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Ju st like us, the marginalised people in the overseas communities we help need dignity, self-sufficiency and the ability to build a better life for themselves, their fam il ies • and future generations. ~ Together we can help those in poverty - realise a better future anEVENI~;~BRIAN DOYLE

- Donation hotline American essayist and Catholic commentator ~ ~c~:£~!,~ , ~~~!!::!1!~ 1800 024 41 J "Cruelty and genius and hypocrisy and mercy Donate online at www.caritas.org.au and corporate miasma and stunning grace and ferocious frustration and eye-popping possibility: The Catholic Church in 2004 on This One Wild Wet Sweet Bruised Earth" Reactor: Marcelle Mogg, Editor of Eureka Street Mr/Mrs/Ms/Miss Address ______Postcode.___ _ Friday 26th March at 7.00 for 7.30 pm . Amount: D $1 00 D $80 D $60 U $30 D Other $ ___ CELTIC CLUB D Please find my cheque enclosed OR Cnr Queens and LaTrobe Streets IJ Please debit my 0 Bankcard 0 Mastercard 0 Amex 0 Diners 0 Visa Three course meal. Costs $37.50. Drinks Card No. ______at bar prices. Send cheque or money or­ der (Payable to Catalyst for Renewal) to Name on card ______Kevin Burke 5/ 693 Nepean Hwy, 3197 Amount$ ______Exp date __/ ___ with SSAE by Wednesday 17th March. Signature ______For further information: 03 9776 2705. U Please send me information on regular giving and bequests

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$:~0, ~ ~ ;<:lCD N C: s:n )>::; n>"', I;<; V> N' o -l D I -~'-m COMMENT )> -l "'V1 4 Christopher Gleeson Va lues Fru itfu l COVER STORY )> z 12 j oshua Puis Thinly ve iled 24 Cuban rhythms 0 -l 14 N icholas Way Selective coll ectives jacqueline Dalmau's Cuba. I m 20 A common thread 0 '0 David Holdcroft writes on th e colourful () LETTERS -< 5 What is anti-semitism? culture at th e World Social Forum . 5 Th e undeserving poor 22 Uni ted they sta nd David Glanz on the World Socia l Forum's age nda. THE MONTH'S TRAFFI C 29 Love's Brother and th e state of Australi an john Ca rmody Pride of Er in 6 filmmaking Lucille Hughes discusses 6 Morag Fraser Across th e fence the state of th e Austra li an fi lm industry. 7 Peter Pierce Descending gloom

IN PRINT COLUMNS 30 Ethi cs v. Po litics 7 Summa Theo logiae David Ferris reviews Th e Eth ica l State ? Social Andrew Hamilton Th eology of Publisher Andrew Hamilton 'I Liberalism in Australia by M arian Sawer. Editor Marcelle Mogg convers ation 32 The grea t novel Assistant editor Beth Dohert y 9 Capita l Letter Graphic designers Janneke Stort eboom Andrew Coorey proclaims Th e Middle Parts jack Waterford Th e in convenient truth and Ben Hider of Fortune by Frederi c Manning. Direc tor Chri stopher Gleeson sJ 8 Arch imedes Business manager Mark Dowell 37 Words and images Marketing & advertising manager Ki rsty Grant Tim Thwaites Monkey business Subscriptions Denise Ca mpbell Kirsty Sangster on Plenty: Art into Poetry Edi torial, production and administration 11 By th e Way by Peter Stee le. assistants Gera ldine Battersby, Steven Conte, Brian Matthews Fu el to burn Lee Beasley, Radhika Gorur, Ben Hider 38 Holy ground Fi lm editor Siobhan Jackson 46 W atching brief Ralph Ca rolan visits Th e Temple Down the Road: Poetry editor Philip Harvey juliette Hughes Whodunnit Th e life and times of the MCG by Brian M atthews. Ed itorial board Andrew Hamilton >1 (C), Greg Baurn, Virgini a Bourke, Mari e Tehan, 42 Sumptuous fea st Jane Mayo Ca rolan, Chri stopher Gleeson SJ, Ruth Lovell savours Tiepolo 's Cleopatra Marcelle Mogg, lack Waterfo rd . SNAPSHOT Pa trons Eureka Street gratefully 10 Bed time sto ri es, train s, emai ls by Jaynie Anderson . acknowledges th e support of C. and A. Ca rter; the trustees of the estate of and equity M iss M. Condon; W.P. & M .W. Gurry THEATRE Fureka Street magazine, IS~N I 036- 1758, POETRY 39 Ars artis grati a Australi a Pos t Print Post approved pp349181/00314, is published ten times a 1 7 jorie Manfield Ryan Barcelona Kevin Summers reflects on art for arts sake in yea r by Eureka Street Magazine Pt y Ltd, 17 Brendan Rya n Talking to Auntie Silencia. 100 Victori a Street, Richmond VIC 3 12 I PO Box 553, Ri chmond VIC 3121 40 Fin e fri ends Tel : 03 'l427 73 11 Fax: 03 9428 4450 Kirsty Grant revea ls a world of decadence in email: eureka@ jespub.jes uit.org.au FEATURES Les Liaiso ns Dangereuses. http://www.eurekas tree t. com.a u/ 18 Peace correspondents: The new reporters Responsibility fo r editori al content is 41 Shimmering darkness accepted by Andrew H amilton SJ, jan Forrester writes on journali sts w ho 300 Victori a Street, Ri chmond seek justice by refram ing conflict. Peter Craven ca sts light on th e Dance of Death. Printed by Doran Printing 46 1ndustri al Drive, Bracside VIC 3195. 27 Evo lving Guatemala © Jesuit Publica tions 2004 Peter Hamilton reflects on Guatemala, FLASH IN THE PAN Unsolicited manu sc ripts w ill nol be retu rned. Pl ease do not send origi nal and the features of th e old city, Antigua. 44 Revi ews of th e films Th e Last Sam urai; Big Fish; photographs or art work unl ess reques ted. 31 Belonging: One fan's Tu gga Waugh Good bye Lenin! and Cold Mountain. Requests fo r perm iss ion to rep rin t materi al from I he magazine should be addressed in Gabriel Smith sa lutes Steve Waugh w riting to the edit or. 34 En countering the homeless SUMMER QUIZ RESULTS jane Mayo Carolan confronts poverty in Thi s mon th 26 Lucille Hughes Cover: Images oi Cuba by Jac queline Australi a. Dalmau, full story pp24-25. 35 Matthew Klugman Cover des ign: Janneke Stort cboom 36 A common prayer All illustrati ons by )anneke Storteboom Beth Doherty writes on th e journey un less otherwise in dica ted. PUZZLED Cartoons: pi 0, p34 and p37 by Dea n to inter-religious dialogue by young Moore, p33 by Kath erine Brazenor. Austra li ans. 46 joa n Nowotny Crypti c crossword ( Ollllll<'lll: I Chr-istopher Gl eeson SJ Values fruitful

R ecwT STA•'eMeNTS by gomnmcnt lc•das that both systems espouse intrinsic values, values accusing their own schools of 'values neutral' edu­ that have a permanence beyond shifting tides of cation demonstrate clearly how out of touch they fashion. 'Values neutral' education was simply a fad are with teaching and learning in the nation's class­ that went by the wayside when serious teaching of rooms. 'Values neutral' education, if it ever had any values was developed in all schools during the 1980s. support in schools, was a partner of the very deficient Our politicians have failed to keep up. and long superseded 'values clarification' programs of Author and University leader Jill Ker Conway the 1970s. Most teachers and educators now under­ once referred to these enduring intrinsic values as stand that it is an impossibility. 'true north principles'- permanent values which, Values are different from attitudes which can like true north, remain unchanged despite changes change with seasons. Values have a permanence in our standpoint and perspective. Such values, about them. A value is something precious, of great Max Charlesworth once told a university audience worth, something for which one is prepared to suffer, in 1988, are 'true whether we think so or not; are make sacrifices, even give up one's life. Values give good whether they suit our interests or not; are just meaning. Like the rails that keep a train on track, whether or not they run counter to w hat we immedi­ they provide direction, motive and purpose. They are ately want; are beautiful whether we happen to like the non-negotiables in our society, under girding our them or not; are sacred whether we are willing to various 'bottom lines'. recognise them or not.' While in the past, values education was seem­ Any teacher worth their salt would understand ingly the poor cousin in school curriculum, such is that 'values neutral' education is an impossibility. not the case today. Government and private schools Assertions of this kind undermine the crucial role of have worked to enunciate clearly the specific values teachers in our community. Teachers must be armed they wish to teach and promote. There would be with all sorts of values. If they are passionate about their agreement between both systems about the need subject discipline, and good teachers are passionate to teach what has been termed 'traditional' values: people, they will hold dear what is precious in its respect for the dignity of every individual; the content and method. Committed to the value of their importance of honesty and the need to search for own teaching subjects, they will be too discerning and adhere to the truth; the value of hard work and about the truth, too constrained by time and the achieving high standards; the mutuality of rights and demands of examinable curriculum to promote mod­ responsibilities; the protection of human life at every ish ideologies of the kind raked up in politics recently. point along life's continuum; safeguarding the needi­ A brief reflection on the teachers who shaped our est in our community. These values have an enduring lives will frame people who communicated a love for lighthouse quality about them and, as such, the term their subject, who made it clear where their values 'traditional' does not do them justice. lay without imposing them, who emphasised that an It is important then to recognise that not all values opinion is only as good as the evidence supporting it, are equal. For simplicity, we can reduce them to two who demonstrated that not every opinion or option levels- instrumental values, those which enable us is equally valuable, who showed us the difference to achieve various ends or goals in life, and intrin­ between the questions 'is something right? ' and 'do I sic values- those which are valuable in themselves feel comfortable with this course of action?' in whatever conditions of life, in and out of season. The fo urth century theologian St. John Chrys­ Often the two are confused. A healthy economy, ostom, wrote of teachers: 'What is a grea ter work despite political argy-bargy, is simply an instrumen­ than to direct the minds and form the character of tal value, an important means to achieving a higher the young' I hold with certainty that no painter, no intrinsic value affecting people's quality of life. A sculptor, nor any other artist does such excellent healthy economy will facilitate the promotion of work as the one who moulds the mind of youth.' intrinsic values in schools outlined above. Teaching is too important a vocation in our commu­ In many non-government schools, because of nity, too fruitful in promoting right values, for us to their particular spiritual ethos and tradition, intrinsic allow politicians to associate it with passe trends like values will very often adopt a religious hue. Christian 'values n eutral education.' 8 schools, for example, will source their values in the New Testament and the teachings of Jesus. While this Christopher Gleeson SJ is the Director of Jesuit will be a source of difference between the government Publications and former Headmaster of St Ignatius and independent schools, it should be remembered Riverview and Xavier Colleges.

4 EUREKA STREET MARCH 2004 which addresses both mm1mum Israeli What is anti-Semitism? security needs, and basic Palestinian national aspirations. These views are Anthony Ham's discussion of the new advocated by a healthy minority within __letters wave of global anti-Semitism (E ureka Israel itself. Street, January-February 2004) is welcome Too often international criticism of and timely, but his thesis lacks sufficient Zionism goes beyond reasonable criticism historical and political context. of specific Israeli policies, to a nega tion Ham rightly condemns both anti­ of Jewish national rights per se. And any the good. On reading my piece in the APR, Jewish racism (Judeophobia), and anti­ actions taken by Israeli governments to a friend asked whether I knew this Frank Arab racism (Arabophobia), but draws a defend the lives of citizens are derided as Cicutto. I have m et neither him nor any of very long bow in attempting to bracket illegitimate. the others named in the affair. Who am I both sets of prejudices as 'anti-Semitism'. Ham should be commended for trying to pass judgm ent? Clever semantics aside, anti-Semitism to place Arabophobia in a broader context, My reading of this situation and similar has long been understood in the modern and I agree that experiences of racism episodes does not suggest that these world as involving prejudice directed should not be ranked in order of merit. young traders misappropriated large specifically at Jews. This is because the But equally any equation of victims sums of money. Rather, it is a story of language of anti-Semitism- typically requires a careful historical and political people caught in a hard place and see­ via conspiracy theories claiming Jewish analysis. Some forms of racism are differ­ ing all of their promi e-their fortunate control of either communism or capital­ ent precisely because of their historical life- about to va nish as in a dream. Ye , ism- has produced anti-Jewish genocide. meaning, and their potential for genocide. they respond inappropriately by ventur­ In contrast, there is no historical or con­ Philip Mendes ing more. Perhapsthey break the law and temporary example of anti-Arab discourse Kew, VIC commit fraud. But it is a very human lea ding to anti-Arab genocide. response, as old as the Gospels. Don't This equation of victims of racism also we read in Matthew 25: 14-30 that the subtly neglects the subtext which is that The undeserving poor servants who ventured and won shared one of these victimised groups (the Arabs) their master's joy, while the servant who has often persecuted the other (Jews) . For News of Frank Cicutto's departure from buried his talent in fear of his hard master exa mple, the Jewish population in Arab National Australia Bank follows the is punished? The demands of the fortunate countries has declined from 856,000 in revelation of $360 million dollar losses life are indeed a hard master. The rewards 1948 to just over 7000 today reflecting on the currency trading desk. Cicutto had go to those who venture and win. a combination of popular anti-Jewish spent 3 7 years at the Bank, the last five as They were fortunate once, but now feeling and discriminatory government Managing Director and Chief Executive. are out of a job with families to support, policies. And more recently, the European I have followed these developments facing criminal and/or civil law suits Monitoring Center on Racism and with interest, and contributed an edito­ without near term prospect of employ­ Xenophobia report Manifestations of rial to the Australian Financial Review m ent. This is a paltry sum by comparison. anti-Semitism in the European Union (January 2004). I have studied rogue trader Although no evidence has surfaced of his has confirmed that many of the worst incidents in the past, and in a public complicity in this affair, Frank Cicutto anti-Jewish attacks in Europe have been lecture at the Melbourne Business School bears ultimate responsibility and his head perpetrated not by traditional fascists in October 2003 suggested that there was is offered as ritual sacrifice. A sad ending and anti-Semites, but rather by young a real and present danger of such an event for a proud 3 7-year ca reer at the bank. Muslims, mainly of Arab descent. in the Australian financial system. Dorothy Day wrote that it is indeed Ham then shifts course to attack the To many, the issue seems straightfor­ hard to see Christ in the undeserving poor. Isra eli Government for attempting to dis­ ward. An individual or several individuals Perhaps these people caused their own credit critics of their policies by accusing commit fraud. An amount, possibly in downfall through greed and hubris. They them of anti-Semitism. But putting to excess of $360 million goes missing. The have lost honour and position, and perhaps one side the cynical politics of Sharon public expectation is that those concerned also their material comforts. Must they and Sharansky, this claim is not entirely will be prosecuted to the full extent of the also lose our sympathy? without foundation. To be sure, some law, and those who supervised them up to Stephen Brown hardline critics of Israel are not motivated and including the Chief Executive will be New York, USA by anti-Jewish prejudice, but equally some fired. Any larrikin who breaks a shop win­ are. The distinction is not a simple one. dow and is caught helping himself to some It is clearly not anti-Semitic to argue that of the m erchandise would expect some [urc> ka Street welcomes leiters irom our readers. Israeli settlem ents in the West Bank and hard time. Surely we are right to condemn Short leiters are more likely to be published, and Gaza Strip are illegal and immoral, that those involved in the NAB affair? all letters may be edited. Lett ers must be signed, the Palestinian Arabs living in these Certainly this is the view of the Aus­ and should include a conta ct phone number and territories should have access to the same tralian press. The fact is, schadenfreude the writer's name and address . national rights as Jewish Israelis, and that sells. It always has. There is nothing so Send to: e ur e ka ~'l j es pub . j es uit. o r g . au or a two-state solution should be negotiated delicious as the downfall of the great and PO Box S'i3, Ri chmondVIC 312 1

MARC H 2004 EUREKA STREET 5 much work behind them-visiting deten­ Across the fence tion centres, organising support networks, making friends, lobbying government. RURAL AU) TRALIANS lOR REFUGEES With its overflow crowd, workshops back to back, and intense discussion this confer­ ence was a social movement. The people INALBURY IT IS 41 degrees. The man at the who'd come already understood refugee Pride of Erin microphone is wearing a jacket, tie and a issues and were there to learn how to work badge in his lapel-RSL or Rotary. effectively, not to decide whether or not PATRICI< OTARRLLL 'My Name is Ian Skiller and I'm a horti­ they would. Many had read the litera­ culturalist from Tooleybuc.' He says to an ture available-there is now a formidable audience of over 300 at the second annual Australian li st, from Peter Mares' Border­ 'WHOUT DOUBT or question, colonial Rural Australians for Refugees Conference. line through Marian Wilkinson and David Ireland dies with me and with my like­ A while back, he says, someone con­ Man's Dark Victory to Frank Brennan's the transitionals. Transitional to whatl To tacted him to see if he'd provide accom­ recent Tampering with Asylum- and if a land of cultural chaos and the walking modation for a few Afghan blokes. Asylum they hadn't, some of the authors were there deadl To fragments and ghettoes of mate­ seekers on TPVs (temporary protection in Albury to be quizzed. There were also rialist minds I Or, are we to break the spell visas). He said yes. Then he figured he asylum seekers present, able and eager to that immobilises the past, liberate its pio­ might give the men some work. It all speak for themselves. neering greatness from the shackles of its panned out well. Sorneone told him about Proceedings began with a welcome from sins and negligences, and return it to life Rural Australians for Refugees (RAR). He Charles Sturt's head of campus, Professor with us?' found a local branch in Kerang, joined, Gail Whiteford. 'This is what universi­ So Patrick O'Farrell-the renowned and got going. The men working for him ties should be doing', she declared. The philosopher-historian who died last needed services and language classes. He traditional role of the academy was 'to be Christmas Day aged only 70-concluded went to Canberra 'to get it sorted'. the critic and conscience of society'. Sir Vanished Kingdoms, his extraordinary He looks a little wry about how much Humphrey would call her brave. amalgam of personal, family and social was sorted in Canberra, but h e now has Keynote speaker Frank Brennan fol­ history. His great double achievement - to very good relations with the National's lowed Wiradjuri elder, Nancy Rooke, who revitalise our Catholic past, transforming MP for Mallee, John Forrest. They talk ref­ in the course of her formal welcome and our understanding of it, and to create the ugee politics on the car phone when For­ call for every one to 'go in peace and unity field of Irish-Australian history-was only rest is travelling. together' remarked, 'These people who part of his story. He was also a stylist who Ian Skiller, having met the m en and have come to our land have made a big could be elegant, lucid, wry and idiosyn­ lived with them, is now a spokesman difference'. Sometimes Aboriginal generos­ cratic by turns, one of our finest writers for refugees. And he looks as surprised ity is breathtaking. Frank Brennan said that who wanted, for himself and his readers, about it all as the city people in the crowd. if Albury were ever to be excluded from the to see both the big picture and what lay The folk from Albury, Wangaratta and Australia's immigration zone, it would still beneath it. Braidwood arc not surprised. They have be Wiradjuri land. That set the tone of the In her profound obituary in the Sydney done similar things themselves. They conference which was often heated and Morning Herald, Professor Elizabeth Mal­ understand both the problems of rural life enthusiastic, wry and informative. cohn of Melbourne University referred to and the local strengths. Country people Marilyn Webster, a local RAR member, his The Irish in Australia and wrote, 'It is have to depend on one another, hence the was a salutary critic. She wanted better not merely a history of Irish settlement in gradual acceptance of refugee employees in communication within RAR and she Australia; it is an examination of the devel­ rural towns, rural industries. wanted it now. Barrister and refugee advo­ opment of an Australian identity and an Eighteen months ago, with Melbourne cate Julian Burnside was legal-encyclopae­ assessm ent of the role that the Irish played lawyer and refugee advocate David Manne, dic as he walked the audience through the in this process. I think it not an exag­ I went to Wangaratta for a RAR church maze of claim and appeal that asylum seek­ geration to say that what Manning Clark hall meeting. Both of us were unprepared ers face. His opening gambit was to remark attempted to do in six volumes, O'Farrell for the size of the crowd, and the prepa­ that, like ZsaZsa Gabor's seventh husband, did in one and with more panache'. ration that had gone into the gathering­ he knew what to do but wasn't sure how to And, as Australia metamorphosed, he school displays, publicity etc. I remember make it interesting. He managed. was alert to the fact that it is open-as our best the gent in tweed jacket and hat who But there was no levity later when he fu ture unfolds to other cultures and religions said as he walked though the door, 'No, questioned Sussan Ley, Liberal Member to exert their own influence on the new Aus­ don't give me any pamphlets. I want to lis­ for Farrer, representing Immigration tralia. He was an historian alive not simply ten and decide for myself.' Fair enough. Minister Amanda Vanstone, as to why to the past-and certainly not the mere David was in Albury this time too, she continued to refer to asylum seekers passe- but to the pressing need for ceaseless and as we sat in Charles Sturt University as 'illegal' or 'unlawful'. Ley had joined examination of our individual lives: the per­ campus, we both remarked on the distance the conference as part of a hypotheti­ sonal, the ethical, the spiritual. RAR has travelled in two years. Dozens cal panel ('It's 2010 and you are Prime - John Carmody of branches, thousands of members, and Minister elect in a shared government of

6 EUREKA STREET MARCH 2004 reconciliation') with Senators Andrew I summa Bartlett, Kerry Nettle and Labor's Member for Chifley, Roger Price. Sir Humphrey would have called her very brave. l!heologiae Even more brave-or lazy-was th e Border Mail, which didn't wait for the con­ ference to get into swing before it ran the Theology of conversation banner headline 'REFUGEE SHOWDOWN' on its Saturday morning front page. Crystal ball journalism. But the metro dailies and the electronic media picked up some of the issues. Jill E ssiNG ON INHERITED wisdom is always fraught. Especially when the Singer who attended, spoke the next day wisdom clashes with that of the prevailing culture. on Jon Faine's local ABC conversation I recently attended an instructive workshop for Catholic young adults hour. Manus Island became a talking point on the 'theology of the body'. The participants were keen to know how to and the Catch 22 nature of our immigra­ live sexual relationships in a human way. The workshop was superbly led by tion sieve ('the asylum seeker didn't ask young teachers who were open, knowledgeable and thoroughly familiar with for exactly the right form by name so we the Catholic tradition. They first invited the participants to raise questions couldn't/wouldn't/didn't process him' etc.) for discussion. They listed serious issues concerned with sexual identity and got the exposure it deserves. behaviour. The young adults were then invited to summarise Catholic teaching 'A small group of committed citi­ about sexuality. They responded with a list of prohibitions: no sex before zens can change the world', said Albury's marriage, no abortion, no contraception, no IVF, no divorce, no homosexuality, Dr Penny Egan-Vine. She was quoting no condoms for AIDS, no tricks. Love made a late and timid entry. Margaret Mead, and her words could have In the ensuing discussion, the teachers dealt knowledgeably and openly been a self-congratulatory rallying cry. But with the issues, appealing to the wisdom found within the Catholic tradition, on this occasion they weren't. More of a including the writings of the present Pope. They found it hard to find quotations challenge, that if small groups of commit­ that spoke tellingly to their listeners. But they led the participants into the ted citizens fail to act, then we entrench a Catholic tradition in exploratory and respectful ways, treating the young as system that is manifestly unjust. contributors to and not simply as objects of church teaching. -Morag Fraser Later the conversation became fixed on prohibitions. The catalyst was a TV program about Catholic attitudes to the use of condoms by AIDS victims. From the human framing of sexual relationships participants turned to the Descending gloom authority of external teachers and the prohibitions which they issued. The excellence of this workshop showed the difficulty in passing on a T\VIIICIIT HARNESS RACINC tradition that is unsupported in the wider culture. A distinctive group can expect that the young will see its attitudes as negative in prohibiting practices the culture allows. Its attitudes will also be misrepresented by the culture. R ACING OFFICIAL WERE pleased when The Catholic Church has an interest in leading young people beyond 3000 people went to a twilight meeting at negative images to a positive Christian understanding of sexuality. This Flemington early in January. Metropoli­ requires good conversation. In good conversation about sexuality, the Christian tan night racing has been with us since understanding is presented as a high ideal. When Christian attitudes are opposed the 1990s, but judging by the turnout at to other attitudes as good against evil, instead of as ideal opposed to not ideal, Moonee Valley before Australia Day, these young adults easily feel that their friends, and perhaps themselves, are rejected. might as well be phantom meetings. They will not then continue the conversation with the tradition. The Moonee Valley Racing Club had Good conversation also emphasises what is central to human living. It does done its best to attract patrons, but scarcely not focus on the defects of messy ways of coping with hardship. To attack, for reached beyond the hard core. The enter­ example, the use of condoms by AIDS victims instead of encouraging people tainment provided hardly touched them: a in relationships blighted by suffering to nurture their love for one another, Bush Show for kids, the Frankie J. Holden condemns young people to see a rich tradition as harsh and distorted. Band, and the national anthem, sung by a When entering their tradition through conversation, the young must well-coached 16-year-old. Most dire was believe that they can contribute to the wisdom of the group. To stress the where teams of men ran up the straight unique authority of the elders distracts the young from the rich patterns of while eating a pie, hopped back in sacks human living that tradition commends. and completed the course by pushing a beer The language in which wisdom is passed on is one of simple words and barrel- the 'Aussie games.' simple human gesture. The Catholic rhetoric of sexuality-partly legal, partly The Club is recovering from the philosophical, and in part lushly theological-often forgets its roots, which is in unthinkable: stuffing up the Cox Plate a humble language spoken by ordinary people. • last October. The weather may have been chancy and the field below par, but it was Andrew Hamilton SJ teaches at the United Faculty of Theology, Melbourne.

MARCH 2004 EUREKA STREET 7 the $50 admission fee that reduced the crowd by 10,000. Add to this the refusal to include subsequent Derby winner archimedes Elvs troem in the fi ld: although he was bea ten narrowly in the Vase on Cox Plate day, he might have stretched his seniors. On this night, Pra ncelot, in the colours Monkey business of Dulcify which won a Cox Plate, led all the way in the first. The second was a 3000 YuDON'T HAVE TO DELVE far into the m edia to recognise what a diffi culty metre race for ordinary horses. The start is at homosexuality presents for the Christian churches and to society in general. It's no the 1200m mark. Round they go to the post less a problem fo r biology. and round again. We backed Tarlan, a ju m ps In terms of Darwinian evolution, being gay seems both maladaptive a11d as well as a flat winner. He was wide early, in efficient, going against the grain of maximising your contribution to the next but once the jockey got him to the rails in generation. And if there were a skerrick of a genetic component to hom osexuality, the stra ight he led thereafter. Freedman and natural selection should have removed it from the gene pool long ago. Yet estimates Oliver combined to win the next on Dane of hom osexuality remain steady at about ten per cent. This is thousands of times Tryst and it was time for the feature race. higher than the most prevalent of deleterious genes. So how does homosexuality Last year's winner Yell, who went on to persist, and at such high levels? win three Group One sprints on the trot, The an swer, according to St311ford University biologist Prof. Joan Roughgarden, was in again. In the spring his form tailed is that the Darwinian analysis is flawed. It rests on two assumptions which biologists off after a first-up win at the Va ll ey. The almost never question- that organism s must be either m ale or fem ale, and that three-year-old, highl y regarded Delzao was resuming. The rest looked consistent ra ther the sole biological purpose of sex is reproduction. In Evolution's Rainbow to be than exciting, save for the lightly-raced published in May and previewed in New Scientist, Roughgarden takes issue with fo ur-yea r-old marc Vocab ulary. The race both contentions. She argues that sex, even hom osexual ex, can be evolutionarily was run at a muddling pace. Yell was wide adaptive in ways other than directly through reproduction- for instance, through and fi nished fourth. Super Elegant had the the establishment and maintenance of relationships useful to tl1e successful rearing race won but the jockey might have taken of offspring. In a broad survey of animals, and particularly our close relatives, the it easy, for Vocabulary swooped and scored. apes, she finds hundreds of examples. They may be heterosexual, such as female In the next race Mardi Gras looked so good monkeys in India which are deliberately promiscuous, hiding the identity of the co ming on to the track that I felt sick fo r fa ther, thus providing offspring general pro tection from predatory adult males; or not having backed her. She won. Three they may be homosexual, such as the female bonobos who form cooperative groups, quinellas and Tarlan bailed us out. We the members of which gather food collectively. caught the 59 tram back, wondering what Whether you agree with Roughgarden's analysis or not, it is a fascinating the Club can do to draw a crowd. There is example of how personality and culture affect the genesis of (supposedly) objective even talk of the night trots going back to scientific ideas. Her thoughts would not, perhaps could not, have occurred to Darwin the Showgrounds, let alone the furphy of who spent most of his life as an independently wealthy, middle-class, country th e Cox Plate go ing to Flemington. Do we gentleman in Victorian England. Darwin had trained for the ministry, wrote books really need a second Mackinnon Stakes? on natural history, and lived with a devoted wife who bore ten children- hardly a Skite-time: this column wrapped Fal­ man to take issue with conventional church teaching a11d societal wisdom that sex brav las t October. He won the biggest race was solely for procreation. at the Hong Kong International meeting, Roughgarden is from a different milieu. A Harvard graduate, she is 311 established his fif th Group One for the year. Two-year­ evolutionary biologist and ecologist at one of America's m ost respected research old Bago ro unded off his season with a six institutions. She is also, in her own words, a 'transgendered woman ', living in the length victory in the Group One Criterium. San Francisco area during a tin1e when it has becom e a centre of gay awareness and He topped the European Free Handicap pride. The research into the prevalence of hom osexuality throughout the animal for two-ycar-olds. Watch for him in this kingdom, upon which her argum ent depends, was undertaken in response to that year's classics. upsurge of self-confidence. No matter how one m ay view Roughgarden's theory, -Peter Pierce her basic arguments arc not trivial. They draw attention to the fact that much of our biological theory was formed by people whose viewpoint and knowledge of the This month's contributors: John Carmody biological world was very different from today's. is a Sydney medical scientist and opera Roughgarden's ideas have already stirred som e controversy in gay and feminist and music critic; Morag Fra ser is an academic communities, because som e of the conclusions she draws are eminently adju nct professor in the Schoo l of Social debatable. The level of debate will only increase leading up to the release of her Sciences and Humanities at La Trobc book. N ot for the firs t time are the teachings of the church going to b challenged University. She was an invited speaker by a scientist. • at the RAR conference. Peter Pierce is Professor of Australian Literature at James Tim Thwaites is a freelan ce science writer. Cook University, Cairns.

8 EU REKA STREET MARCH 2004 capital letter The inconvenient truth

Bv A N Y STANDARDS n seems ' fine kettle of fish. Most of government could always claim that it had access to secret the intelligence gathered by two of the best-equipped nations information to overcome any doubts. Australia's intelligence on earth seems to have been false. False because the agencies establishment, which also briefed the Opposition, did not demur. were deceived, either by the 'enemy', or by people with an All this they did before the interventions of politicians and interest in promoting a particular response. False because spin doctors, or the military who, once set for war, believe that analysts m ade wrong deductions as they either ignored disinformation is a part of operational security. Governments evidence and analysis which did not suit their prepossessions, misused the assessments they were given, either via their own in­ or because they filled in the blank spaces according to their telligence advisers or when directly briefed in Washington, Texas preconceptions, or their feeling of what the target was up to. and London. They stressed the information which supported deci­ And they did this long before any idea of pleasing political sions they had made, and dismissed that which did not. 'Migh t masters, or the 'custom ers', cam e into it. have's became 'had's, tentative findings became conclusive The customers made clear what they wanted to hear. When evidence, and assertions by Iraqi dissidents became statements this was not the case, they doubted the analysis. Governments of fa ct. That's what politicians do. But did they lie? Not in the demanded that intelligence information be made publicly avail­ direct sense. Were they told of caveats on information they able so as to justify political decisions already made. The analysis were given, or advised if later information undermined earlier became advocacy, often at the initiative of analysts themselves. assertions? Never directly. Following the 'children overboard' The closer one gets to the custom er, the greater the anxiety affair, the chances that an official can get to Howard with W1- to please. William Percy, a former senior military spook, gave a pleasant news, particularly in writing, are slim. Howard's office nice example to a parliam entary committee last year. screens everything, and there is no record of whether messages 'It is my experience that initial assessments (made by the are passed on. Surely, in the prelude to war, senior leaders were relevant desk officer) often undergo significant chan ges in reviewing the evidence on a daily basis? Not really. Australia's tone during their progress up through an organisation, de­ involvem ent did not turn on the intelligence pending on the disposition of the various reviewing officers. inform ation: we were just along for the ride. A simple example of changes might illustrate the point: T HERE IS NO GREAT CASE for Australia to investigate how we Originator/desk officer: there is no evidence that got the intelligence on Iraq so terribly wrong. We relied on false Section head: it is unlikely that intelligence fro m great and powerful friends, even if our agencies Division head: it is unlikely, but possible, that sieved most of it, and rewrote bits from an Australian view. The Branch head: It is possible that inquiries in the US and the post-Hutton review will reveal most of Such changes are not incompatible, but they do alter the the information. The sober but devastating report of the Carnegie tone of an assessment.' Endowment for International Peace (www.ceip.org/intel) is a taste In the blame gam e fo r the fa lse impressions given by of what i to come. governments about the existence, extent and threat posed For those who wonder about the quality of Australian govern­ by weapons of m ass destruction in Iraq, claims that Saddam ment, a process so debauched on such an importan t issue, inspires might arm terrorist groups, and of his links with Islamist or­ little confidence. What of mundane issues such as determining ganisations, it is almost impossible to find a formal pre-inva­ higher education or health policies or participating in free trade sion assessm ent, whether in Australia, Britain or the US, with negotiations, or even routine actions; a government appointment significant caveats about these fi ndings. Only one intelligence or the settling of a major contract? Is government only soliciting analyst, Australia's Andrew Wilkie, made public his doubts submissions that promote the decisions it wants to make? Deci­ before the invasion, resigning in protest at political misuse sions are no longer made as ministers argue the pros and cons with of intelligence. Britain's dissenters, Dr David Kelly and Brian their public servants, but determined between the minister an d his Jones, did not voice their frustrations until after the war. While (or her) advisers where who said what, or what caveats exist is rare­ som e unnamed American analysts leaked their concerns about ly documented. Too often bureaucratic dealings are with the mind­ the misuse of intelligence, they were swamped by the noise of ers, not the minister, and just what the minister knows is never those 'in the team'. clear. Formal submissions have been 'settled' with the staff before The public had ample access to info rmation casting doubt they go up for signing. In a government paranoid about leaks, min­ on the claims, from other countries, independent experts isters will not chance an official paper contradicting the ministe­ (including nuclear, chemical and biological weapons inspections rial rationale. It's this trend, not just this latest manifestation, that teams) and the broader debate. Even though most experts took ought to have people worried. • the existence of some WMDs as read, there was, in Australia, a reasonably informed debate about whether we had a casus belli. Yet Jack Waterford is editor-in-chief of the Canben a Times.

MARCH 2004 EUREKA STREET 9 snap shot an appeal from the widow of a now dead research arm of JS S, is to release a report dictator to accept the $10 million. following an ongoing investigation of All these wiles the Just Man sees locational disadvantage, which shows a through. But the devil has one more card lack of opportunity for some to access to play. In the subject heading, h e writes education, employment and reasonable 'News Letter'. When his Apple Mac offers wages. him this promise of instant connection Community Adversity and Resilience ~ and the knowledge of things hidden, the is compiled by Tony Vinson. Tony's pro­ Just Man falls. He opens the message, and fessional career h as been characterised by \ \ \ \ finds himself confronted by Suzie offering a commitment to change and social cohe­ \ \ \ I @ ( ' JS him unlimited Viagra. sion, so that all Australians can benefit from the equal distribution of resources. More equal for some The mission of JSS is to advocate on Having a devil of a time behalf of those who do not reap the benefits Globalisation is profiting som e in Aus­ of living in the lucky country. The devil is quick to take up new technol­ tralia, but not all. Australia is a coun­ The report will be released on 8 ogy. He is now into e-commercc. His mis­ try where poverty goes unnoticed while March. For copies, or more information, sion: to seduce the Just Man into opening juicier topics like terrorism arc favoured contact JSS on 03 9427 7388 or visit emails that promise him the kingdoms of by m edia. www.jss.org.au. the world. But the poor are still poor, no mat­ The direct approach is unprofitable. The ter the strength of th e safety net; and the \ Just Man is too modest to yield to offers to poor rarely benefit no matter how high expand or shrink the relevant parts of his the budget surplus. body, too healthy to be tempted by cheap 'When this occurs during a time of drugs, too chaste to lust after a good time economic prosperity, it is cause for con­ with Melanie or Suzie, and too upright to cern,' says Fr Peter Norden sr, Policy covet the $10 million placed in his bank Director for Jesuit Social Services (JSS). account by a retired dictator. The Ignatius Centre, the policy and But the devil is accustomed to disguis­ ing himself as an angel of light. He insinuates guilt, 'You did not answer my email'. He On track appeals to fear, 'Your last ,. LOOK! " SAID !'<'\ARK, "n's A. chance to avoid discon­ S£CREI LA 1) I)£R ( AHP I'LL. 13£1 The m enu read rather like the Twelve nection'; he invokes the IT LJ;ADS R\bl-\1 10 Tl-lB (;,OL..Vt:N. Days of Christmas; 30 sides of smoked spirit of self-sacrifice, OPPOIZ.IL)NIIIE:S! 11 50 W11l\ LOIS Of salmon, 45kg fillets of beef, 62kg of gour­ 'l111portant meeting'. HARP WORK AN.Pf..ffoRI HB CLINigE.D met ch eese, 75kg of barramundi, 240 When all else fails, he \K£ IZUN&S Or-l~ £31{ QN£ 11 L-<... At L. AST portions of Maggie Beer pa te, 3960 bread tries compassion, 'Of 11£ Rt-AO-IC.P IH £ \ff,R.'{ 1CJP ( rolls, 2600 eggs, 100 cartons of Crown your pity, assist me'- Lager and 1440 bottles of fine red and white wine. A fine m enu for a fi tting occasion as the Chan-Australia's longest ( 1.069 km) train- made its inaugural journey. Adelaide to Darwin was the order of the journey, as the two locomotives required for 43 carriages gave Thomas the Tank Engine a run for his money. Eight chefs and 40 crew hosted guests and passengers, including politicians past and present, train buffs and train spotters. All on board received a colourful welcom e to Darwin, including some par­ tially naked locals who mooned the train as it approached the city. Thankfully, Federal Tourism Minister Joe Hockey was not naked despite losing a wager with train lover Tim Fischer that the link to Darwin would never eventuate. Sometimes a simple hello is more than enough.

I 0 EUREKA STREET MARCH 2004 Fuel to burn

AsCAR AS EVENTS in the Place de l'Hm\oge a

MARCH 2004 EUREKA STREET 11 the \\oriel: 1 Joshua Puis

I WAS HmmR sep.c• ting studen'" of God hanging on a tree for the salvation cam e in 1802, in his Reply to the Danbury when I was a teacher. It was particularly of the world is no longer religious, provided Baptist Association. The First Amendment necessary with high school girls, whose the image is small enough) . to the US Constitution protects, capacity to talk perpetually might one day Perceived by many to be principally am ongst other things, the right to free offer a solution to the world's sustainable an anti-Muslim m easure, the proposal has exercise of religion, and it prohibits the energy problems. been recommended by President Chirac, erection of a state church. Referring to Separation is a curiously ineffective and readily embraced by the centre-right that clause, Jeff erson wrote to the good thing. When I separated students, it did Government and a frightening proportion folk of Danbury: not affect their friendships, the subject of of the still mostly (if only nominally) 'Believing with you that religion is a their conversation, nor, in most cases, the Catholic French population. matter which lies solely between man amount of attention they were giving me. It is a curious development in the land and his God, that he owes account to T hey were just a bit further apart. of liberty, equality and fraternity. This is none other for his faith or his worship, According to the Concise Oxford, the the country that in 1789 embraced the idea that the legislative powers of government adjective 'separate' means not much m ore that 'No one shall be disquieted on account reach actions only, and not opinions, I than 'ph ysically disconnected'. I suppose of his opinions, including his religious contemplate with sovereign reverence that is right. When you separate things, or views, provided their manifestation does that act of the whole American people people, or ideas, about the only thing you not disturb the public order established which declared that their legislature ca n control is their physical location, and by law. ' Yet, the Government is justifying should "make no law respecting an estab­ even that only temporarily. Things that its plans by reference to the values of the lishment of religion or prohibiting the free arc related will remain so, wherever you revolution and the need to uphold the exercise thereof", thus building a wall of might try to move them. country's secular identity. separation between church and state.' So how do you separate church and In an unusual twist, the French share In 1987 US Chief Ju stice Rehnquist state, intimately connected in a variety of with the United States the same slightly called Jefferson's 'wall of separation' a ways, and lacking physical manifestations bizarre thinking of that great architect of 'misleading m etaphor' which had freighted that can be neatly assigned to different civil society, Thomas Jefferson. Although American constitutional history sides of a room? the French Declm·ation of the Rights of for nearly forty years. France has recently tackled the problem Man and of the Citizen was drafted by with typical Gallic pugnacity, planning to the Marquis de La Fayette, apparently L E PROBLEM rs obv ious. Church and outlaw in state schools the wearing of he had more than a little assistance state cannot be separated by a wall. They headscarves by Muslim women, skullcaps from Jefferson, who was then the US cannot be moved to different parts of by Jewish men, and large Christian crosses. Ambassador to France. civil society, nor to different parts of an (Thanks to popular culture and Madonna in Jefferson's enduring hex on church­ individual believer's life, any more than particular, apparently the image of the Son state relations in western democracies they can be moved to different sides of

12 EU REKA STREET MARCH 2004 a room. Jefferson separated actions and eliminating visible religious divisions, opinions with ease. I dare say Muslim the Government will inevitably crystal­ believers may not find it so simple, and lise and energise invisible ones. How you AND, BEHOLD, perhaps neither ought the rest of us. pray will become part of how you vote; it In the United States the early citizens might also now have a bit more to do with A BURNING sought to shape a society different from whom you hate. BUSH the one they had known in England, where What then for Australia? Section 116 or, an Aussie Gentile on the holy religion had for centuries been the basis of of our Constitution was drafted with the mount in search of what was discrimination and persecution. The American First Amendment in mind, and written by men in step with God. intensely religious men is similar in its word­ and women who sought ing. It was not given its by Bill Priest. and wrote the First first thorough treatment Seav iew Press 2002, 6th reprint. Amendment did not want by the High Court until a society where religion the Federal Government AND, BEI-tvLu, had to be walled in; they sought to silence paci­ A BURNING wanted a political econ­ fist Jehovah's Witnesses BUSH omy in which one's reli­ during World War II. At gion would be irrelevant. that time, Chief Justice Don't blame the text for Latham correctly stated the fundamentalist theoc­ that section 116 is 'based racy that the US has now upon the principle that become; that is largely religion should, for polit­ the fault of the courts and ical purposes, be regarded opportunistic politicians. as irrelevant'. ... ~....:::-:-.::::.~-..t ..,_ ...... , .... ~ The French have And so, by and Bill Priest. B.A. (Syd.) failed to heed the large, it has been. In American experience, Australia, politics has Is Christian doctrine drawn from the or at least do not seem remained mostly and greatest truths ever told, or from the to care. In a knee-jerk happily free of reli­ of anti-terrorist fervour, the French gion. The 1955 Labor split is the obvi­ greatest nonsense ever written? Government seems to want religion to be ous exception, which continues to serve A Bible trivia quiz of 2 000 questions for totally private, walled in. For the French, as a reminder of just how ugly religious the curious Christian, the scholar-cleric separation of church and state seems to politics can be. In Australian politics, and the odd agnostic. Generously cross­ mean that as you go about your daily life religious interests have to line up with referenced and indexed. The answers you should not be able to identify what all the others. Most people could not are extensively footnoted with reams another person's religion is, any more than tell you what if any religion their local of material from other scriptural and you could identify what their political members, or even their national leaders, historical sources - 'lost' and rejected persuasion might be. follow. This is not such a bad thing. apocrypha of the OT and NT, the Dead It is an attempt to protect the secular Fortunately, it is very different from what Sea Scrolls, the Gnostic gospels, the foundations of French society, but it is America has long been and what France Apostolic Fathers, the Book of Mormon, misguided. It makes church and state any­ may yet become. The result of decades of the Koran, Mesopotamian manuscripts thing but separate. It is the state reach­ American effort to erect a wall of separation -and the author's commentary. ing into the minutiae of the daily life between church and state is, ironically, a of its citizens, telling them what they public life saturated with religion. In the "A prodigious piece of research . The may or may not wear. This, you might United States and now in France, religion Vatican would probably be jealous of recall, was one of the oft-cited is political. It does not get less separate the author's database. An entertaining crimes of the Taliban. than that. reminder of where we come from." Perhaps the key to all of this lies in Quadrant. F oR BELIEVERS, this debate is about another statement of Chief Justice Latham. much more than apparel. For many Section 116, he said, 'assumes that citizens "Rather mind-blowing, a peerless tool for Muslims and Jews and even for some cross­ of all religions can be good citizens, and that theology. The postscript is an amazing wearing Christians, these are not just cus­ accordingly there is no justification in the essay. It is about time such a book was toms of dress; they are the ordering of one's interests of the community for prohibiting written." Swi nburne Un ive rsity's Swine. life. What you wear is how you pray. As one the free exercise of any religion'. Good Paperback, 510 pp. On AS white protest banner cried, 'France, you are my advice for our times. • paper, laminated full-colour cover. country; Veil, you are my life.' $24.95 plus p&p at If Chirac wanted to animate religious Joshua Puls is a lawyer and psychologist www.seaviewpress.com.au. politics in France, he could scarcely and is Chaplain of Newman College in the phone 08 82351535. have devised a better means than this. In University of Melbourne.

MARCH 2004 EUREKA STREET 13 I I Ni c holas W ay Selective collectives

The Federal Government abhors workers using unions to bargain collectively. But there is different thinking for small business.

A u eoLITKAL PARnes •g, ocd. It want to expand, invest and employ more between small business and big business, seemed an eminently sensible reform to Australians.' In mythology, if not reality, 1.1 million sm all businesses, inc! uding enhance the competitive position of small the cornerstore owner is an integral part farming bodies, will be able to collectively business. The Dawson report, a com­ of the heart and soul of the conserva tive negotiate with big business. For the fi rst mitment the Federal Government made side of politics. time, local corner stores will be able to to business before the 2001 election to What this commitment to small busi­ compete with suppliers like Coles Myer exam ine how com petition law was work­ ness m eans, in words if not reality, is that on price, while retail tenants should be ing, handed down a recommendation to the conservatives see them selves as the able to better negotiate collectively with streamline the process by which sm all natural defender of a constituency that big landlords. business can collectively bargain and boy­ often perceives itself as being squeezed by 'Coll ective bargaining by smaller fi rms, cott in its dealing with big business. bureaucracy, big business and, of course, where it does not have an anti-com petitive It was little wonder the Federal trade unions. When it comes to competi­ effect, empowers small businesses to take Government pounced on this recommen­ tion law, the 'villain' is big business. It is on the larger firms. Measures include the dation, one of the few 'headline grabbers' Coles Myer and Woolworths versus the introduction of a notifica tion process for to em erge from this eight-month review of corners tore. collective bargaining by small businesses, the Trade Practices Act (TPA). It appealed The Federal Government did not spell the quick turnaround of applications (14 to small business- one of the Federal it out quite like that after the Dawson da ys) and reduced fees.' (The legislation, Government's core constituencies that report was handed down in April last year. incidentally, is still in the pipeline.) Liberal Party founder Sir Robert Menzies Criticism of big business was implicit, The release is more significant for identified as being part of the 'forgotten not explicit. Treasurer Peter Costello's what it doesn't say than fo r what it does. people'. N early half a century later, when press release put it succinctly: 'Rural and For implicit in all of Hockey's com­ giving the 1996 Sir Robert Menzies lec­ regional stakeholders and small business ments are two underlying themes. First, ture, Prime Minister John Howard tapped will welcome the introduction of a notifi­ that while much of big business pays the same political sentiment. 'Menzies' cation process to facilitate collective bar­ lip service to competition, in truth they success lay in building a broadly based gaining by small businesses dealing with want to limit competition . The history of constituency at the heart of which were large businesses.' But the Minister for Australian business, especially before the the 'forgotten people'- Australians of the Small Business and Tourism, Jo e Hockey, Whitlam Labor Government passed the mainstream who felt excluded by the spe­ was more effu sive. In a press release TPA in 1974, was a history of monopo­ cial interest elitism of the Liberals and titled, 'Victory for small business' (m ean­ lies, oligopolies or cartels, oft en with from Labor's tra de union dominance ... ing a loss for big business? ), he said: 'In a government connivance or even support (They) include small business people who significant rebalancing of the relationship (the two airlines poli cy is an obvious

14 EU REKA STREET M ARCH 2004 example ). Certainly that fa m ed comment He was always returning to the them e to lazy m anagement that would prefer by l S'h century economist and philoso­ that the cooperative workplace, the caring to talk to a union organiser than its own pher Adam Smith seems apposite: 'People employer, the loyal, committed worker, workforce.' of the sam e trade seldom m eet together, was the norm. While h e held the Workplace What Abbott and his colleagues believe, even for merriment and diversion, but the Relations portfo lio from January 2001 and what they argue unions either don't conversation ends in a conspiracy against to October 2003 he articulated this posi­ believe or don't understand, is that people the public, or in some contrivance to raise tion with conviction and passion . He used in a company, from the m anager down to prices.' Second, that fo r small business, his speeches, arguably m ore than any the cleaner, have more uniting them than bargaining collectively is essential, not predecessor, Liberal or Labor, to explain dividing them . The real enemy is the com ­ just for its wellbeing but its survival, when the philosophical underpinnings of the petitor down the street, not the boss in the confronting the powerful commercial Federal Government's approach to carpeted corner office. And most workers interests at the big end of town. workplace relations. know and appreciate this. '(The) preoccu­ What the Federal Government is saying pation with beating the boss rather than is that there is a power imbalance between SPEECH TITLED 'Reflections of a beating the competition means that some big and sm all business. It fi ts neatly, and N ew Boy' to the H.R. Nicholls Society, in union leaders would rather see a business deeply, into the party's psyche-the guard­ March 2001, just two m onths into hold­ close than compromise their demands. If ian angel of the forgo tten people. At the ing the portfolio, he said: 'There are few a business subsequently complains that sam e tim e this Governm ent has consist­ more heavily regulated activities than its cost structure is too high, the standard ently argued, since returning to power in dealings between employee and employer. union response is to reduce competition 1996, that any power imbalance between Australia's workplace relations system rather than boost productivity because employers and employees is largely assumes that workers and bosses are inca­ the competition unions understand is the figment of union bosses' imagina­ pable of managing differences, that work­ between capital and labor rather than tion. On the labor front, employers, big ers are always weak and gullible, bosses between business and business,' he told employers included, can be trusted. Sure, are always greedy and manipulative, that the Confectionary Manufacturers annual not all of them play by Queensberry daily relations need to be governed by industry lunch in December 2001. rules, but, in the main, businesses complex rules, and that the inevitable dis­ Where this position leads Abbott, and value their employees and treat agreements must be resolved by someone the Federal Government (his successor, them equitably. else. I'm sure Australians are better than Victorian Kevin Andrews, who refused that. Good workers are always in demand. an interview for this article, is, judging by L INK ABOUT IT. Small business is Most bosses try hard to keep the people his press statements, on the same wave­ encouraged to act collectively-a potent they've trained. Even conceding a few bad length), is inexorably to a position where weapon in dealing with big business. apples, do we really need a system that unions have no role in the workplace. But employees, with minimum rights assumes the worst of the people in it?' Workers will be more productive, coopera­ enshrined, should trust their employer. He later added: 'The Government tive, flexible and their morale higher with­ Indeed, as the former Workplace Relations believes that human enterprises work best out unions. How else can this comment by Minister Tony Abbott once said, employ­ when participants talk among themselves Abbott, made to Commerce Queensland ees should see bad bosses like bad fathers fi rst rather than to third parties. Workers, in August 2002, be interpreted. 'I'm or husbands-'they tend to do more good managers and owners should be talk­ pleased that as well as hundreds of thou­ than harm'. ing to each other rather than to unions, sands of (collective) agreements with In the public furore that followed that employer organisations, commissioners, unions, ... that we now have an increasing comment, Abbott retreated from this posi­ judges and courts at the first hint of a disa­ percentage of (non-union collective) agree­ tion. But it was Dunkirk, not Stalingrad. greement. We're fundamentally opposed ments .. . I'd like to see that continue,

MARCH 2004 EUREKA STREET 15 and develop, and expand in the months consigned 'to the dust heap of history'. exceptions (CBD building sites), union and years ahead. Not because I have any­ That the Federal Government has membership is voluntary. Many employ­ thing against unions. Responsible unions implicitly taken this position at this time ers, too, chose to negotiate with unions, have a lot to contribute to Australia. But in our history is difficult to comprehend. in part respecting their employees' because I believe that in the end it is Unions, as the Federal Government tells choice to be in a union. While the impossible to run business, it is impos­ us ad nauseam , are in decline. Possibly Federal Government would argue, veh e­ sible to mange an operation, without terminal decline. Union numbers have mently, that it does not oppose the right having a direct relationship with your halved in the past two decades for many of workers to join a union, the continual staff. And if what you want is a direct reasons: their own ineptitude, the chang­ stream of statements emanating from relationship with your staff then what ing nature of work and better and embold­ Canberra questioning the legitimacy you should do is negotiate directly with ened employers to name some. Industrial of unions undermines their position them, cut out the middle m en, and activity is at historically low levels. in society. It is not subtle. Unions, big try and go for agreem ents that refl ect Workplaces, union and non- and small, militant and passive, left and the fundamental bonds of trust and union, are more productive. right, are all lumped in the same basket. con fi dence that should exist between When the Premium Group, a group worl

16 EUREKA STREET MA RCH 2004 verse

Barcelona Talking to Auntie

Thieves are brazen we were warned. Something is on your back doorstep Women hold their bags tight. and you don't realise how big it is. Bikes roar impatience along the narrow streets. With her cataracts removed On Las Ramblas an angel shows us mercy her grey slacks have turned blue and her stories become slanted for a price, Superman fails to fly when my mother walks in the room. and a juggler drops his spinning balls. The crowd drifts on. Plunger Pat, Shine Ryan, Birregurra Bill She slips into a church that smells of onions An African in dreadlocks plays the red piano; people dance his madness, a man who dined with his mother eyes ready for the next escape. instead of his wife each night. Next to the pea and thimble trickster Like hot tea filled to the brim sits a man, his upper body bare I've inherited a world so we can see the awful scarring that doesn't guarantee the present. where his arms used to be. In a kitchen bathed with light she offers me dry biscuits Sagrada Familia takes our breath away. another blind auntie smiling beneath her cataracts. Gaudi's temple flows, lines almost finish then emerge I feel like I'm cutting my throat if I don't eat some potatoes each da y. as fractals of trees growing tall to fill the nave. We see the birth of Christ, I ask for stories and she gives me facts wise men on their knees, animals emerging from the rock. so strange, they must be fiction. On the fa~ade of the Passion, the columns mimic bones. Everything she owns is moored to memory Sacrifice is hard and ugly work. passed around to the music of footy commentary.

Peter weeps. Do you want another cup of t e a~ Christ is crucified, No, well you're not a tea drinl

- Jorie Manefield Ryan - Brendan Ryan

MARCH 2004 EU REKA STREET 17 11

Conventional journalism portrays war as a zero sum game, a series of violent exchanges between contending parties. 'War reporting' requires clear winners and losers, and the media interprets the events contributing to conflict accordingly.

A 'MALL NUMB

18 EUREKA STREET MARCH 2004 Kremmer, Australian foreign affairs journalist and author of The the military nor GAM would attack it-' Muchtar is pragmatic and Carpet Wars: A Tourney Across the Islamic Heartlands, sees acknowledges building community in an active conflict zone is a peace-building journalism as a legitim ate extension of existing long and difficult process. journalistic practice, encouraging a diversity of views. 'If we can According to Jake Lynch, peace-building media resists defin­ have war correspondents reporting conflict, why not have peace ing groups of people in a conflict as either worthy or unworthy. correspondents exploring solutions?' he says. However, Kremmer 'Kosovo is the greatest example I can think of where the term argues that there should be limits to a journalist's role in any con­ "the Serbs" became a portmanteau of abuse, so that the Serbian flict: 'Peace journalists should be aware that they, like all journal­ population of Kosovo were seen as guilty by association with the ists, are susceptible to manipulation by political and economic Serbian paramilitary gangs.' interests. While retaining their own beliefs they should continue Christopher Kremmer acknowledges that the situation in to respect journalistic conventions of accurate, penetrating and Afghanistan prior to 2001 predisposed many journalists to choose fair reporting, rather than sides. 'In Afghanistan, all journalists have had to confront the trying to manage outcomes. Truth may sometimes be temptation to choose sides among the factions. Only a minor­ more important than peace.' ity resisted completely. Many journalists saw things through the Tajik commander Ahmed Shah Massoud's eyes. For most, he was INTHE INDONESIAN province of Aceh, where the locals are wedged a charismatic figure and, relatively speaking, a decent hum an being between the separatist Free Aceh movement, Gerakan Aceh compared with other key figures waging the military struggles', Merdeka (GAM), and military occupation, Aya Muchtar has tried a Kremmer says. 'The Taliban, because of their intolerance, faced a lateral approach to peace building. She was a community mediation gathering consensus against them by journalists, but this was not worker involved in peace-building strategies with community and initially shared by NGOs, who needed to continue working with religious leaders in several of Indonesia's conflict zones. Speaking local Afghans. A journalist's primary responsibility however [is] from the United States' mid-west, where she is now a postgraduate to the audience back home, and so naturally, the dysfunctional media student, Muchtar describes how she tried to tailor strategies tyranny of the Taliban encouraged a tendency to demonise them, to the local situation, making use of local media. In Aceh, local radio which intensified greatly post-September 11 .' stations had resorted to music-only programming to avoid trouble The push for bigger audiences also influences reporting styles. with the authorities. Muchtar trained community and religious Aya Muchtar remembers a long line of overseas journalism train­ leaders in basic radio techniques and pushed them to approach the ers who have gone to Indonesia armed with the values of inde­ radio stations to present talk programs. pendence, objectivity and truth in reporting. 'Since I have come 'We encouraged them to introduce 'educational' discussions. to the US to do media studies I have noticed that, to reach the One topic was corruption, which is an issue in Aceh. Rather than market they want, journalists here can be just as subjective in a frontal attack on the local administration we produced a short their reporting as back home.' • 'soapie' and called for community discussion on how to prevent corruption and what it does to the local community. We hoped to Jan Forrester is a media consultant and freelance writer. Rahmad encourage an Acehnese belief that this radio station belonged to Nasution will spend 2004 in Australia as a media studies post­ them, because if it was seen to be the voice of the people neither graduate student.

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MARCH 2004 EUREKA STREET 19 David Hold croft Common thread

w m MANY 0' "'in Au,,]i, in late ''"""' ocial and economic alternatives to capital-driven were lamenting the end of our summer holidays, con­ globalisation, for sharing experiences and creating sidering Lleyton Hewitt's prospects in the Open or networks, for creating friendships and alliances. reflecting on Steve Waugh's contribution to Australian The founders, Francisco Whitaker, from the Brazilian cricket, in India a tide of humanity was on the move. Bishops' Justice and Peace Commission and Bernard In their saris, salwar kameez, kurtas, t-shirts, trousers, Cassen, the president of ATTAC in France (an inter­ lunghis and banians, people from Assam to Kerala, national movement for democratic control of financial from G ujarat to Jharkhand, along with others from markets and their institutions), took just six months to around the world, were gathering in Mumbai for the bring the idea to reality. The first Forum, held in January World Social Forum (WSF). 2001 in Porto Alegre, Brazil, attracted 20,000 people. The crowd was a kaleidoscope of colour and sound, Its success guaranteed a world stage for the politics reflecting the variety of languages and cultures of the of transformation. The original orga nisers drafted a participants. Every group had its coterie of pounding Charter of Principles and set up an International Com­ drums and bells: everywhere there was dance and move­ mittee consisting of more than a hundred delegates from ment. Few conforming corporate suits and ties here: this NGOs, associations and movements around the world, was a march of the Dalits (the lowest of the major caste including representatives from Caritas Internationalis, groups), the Aclivasis and Nagas (two of India's principle Oxfam, Greenpeace and Corporate Watch. The Forum indigenous groups), the farmers, fishers and rickshaw process now includes regional meetings as well as an pullers, transvestites and peace activists, the margin­ annual world ga thering. The meeting in Mumbai was alised from India and the world, drawn to five days of the fourth such gathering, and the first to be held outside debate, discussion, and cultural performance by the Brazil. Its scale was enormous: over the five days, Forum's slogan 'Another World is Possible'. 100,000 people took part in some 12 conferences, 36 Conceived around a kitchen table in Paris four panel debates, 1060 seminars and workshops in rooms years ago, the WSF was envisaged as an international and halls seating anywhere from 50 to 4000. Each night forum for people in civil society who share a desire and a plenary session at the main open air stage attracted commitment to shaping a world centred upon the tens of thousands. Scheduled and unscheduled cultural human person. It aims to counter-balance the World performances continued day and night on the Economic Forum held in Switzerland each January ten stages set up throughout the centre. and opposes the domination of nco-liberalist values, the flow of capital as the determining factor in inter­ INTHE MIDST OF THESE event recurring themes national relations, as well as any form of imperialism. emerged: the central place of women as agents of global The WSF styles itself as a 'non-organisation', neither change, the debilitating infection of patriarchy in a neat political platform nor a process in which the religion and culture, the profound consequences of participants are required to come to agreement or adopt the war in Iraq for future world relations, the need for common positions. There are no conference declarations effective accountability mechanisms to monitor inter­ thrashed out around the committee table. Rather, the national movements of capital, and the role of poverty idea is to create a space for open ended discussion of in undermining human rights. The quality of debate

20 EUREKA STREET MARCH 2004 was hi gh, yet the overwhelming impression was one of Adivasi and Dalit. A young Jesuit recalled the Pope's ordinary people taking the opportunity to share their call for global solidarity and the importance of creating experiences. An evening seminar heard the moving new metaphors, narratives and symbols capable of testimony of a young Bh utanese refugee growing up energising societies for a more humane world. Having in a ca mp in N epal. Similarly, a young Dalit women spoken of the power of the symbolic, however, he then spoke of repeated and systematic rapes in her vill age at stressed the importance of action; 'It is one thing to the hands of upper-caste m en, who justify their actions talk about solidarity and quite another to live it. We as a manifestation of the divine will. These stories, have not only lived a typical discourse on solidarity, we simply put, weighed as powerfully as any intellec­ have seen it in practice'. tual discourse. Other testimonies of dance and music I left the WSF with similar thoughts. What is it that conveyed the importance of performers' cultures and brought this huge and diverse group of people together values, forging a new unity among the outcast and so forcefully? Was it just the dream for a better world? marginalised. Or perhaps the ambition for otherwise unattainable I attended the Forum as part of a large delegation political clout? While there were certainly political convened by two Indian Jesuits, Joe Xavier and Louis demonstrations and manifestos presented, most del­ Prakash. The group- the South Asian Peoples' Initiative egates simply wished to tell their stories-in words, (SAPI)-enabled some 1650 of the poorest and most dance or theatre, or through their presence-and to marginalised people in India, Nepal, Bangladesh and have those stories heard and acknowledged. The global Sri Lanka to take part in the meeting. They hosted 1 7 narrative has no room for these people, whose values seminars on topics as far ranging as indigenous rights are superfluous to the quest for economic growth. in the Asia-Pacific to housing for tea-plantation work­ The violence of war, rape and forced eviction comes ers in Sri Lanka. only at the end of a long process of cultural and social dis­ Billeted in schools and institutions across Mumbai, enfranchisement. Ordinary people do not have inherent the delegation m et each day at breakfast before moving disagreements with corporate elites, but resent the strip­ to the forum proper. At the end of the day we ping of meaning from their lives. A glimpse of freedom returned for a more leisurely (b ut still chaotic) dinner, wueashes questions and powerful energies. afterwards chatting in smaller groups about A delegate from Canada felt that his country had the day's events. become anaesthetised by the dominant ideologi­ cal discourse and dumbed down meaningful public SUCH AN INITIATIVE RAISES a number of questions debate. He described people in his country as tired. concerning the role of religious groups in a multi­ One cannot help wondering whether the same has faith and pluralist world. SAPI grew from the desire happened in Australia. In an atmosphere where the of the Jesuits in India to faithfully represent the poor divide between rich and poor gets wider, where the and marginalised people with whom they work. ideology of practical reconciliation overrides the Because of the diverse nature of the group, however, rights and hopes of indigenous people, and where we SAPI could not associate itself with any one particular persist with an inhumane, complacent and costly religious, cultural or ethnic group. It was the creation treatment of asylum seekers, one wonders whether of a secular organisation that best enabled the Jesuits there is space for the powerless to give voice, and to carry out this aspect of their mission to the poor value, to their experience. The World Social Forum and marginalised. represented a significant victory for civil society At a meeting of SAPI delegates at the end of the over political partisanship, left or right. We could do week it was agreed that, by ourselves, we could do lit­ well to become more invested in it. • tle in the way of changing the world, whereas united anything is possible. One Dalit performer spoke of his David Holdcroft SJ is the Coordinator of the Jesuit Social joy not only to have performed in front of the world but Sector for the Australian Province, and completing also to have felt for the first time a closeness between a Masters in Theology.

MARCH 2004 EUREKA STREET 21 \ t ,, I(; , David Glanz United they stand

C YN>C> TRY TO di>mi" th' mov'· of protesters. Union members, Dalits India, Latin Am erica, and south-cast Asia ment against corporate globalisation as (untouchables), Bhutanese refu gees, South describe a global water crisis. Corpora­ an indulgence, a game enjoyed by activists Korean revolutionary socialists, HIV / tions like Coca Cola were stealing com­ in Europe and Latin Am erica. The fo urth AIDS activists, anti-privatisation groups, munities' water by drilling the bedrock World Social Forum (WSF), held for the wom en 's organisations, Indian farm ers and mining it, while every eight seconds fi rst tim e in the Indian city of Mumbai campaigning against debt and m any a child died from drinking dirty water. (Bom bay) in January, proved them wrong. m ore paraded, danced and sang their way The World Trade Organisation had Asia embraced the m ovem ent and the through the dust. recently targeted water as a commodity movement em braced Asia. Filled with the spirit of tens of to be bought and sold on the market. The WSF is further evidence that the thousands of So uth Asian activists, the Only the rich would be able to drink clean phenom enon which exploded onto the WSF becam e a fes tival of the oppressed. water. Speakers demanded that access streets of Seattle at the World Economic Choo Chon Kai from Malaysia was to water be recognised as a basic Forum in 1999-where tens of thousands impressed by the marches and the chanting human right. demanded the end of Third World debt and on the street. 'We hardly ever see that the abolition of sweatshops-is contin uing in Malaysia', he said. Jagan Devara from L ERE WERE MANY other forums dealing to develop and grow. In 2003, 80,000 Bangalore in India said the WSF was a with important social problems, but in attended the WSF in Porto Alegre, Brazil. 'great formation of what we have all been the wake of the US- led invasion of Iraq, T h is year, 120,000 descended on Goregaon, doing. It is grea t to see so many people war dom inated the debate. The tone was in the poor northern suburbs of Mumbai. working in the sam e direction'. Many set by Indian author Arundhati Roy at the T he site was a huge, empty industrial Indian activists said that this had been opening ceremony when she declared, 'We complex-m achines rem oved and jobs the fi rst time they had gained a sense of must not only support the resistance in lost because of corporate globalisation. the size and diversity of the m ovem ent in Iraq. We must be the resistance in Iraq .. . For ten hours each day fo r four da ys, roads their own country-an enormous boost to we m ust focus our collective wisdom on through the site were choked with a river their confidence. one project-the new American century.' Each day there were m ore than 220 The m ovem ent had to fig ht imperialism, seminars and workshops, the largest she said, whether it came in the form of drawing up to 5000 people. The seminar cruise missiles or World Bank cheque­ on water and fo od security, for example, books. To cheers, she concluded: 'We attracted 4000 to hear speakers from must consider ourselves at war.'

22 EUREKA STREET MARCH 2004 At one seminar, a Kia anti-imperialist slogans car worker from South but which had pushed Korea explained how he m assive user-pays pro­ had built anti-war action gram s and used the police at work. He and a hand­ to attack striking workers. ful of others had cam­ 'We call the chief minister paigned around the factory the Blair of Bengal.' with a pet1t10n. N ot Throughout the Forum, only did nearly everyone m om entum gathered for sign , but 300 workers a global day of action. An bought t-shirts proclaim­ open m eeting of hundreds ing their opposition to of activists agreed on a the war and others ga ve date, 20 March, and about money for an anti-war 45 radical left parties­ advert to be published in with representatives from a local paper. every continent- issued a Ruth Russell from statem ent calling for the Australia, who was a biggest possible turnout. human shield in Iraq As the WSF's own daily last year, told delegates: Protest for disabled children. paper put it: 'After three 'Syria, Iran-wh erever days of high octane politi­ they attack next-come with m e, as I'll it is a symbol of resistance as well as of cal debate and dem onstrations, it appears be there if the Australian government oppression. People are raising the Pales­ that the WSF has evolved into a dress is involved.' tinian flag as the older generation raised rehearsal of the anti-Bush and anti-war Indian Marxist Achin Vanaik the Vietnamese flag.' energy that is set to bur t on the streets reminded people that over the long The call to global resistance was of the world's towns.' At a final rally of run, no anti-colonial war had ever been reinforced by speakers from poor coun­ 30,000 people in central Mumbai, Chris lost. British Labour MP Jerem y Corbyn tries who argued that no government Nineham, from the British anti-capitalist declared, 'You can build weapons that could be trusted. Ji Ungpakorn, fr om the group Globalise Resistance, reinforced the kill or you can build a better Thai group Workers' Democracy, said point with a call to action on 20 March. world-but you can't do both.' that Vietnam had criticised the war, but Last year, the WSF was the catalyst for continued to impose harsh neo-liberal the global anti-war protest that brought A LONGSIDE SOLIDARITY WITH the policies on its people. China had banned m ore than ten million on to the streets. Iraqi people, many raised the call for anti-war rallies. This year, tens of thousa nds of activists solidarity with Palestine. Israeli activist An activist from the new union m ove­ headed home from Mumbai determined to Michael Warshawsky said, 'Palestine is m ent in the Indian state of West Bengal show that the world still says no to war. • today the symbol in the anti- war and attacked the Communi t Party (Marxist ) anti-globalisation m ovem ent beca use state government which m outhed David Glanz is a Melbourne writer.

MAR 1-l 2004 EUREKA STREET 23 Cuban rhythms

S HPP>NG 'NTO CuBA i' like "epping back in time It is testament to what the world looked like before skyscrapers and suburbia, concrete and city lights. Cuba is the kind of place where it doesn't matter what you do, just being there is enough. Don't see it through the eyes of a guide book. Leave your hotel room and go out and discover the real Cuba. Walk the streets until you find a cafe with a band. The music is so rich and heavy it seeps through doors and windows out onto the streets. It - drowns you: vibrant, passionate, and melancholic. Find a seat in the shade - and drink it in. The cocktails are good. Ernest Hemingway favoured mojitos and daiquiris. The vibrant colours, music and street scenes, while mesmerising, belie a darker reality. Cuba is dying. Facades literally crumble before your eyes. Cars lie abandoned. The locals can't afford the food served to tourists, and survive on food rationing. Despite this the Cuban spirit is alive- friendly, vibrant, loud, cheeky, smiling-in every sense of the word. •

Jacqueline Dalmau is undertaking a Masters in Journalism at Bond University, Queensland.

summer quiz results - Luci ll e Hughes Congratulations!

Congratulations to our two Summer Quiz Masters, M. Hastings, 13. Underground truffle-like fungi which are co mmon around Watsons Ba y, N SW and L. Bittinger, Mill Park, VIC. They each the roots of grasses and shrubs in ridge-topsclerophyll forests receive a copy of Gideon Haigh's Uncyclopedia, courtesy of of south-eastern Victoria. Text Publishing. For those tortured souls still scouring the net, 14. Bobby Kennedy. the answers are reprin ted here. 15. (i) David Hardaker and Deb Mas ters; (ii) 'Lucien Leech­ Larkin and the Jesuit Conversion'. l. Ambane-Lai was a half-crazed sham an and fr eemason, the 16. John Howard's announcem ent before his 64th birthday hero of a play entitled The Shaman of Siberia which was that he would not be retiring as Prime Minister before the written by Catherine the Great of Russia. next election. 2. (i) Villette by Charlotte Bronte; (ii ) Of a Boy by Sonya 17. Peter Costello by Mark Latham . Hartnett; (iii) The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, 18. The dark yeas ty spread wa developed as a by-product Gentleman by La urence Sterne; (iv) How To Be Good by of the beer brewing process during the fi rst half of the Nick Hornby. 20th century. Prohibition, which banned the production 3. John Newton (1725- 1807), a slave sh ip captain who was of alcoholic beverages in the US, deprived the American converted and became a Methodist minister. He also wrote public of the chance to acquire this taste. Amazing Grace. 19. (i) Bella Guerin, 1883, Melbourne Uni versity; (ii) Janine 4. There are different estimates. Based on 100 billion stars, Haines, The Australian Dem ocrats; (iii) N ora Heysen. it would take you 3000 years. With 200 billion stars, 6000 20. Fort Macquari e was dem olished on Bennelong Poin t in years, and 12,000 years if there are 400 billion stars in the 1902 to make way for a tram depot which was dem olished Milky Way. to make way for ... you guessed it. 5. Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968). Associated with the Dada, 2 1. A square manhole cover can be turned and dropped Surrealist and conceptual art movem ents. down the diagonal of the m anhole. A round manhole 6. Both are English writers born in 1839. cover cannot be dropped down the m anhole. 7. The Female Operatives Hall. 22. The dialect of Friesland. 8. (i) David D'Alessandro, president of John Hancock Mutual 23. Australia: Shannon N oll; UK: Gareth Gates; US: Clay Life Insurance. Aiken . (ii) Simon Crean, former Leader of the Opposition, on 2 24. (i) Chip Goodyear; (ii) Malcolm Broomhead; (iii) Andrew December 2003. Michelmore. (iii) Plato (c. 429-347 BC), Republic, pt. Iv, bk. Viii. 562. 25 . At Eton. An Oppidan is a student who is not a King's Cornford's translation. scholar and a half is the Eton word for term. 9. Michael Wendon (100 and 200 metres frees tyle) . 26. (i) 'truly nuclea ted cells'; (ii) pre-nucleated cells; (iii) creative 10. Between 1820 and 1920, 35,000,000 immigrants entered definition wins bonus points. the United States of America. 27. (i) creationism is the theory claiming that God created 11. A transaction designed to avoid tax- a term commonly all matter and life about 6000 years ago; (ii) Su ms where used in Indian English . you are not supposed to spot the deliberate mistakes; 12. (i) a structure which induces an electrical current to (iii) creation m yth is a story about the origin of things; run over its external 'skin', leaving the interior free of see (i) . electrical charge. 28. (i) ILO: International Labour Organisation; (ii) ELO: (ii) Sets of curves produced by a procedure of repeated sub­ Electric Light Orchestra, a brilliant '70s band. division . 29. Maud. (iii) Part of the connective structure of the brain associated 30. They are all aliases of the great Australian bass-baritone with the optic thalamus. Peter Dawson.

2& EU REKA STR EET MARCH 2004 t I ,) \ (_'I Peter" Hamilton

Evolving Guatemala

I CAM< TO GuArconquistador Don Pedro de Alvarado. 1hrough the babble of an unfa­ For more than 200 years, the city known as miliar language, we continually Santiago de Guatemala served the Spanish overheard the name Rios Montt. crown as the seat of a vast province. The conquered Mayan population were avail­ able to labour on m onumental works. The city founders laid out their capital after the grid plan of Seville, itself borrowed from Rom e, though they expanded the scale. I heard it said that if Caesar himself walked into a restored Antigueno home today, he could comfortably find his way to the bathroom without noticing much out of place.

LESPANISH BUILT grand palaces, cloistered m onasteries, churches, hospi­ simply 'la Antigua', or 'The Old'. tals and universities, in a unique Moorish Most of la Antigua's great public style dubbed 'earthquake Baroque'. It is buildings fell into ruin, serving as characterised by low rooflines, squat squatters' camps and quarries. The walls and thick, sculpted columns. Maya returned to build their tradi­ Antigua lies right on top of a notori­ tional thatch-roofed huts inside the ous, hair-trigger seismic fault. The most courtyards of wrecked homes and recent disaster was a huge 39-second even in the naves of tumbled clown tremor on 4 February 1976, that killed churches . Most of the surviving nearly 30,000 Guatemalans and left more homes were subdivided into ever­ than a million homeless. sm aller fragments, and the whole After substantially rebuilding their city fabric fell deeper into ruin with city in 1565, 1586, 1607, 1651, 1689, 171 7 each generation's human pillage and and 1751, a damaging' warm' of quakes in monster quakes. 1773- leading up to a cataclysmic shock Our own mission to learn on 29 July-pitched the Spanish authori­ conversational Spanish coincides ties over the edge. In a series of increasingly with the most decisive fa ctor

MARCH 2004 EUREKA STREET 27 President Reagan called him a 'man of great personal integrity the church interior stopped cold when and commitment' who had been we read on a plaque that in 1981, its 'getting a bum rap'. Oklahoma-born parish priest Stan Rother Until a ceasefire was negoti­ was gunned down in his stud y. His crime ated in the late '90s, his army was that he offered the church as a sanc­ racked up nearly 200,000 civil­ tuary to villagers who were fleeing the ian victims, earning Rios Montt nightly raids of local paramilitaries. At the nickname of the 'Central least 500 Santiago villagers disappeared, and on its outskirts there is a memorial to 11 villagers shot to death for daring to protest the drunken harassment of locals by soldiers. In July 2003, Rios Montt defied a national ceasefire agreement and began running for Guatemala's presidency on a law and order platform. His roadside bill­ boards show an elderly man proclaiming 'Soy Guatemala' or 'I am Guatemala'- In August, knots of tourists an d locals sat in Antigua's park reading in the news­ papers that busloads of Montt's political flunkeys, disguised as masked campes­ inos and carrying machetes, went on a prime-time rampage through the capi­ tal. Their m essage-only 'I' have the power to make or brea k the peace in Guatemala.

V aLENCE FEELS CLOSE to the surface General Efrain Rios Montt is in a country where even the soft drink a figure who evokes for m e delivery trucks carry guards armed with the combined dark shadows of shotguns. A Spanish teacher told us that Slobodan Milosevic, Ariel Sharon last October she and a neighbour, a young and Augusto Pinochet. He is an American Saddam' and a place mother like herself, received phone calls army officer who seized power among the most murderous of the demanding a ransom or th ey would die. in the early '80s on a platform last century's political leaders. The teacher borrowed, begged, paid and of 'more executions and less His regime later morphed into the lived. Her neighbour refused and she reconciliation', and who m erci­ kleptocracy that ruled disappeared. Rios Montt was booed and lessly waged the latest phase of Guatemala with impunity. jeered when he arrived to cast his vote at Don Pedro de Alvarado's war of the November 2003 elections. With voter conquest by a European 'criollo' 0 UR CONGENIAL DAYS in turn-out exceeding 80 per cent, Rios Montt oligarchy against Guatemala's six Guatemala were often suddenly was resoundingly defeated at the polls. million Maya. disturbed by the skeletons of For centuries, Guatemala's storyline Rios Montt renounced his Rios Montt's scorched earth-or has read som ething like 'sublime shat­ Catholicism because of th e m ed­ 'scorched communist'- campaign tered by catastrophe'. In Antigua, we dling opposition by its priests, and as he prefers to call it. A home­ tasted the sublime. But the determina­ in 19 78 he becam e an ordained stay family told us their elder sons tion of a ruthless old order to throw aside minister in the California-based had been in a university rock band. a decade of national reconciliation left us Church of the Word. H e personi­ Ten years later, a right-wing cul­ anxious that the next great tremor may fies the very troubling national tural warrior discovered that the be past due. • schism between insurgent gospel lyrics of the band's most popular hall 'cultos' and a Catholicism song included the phrase 'I want to Peter Hamilton lives in Brooklyn, New that tends to recognise social be fr ee'. Their names were added York, [email protected]. His son's justice concerns while tolerating to a death list. One brother disap­ excellent Spanish School in Antigua can ancient Mayan ritual. Rios Montt's peared and the next week the other be located at: www.loscapitanes.com. crusade was actively supported by was shot dead on the family's door­ the hard m en in Washington, and step. When we visited the village All images courtesy of Contours Travel, on a visit to Guatem ala in 1982 of Santiago, our amble around Melbourne.

28 EUREKA STREET MARCH 2004 Lucille Hughes Love/s Brother and the state of Australian filmmaking

E.TAn BRADY, m•n•gmg d"octm and obligingly distributed through Hoyts. confidence in, and commitment to, home­ of Palace Films, the question of whether Some were good, some partly good and grown projects suffering a setback. It will there is something wrong with Australian some bombed. Brady points out that 'Most take time to recover fro m being so ruth­ films is clearly an incendiary one: 'It's just countries, Germany in particular, turn out lessly talked down. a disgraceful beat-up by journalists who many similar comedies solely for domes­ In the context of the recently signed should know better. ' A certain frustration tic consumption. They usually don't Free Trade Agreement negotiations with is not surprising: Palace Films is notable travel well as they are built around locally America, a local press relentlessly bag­ for its commitment to movies, includ­ popular TV personalities and comedians ging its own film industry takes on a more ing Australian ones, that don't fit the and depend on that fanRupert Murdoch were is any justice it should do well. It held up as the main examples is a well-crafted, curiously magical of Australian stories worth the and romantic story of Italian set­ telling, even though they were tlement in Australia depicted with now American tales with matching humour and restraint A major coup accents. for its screenwriter and director Jan Why subsidies should be sham e­ Sardi (screenwriter for Shine) was ful is puzzling: even Henderson the casting of Giovanni Ribisi who reminded us that some US fi lm gives a brilliant performance as the companies have been known to call tortured Angelo, the brother of the themselves manufacturers in order title. It has the potential to appeal Jan Sa rdi on the set of Love's Brother. to qualify for huge tax breaks. to an audience which has enjoyed Projects such as Love's Brother films such as Ch ocolat and yet one senses movies during this time which undeserv­ make it to the screen because of the that any new Australian title has now to edly got lumped in with it'. confi dence demonstrated at every stage of face a certain home-grown prejudice. Getting Square and The Rage in Placid development by writers, actors, producers Brady concedes that over the last cou ­ Lake were am ong those that missed and distributors, even investors, fascinated ple of years a few duds have landed on out on the reviews and audiences they by Australian stories and authentic ways of our screens, mainly lowbrow comedies merited. A climate in which Australian telling them. We're going to need them . • like The Wannabes and Takeaway, cour­ movies struggled to get an audience or tesy of a joint finance project between a fair hearing has naturally had a ripple Lucille Hughes is a freelance writer and the Macquarie Bank and Channel Nine effect through the whole industry-with graphic artist.

MARCH 2004 EUR EKA STREET 29 Ethics v. politics The Ethical State? Social Liberalism in Australia, Marian Sawer. Melbourne University Press, 2003. ISBN 0 522 85082 0, RRI' $29.95

E TIDC'" "'"All' limited to the 'cope number of its citizens, and argued that the Drawing upon her interest in women's of individuals-describing when and how state's role was to provide equal opportunity involvement in politics, the book also we should act. Marian Sawer has broadened for all citizens to achieve their potential examines the rise of social liberalism in this notion to apply to the role of the state. development. Australia and New Zealand which led to She describes the history, impact and legacy This book, adapted from Sawer's articles the early adoption of female suffrage and of social liberalism-a philosophy that the and essays, is a work of non-fiction that the old age pension, though female employ­ state should adopt an interventionist role to reads like a compelling character drama. ment and equal pay had to wait for a second achieve ethical outcomes. The various chapters concentrate on of wave of social liberalism. The Ethical State~ is an enthralling the idea of an ethical state, and how these At a time when the ethical state is narrative of the history and philosophy notions were received in the Australian derided as the 'narmy state', and the mas­ of ethics and its political application in colonies as they pressed towards federation. culine values of neo-liberalism (mgged England, N ew Zealand and Australia, from Later chapters on the stmggle of the ALP to independence, unhindered competition, the transformation of Mill and Locke's nega­ fully apply the social liberal agenda to all autonomy and formal equality) are ascend­ tive conception of liberty (ie. freedom from citizens- not just the 'working man', and ant, Sawer's book should be read by any interference) to the work of Oxford scholar the Liberal party's rejection of social liberal­ Australian with an interest in politics, the T.H. Green who pioneered social liberalism. ism and its embrace of economic rational­ role of the state, and history in general. Green is the 'hero' of this tale, a compas­ ism (neo-liberalism), make for fascinating This book is more than a philosophical sionate man, who saw the suffering of late political analysis. The tale of how several analysis of social liberalism. It is a gripping 19'h century England, and advocated a phi­ social liberalist Liberals crossed the floor yarn about one of the forces that has shaped losophy of positive liberalism to guide state in the late 1980s to support the ALP's equal the political conscience of our nation. • action. He went further than Bentham's opportunity legislation is engaging, and the utilitarian principle that the state exists to names of those involved, including current David Ferris is a graduate of commerce and provide material happiness for the greatest ministers, is eye-opening. law at Melbourne University. Give God a piece ofyour mind

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30 EUREKA STREET MARCH 2004 '>port Gabriel Sm ith Belonging: One fan's Tugga Waugh

INTHE MmDLE of January I had wm< and didn't understand English. it was that Waugh made tllis happen. photographs developed. They were of the In the 1980s I became an Australian So, in January, I was there at the SCG for fourth cricket Test against India, January citizen in order to get work. My identity his last Test. During that time every wak­ 2004. Steve Waugh in his striped jacket, as an Australian was only on paper; in my ing minute was about the Test-either I was walking with Sourav Ganguly to the pitch mind I didn't consider myself Australian getting ready to set off to the sec, at the for the toss. The guard of honour his team as I didn't want to be the same as those sec, returning from the sec, or tllinking formed when he stepped onto the field of morons who gave me a hard time because over what had happened at the SCG. Every play at the start of the first session. The of my brown skin. For years the last country moment of those five days was magic, even crowd's standing ovation when he walked I'd support was Australia. Australians didn't when on day three I sat next to a middle­ off with his bat for the last time in a Test seem to like me being here, so I didn't see aged white woman who gave me a dirty match. Waugh below my stand, chaired on why I should be on its side. look and was loud in her dislike of India the shoulders of his teammates, and in front That's the way it was until January 2002, and their big first-imlings score. Even on of me spectators waving red handkerchiefs. when I watched some cricket for the first day five when another middle-aged wllite Two summers ago I switched on the time in years and saw Steve woman asked if I was 'going over there to TV and flicked through the channels, and Waugh biting his nails. join my friends'. When I asked her what she instead of moving past the cricket I figured meant she nodded across at the flag-waving I'd watch it for a few minutes. The last time F ROM ThecA's CRICKET diaries, I got the group of Indians on the hill. I think she was I had watched cricket was 1983. Since then idea he was an all-round nice guy, a softie a bit surprised when, in my Pommie/Irish/ a lot of different things have happened to who got on with everyone and liked a laugh. Canadian/Swiss accent, I told her 'I'm an me. 'Waugh' was a name I'd come aero s Yet there were many people saying he was Aussie who supports Australia-' here and there, because even if you're not a hard, mean and unflinching, a sledger and Being at the SCG was about saying fare­ cricket-follower some player's names are in the toughest SOB ever to walk onto a cricket well to Steve Waugh. Many have thanked the news all the time. ground. He was the iceman. Some even said him for what he's done for Test cricket It was during that summer of 2002, he shouldn't be captain. He had dropped between 1985-2004. My thanks are for the sometime around Australia Day, that I spot­ Warne and Slater from the team, and on past two years; he's made a huge difference ted Steve Waugh fielding. he was nibbling the field he subjected opponents to 'mental to the way I think about this country and on his fingernails. I don't know why that disintegration'. When South African Her­ my life here. hooked me, but it did-so much so, that schelle Gibbs dropped a crucial catch in a I'll never forget that February evening I borrowed some of Waugh's books from World Cup game in 1999, Waugh is said to where I heard the sports news report that the local library. Not long after Tugga was have asked him how it felt to have dropped he was out of the one-day international sacked from the one-day side-the St Valen­ the World Cup. Waugh seized the trophy in team. Or when he made his century at the tine's Day massacre. the next game when Australia beat South SCG on 3 January 2004. Or when he was SBS' World Sports program showed the Africa and became chaired around the press conference; Waugh looking as if it was world champions. sec on 6 January him against the world. He was out of one­ Sometimes it was 2004 and I waved day international cricket, and I remember as if the Captain of and cheered along feeling rather peculiar about it all. By then Australia was not with thousands of Waugh had already made me glad he was one person but two. others. Or when I around. In contrast to the on­ arrived home that When I came to this country as a small field ruthlessness, night and realised child it wasn't good to be different. In the Waugh sponsored a it was all over, early 1970s I couldn't go into the school girls' orphanage in but as Waugh said, playground or walk home after school India-a school for 'There was some without a white Australian giving me stick the children of Lep­ sadness there, but about having brown skin. 'Blackie', 'abo', 'go ers. He loved his wife and kids and missed only a little bit. There were that many back to where you came from'. Children and them when he was away. He stood by the smiling faces in the crowd, I could only be adults would walk past me in the street and blokes he believed in. He was proud of his happy about it.' • let me know they thought I was dirt. Such baggy green cap and playing for his coun­ attitudes started to fade away at the end try. He was a crapper who got through the Gabriel Smith lives in Sydney. She has of the 1970s, but in the following decades hard times and didn't back down. For the attempted a number of stories and novels there were still some idiots who assumed first time in my life I found myself proud of and now thinks she is grown-up enough to that if you were a darkie you talked funny being Australian, though I can't explain how attempt non-fiction.

MARCH 2004 EU REKA STREET J 1 Andrew Coor"ey The great novel

I N cmnRAnNc theit fottieth 'nni is conscious of the class system, especially that against every instinct of self,preserva, versary in 2003, the Australian Society of in the military context, the book remains tion some soldiers began to crave the relief Authors (ASA) listed the 40 favourite Aus, essentially classless. Unlike British works of battle. Manning conveys the deadening tralian books of its members. The most on the sam e theme, events are not recorded boredom without ever allowing the book revered book was Tim Winton's Cloud, from the perspective of the officer class. itself to become boring, carrying the reader street. The silver medal went to Christina At the same time, there is no cliched so], along with the beauty of his language, Stead's The Man Who Loved Children and dierly contempt for officers, or saccharine Bourne's reflections and the barely percep" the bronze to Henry Handel Richardson's glorification of the ranks. It is a tible descent of gloom as the soldiers move The Fortunes of Richard Mahony. very Australian perspective. inevitably towards another 'show'. Lining up books like so many race, Frederic Manning was born in Sydney horses and trying to find the best in the M ANNTNG DOES NOT shy away from to a newly wealthy family of Irish field is of course ridiculous, and indeed the plain language of ordinary soldiers, and Catholics. His father, William, was Mayor tricky enough with horses. The merit of indeed he has an ear for it that few English of Sydney for some years, an unusual such lists lies in the ensuing discussion and writers of his day possessed: achievement for a Catholic. Manning's the light shed on works that contemporary brothers were Jesuit,educated at River, [Bourn e] hea rd Pritchard talking to little readers might otherwise neglect. view, and one of the brothers, Jack, was Martlow on the other side of the tent. That said, the examination of this and at one time the Wallaby rugby captain. ' .. . both 'is legs 'ad bin blown off, pore bug, other such lists has confirmed the general Manning himself was considered too ill ger; an' 'e were dyin' so quick you could see oversight of what might be considered, if to attend classes, so apart from some it. But 'c tried to stand up on 'is feet. "elp not a great Australian novel, then certainly months at Sydney Grammar School he was n1e up," 'e sez, "elp me up"- a great novel by a writer who was more "You lie still chum", I scz to 'im, ·· · Tire - -- ,_------or less Australian. The writer in question "you'll be all right presentl y". is Frederic Manning and the novel is The M E L I~ () l Il N E An 'e jes give me one look, like 'c ------Middle Parts of Fortune. Ernest Heming" were puzzled, an' 'e died .. .'. way was prepared to call it 'the finest and 'Well, anyway,' said Martlow, noblest book of men in war that I have ever desperately comforting; 'e read'. It was this quote from the author God's purposes for the world are likely to be couldn't 'ave felt much, could 'e, of A Farewell to Arms (published in the mysterious to our sma ll minds; and in order if 'e said that'. same year) which forced the book off the to go along with those purposes, we sha ll 'I don't know what 'e felt,' said shelf and into my hands. Hemingway went have to change in ways that ca n frighten and Pritchard, with slowly filling bit" on to add, 'I read it over once each year to terness, 'I know what I fe lt'. paniC US. remember how things really were so that I will never lie to myself or anyone else A further distinguishing Archbishop of' Canterbury Rowan Williams about them.' Further acclamation flowed characteristic of the novel is a fron'l E. M. Forster who called it 'the best tone of stoic resignation to the of our war novels', and from T. E. Lawrence appalling realities of the Western Who would have imagined that the country who wrote 'no praise could be too sheer for Front in 1916. As a soldier in the which produced Mary McKillop, Pastor Doug this book' trenches Manning had accepted Nicholls, Joan Sutherland, Fred Wi II iams, The Middle Parts of Fortune is in the the cards dealt to him-a form Fred Hollows and Lois O'Donohue wou ld tradition of Robert Graves' Goodbye to of 'she'll be right' fatalism. That All That, and in spirit it resembles Erich so few mutinies occurred in this in 2004 be imprisoning innocent children Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the West, carnage is hard to fathom, but indefinitely in detention centres! ern Front. Manning's novel, however, has Manning conveys like no other its own distinct voice. tlus widespread acceptance of Bishop Philip Huggins Frederic Manning left Australia at the the unacceptable. age of 21, returning to visit his family Intolerable boredom inter, The Melbourne Anglican only a few times, yet much of his novel's spersed with moments of terror Mention this ad for a free sa mple copy of TMA originality and greatness can be attributed is how many veterans described Phone: (03) 9653 4221 to his Australian sensibility. While the their life in the trenches. The or email: [email protected] novel's central character, Private Bourne, boredom could be so profound

32 EUREKA STREET MARCH 2004 privately tutored at the various Manning the biographies, subtitled An unfinished "Yo u're learnin' a lot o' bad words from family homes: initially at Elizabeth Bay life, is by an American, Jonathan Marwil. us'ns," said Martlow, grinning. House, in what is now the seediest section It shows a great understar1ding of the "Oh, you swear like so many Eton boys," of Bayswater Road, and later Tusculum, various Australian institutions with wllich replied Bourne indifferently. "Have you in Manning Street, Potts Point, now the the Manning family were involved, and is ever heard an Aussie swear?" headquarters of the Australian driven by the curiosity of its author, who Institute of Architects. travelled from Michigan to Oxfordsllire, Ultimately, like all great books, to Point Piper and Cootamundra, to learn The Middle Parts of Fortune is not national but mliversal. Its publication G IVEN HIS PHYSICAL frailty and an early what he could from Manning's intimates fondness for drink, Marming's involvement and their descendents. The second biogra­ brought acclaim from both sides of the in the war was extraordinary. His survival phy, The Last Exquisite by Verna Coleman, Atlantic and indeed the Pacific. Yet was a minor miracle. shows a deep understanding of the literary the book remains unfamiliar to most Manning had shown his literary abil­ circles and traditions which informed Man­ Australian readers, who know the work of ity before the war, producing poetry and a ning's career, and his qualified acceptance other veterans such as Sassoon, Graves and collection of classically themed vignettes, into British social and literary society. The Remarque, and of contemporary writers Scenes and Portraits. Plot was never his biographies are complementary, and any­ like Sebastian Faulks and Pat Barker, who forte, however, and he doubted his abil­ one moved by Mam1ing's masterpiece will have mined (or perhaps undermined) this ity to write a 'normal' novel. It was only enjoy the insights of both books. massive resource. through the coercion of a publisher, Peter So is The Middle Parts of Fortune an The neglect of Manning seems a shame. Davies (whose childhood was the model Australian book? The character Bourne The Middle Parts of Fortune deserves its for J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan), that Manning expresses a grudging respect for things Aus­ place in any list of great novels. • wrote The Middle Parts of FortLJne, living tralian, though the source of his knowledge under a kind of creative house arrest. Man­ is not revealed. While Bourne is clearly Andrew Coorey is a broadcaster and writer ning dedicated the novel to Davies, 'who better educated than his fellow privates, for radio. He is also the writer-director of made me write it'- he does not seek the formal superiority of The Birthplace: Stories from Australia's Only 520 copies of the book were rank. The national characteristic that Man­ First Rugby Club, a documentary on printed when it first appeared in 1929 under ning chooses to celebrate is itself a rather the history of the Sydney University the pseudonym 'Private 19022'. Many of Australian choice: Football Club. the novel's first readers considered its dia­ logue too frank Consider the way a private expresses his disgust when the binoculars ~o. he loots from a dead German end up around the neck of a superior: / 'Wouldn't you've thought the cunt would 'a' give me vingt frong for 'em anyway?' 'Your language is deplorable, Martlow,' said Bourne in ironical reproof; 'quite apart from the fact that you are speaking of your commanding officer. Did you learn all these choice phrases in the army?' 'Not much' said little Martlow derisively; 'all I learnt in the army was me drill an' care 'o bloody arms. I knew all the fuckin' patter before I joined'.

Tllis is not the language of Graves or Remarque, yet it most certainly reflects the speech of working men under constant threat of death. Subsequent editions of the novel were bowdlerised, and it was not until 1977 that the novel reappeared in its original form. Two Manning biographies exist, more than we might expect for a writer of relatively modest output: three books of poetry, his Scenes and Pmtraits, a biog­ raphy commissioned by an industrialist and The Middle Parts of Fortune. One of Retrovirus by Katherine Brazenor.

MARCH 2004 EUREKA STREET 33 Jane Mayo Camlan Encountering the homeless

A RMW wnn 'UR>BOARm, fi,h;ng convivial com pa nionship. of m en and 15 per cent of women have tackle, Christmas cake and the detri­ Recounting my m eeting with the men an alcohol use disorder: 36 per cent have tus of the ham and turkey we set off for in the sand dunes led to similar recollec­ a drug use disorder: 33 per cent have a the annual family pilgrimage to Point tions. During the pre-Christmas shopping mood eli order and 93 per cent reported Lo nsda le, there to enjoy carefree days in rush my daughter and I had been amazed at at least one experience of extreme trauma the sun. My first mission was a walk to the number of beggars who approached us. in their lives. In an affluent country like m y Mecca- the ocean beach. Roaming Her response is to march those willing to Australia it is tempting to think that the dunes I happened upon two hud­ the local McDonald's to buy them a meal there is no real poverty and that Professor dled bodies. A hasty look revealed two or to the supermarket for supplies. Few R. F. Henderson's poverty reports of the dishevelled old men. Distracted by the accept. Are their needs genuin e? For many 70s are a thing of the past. In truth there magic of the ocean I quickly forgot them . of us tllis is an uneasy issue, best ignored. are thousands of homeless in our midst. Later while visiting the main street these There is no particular stereotype of a Thousands more live in sub-standard m en approached me fo r money. Warily. I hom eless person, although the govern­ accommodation and two million emptied my pockets. At hom e the fa m­ m ent's policy of 'de-institutionalising' live below the poverty line. ily were watching horrific images of the those with mental illnesses would appear earthquake at the World Heritage Site, to be a contributing factor. The 1998 The I N 1999 A LANDMARK report by Chris Arg-e-Bam, Iran . Initially the Iranian Down and Out In Sydney report found Chamberlain for the Australian Burea u Government estimated that 15,000 resi­ that 75 per cent of homeless people have of Statistics, Counting the Homeless: dents had been killed, in reality the figure at least one m ental disorder: 49 per cent Implications for Policy Developm ent, exceeded 41 ,000. At first we spoke of how powerful nature can be and how often our lit­ tle problem s are a distraction . Family discussions turned to the pa ucity of Australian government aid. U mbrage was taken at one em ergency expert who asked wh y rescu ers still travel to earth­ quakes, when local planning would be far more eff ective. Another said that irrati onal fea rs of epidemics were add­ ing to survivors' trauma and wasting resources. Yet another claimed that the bombing of Iraq had caused the earth­ quake. Equally unpopular was the view­ point that relief responses were m erely a tool for Western diplomacy. What really stirred the famil y were the figures. It was not just the knowledge that two city hospitals had collapsed crushing staff and patients but that 70 per cent of the houses in Bam had been destroyed. There were scenes of intense grief with people weeping next to the deceased. They were in a city without telephones, electricity or water supplies, with night tem peratures below freezing. In con trast, we were between two houses, with warm beds, foo d in each fridge and

l4 EUREKA STRE ET MARCH 2004 estimated that on census night 1996 there in Collingwood? In Point Lonsdale as in were 20,5 79 people in impoverished Altona? After returning to Melbourne Uni~a, the Jesuit Social dwellings or sleeping out in Australia. in January I walked past three people Just1ce Centre, presents When he added these figures to those sleeping rough on the pavement in in boarding houses (23,299), those in upmarket Carlton . •v ~ JESUIT LENTEN Supported Accommodation Assistance Latham feels that welfare policy is SEMINARS 2004 Program ( 12,926) and those staying with the modern equivalent of the state-aid friends and relatives (48,500) a total of debate. 'It has become a sacred cow-full Sponsored by EUREKA STREET 105,304 people were estimated to be of warm rhetoric, good intention and homeless on that one night. Seventy per noble tradition. The only problem is that A FAIR GO IN AN cent of these had been without secure it is not getting results. ' AGE OF TERROR accommodation for six months, includ­ In this election year we should ask Countering the Terrorist ing many who had been homeless for all political parties to spell out practi­ Threat to Human Rights and more than a year. Are there morel What cal solutions to homelessness, both here of those who do not engage with the wel­ and abroad. Internationally we could the Australian Identity fare system, who live on the streets, in look to Medicins Sans Frontieres as a Speakers parks or on the beach? Is our system able model for structuring overseas aid. We to count the hidden homelessl could extend Australia's involvement in Fr Frank Brennan SJ AO, Associate In May 2000 the Commonwealth Habitat for Humanity, the world's largest Director of Uni ya , law ye r and Government launched a National not-for-profit home builder. At home we prominent advocate for hum an Homelessness Strategy aimed at provid­ need equally innovative policies. In this rights - most recently for refu gees ing a 'holistic and strategic approach'. In country we have no excuses for the prob­ in Austra li a and Eas t Timor and , in November 2003, Mark Colvin for ABC's lem of homelessness. • each state, local guest speakers with PM reported: 'Here in the lucky country expert knowledge there are still too many Australians with Jane Mayo Carolan is a Melbourne Locations and dates no luck at all. Figures released by the historian. ABS show that on the night of the 2001 Adelaide Tuesday Ma1-ch 9, 2004 Census 100,000 people had no home. Stlgnatius Pari sh, Norwood 7.30 pm That was a mere 5,000 lower Melbourne Thursday Marc h II, 2004 than the previous census.' Xavier Coll ege, Barkers Road , Summer Chess Quiz Solution Kew 7. 30 pm W LFARE AGEN CIES ASSISTED 2.4 mil­ Sydney Tuesday March 16,2004 lion people in 2002, a 12 per cent increase For those still puzzling the means by St Aloysius' Co ll ege, Jeffrey St on the previous two years. The Burdekin which Mrs Bruce outfoxed her husband Milsons Po int 6 .30 pm Report estimated that 70,000 children and and teacher, her clever moves are outlined Brisbane Tuesday Marc h 23,2004 young people were homeless in 1989. Yet below. Christi an Brothers College, Justin Healey, editor of Th e Homeless, Gregory Terrace 7.30 pm Issues in Society (2002) suggests that 22. Qxh7+ Nxh7 Canberra Thursday March 25, 2004 every year across the country over 23. Nxf7 + Kg8 The Chapel, The Au strali an Centre fo r 100,000 young people experience home­ 24. Ne5+ Re6 Christi anity and Culture, 15 Bla ckall St, lessness. He also suggests that there are Barton 7 . 30 pm 25. Bxe6+ Kh8 250,000 people aged 60 and over who Western SydneyTuesday 30 Marc h are homeless or at risk of homelessness 26. Nxg6++ St Patrick's Church, All ahwah St, with war veterans accounting for some Black's moves are forced right from the Blacktown 7.30 pm 10 per cent of this group. beginning. The Knight has to take the * Pe rthTBA In The Enabling State, People before Queen because otherwise the Black King Democra cy (2001 ), Mark Latham stated, To reply or for further would be moving into Check. White's 'We are now living in an era of relent­ information contact: 24th move opens up Black to a discovered less insecurity. Few parts of society can Uniya (A ll states except Vi ctoria) check from the bishop. Black cannot play claim that the welfare state has given Tel: (02) 9356 3888 24 .. . Kf8 because of the white Rook on F 1 them peace of mind. They are look­ Fax: (0 2) 9356 3021 (hence the Queen sacrifice to take away ing for new ways to manage economic reception@ uni ya. org the Black Knight which was attacking uncertainty. At the sam e time som e www.uniya.org parts of society are being left behind. the Bishop and blocking the Rook), and if Eu reka Sb·eet (Vi ctori a) This is the great paradox of globalisation; Black plays 24 .. .. Kh8 then White mates Tel: (03 ) 9427 73 11 while the economy operates globally, him a move ea rly with 25 Nxg6. Fax: : (03) 9428 4450 the problems of poverty have becom e [email protected] it. org . au concentrated locally.' Matthew Klugman is a Melbourne writer. www. eurekastreet.com .au Could this be equally true in Kew as

MARCH 2004 EU REKA STR EET 35 Beth Doher·ty A common prayer

'Shou ld I shake someone's ha nd or will it offend?' 'S hould I have my head covered? ' 'Will they think I'm rea ll y thi ck if I ask why th ey do that? '. Th ese were so me of the common concerns for th e 30 young people involved in a multi-fa ith exper iment in late January.

T,jOURNeY o' PnO M

36 EUREKA STREET MARCH 2004 hooks • Ki rsty Sangster Words and 1m• ages

Plenty: Art into Poetry Peter Steele S J. Pa lgrave Macmillan, 2003. ISBN I 876832 97 5, RRP $77.00

INTH><, H >< LATEH book of poeuy, Pow coloured plate of the painting, drawing or on street corners or down at the local pub. Steele shows us through the art gallery of shard of pottery that is its source. Thus, He sees things which m ost of us cannot his mind's eye. In a beautifully produced for example, a late m edieval painting of see. He draws out the fire. • folio-sized edition, each of his poems is the expulsion of Adam and Eve depicts like a written meditation on a particular God pointing at a globe, which Steele then Kirsty Sangster is a poet. Her first book work of art, and is accompanied by a transforms for us into a poem entitled Midden Places is soon to be published. Beginnings : To the high Lord fledged with angels, Earth / nests in a roundel propped at the butts/ of nothing at all. He taps it gently for soundness . As readers we are Winners January/February then startled into looking again at the Eureka Street Book Offer: painting and seeing in it a God who is J. Artup, Hawthorn, VIC; E. Bu rke, indeed tapping the world as if it were an Cremorne Point, NSW; VB. Ferris, egg hanging in the middle of nowhere. The poet David White describes The Sydney, NSW; G. Mahon, Canterbury, Society of Jesus as having 'its own brand of VIC; B. McDermott, East St Kilda, fire'. In the Jesuit poet and academic Peter VIC; R.D. Moore, Surrey Hills, VIC; M. Steele, this fire is burning bright. His is O 'Connor, Edgecliff, NSW; B. Roberts, the kind of intense visionary poetry where Sydney, NSW; P. & B. Snell, Glen Waverley, sacred groves filled with tigers will appear in dream s and transfigurations can occur VIC; J.W. Vodarovich, Claremont,WA.

MARCH 2004 EU REKA STREET 37 Ralph Carolan Holy ground

The Temple Down the Road: The Life and Times of the MCG, Brian Matthews. Viking, 2003. J<;BN 06709117RX, 1uu• $39.9S

B ,uAN MATTH,ws' ce Acc6on on the career totals. Nor is it simply a series of a suitably loutish and syntax shattering Melbourne Cricket Ground is published autobiographical experiences, though of homage to the Mexican Wa ve segues into at a time when the ground itself is at a course these play an important role. a lovingly detailed history of the infamous crossroads, a fact imm ediately perceptible A reader expecting such a text may Bay 13 (now Bay 20). Matthews would to anyone who has laid eyes on it in be, at first, sadly disappointed, but then, be intrigued to note that at the recen t recent months. On the third day of the perhaps, charmed by the unusual and Test m atch, the pavil ion was still booed Boxing Day Test, I sat in the modestly unexpected m ode of presentation. when the wave went past, despite named Great Southern Stand and looked The first clue that such an innovative being completely deserted. across at the old Members Pavilion as it approach has been taken is the sparse stood half-demolished, teetering on the yet striking black and white illustrative M ATTH EWS' COMMAND of narrative edge of collapse. With the photos. Rather than plun­ voice enables a detailed yet affectionate construction site visually dering newspaper archives history of the ground to emerge, a neces­ inescapable, the thought for shots of famous faces sarily polyvocal account of a place which of the eclectic coll ection of and events, Matthews has proclaims itself 'The People's Ground'. stands from several genera­ I I chosen a series of shots The order of events recounted at fi rst l~t) \I) tions giving way to a new depicting crowds, stands appears haphazard. However, as the monolithic structure was and curators. Particularly narrative unfo lds, the text begins to mirrored by the thought of striking are the photos by relate the resonance of the ground's abil­ Steve Waugh playing in his Megan Ponsford, which ity to engage with so many of the myths last Boxing D

l8 EUREKA STREET MARCH 2004 p l r I 01 111 .1 IH C Kevin Summers Ars artis gratia

s £V

MARCH 2004 EU REKA STREET 39 on stage Fine friends

T,Mn, ouRNO Thw

40 EU RE KA STREET MARCH 2004 thcatrl':' Peter Craven Shimmering darkness

STRINDBERG'S Dance of and Alice (Frances de la Tour) distract them­ character acting then hits the heroic with­ Death is one of the nightmare glories of the selves from their pain is by banter, wit, self­ out any phase of self-glan1orisation. The per­ theatre. It is almost fathomlessly black, a mockery and by mocking the other person. formance has absolute credibility and truth. tragic melodrama that ripples with laugh­ The play is a tour-de-force of light and Frances de la Tour rises to meet him in ter. John Matthias' production at the Syd­ dark, empowered by the adaptation of the a tremendous performance as Alice. Where ney Festival is one of those rare productions American playwright Richard Greenburg McKellen is crusty he is vinegar or sugar, that is touched with a genius that matches which is at every point idiomatic, lithe and where he staggers like a bull or lunges like that of the dramatist. full of spunk and slime. a viper, she is slatternly, seductive, full of Dance of Death represents, neat, the The production is full of movement outraged passion or sniping her way to perdi­ kind of vision Albee mixed with soda in and it helps that Robert Jones has created tion. She also penetrates to some bedrock of Who's Afraid of Viiginia Woolfi, a play on a cavernous space with a steel staircase emotional authenticity that takes away the which Strindberg's is a palpable influence. that gives the drama a vertical reach and breath. This too is a performance to die for. It is the story of a couple who experience also functions as an abstract emblem of the Owen Teale plays the friend who is a a deep loathing for each other which none­ emotional contortion and towering mad­ fall guy for each of these monsters in turn. theless constitutes the greatest bond they ness that characterise this vision. Teale sustains this less glittering role with have. It takes on much that could as easily Ian McKellen is superb in the way he integrity and sureness of touch. be called love. creates a kind of w1remitting savagery and This is a great production of a play shim­ They snipe at and betray each other, cruelty while investing Edgar with great mering with light and shrouded in shadow, they cheat, lie and snarl and in the midst feeling. And, beyond this, with a human representing what the modern theatre can of it all, crawling towards death or oblivion, reality that the actor wears like a skin. do with one of its greatest plays. • there they are, chained to each other. It is not a hammy performance, nor does It is also extraordinarily funny because McKellen milk what he is doing. It looks at Peter Craven is editor of Quarterly Essay the way in which both Edgar (Ian McKellen) first like a quiet perfonnance that begins in and Best Australian Essays.

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MARCH 2004 EURE KA STREET 41 Ruth Lovell Sumptuous feast

Tiepolo's Cleopatra, J

Banquet of Cleopatra and "most beautiful, noblest and richest that The second section draws attention Antony painted by Giovanni Battista the modern schools can produce"'. to the historical context of the painting, Tiepolo (1696- 1770) in 1743-44 has long Those wishing to discover m ore about relating how the work came to be com­ been a showpiece of the National Gallery this impressive painting will be delighted missioned and painted, and outlining the of Victoria (NGV). It bas recently under­ by Tiepolo's Cleopatra. This new book role of Algarotti. This section also details gone conservation and cleaning in time written by Ja ynie Anderson (Herald Chair a number of Tiepolo's drawings and for its generously spaced rehanging in a of Fine Arts and Head of the School of Fine sketches, examining their relation to the striking position in the recently reopened Arts, Classical Studies and Archaeology, NGV's Cleopatra 's Banquet. Anderson St Kilda Road premises. Melbourne University) takes the reader also looks at other banquet paintings by The painting is grand in both scale on a detailed exploration of the painting. Tiepolo and other artists who have been (249x346 em) and imagery, and depicts The book is an impressive publication; a influenced by him. Among the latter the sumptuous feast where Cleopatra large format hardback with glossy pages, are the wonderful Cecil Beaton photo­ outclassed her lover Marc Antony in their numerous full colour illustrations and a graphs of an extravagant ball, inspired by wager of excess. Challenging each other full list of illustrations, bibliography and Tiepolo's fresco paintings of Cleopatra and to spend the most on a single banquet, index. It is indeed a luxury for such a book Antony in an Italian palazzo. Cleopatra became the winner by dissolving The third section investigates the a precious pearl in vinegar and drinking it. intriguing history of the actual paint­ Tiepolo shows an extravagantly-clothed ing, its owners, and how it came to blonde- haired Cleopatra seated oppo­ M elbourne in 1933, purchased from the site Lucius Plancus, keeper of the bet, Soviet government. dressed in a luxurious Eastern styled outfit The fourth section is written by John trimmed with furs. Antony, in Roman mil­ Payne and Carl Villis, conservators at the itary splendour, is seated with his back to NGV who worked on the recent restora­ the viewer, hi s profile turned to Cleopatra tion of the painting. who holds aloft the pearl. The position of The text reveals thorough research, the various figures, together with the grid­ going into great detail in each of the vari­ patterned fl oor, draw the viewer's eye to ous aspects, and is supported with many this pivotal point. reference notes. However, it remains The painting was acquired by the NGV agreeably written in an accessible style. in 1933 through the Felton Bequest and A highlight of the publication is the was an expensive purchase at the time at many illustrations, sourced from paint­ $25,000. A favourable article appeared in ings and drawings around the world, and Art in Australia in 1933, which included featuring a generous number of details of a full-page colour reproduction and an the NGV painting. This intimate foc us extensive citation from Pliny's Natural allows a greater appreciation of the paint­ Historie of the World relating the depicted to be produced about a single painting. ing and encourages a desire to gaze at episode and outlining the 'romantic his­ The text is divided into four clear sections length at the painting itself. tory' of the painting which was once on different themes. The division into sec­ Tiepolo's Banquet is an engaging read owned by Augustus III (1696-1763), Elec­ tions allows the reader to either focus, or that will appeal to many beyond those tor of Saxony and King of Poland. merely dip into those areas of interest. with an interest in art history while the The article, perhaps written to persuade The first section looks at the story of generous number of illustrations will the public that it was money well spent, Cleopatra, citing examples in literature appeal to the coffee table book buyer. quotes from a similarly motivated letter and art over time including works that The balance of the scholarly, yet acces­ from the King's ambassador, Algarotti, may have been of influence to Tiepolo. sible style and the abundance of quality written from Venice in 1744, to Count This section also gives great attention to images makes this book a rich feast for Bruhl, 'a powerful minister of the king and the episode of the banqu et itself, including any reader. • an ardent art collector saying that he had other versions by Tiepolo and other artists, persuaded M. Tiepolo to finish the picture and examines Tiepolo's various renderings Ruth Lovell is at Lauraine Diggins Fine for his Majesty and described it as the of Cleopatra throughout his career. Art, Melbourne.

42 EUREKA STREET MARCH 2004 tr sh o rt Ii st 0 RWELl'S Orwell's Australia: From Cold War to How Simone de Beauvoir Died in Australia, Culture Wars, Dennis Glover. Scribe, 2003. Sylvia Lawson. UNSW Press, 2001. ISBN 0 868 AUSTRALIA ISBN 0 908 01156 3, RRP $19.95 40577 9, RRP $37.95 I confess, I grew up jealous of those living in The best moment in Sylvia Lawson's How the inner suburbs. Year after year, we would Simone de Beauvoir Died in Australia is when, make the voyage from the outer east to see as an aside in her collection of essays and fiction my cousins in Richmond. I would return analysing Australian culture, she mentions that home to my suburban life, dreaming of the only recognition in Australia to follow the living in a terrace home with brilliant yellow death of Michel Foucault was a small headline in walls and arty, intellectual people drifting in a daily newspaper that read 'Sex historian dies'. and out. Such an observation, wryly noted, captures Dennis Glover has got me thinking about the suburbs a lot what is behind the finest moments in this book: Lawson's sharp writ­ more, and a little differently. You see, people who live 'out there' ing, the ability to apply her knowledge of what is evidently a vast on the fringes of Australia's cities vote. Not only do they vote, but amount of reading and research, and to tie seemingly unconnected their constituency has been the contested ground upon which the threads together. That said, however, its weakness is that the prose is last two federal elections were fought. According to Glover, the sometimes dense, tripping over its own worthiness, and there are not centre- left needs to search for the truth about these fringe dwell­ as many moments of illumination as one would hope. ers. They need to take the trip from Richmond to Fountain Gate, Yet, the last and title essay is an exception to this rule. Here, and Leichhardt to Penrith, and immerse themselves in the life of Lawsons's analysis of Simone de Beauvoir as a feminist, and of people who reside there. This is what Orwell would have done. feminism in Australia, allows for a vibrant exchange of ideas. Glover's knowledge of Orwell the man is used to great effect Similarly her writings permit ambiguity without slipping into vague­ throughout the book. I was left wanting to find out more about ness. It is Lawson writing at her best, allowing a reader to forgive the this person who relinquished the niceties of a middle-class exist­ slower passages that precede it. ence to live amongst the real battlers of his time. Australia's -Chloe Wilson centre- left needs to use Orwell's example to seek the truth about suburbanites and their aspirations. The truth is out there. 5rff'HFN I N\VOOD The Man Who Knew Too Much, The -Emily Millane THE MAN Strange and Inventive Life of Robert Hooke VVHO 1635- 1703, Stephen Inwood. Pan Macmillan, A Woman of Independence, Kirsty Sword KNEW TOO 2003. ISBN 0 330 48829 5, HRP $66 Gusmiio. Macmillan, 2003. ISBN 0 732 91197 4, MUCH Stephen Inwood's The Man Who Knew Too Much RRP $30 is an interesting account of the complex Robert Kirsty Sword Gusmao's book begins with an Hooke, a 17 '" century scientist, architect, painter, endearing scene at the dawn of a new nation. inventor and mechanic. Inwood revives Hooke 'Shouldn't you at least put on a tie?' she says to '"'""··' ~'''""" '·", frmn the forgotten pages of history to portray a her husband as he leaves to greet the first on a list brilliant and versatile but very flawed man. of foreign dignitaries arriving to mark the birth One of Inwood's strengths in this work is that of East Timor. 'It's in my pocket'' says Xanana he manages to vividly recreate Hooke's world of 17'" century London. Gusmao as he climbs into the back seat of the car On the other hand Inwood does go into immense detail of Hooke's which would take him to Dili-15 hours before inventions, to the crosshairs on quadrant lenses, punch clocks and the he is to be sworn in as president. springs and gears in pocket watches, so it would help to have a techni­ A degree in Indonesian and Italian from the University of cal mind to fully appreciate The Man Who Knew Too Much. To be fair Melbourne is the catalyst that propelled Kirsty Sword Gusmao to to Inwood though, so much of Hooke's life work was tied up in the become the first lady of Asia's poorest country. inventing and refining of gadgets like the air pump and microscopes, The candid, journalistic writing of Sword Gusmao makes her that technical detail would be hard to avoid. book A Woman of Independence a compelling read. Nonetheless, without having a technical mind myself, I found The autobiography follows her journey from a typical Australian The Man Who Knew Too Much quite enjoyable because Hooke is upbringing which she left to work as an English teacher and such a fascinating character. He probably inspired the now com­ underground human rights activist in Jakarta. Here, she encounters mon archetype of the jealous scientific genius. Hooke was, to say the East Timorese freedom fighter Xanana Gusmao with whom she least, unconventional. He was a man who had a long-term incestu­ begins a relationship while he is held in Cipinang prison. ous relationship, yet many years before Charles Darwin even existed, Her strong willed commitment and steadfast motivation to proposed that fossils were the remains of creatures that had become the cause is evident on each page-unwavering even in the most extinct and not just 'nature's tricks'. In parts Inwood's book is also confusing and challenging times. Her story reveals throughout a highly amusing. Particularly hilarious is Hooke's account of the woman of independence who is destined for greatness. results of personal experiments conducted using Indian hemp. The book is lightened by her tumultuous romance with the In short The Man Who Kn ew Too Much is a thorough, entertain­ future leader of East Timor, and flavoured with the exotic and ing and eye-opening biography of Hooke, in which Inwood manages exhausting tales of her work for the independence struggle of the to rescue Hooke from the caricature of the ugly little man jealous of East Timorese. the great Sir Isaac Newton. -Beth Doherty -Godfrey Moase

MARCH 2004 EU REKA STR EET 43 famously flamboyant visual flair, Big Fish One that got away just didn't have oomph. The script was soft when it needed to punch hard and was Big Fish, dir. Tim Burton. !want to love Tim too tidy when it needed to sprawl. Burton flash in the pan Burton's fi lms. They have such promise. needs tougher subject matter to play fairy Mad desire , strange un-doings, trembling tales with. If only The Brothers Grimm visuals, but, when will I actually love were still pushing the pen. Cruisi ng Sa murai one? Patiently I wait, fi guring there must -Siobhan Jackson be one gurgling away in Burton's gut that The Last Sammai, dir. Edward Zwick. Is will win me over. I thought Big Fi h might it enough to say that The Last Samurai be it' Sadly, m y vigil continues. Sleepers wake is everything that cinema shouldn't be? There is no nut-shell plot for this fi lm, That the filmmaker's vision of 'the way of atleast not one worth retelling. It meanders Good bye Lenin!, dir. Wolfgang Becker. the Samurai' makes The Karate Kid look around the life (real and fantastical) of Ed Good bye Lenin! is a 'small' film about like a masterpiece of classical Buddhist Bloom. Bl oom, story-teller extraordinaire, 'big' things. No stars, no digital effects, philosophy? That visually it offers little weaves rea l life and fan cy into tales that no fancy hair-dos and no histrionic flour­ more than a series of computer-generated, capture everyone's imagination-every­ ishes. With the summer holiday block­ statistically-averaged, test-screened and one that is, except his own son Will (Billy busters screaming their budgets from the exit-polled post-cards? (' Look, a traditional Crudup). Frustrated by the endless melding mountaintops, it is good to know that Japanese village! Look, a noble Samurai' of fa ct and fiction, Will confronts his 'small' films are still out there. Look, a despi cable cowardly businessman! father on his death bed, in an attempt to Good bye Lenin! has a delightfully Look, a cl ash between good traditional find out the facts of his fa ther's life . But si mple plot. Christiane (Katrin Sa~), a Japanese indigenous culture and bad surprise, surprise, Will discovers that the committed East German communist, falls modernising Western inBuences! ) That it truth can be one hell of a slippery beast into a coma just mon ths before the wall relies on the most hackneyed and clumsy (don't forget we're talking 'big fish' ). fa lls. When she awakes East and West expository devices to tell the audience the Big Fish certainly has an enviable cast. have re- unified. On doctor's orders, Chris­ story that its manufactured images are Albert Finney and Ewan McGregor (as tiane is not to be subjected to any mi nor unable to carryz That we don't just hear senior and junior Ed Bloom respectively) let along major shocks. Concerned th at extracts from the central character's diary give appropriately cock-eyed perform ­ the political enormity of re-unification explaining what is going on, but we have to ances, but lack the common ground may kill her, her son Alex (Daniel Bri.ihl) see him writing in it at the same time, in needed to pull off the double act. When decides to keep his mother in the dark. ca e it all gets too confusing? Jessica Lang (playing Eel senior's wife) slips And so the farce begins. That it manages to be a perfect fully dressed into a bath with pyjama-clad The madness of Alex's scheme is plot Orientalist text (in Edward Said's sense Eel, I was intensely moved. She always enough, but Good bye Lenin! gives you a of the term), all the while pretending to seems slightly drunk to m e, but damn, she good deal more than that. It's not easy to criticise the inimical influence of Western can nail a poignant m oment. Billy Crudup portray East Germany in a gentle light, or culture on traditional Japanese values? deserves real credit for maintaining Will's to make its supporters profoundly sympa­ T hat it's a remake of Dances With Wolves straight guy persona in a film full of decid­ thetic, but this film manages to do just set in Japan? That every word, image, edly fruity characters. There is a host of that without pulling too m any punches. movement, every hair on Tom Cruise's other big stars (Danny DeVito, Helena Reminiscent of Britain's great anti­ head is calculated within an inch of its life, Bonham-Carter, Steve Bu scemi) that give Thatcher films of the eighties (My Beau ti­ so that not a single moment of spontaneity what can only be described as dazzling ful Launderette, Letter to Brezhnev etc), emerges to su rprise the audience (or wake character turns. Good bye Lenin! tackles 'big' politics at them up) ? But all that great acting wasn't enough the kitchen sink. It is not about the big fig­ T hat Cruise does not act so much to shorten m y breath. Even with Burton's ures of history but the people who n urse as strike a series of tableaux- bitter their own mothers, sport Tom, noble Tom, drunkard Tom, heroic cheap hair-cuts, dictate Tom, culturally sensitive Tom-as if to letters while ironing and announce to the audience by semaphore, eat pi ckles out of the ja r. 'Tom Cruise is acting'? (No need for Good bye Lenin! has the marketing people to produce a Tom its short comings- it's Cruise action figure-he already is his neither quite funny own action figure, with all the expressive enough nor satisfyingly range and subtlety of a fully poseable GI tragic- but with a hand­ Joe) . No, the one thing you really need to some eye for detail and a know to understand what this film i like light directorial touch it is that its title really does refer to Tom deserves a good deal of its Cruise's character. art-house hit status. -Allan James Thomas Tu ggling the freedoms

44 EUREKA STREET MARCH 2004 and profiting like fl ies on the human carcase. Minghella does the episodic mayhem justice, aided by a skilled cast. With his central characters and their long-distance bond, he is less successful. Kidman and Law act their hearts out-you can see thespian eff ort in every one of Kidman 's gestures-but they are both so implacably beautiful it's hard to believe in their suffering. ( om eone should spea k to Kidman ' hair stylist.) As for Renee Zellweger, as Ruby, the practical drifter who com es to live with and 'learn' the over-educated Ada after the death of her father (Donald Sutherland, in a faultless cameo), well, she's just a bit too refl ex backwoodsy for me. Caricature acting. But all that said, it is an affecting film, perhaps because it is so intelligent about war, more profo und, for example, than the celebrated Saving Private Ryan, because it gives war a broad human, not just an heroic, context. Minghella is, of of the West with the convictions of the The would-be lovers of Cold course, not American, and he shot Cold East was at times too politically compli­ Mountain, preacher's daughter Ada and Mountain mostly in Romania rather than cated for what was essentially a light com ­ Inman (Nicole Kidman and Jude Law) North Carolina. His stars don't all have edy-but there were whispers of a tough are separated by four years of war. They authentic Southern accents because most strangeness in Good bye Lenin! and for write letters, but minimal, repressed are not American, let alone from North that I praise it. ones, revealing more between than in Carolina (Kidman, it seems, is 'from the And if, like me, you have always pre­ the lines. While you're still pondering UK'). So you might, in these the post­ ferred the word cosmonaut to astronaut their subtext, the film's action spirits Free Trade Agreement days, enj oy the I suggest you moon-walk right on down you elsewhere, most forcefully to the Hollywood industria l campaign currently to the next session of Good bye Lenin !. carnage of the Civil War battlefields being conducted via email and internet, There are treats in store. and their amoral aftermath- vigilante roundly condemning the film on all the -Siobhan Ja ckson civil guards who use war as an excuse aforesaid grounds. Tut tut. for sadism, whole families procuring -Morag Fraser Human conflict

Cold Mountain dir. Anthon y Minghella. Charles Frazier's remarkable 1997 novel evokes Civil War-time North a rolina through the slightly formal drawl and godly-or ungodly- habits of it principal characters. It's a complex tale, both odyssey and psychological development novel, a mix the film's director and screenplay writer, Anthony Minghella, has absorbed and understood as comprehensively as he did Michael Ondaatje's Th e English Pa tien t. What both films lack, necessarily, is the leisure of the original form. In Cold Mountain this matters more, because more is held in imaginative suspension in Cold Mountain . Movies, even the best of them , are not good at letting you linger, or wonder.

MARCH 2004 EU REKA STREET 45 watching

I brief Whodunnit

I T'S A HAR Now since l got b" k fmm my fittk tdp to able to bully an entire country any more. England, where I visited rellies, was fed raw leek by a gorilla The big thing that England still labours under, no pun and slipped and slithered over frozen garbage in London. intended, and I speak as an anguished Pom, is that horrible, And it's nearly 20 years since I was there before that, poisonous class system. You see it in Maggie, with her careful h orrified in th e middle of the m in ers' strike, in Thatcher's vowels tortured into a simulacrum of gentility, especially at heyday. I returned h ere gladly in 1985 wondering what on the beginning when she had to slow her speech (your m other earth was going to happen to m y birthplace in the north of tongue always surfaces when you speak quickly). Eventually, England, which was so clearly under attack. Now we know. from long use, she seemed at ease with her artificial voice, a London now ra tes 45'11 on a li st of liveable cities that includes forced-down contralto that rasped when she was angry, which virtually all Australian capitals in the top ten. was often. Two ABC program s got m e thinking about all this: of In Crime Team, which you simply m ust watch, the course the two-part Thatcher biography in February, and the accents tell their own story too. Britain is still class-ridden, recently started Crime Team (Thursdays, 9.30pm). Funny with celebrity sleuths paired to make as much contrast how som e program s are better for company: I needed it in the as possible. The natural Essex warmth of crime novelist Thatch er documentaries, because they m ade hard watching Martina Cole contrasted with the w aspish fl uting of art critic for anyon e who rem embers fr ee education, a fair working Brian Sewell, whose accent would not be snobbish if his week, real weekends and a health system that worked. words were not egregiously so. H e attempts to patronise her 'Yes,' said m y husband. 'I rem ember that time too. and ends up chucking little tanties when sh e dares to disagree Before privatisation, outsourcing, anti-union legislation and with him. Anne Widdecombe, ex minister for the Tories, was gambling- led recoveries.' teamed in the first episode with lefty comic John O'Farrell. 'A time when redistribution of wealth was still a They did rather better together; it tends to work when both respectable topic, and taxing the incomes of the rich rather parties have good manners. But top of the ruden ess league th an the food of the poor was the way to get m on ey for was Jan et Street-Porter, the British jo urnalist, who turns t he government,' I replied. team effort into investigating a 17'11 century m urder into a 'A time when we were governed instead of ruled,' said m y childish m e-first race. son, who was too young to rem ember, but could do the maths. The series' host, Jerome Lyn ch, is a real barrister who If econom ic rationalism has hit Australia hard, with the isn't shy of hectoring the teams for sloppy thinking. He widening gap between rich and poor, the damage I've seen reminds one team that a junior barrister would be sacked for in m y birth country has been far worse. That garbage in the neglecting to ask som e glaring questions, and you don't doubt streets, my relatives' harrowing stories of dreadful negligence it. What raises this program above many others is its focus under the N HS, th e general air of truculent mistrust, where on the social conditions of the times it investigates. This is had it all com e from ' Whodunnit? particularly harrowing when, in an upcoming episode dealing Well, using th e tools available to m e at the time, as in with the m ysterious deaths of babies found floa ting in a river, the excellent, even compulsively viewable Crime Team , I can Lynch tells us that in the 1890s, (when m y grandparen ts were say that I have no doubt at all that Maggie Thatcher, Milton alive) 50 children a year were found dead in London streets. Friedman 's centrefold, dunnit. Blair, (whatever one thinks To a child brought up under Keynesian systems, that would be of him now ) was hobbled from the start, trying to build a unthinkable. But what will the future bring? decent home out of the wreck she left behind her. Anyway, On a lighter note or notes, SBS has a series called Songs That the documentary, careful and even -handed to the point of Changed The World, screening Wednesdays at 7.30pm. March whitewash, was dam ning enough . She said enough to make 3's pick is 'Heartbreak Hotel', which is probably the sexiest song you realise that it is always a mistake to vote for a successful ever performed. How it changed the world is anyone's guess. psychopath. T he sight of her weeping because she was no If songs can change the world fo r the better, let me suggest longer in power was curiously unaffecting: usually the sight something like 'Try A Little Tenderness'. It wouldn't hurt. • of an elderly lady weeping will m ake a ston e feel som ething. Unless of course the elderly lady is weeping because she isn 't Ju liette Hughes is a freelance writer.

46 EU REKA STREET MARCI-l 2004 D evised by Joan Nowotny IBVM puzzled L------~------Eureka Street Cryptic Crossword no. 121, March 2004 ACROSS l. Some author I gingerly quote as my source. (6) 4. For a change, he jots P.S. down, as a reminder of his special role with Mary. (2,6) 9. Fairly? Fairly, rather. (6) 10. Test public reaction with some aeronautics? (3,1,4) 12. After about an hour, a pie brings a feeling of elation. (8) 13. Woollen coat to take to the cleaners? (6) 15. A tricky ruse, for certain (4) 16. They have to be checked in for high carriage! (6,4) 19. Put out badly closed adit? (10) 20. The season when I provided money temporarily. (4) 23. Happen to live beside the cascade. (6) 25. Search for an elementary particle? That is the issue under discussion. (8) 27. Disregard position on horseback, perhaps! (8) 28. Some stratagem initiated for the twins? That's a sign. (6) 29. Bypass a subordinate activity by getting out of the way. (8) 30. In this we are in perfect harmony. (6)

DOWN l. Work on the print media can be burdensome (7) 2. Sweets and wines can be enjoyed at such activities as skating for example. (3,6) 3. Opening remarks in sort of order. (6) Solution to Crossword no. 120, Jan-Feb 2004 5. Up to the time when one can cultivate the soil (4) 6. Where dinner might be prepared for ease of access (2,1,5) 7. Some parcel it early for the aristocracy. (5) 8. Possibly sheer leg, end nipped off by these stock managers? (7) 11. Mild lamb docked and stewed; it's a means of raising the water level to turn the wheel. (7) 14. 0, N egus and I discuss a sort of rock, but not on the music program. (7) 17. So be it! I am on site possibly, in order to make use of the pleasant facilities. (9) 18. Were Wycliffe's followers all lords1 Maybe. (8) 19. Alter the sound track to add debt reminders of questionable value. (7) 21. 0 tennis! I watched it with considerable strain (7) 22. Like sea-bird flying behind the ship. (6) 24. Catch the ball and hit th e stumps, for instance. (5) 26. Move cautiously towards the boundary. (4)

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D Mailing list: I would like to remove my name from the mailing list when it is used for outside advertising. 93est Jlust'la fia n POLITICAL CARTOONS Best Australian Political 2003 Cartoons 2003 selected by Russ Radcliffe

Best Australian Political Cartoons 2003 features cartoons by Peter Nicholson, Michael Leunig, Cathy Wilcox, Geoff Pryor, Bill Leak and Sean Leahy. Russ Radcliffe has made his selection from the work of those who have tackled the big issues of 2003: the war on Iraq, refugees, cross-m edia ownership and the resignation of the Governor General. The irreverent satirical tone of the cartoons makes fascinating reading. With thanks to Scribe Publica tions, Eureka Street has ten copies of Best Australian Political Cartoons 2003 to give away. Just send your selected by Russ Radcliffe name and address on the back of an envelope to: Eureka Street March INTRODUCTION BY DON WATSON Book Offer, PO Box 553, Richmond Vic 3121. See page 37 for winners of the January- February book offer.

Sept. 1999 Appointed Associate Director, Office for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, Archdiocese of Chicago. -St. Ignatius of Loyola May 1999 Initiates Catholic-Muslim Educ:lltlon Project for high school students In Chlcqo.

1ti'7 Cnldulltes fRim Weston jesuit School af'TheolosY's Muter of' Theological $lu4la ,....m; specilllzation in cathellc·MIIIIIm rellltloM. 1995 jesuit Volunller Ollpl: c:.ooniiMtes aA.rschool....,. p10pm for Inner-city native -.lean children. 1993 Arcllaeolatlc*l .. ln jcdan; expeNtlall ..._ firsthand.

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