guish film is as much a morality play about becomes homosexual as well as redemption, judgment and forgive­ Clerical error h e terosexu al; the fundamental ness, as it is a study of the horror of injustice treated in the film concerns torture and the way in which power Priest, dir. Antonia Bird (Village). the wielding of power within the and terror corrupt. That endangered Catholic species, church, not outside it). The trio of actors work together the parish priest, continues to fasci­ But Priest does offer som ething beautifully. Weaver is totally nate writers of fiction and makers of that its predecessors have often believable as the obsessed and driven m ovies. The latest offering, Priest, lacked- an absorbing attention to victim; Wilson equally so as the was heralded in Australia by reports detail. Each scen e in the film's bewildered husband tryin g to of critical acclaim from the ecumen­ gloomy Victorian presbytery will reconcile his personal and ical jury at the Berlin Film Festival, resonate with audiences who have professional emotions, and Kingsley mute toleration by the Catholic grown up in the Irish diaspora, superb as the terrorised prisoner; his hierarchy in England, the film's coun­ whether, it be in Liverpool or London, fear is palpable. -Brad Halse try of origin, and open hostility from Booligal or Boston. As you watch several public figures in the United you realise that you've been there Eureka Street States, including Cardinal O'Connor and met these men, and that the Film Competition in New York and the Republican filmmakers have too. Perhaps this Lana Turner, the original 'sweater presidcn tial con tender, Sen a tor shock of recognition is what has up­ girl', pictured above in the 1945 Robert Dole. set so many. -Ray Cassin film The Postman Always Rings Reaction has varied in Australia, Twice with John Garfield, died last with many simply choosing to view Tortured, torturer week aged 75. Tell us Lana's real the film in the light of their own name and we'll award two tickets ecclesiastical politics. If you think Death and the Maiden, dir. Roman to the first correct entry. Send all's well with the Church and its Polanski (Village). Once again entries to: Eureka Street Film clergy, then Priest is a gratuitously Polanski puts his reputation on the Competition, PO Box 553, offensive attack on both; if you think line; once aga in it holds up. In this Richmond 3121. The winner of the rather less well of them, it becomes powerful, probing adaptation of Ariel May competition was Jackie Tse of an a ttack o n institutionalised Dorfman's much acclaimed stage Oodnadatta, South Australia who repression and hypocrisy. Such play, allegedly the most performed thought Susan Sarandou was reactions arc predictable in a polar­ dramatic play in the world, the thinking 'driving off a cliff was ised Church but they caricature the hidden world of terror and torture is much easier than this.' film, revealing m ore about what explored with an intensity rarely people bring to their viewing of it matched by the big- budget, gore­ than about what they may find in it. filled, Hollywood blockbusters. Priest is a subtle and, for the The story is set in an anonymous most part, plausible reworking of South American country recently themes familiar from other films and emerged from dictatorial rule. novels about Catholics and their Paulina Escobar (Sigourney Weaver) priests: What happens when the seal is married to radical lawyer Gerardo Correction: of the confession forbids the naming (S tuart Wilson), who has been In T ony Coady's review of Fred of a criminal? (I Confess, A Prayer appointed to head a commission Schepisi's film, IQ (ES June/July) , for the Dying.) When the loneliness exploring allegations of torture and Kurt G i:i del appeared as Kurt Gobel. of celibacy seems unendurable? (The human rights abuses by the previous We miscalculated. Oops!

V oLUME 5 NuM~ER 6 • EUREKA STREET 47 which has survived an environmen­ in the first two. The onl y change is tal holocaust. Their currency is that Schumacher's Batman is joined Edifying Water. A mob of nasties called Water o n the wing by his traditional Ed Wood, dir. Tim Burton (Village). and Power destroy the community sidekick, Robin, in the battle against The story of Edward D. Wood Jnr is and take Tank Girl prisoner. Bu t Twoface and th e Riddl c r. But perhaps the most unlikely subject Tank Girl takes nothing lying down. whereas the '60s version oft he caped for a film. It's a biza rre story of in­ 'The year is 2033,' she begins with crusaders was as outwardly fresh competence and angora, made even charact eri stic verve, ' the w hole and wholesome as a Lichtenstein more so because it's true. world is screwed.' Tank Girl makes print, the '90s version is psycholog­ Burton resists the temptation to a ni ce friend though, Jet Girl (Naomi icall y disturbed and vengeful. romanticise Wood's career. There is Watts), and fa lls in with a mob of The problem this fi lm has is that nothing of the talented, tragic ge n­ goodies ca ll ed The Rippers. it doesn't push the buttons like its ius, nor any suggestion that Wood There's lots of fun in Tanh Girl predecessors. T he gothic charm has wa chewed up and spat out by big and, unlike many fi lms of this ilk, it worn thin the third time round, the bad Hollywood- the stuff of so many doesn't ma ke the mistake of under­ plot is limp, and t here is a lack of H ollywood biographies. Ed Wood estimating the subtlety of young tension . The restl ess antics of the was simply an extremely bad writer peopl e's humour. Intriguing, how­ you ngsters pa cked in to the a tu rda y and an even worse director. His m ost ever, is the kind of brinksmanship it matinee session was proof of that, as 'fa mous' producti on, Plan 9 from pl ays. Plenty of the brow n word but was the chip residue I had to fis h Outer Space, sponsored, according never the F-word. Plenty of talk about from m y car outside the ci nema, to the fi lm, by the Baptist Church no sex but never anything un toward. courtesy of a misdirected salvo in a less, is described by Halliwells Film Plenty of flirting with the issues of particularly vicious food fight. Guide as 'the worst film ever made'. the da y (e nvironmentalism, femi­ If only the film had as much Jo hnny D cpp is excellent as ni sm, homosexuality) but nothing energy as school kids on holiday. Wood. He portrays him as a likeable, that would be worth taking up the - Jon Greenaway effervescent and enthusiastic yo ung space in even the most lacklustre man, with a fetish for angon1 sweat­ school project. The film is as oppor­ ers, and a grea t belief in his creative tunistic as Tank G irl herself. Fungicide calling, but who lacked meaningful Like all the comic book grea ts, Mushrooms, dir Alan Madden (inde­ insight into hi s passion. Tank Girl pays scrupulous attention pendent cinemas) This is one of the Shot to good effect in black and to her wardrobe. She is a mistress of first Australian films fro m the re­ w hite, Ed Wood is a bit like watch­ the grunge look, complete wit h cent Melbourne International Fi lm ing Michael Crawford in 'Some tattoos and close-cropped scalp. If Festival toga in commercia l re lease, Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em ', as Wood yo ur kids have already started to and it's a little gem. bungles his wa y through such gems look like this, yo u'd better get out Flo (Ju lia Bl ake) and Minnie as Glen or Glenda{ and Bride of the and see the movie for yo urself. Be (Lynette Cu rra n) lead a ra ther unu­ Monster. consoled that by 2033 most of the sual life. Since the ir husbands' The direction and supporting cast audience will be struggling through deaths, Flo, a kleptomaniac, keeps are first rate, but the grea t highlight their 50s. -Michael McGirr SJ the pantry full , while Minnie's agora­ of the fi lm is Martin Landau's por­ phobi a forces her to tay indoors and traya l of the ageing, drug addicted, tend their deteriora ting pawnshop. former horror star, Bela Lugosi. Gotham retails Then one day a crimina I called Rarely was an Aca dem y Award so Batman Forever, dir. Joel Schumach­ Grubb (Boris Brkic) bursts into their deserved. -Tim Stoney er (Village) . The problem the viewer shop while on the run from the po­ has w ith this film is how to tell the li ce, onl y to die in Flo's bedroom. difference between the ads and the This sets off a bizarre chain of events Tanks a lot actual m ovie. The pre-show trailers which sees t hem negotiate wit h Tanl< Girl, dir. Rachel Talalay promote the Batman merchandising Lynch (Bra ndon Burke), an over zeal­ (Hoyts). There couldn't have been machine and when the movie opens ous sergeant determined to nab the too many yo ungs ters left at home with a scene that has been used in an two women for handli ngstolcn prop­ with their nose stuck in comic advertising ca mpaign by McDonalds, erty; Corris (George Shcvstov), a cor­ books during the last holidays. The the transition is seamless. You're rupt local in pector; and Sgt. Harry comic books were all in the cinema: about 15 minutes in before yo u notice Instep (S imon Chi lvcrs), a clever, in Melbourne alone, Casper and Bat­ the absence of product logos and honest cop, in vestigating Grubb's man Forever were showing on almost twig to the fact that the movie has di sappea rance, who moves into the fifty screens between them. started so it's time to stop grumbling women's spare room . Amid all this, At least for the time being Tanl< about the bloody ads. Minnie fa ll s for Harry, and Flo be­ Girl has the edge, in that there arc And the film ? Dark as pitch . With comes increasingly jealous of their people to whom she still needs to be nearly every scene shot at ni ght, Joel relationship. Sgt Harry In st p gets introduced. Sometimes known as Sch umacher has taken the baton closer to solving the case of the Rebecca Bu ck, Tank Girl (Lori Petty) from Tim Burton, and has remained missing Grubb. belongs to a futuristic community true to the form Burton establ ishcd Mu sh rooms is a wonde rful

48 EUREKA STREET • AuGUST 1995 New direction Priest has made some Catholics feel uncomfortable, som e angry, and others relieved that at last it's all being said. Ray Cassin and Tim Stoney spoke to the film's director, Antonia Bird.

Arsenic and Old La ce-style comedy Cassin: How did Priest come to be madet with an outrageous twist. Suffice to Bird: 'It's very much Jimmy McGovern's story. It was originally commissioned by the BBC as say you'll never look at Christmas a four-part series ... Jimmy wanted to write about a priest who fell in love with a woman but was dinner in quite the same way. tom between her and his vocation. - Tim Stoney 'Then he started researching and spent hours talking to priests, mostly in Liverpool. He met a man whose story broke his heart. This priest was homosexual, and he really opened up about the torment in his life, and Jimmy thought "I have to write about this, this is more important than what I was trying to deal with". Brave Knight 'The BBC decided not to make a series and the script sat on Jimmy's shelf for a year but he Braveheart, dir. Mel Gibson (Hoyts eventually decided ... they could raise the money to make it if he wrote it as a feature film. The and independent cinemas) and First BBC has begun to fund feature films so they took it on, and I got involved at that stage.' Knight, dir. Jerry Zucker (Hoyts, Vil­ Stoney: Did you have any reservations about taking it oni lage and independent cinemas). The 'Yeah, one very big reservation, which I made clear to everyone else involved- unlike Jimmy, past is this season's vogue locale and I wasn't Catholic. But they saw this as a good thing, because at least half the audiences around Gibson and Zucker have used it as the world wouldn't be Catholic, and anything! wouldn't understand, they wouldn't understand. film often docs-to dramatise the The people saying this were Catholics, so that made me feel better. And I made sure we had a preoccupations of the present. Catholic adviser while we were working- we had two priests with us.' Gibson has ca ught the energy of Cassin: Was theh cooperation on an official basis! Celtic revival. Trouble is that, as 'Yes. I'm a little bi t hazy about where the various permissions came from because they were both director and star, he can't decide arranged by the producers at the BBC, but people were officially whether his 13th century Scots hero, involved.' William Wallace, is a kilted buddy who docs national liberation on the Cassin: That's interesting, given the hostile reactions reported side, or the Avenging Angel. So he from the 'States. Has that sort of reaction been largely confined runs him as both. It doesn't work. A to America! pity, because Gibson hasagreat story 'In Britain it's been a much more considered, cautious response. on his hands. William Wallace was Even in America, so far as I know, Cardinal O'Connor has been the pivot of Scots nationali sm, with the only person with an official position in the church to speak a clutch of friends and fo es evil and against the film. The criticism came mainly from the Catholic noble enough to carry a whole set of League, or the League of Decency or whatever they call them­ Shakespeare histories. Patrick Mc­ selves. Then it moved on to politics-we had Senator Bob Dole Goohan (King Edward'Longshanks') speaking against it, because he has been attacked by the Right could have gone the distance, but of the Republican Party for being too moderate. So it was a good the film itself skids between comic way of proving what a great family guy he was.' realism and bloody myth. It is also Stoney: Greg (the homosexual prie t) is very rigid most of the tediously, intestinally violent. You time, about most issues. Every bit of flexibility he eventually see every hanging, £l ensing, racking, achieves comes after great struggle, and yet the scene in which he 'comes out' shows very little and disembowelment. When the of this. He just takes his collal·off, goes to a gay barandpicl

T e runaway success of Four Weddings and a and briefed him) has been unable to shake the notion Fw1eral appears to have tripped up someone's career. that, in England's green and pleasant land, perhaps Someone other than Hugh Grant, that is. Richard not Jerusalem itself but at least something sugar­ Curtis, who wrote the screenplay for Four Weddings, frosted is slowly being assembled. is arguably Britain's best writer of comic material for The vicar in question is played by Dawn French, the screen, large or small. He is responsible for the who, as one half of the French and Saunders team that Blaclwdder and Mr Bean series, and neither Rowan wrote Absolutely Fabulous (and, of course, French and Atkinson nor, dare one add, Hugh Grant, would be Saunders) deserves better material for her talents. The what they are today without Curtis. As that under­ plot is basically the same each week: she must over­ rated American comic actor, Gene Wilder, has sagely come the dastardly plans of the chairman of her par­ observed, comedy, more than any other genre, remains ish council, a Tory misogynist who wants her script-driven. 'If the words don't sparkle,' opined the transferred out and wishes that all this women-priests man who courted a sheep in Eve1·ything You Always nonsense had never happened. She always wins, of Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afraid to Ask, course, with the support of a giggling blonde verger 'ya got nothin'. One would have to qualify that a little and a clutch of rustic simpletons who comprise the to explain the success of Mr Bean, which is wordless, rest of the parish council. The chairman, though he but we know what Wilder means. In other genres, the does represent All Things Bad, survives his defeats collective abilities of actors, directors, and directors with his dignity only slightly ruffled; after all, he and of photography can push lacklustre material a little the vicar are the only two people in the village who further than it might otherwise have gone. But come­ have an IQ in three figures, and there is just dy simply has to be funny, and if the script is not "l X T a hint of mutual sexual attraction. funny nothing else will be, not even if you have the schoolboy-nerd face of Rowan Atkinson animating the V V mLE THE DEVIL MAY NOT always have the best schoolboy-nerd humour of Mr Bean. songs, in this case he certainly gets all the best lines. So where has the high-flying Richard Curtis come The sort of banter at which Curtis excels is quite cruel precipitously to earth? Sadly, with a series that one (remember the speeches in which Blackadder abused wants to be much better than it is, for reasons that go an uncomprehending Baldrick for his congenital beyond the expectations raised by Curtis's previous imbecility?), and in The Vicar these all go to the achievements. The Vicar of Dibley (ABC, Mondays misogynist chairman. It's all right to find oneself at 8pm) ought to be earning more than wry smiles applauding the villain in Blackadder, because there and indnlgent chuckles; it should be wicl

New direction Eureka Street Cryptic Crossword no. 35, August 1995

Devised by Joan Nowotny IBVM

ACROSS 1 Call about key newspaper exercising censorship. I 10) 9 Stick to the present time, not all over the place. 16 ) 10 Do bird routes follow the train tracks? 18 ) 11 Stripper mimics his own action ? 15,3) 12 Bubbly like tea on the boil, it seem s. 14) 13 Descant Sal arranged for a concert in a chateau by the sea? 14,6) 15 Choice morsel in Wales? 17) 17 You should stress a back injury vindicates claim for compen sa tion, perhaps. 17) 20 Wild mob rob, pelt stones, hurl incendiary. 16, 4) 2 1 Just a jiffy! Headless scheme sounds a bit uncertain. 14) 23 Work the problem out, so a conic section can bring about an opportunity. 18) 25 The needy can't change without a propensity fo r novelty. 18) 26 So unds as if a pub consumed essential constituents. 16) 27 For the most part, farmer can, tiler can 't, trade on a commercial basis. 110)

DOWN 2 Politician, altering stance, decrees new statutes. 16) Solution to Crossword no. 34, June/July1995 3 Aunt, perhaps, may leave it right in proportion. 18) 4 Endures until complete cessation of movem ent. 110) 5 Pre-cooked on-the- pot! 17) 6 So me clodhopper ga ping awkwardly' 14) 7 Journalist spea ks about wine with some hesitation. 18) 8 Acts di sinterestedly, if foolishly; feels silly as A1 classification is lost. I 10) 12 As I'm climbing high over the porch, a boa I vaguely see fills me with great fear. 110) 14 Could it be the Spanish White House in Morocco? It will becom e clear as time goes by, perhaps. I 10) 16 T ear about ice before end of August ? Mum's the word! 18) 18 Going off stage without a gun and surviving. 18) 19 Abacus in the shop works in the opposite direction ? 17) 22 The tax system may fa il because of mix- up with South Carolina 16) 24 Som e thing to deposit, emerald included. 14)

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