Volume 6 Number 7 EURI:-KA SJRI:-Er September 1996

A magazine of public affairs, the arts and theology

26 IN THE OUTER Is there any heart left in footy, Jon Greenaway CoNTENTS asks. Simon Egan farewells his beloved Fitzroy. 29 HOLD YOUR BETS 4 Bruce Williams calculates that Cuba was the COMMENT mouse that roared at the Atlanta Olympics. John Quiggin on the Budget. 30 6 WHITE AUSTRALIA, ASIA AND LA VIEWPOINT LONGUE DUREE Chris McGillion on collegiality and J.S. Gregory assesses the impact our immigra­ Melbourne's new Archbishop. tion policy will have with Asia. 7 36 CAPITAL LETTER THE ITALIAN JOB Geraldine Doogue talked with Cardinal 8 Martini during his recent Australian visit. LETTERS 39 14 ACADEMICS AND THE AMATEUR SPIRIT ABUSE AND TRUST J.J.C. Smart looks at the emerging culture of Direct dealing is the only way to go in managerialism in academia. sexual abuse cases, says Bishop Geoffrey Robinson. 42 BOOKS 17 Jack Waterford takes us on a tour with The UNDER THE ROOF OF THE WORLD House on Capital Hill; The problems of Alan Nichols argues the arms trade is defence strategy are in Discourses of Danger prolonging the suffering of Afghani amd Dead Frontiers according to Brian refugees in Pakistan. Toohey (p43); Peter Pierce reviews Robert Louis Stevenson and the Appearance of 18 Modernism (p44). Cover design by Siobhan Ja ckson. ANOTHER INDONESIA Photographs pp1 , 2 by Bill Thomas. Lower cover photograph is of the Paul Chadwick meets the would-be-free 45 DNA sequencing machine at St press in Jakarta. THEATRE Vincent's, Melbourne. Geoffrey Milne talks to three actors about 19 stage, screen and film. Cartoon p9 by Peter Fraser. ARCHIMEDES Graphics pp10, 3 1, 35, 39, 50 by Siobhan Jackson. 48 Photograph p17 by Brett Parris. 20 FLASH IN THE PLAN Photographs pp20, 28 by NEITHER FISH NOR FLESH Reviews of the films Flirt, Secrets and Lies, Bill Thomas. Brett Wright explores the ethics of Ph enomenon, Kicking and Screaming, Photograph p25 by Moira Rayner. Photograph p26 by Andrew Stark. xenotransplan ta tion. Mission Impossible, and Brilliant Lies. Photographs pp l, 36 by John Casamento. 24 50 Eureka Street magazine BORDERLINE LAW WATCHING BRIEF Jesuit Publications In Latvia, Moira Rayner uncovers some PO Box 553 new and some familiar assaults on 51 Richmond VIC 3 121 human rights. SPECIFIC LEVITY Tel (03) 9427 7311 Fax (03) 9428 4450

V oLUME 6 N uMBER 7 • EUREKA STREET 3 EURI:-KA STRI:-19" CoMMENT A magazine of public affairs, the arts JoHN Q UJGGIN and theology Publisher Michael Kelly SJ Editor Morag Fraser The Consulting editor Michael McGirr SJ Assistant editor Jon Greenaway reluctant Production assistants: Paul Fyfe SJ, Juliette Hughes, Chris Jenkins SJ, Siobhan Jackson, Scott Howard Budget Contributing editors Adelaide: Greg O'Kelly SJ Brisbane: Ian Howells SJ Perth: Dean Moore Sydney: Edmund Campion, Gerard Windsor L 1996-97 Buoc"-'MWN,NT" Emeka sueet goe' to European correspondent: Damien Simonis press, will be brought down in an atmosphere of crisis, at least crisis according to the Howard government. It is claimed Editorial board that the $8 billion 'Black Hole' necessitates drastic spending Peter L'Estrange SJ (chair), cuts. Does the Black Hole exist, and if so, does it justify the Margaret Coady, Margaret Coffey, crisis measures? Valda M. Ward RSM, Trevor Hales, On the first question, it seems likely that the Budget Marie Joyce, Kevin McDonald, outcome for 1995-96 will be around $4 billion worse than Jane Kelly IBVM, was predicted when the Labor government brought down its Peter Steele SJ, Bill Uren SJ last Budget in Aprill995. Yet the projections for economic Business manager: Sylvana Scannapiego growth, unemployment and other economic parameters Advertising representative: Ken Head contained in the 1995 Budget were almost exactly correct. Patrons There were no policy decisions between the Budget and the Eureka Street gratefully acknowledges the election with any significant effect on revenue or outlays. In support of Colin and Angela Carter; the these circumstances, an error of $4 billion is a startlingly trustees of the estate of Miss M. Condon; bad forecasting performance by Treasury. Denis Cullity AO; W.P. & M.W . Gurry; It appears that almost all of the shortfall will arise Geoff Hill and Janine Perrett; because tax revenue will not meet the Budget forecasts. A the Roche family. re-examination of the Budget forecasts for 1995-96 reveals a highly optimistic projection for an increase in individual Eureka Street magazine, ISSN 1036- 1758, income tax revenues of 13.6 per cent, despite the absence of Australia Post Print Post approved any significant increase in tax rates or other measures to pp349181 /003 14 enhance income tax revenue (the Medicare levy was increased is published ten times a year by 0.1 per cent, but the effect of this measure was negligi­ by Eureka Street Magazine Pty Ltd, ble). It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the Keating 300 Victoria Street, Richmond, Victoria 3 121 government's desire to announce a return to surplus led to Tel: 03 942 7 7311 Fax: 03 9428 4450 pressure on Treasury to come up with optimistic forecasts. e-mail: eurek

4 EUREKA STREET • SEPTEMBER 1996 So far the information revealed by the Treasury, betray its trust. The recipe described above is exactly with its misleading references to 'parameter revisions' that followed by Nick Greiner in NSW, with a notable is insufficient to tell for sure whether the massive lack of electoral success. changes in forecasts are the result of incompetence The drastic cuts desired by Treasury and Finance or dishonesty. But there can be no doubt about the can be implemented successfully only in an atmos­ dishonesty with which successive Australian govern­ phere of crisis, like that surrounding the election of ments have approached the electorate in recent years. the Kennett government in Victoria. More Both the 1993 and 1996 elections were won on importantly, the policy prescription is wrong. the basis of commitments that could not possibly be Although a surplus is usually preferable to a deficit, delivered. In both cases the party leaders compounded there is no need for panic m easures. Australia could their dishonesty. Keating enacted the One Nation tax maintain a deficit of 1.5 per cent of GOP (around $7 cuts into L-A-W, only to repeal them after the elec­ billion) indefinitely, simply by allowing public debt tion. Howard cam- to grow in line with paigned specifically national income. on the basis of his The real need is for personal reputation ... an open debate about whether the public an end to cuts in for honesty. When services such as asked what would interest would be better served by health, education, happen if, as was environmental expected, the Budg­ higher taxes and better com1nunity protection and et deficit was worse social welfare, than had been services or by lower taxes and cuts in which represent a announced, he stat­ more significant ed that he would let services is pointless. The answer is already investment in the the deficit blow out future than an rather than renege known in advance since the ideology improvement in on his promises. the government's Underlying of the free market means that smaller net financial worth. this pattern of To the extent deceit is a belief, government is always better. that there is any shared by leading truth in the Black figures in both par- Hole, it reflects ties, and that is even more prevalent in departments inadequate revenue. To meet the goal of maintaining like Treasury and Finance, that the Australian peo­ and improving services, as well as the subsidiary goal ple cannot be trusted, but can be fooled. In this view, of improving the budget balance, long-term increases an open debate about whether the public interest in revenue are needed. A good start in this direction would be better served by higher taxes and better com­ would be the abandonment of short-term expedients munity services or by lower taxes and cuts in services like privatisation and private infrastructure bonds. is pointless. The answer is already known in advance The apparent improvement in the bottom line since the ideology of the free market means that small­ generated by these expedients is more than offset by er government is always better. But the electorate will the long-term loss of income they generate. Other 'tax always be fooled by offers of improved services, and expenditures' such as the concession on super­ its influence on policy must therefore be annuation investments for the well-off could also be kept to a minimum. pruned back. The ultimate question, however, is a simple one. INTHIS VIEW, the only way of getting sensible policy Do ordinary Australians want to have more cash in into place is to say whatever is necessary to get their pockets, or do they want to have community elected, then cut as hard and as quickly as possible. services that meet the needs of all? If the choice is for When the next election comes around, the benefits of community services, ordinary people must be the cuts will, it is hoped, be showing up in terms of prepared to pay higher income taxes. Despite the increa ed productivity. Even if, as usually happens, horror with which such a suggestion is met by the benefits of free market orthodoxy are not apparent, politicians of both major parties, there is plenty of the electorate will have had three years to forget the evidence from opinion surveys to show that a majority cuts, and some last-minute bribes in the form of pre­ of Australians would be quite willing to pay this price election tax cuts will maximise the government's if an end to the remorseless cutbacks of the past decade chances of re-election. could be assured. • As a political theory, this represents an underes­ timation of the electorate, and particularly of the John Quiggin is Professor of Economics at James Cook public capacity to remember and punish those who University.

V OLUME 6 NUMBER 7 • EUREKA STREET 5 V IEWPOINT

CHRIS M c GrLLION

T,Aeea>NTMCNT o' AN AeC H "~ i~~Y' ~~g : ~~1\ y ~~v~ i~t~d , e\igiom wmkm Thi' went much interest beyond the city that is his see. One reason why this is further than their 1993 acknowledgem ent that sexual abuse by particularly true of Melbourne, where, in July, Bishop George some priests and religious had occurred in the past, and it Pell was appointed to succeed Sir Frank Little, should be obvious committed all the bishops to follow-up m easures including to anyone with even a passing knowledge of Australian Catholic codes of conduct for priests and a study into the factors pecu- culture. liar to the Catholic Church that might lead them to abuse. In Although it galls a Sydneysider to admit it, Melbourne is other words, the bishops adopted a distinctly national approach the intellectual heart of Australian Catholicism . Since at least to the issue. They finally accepted that the conference, as the the establishment peak leadership of N ewman Col- The notion that there was such a thing as a national Church, body of the local lege at the Univer- ll h f l ll l Church, had to sity of Melbourne i {e t e opportunity a ter Vatican II to exp ore co egia ity as a take the initiative in 1918, the open- way of expressing it, had never been taken anywhere near as for the sa ke of all ing of the city's l l h Catholics-and of Central Catholic serious yin Austra ia as it was in t e Americas or Western Europe. the victims. This Library in 1924, m arks a profound and the fi rst fl owering of its Campion Society in the 1930s, progression in the bishops' collective self-identifica tion . Melbourne has been in the fo refront of the most stimulating Until April, the bi-annual national Catholic Bishops and innovative Catholic debate. Sydney retained its seniority Conference had been viewed as part talk-fest/part administra- in the ecclesiastical pecking order but Melbourne became home tive formality. The notion that there was such a thing as a to a tradition of intellectual vitality. By this Melbourne was national Church, like the opportunity after Vatican II to explore able to rise above the rut of Catholic tribalism at those times collegiality as a way of expressing it, had never been taken when Sydney dug in deeper. And Melbourne went on produc- anywhere near as seriously in Australia as it was in the Amer- ing the more creative and enduring goods, like answers to the icas or Western Europe. Consequently, the Church in Austral- questions of who and why Australian Catholics are. ia has been slow to develop a distinctive culture, it has been In Archbishop Pell M elbourne m ay yet have another particularly vulnerable to the dictates of Rome, and it has failed champion of this role. But his form suggests another inclination. to capitalise on its strengths and resources to take its full part Dr Pell is a member of the Vatican's Congregation for the in the political, social and moral life of the country. Doctrine of the Faith, Rom e's chief instrument in its drive for The April development was a tentative step fo rward. A orthodoxy. H e has been associated with AD2000-the more cautious line m ay have prevailed at the conference had censorious journal of a disgruntled Catholic rump. not the NSW Royal Commission into Police Corruption been And he is the leading episcopal advocate of Pope John Paul publicising the clerical abuse scandal in the weeks before the II's 1993 encyclical Veritatis Splendor (The Splendour of Truth). bishops m et; a retrea t remains possible while the most senior This was a treatise on m oral teaching that contained an clerics remain committed to a different m odel of Church . instruction to the bishops on how to ge t the Church's m essage And therein lies the rub. All the senior clerics are close to across: 'have recou rse', the Pope told them , 'to appropriate retirem en t except, that is, Archbishop Pell who, at 55 years of m easures to ensure that the faithful are guarded fr om every age, can contemplate two decades as the second-most senior doctrine and theology contrary to it'. Liberal theologians, and churchman in the country. some outspoken priests, were soon to learn that 'appropriate Archbishop Pell is quintessentially Roman. By training he m easures' usually com e in the form of discipline and ostracism . is a product of Rome's Propaganda Fide College; by outlook he When the news of his appoin tment broke, Archbishop Pell believes that all roads lead straight to Rome and all the answers gave a number of interviews in which he said that he sees his fl ow straight back again. This view allows no deviations, no task as one of unifying the Church behind the teachings of John concession s to local differences. Rather than t aking the Paul II because this is the best way to restore the confi dence of Australian Church into the 21st century, it is the kind of view 'rattled' Catholics. It is still too early to tell what he meant by that would haul it back into a kind of pre- 1960s ghetto. this but it has an ominous ring to it. The result, m ost likely, w ould be a paralysing, and Archbishop Pell may believe that his success will be m eas- ultimately debilitating, tug of war between th e old and the ured in terms of the volume of dissent within Melbourne: the new. That is wh y Archbishop Pell deserves our prayers-that less noise there is, the m ore united (and less 'rattled') Catho- he might receive wise counsel and exercise sound judgm ent. lies m ust be. If so, he will be confusing any silence he imposes It is why the rest of the Australian Church needs prayers as on Melbourne with the suffocation of what has been the most well- that it might prevail even should its heart start miss- lively and exciting pocket of the local Catholic scen e. ing beats. • But there is another reason why Catholics generally should be interested in Pell's appointment. At their April conference, Chris McGillion is the opinion page editor of the Sydney the Catholic bishops issued a fo rmal apology to the victim s of Morning Herald.

6 EUREKA STREET • S EPTEMBER 1996 S ~ MONWS •~o o~,~~H:~d/g~e~~,~~ :.b:~~~~he~~~ ili:,~~~~nge' seriously punished a number of old Labor constituencies-some directly comes from government subvention but from the with good cause and some for the simple pleasure of getting its number of satisfied customers they process. own back. Very little of this is hard ideology at work, even if it has But the Howard strategy is not focused on cuts and it does been in Britain and New Zealand under conservative regimes not depend on his being able to get spending cuts through a that one sees most of the examples in action. But the fact is hostile and contrary Senate, or upon a double dissolution that there are not many ideas being played with that have not strategy. He actually believes in prim government housekeep- been played with by Labor in government, and in many cases, ing, and so does the international marketplace; not least when all that Howard is offering is a much accelerated program . it has been promised it. But he is far too cynical to expect that Down the road is not only a much reduced public service merely cutting the size of the government deficit will by itself (in due course all of the service-provider functions, and not a spark economic activity and growth, or that an automatic few specialised functions such as tax collecting, customs and trickle-down process will overcome the macro-economic effects health, welfare and community service-provider functions will of government job losses, or that $5 billion one way or another be hived off out of the public service proper) but a highly (about one per cent of gross national product) actually makes centralised one which is command-oriented, intrinsically much difference to national savings or investment, or the struc- political, with a contract mentality. It will be much more elite, ture of the economy. will suffer deeply from never getting its hands dirty with the He is much more focused on uncertain national and economic implementation of actual programs, and yet perversely will be fortunes and a backdrop of natural growth in the economy. far more infected with managerialism than with policy and Opinions about the prospects of this are divided, and there is program development skills. The apostles of this sort of thing increasing pessimism about the power of government to affect believe that running a public hospital or a school is not intrin- things. In fact, however, some air of panic about the economy sically different from running a defence procurement program may help hin1 push through changes which matter to hin1 more. or a pig export levy scheme. If he can push them through, there can be little undoing by subse- Politicians, whose every move in 96 years has been to sep- quent governments, and the power of alternative administrations arate themselves from political accountability for the failure of successfully to build up constituencies in the way they have done particular programs, will now be able to disclaim responsibili- before will be much reduced. Just as importantly, many voters ty altogether, no doubt taking advantage of a not-coincidental- can be expected to like the consumer sovereignty and notions of ly increasing public cynicism about whether organised action minimal government which he may well deliver. through government can ever actually achieve much anyway. They will not necessarily do so at first, and the biggest The supposed transparency of the new purchaser-provider risk, from his point of view, is panic on his own side, or being arrangements-by which, say, central government buys a pack- caught in an election cycle before there is any payoff, and before age of 'services' from a public hospital with stringent condi- the provider constituencies have been disorganised and tions about service standards-will come under deep assault disbanded. But his ace in the hole is that he may well be able to when it emerges. There is not really a competitive marketplace persuade enough voters that he merely intends to reorganise for such services, nothing much can be done (for political rather the way services are delivered. than managerial reasons) when services do not deliver, and A well-targeted voucher system, for example, does not reduce when, in any event, it emerges that the groups, whose disad- government service to the consumer. Rather, it gives power to vantage was the initial rationale for organised government the con umer at the expense of the existing provider groups who, intervention, are not the empowered consumers. hitherto, have received the money directly. If schools, or the dif- In such an environment, however, the capacity of a smug ferent child-care systems, or nursing homes, actually had to com- and complacent government corrupted by years of power- as pete with each other to redeem the vouchers or to get the tax Labor had become before it was thrown out- to govern through expenditure, there might be more attention to consumer needs. deals with lobbies, well supported by public money, will be It by no means follows that standards will fall, or that they can- much reduced. No doubt there will always be room for any not be monitored or policed on standards which are set. smart party to reward its friends and punish its enemies, but Similarly, the corporatisation of government service the new style of reduced active government will leave a lot less provision does not necessarily mean reduced services to the room for old cosinesses. unemployed. It can, of course, if one also cuts the case manage- But it will also leave a lot less room for concerted action to ment and labour market programs (as the government, to some help particular groups in need, for the injection of public inter- extent has), but, by itself, it can actually lead to improved est considerations into decision-making, for imagination by of- service, a greater focus on actual results, and, sometimes, even ficials and politicians, and flexibility to react quickly to a greater capacity on the part of central government to discern circumstances. These are changes of longer-lasting significance areas of particular need, where it can respond with specifically than a slice, or a nick, in any particular existing program. • focused programs. And some government agencies that have traditionally been bywords for indifferent service are well Jack Waterford is editor of the Canberra Times.

VoLUME 6 NuMBER 7 • EUREKA STREET 7 L ETTERS

Eureka Street welcomes letters Raimond Gaita serio usly misrepre­ from its readers. Short letters are sents Wark's argument (Eureka Street, It's OK up there more likely to be published, and July/August 1996). all letters may be edited. Letters According to Gaita, Wark suggests From Senator Barney Cooney must be signed, and should that our past disposition to treat as Frank Brennan's article 'One vo te no' unthinkable the claim that the Jews include a contact phone number (Eureka Street, July/August 1996) go t what they deserved 'was merely an deals with m atters vital fo r the well­ and the writer's name and address. expression of t he jaded, thoughtless being of this country. For example If submitting by e-mail, a contact certainties of the Cold War': Wark says Frank weighs up the need or otherwise phone number is essential. no thing of the kind. What he does for an Australian bill of rights and sets Address: [email protected] argu e is that Darville's novel has out the change in his thinking about emerged 'in the debris of the world this matter. that the Cold War-and the cold war­ In the last paragraph of his article, riors-have left us'. In other words: 40 Frank suggests 'A Senate Committee years of ideologica l warfare and lurid on Human Rights could scrutinise any demonisa tion from both sides of that bill proposing limitations on the stipu­ battle (rem ember the real McCarthy?) lated rights' as a means of having Par­ have degraded our culture's capacity lia ment test legislation against the fo r belief. appropriate m easures for a good I find Gaita's travesty di stressing society. precisely because m y view of t he In fact there are Senate committees Demidenko affair is much closer to hi s which largely do this alrea dy. I refer than to Wark's; I thought Wark's frivo­ to the Scrutiny of Bills Committee, the lous tone offensive and his remarks Regulations and Ordinance Commit­ given m ore control over decisions in about evil silly. However, Gaita's view tee and the Legal and Constitutional their work and I think that they are is m ore judiciou s than mine. I am Committee in both its forms. The looking for that control in their work horrified by the glib fluency of phrases work these bodies do shows that Frank condition s. Workers also want service like 'the unacceptable face of anti-a nti­ Brennan's strategy for maintaining and from their union. In the new climate Semitism' (not used by Wark, but by enhancing Human Rights is the best unions will have to provide these serv­ not a few of my fri ends). Gaita is way of doing so in the present circum­ ices as the Howard Government's anti­ capable of calling them expressions of stances operating in Australia. union changes take place. a resentment that needs to be dis­ Barney Cooney The union movem ent needs to cussed. Parliament House, ACT look at reforming itself rapidly to He is probably right. But Wark is accommodate and survive the changes also telling an unpalatable truth. The that will come into place. I, like many Wilkinson cartoon of Darville impaled Get it right others, am hopeful that it will adapt on a Channukah candelabrum did not and learn to prosper. What it must not appear in a void and it was not made From Michael Kennedy do is sit back and let whole new areas 'thinkable' only by Darville's boo k. Yes, It fa scinates m e as a unionist that of work and employm ent grow up it could have appeared in Der Stiirmer. when there is discussion of the future without embracing and improving Swap the candelabrum for a hammer of unionism in Aus tralia, writers them. The movement must make the and ickle, and it could have appea red always skirt the fundamental issue of change to be relevant to the young, in many a Cold War magazine. m embership. Jon Greenaway's article women, migrants and those wanting M ore to the point of today's 'Industrial Revolution' (Eurel

8 EUREKA STREET • S EPTEMBER 1996 time, apparently. what they deserved'. I have no access As to (3) Demidenko and her novel, to Darville's mind and h ence have I wrote in an earlier column, o ne that made no such determ ination . So me of Gaita has apparently not con sulted: Darville's imaginary Ukrainians seem 'let us feel neither anger nor sympa­ to me to think that the fews 'deserve' thy fo r the h apless young w om a n their violent retributions. I call ed this thrust into the limelight.' (13/9/95). a 'delusion' because that is what it is. Surely I need not explain why I did not Their views of 'fewi h Bolshevi m' are This month, ad vocate sympath y. And why not fal se and their lust for revenge is courtesy of Penguin Books, anger? I prefer understanding. I leave unethical. I did not and do not accept the writer of each letter we anger to those whose grieva nce is Darville's book as a justification, if publish will receive genuine, not vicarious. that is what it is, or even as an expla­ two of the Referring to the book review in nation, of Ukrainian anti-Semitism . Penguin '60s Classics question, Gaita writes that 'Wark's But I do think that, like Geoffrey posture of radical scepticism is par for Wright's film Romper Stam per, it the course-for him and fo r the provides a way of thinking about ques­ tim es ... '. He has deduced this fr om a tions that, far fr om being ' unthink­ made his 'thinkable'. sentence in which I assert the oppo­ able', always need thinking. Nam ely, Like Robert Manne at the end of site: 'To question accepted senses of how does the racist think? And fur­ The Culture of Forgetting, Gaita puts certainty is no t the same thing as ther: what desire does the racist fulfil a lot of intellectual power into divid­ " modish rela tivism " .' I question through this hatred of the other? ing good political correctness (revul­ accepted senses of certainty because I Only an art free from the injunc­ sion at anti-Sem itism) from the bad PC think it possible, within limits that we tion to think within unquestioned of 'censorious' groups whose pain is can establish, to make true statem ents bounds can give us the resources to seen a trivial. abo ut the w orld. One questions think about such questions . The Both men are playing with fi re, precisely because one trusts in the whole point of my second column on seemingly oblivious to the links ability of reasoning. Darville is that independent of any between the n ew respectability of To give an example: I believe it is judgm ent of the m oral or aesthetic racism in our society and the rise of a possible to establish what I wrote in worth of Darville's book, we can nev­ sweeping intolerance which cares this particular book review by consult­ ertheless use it as the material with nothing, in its virulence, for their fine ing it. Upon consulting it I discover which to think about such question , distinctions. that this and all other quotes Gaita precisely because it is a transgression, Meaghan Morris makes from me are inaccurate, as is in art, of boundaries we prefer not to Bundeena, NSW the spelling he gives of my nam e. I can thus make a tr ue statem ent, tha t others may verify, to the eff ect that About debate neither my name nor the quotes fro m 1 my words Gaita provides are accurate. From McKenzie Wark I cannot say whether this results from ~~ lt ' On the basis of a reading of only one Gaita's carelessness or Eureka Street's. of the two columns in The Au tralian That is beyond the limits of what I can --_p_~ · ~ in which I discuss Helen Demidenko­ know in thi instance. D arville (3 1/ 1/96 ), Raim ond Gait a In the column Gaita cites I offered concludes four things: (1 ) that I am a no opinion as to whether Darville's ----6--~ / . : 'radical sceptic' (2 ) that it is neverthe­ book is m ost rightly read as express­ / less a consequence of what I doubt that ing this view that the fews 'got what I 'must' believe that in the Holocaust they deserved.' I have expressed no the fe w 'got what they deserved' view s abo ut the m oral worth of (3) that I praised Darville's book The Darville's book. My view on its aes­ Hand Th at Signed Th e Paper while thetic achievem ent was limited to acknowledging that it advances this noting its eff ect- that it 'opened a 'fews go t what they deserved' notion, space.' I have had positive things to say and (4) that I am 'thoughtless'. He has only about the space it opened- this fathom ed all this from one 1400-word on going public debate, of which ~ book review, of Andrew Riem er's Th e Andrew Riem er's book was a ignifi­ ~""-\.)V'\ \ c:zo.:~-- i ~ o"'"' ~ 1'\e\- Dem idenko Debate. cant part. I have praised Riem er's If I am (1 ) a radical sceptic then I book. That is not evidence that I be­ see transgressed in life. My interest in would question any dogmatic belief lieve Darville's book worthy of praise. writing about Darville was not to rush that goes beyond verifiable facts, It is even more improper for Gaita to into judgm ent about the book, but to including (2). Gaita' argument is insinuate fr om praise of Riem er an inquire into the shape of what hap­ incoherent. He attempts to rescue it agreem ent with Darville. pened as a result of the book. By mis­ by (4) putting t he blame on m e for its Gaita may give the reader the im­ representing w hat I said and reading a incoherence. I am too thoughtless to pression that, almost alone of great deal into it, Gaita has made my know I cannot profess scepticism and Darville's 'defenders', I agree with her column out to be something it was hold a dogmatic belief at the same detractors that she thinks the 'few got not. It was not praise for Darville. It

V OLUME 6 N UMBER 7 • EUREKA STREET 9 was not really about the book at all. rest of public life, any more than the various think from the particulars of who I am and I wanted to inquire into why the 'event' religions. On the other hand, he limits the what I do and I cont ribute that to common that is 'Demidenko' happened, and, given the degree of tolerance he himself is prepared to world. Beyond that I may usually remain si­ irreversible fact that it has happened, turn it extend to art, and he thinks the community lent- but certainly not unthinking. By what into a premise for thinking about things that, likewise can legitimately set such limits. He right does Gaita claim to interpret what I do far from deserving to remain unthinkable, will defend Helen Darville's transgressions, not say? By what right does he claim to im­ need to be thought. For Gaita it seems m ore but not the 'bestial' female sexuality of Justine pose on m e his fa ntasies of what I ' must' important to judge the book than to under­ Ettler's novel. Limited autonomy and relative think? stand it, and to prevent 'bad thoughts' from tolerance- Riemer's is the language of a prag­ A good public intellectual is to me som e­ emanating from it than to originate new ones. matic liberalism. I do not go 'beyond' that, as one who brings the particulars of who they For Gaita, Darville's transgression into the Gaita imagines: I think something quite dif­ are and the particulars of what they can think unthinkable has to be verbally punished by ferent. about into dialogue with others, each in their invoking moral law. For me, Darville's trans­ Art is not an autonomous sphere com­ particularity. What is true and what is just is gression prompts a collective inquiry into the posed of art works and aesthetic criticism. Art what em erges out of the common world, nature of the bounds it highlights through its is a distinctive kind of practice, which I think where particular contributions h ave been very excess of them . I have written down my ought to be independent of moral constraints properly heard and adequately judged. O n this attempts to understand, in which I withheld in its execution, but which produces obj ects view, others in public life are to be valued judgment. Some may find fault with that. that can become the starting point for all because they think differently, not in spite of Gaita offers his judgments of m e without first it. As in Spinoza, each is a flawed fragment. understanding anything of what I say. I find But we are capable of thinking beyond the that a far greater fault. fragments, when our differences are assem­ Gaita may give his readers the impression bled in an adequate relation to each other. that I myself 'must' think that the Jews 'got Right thinking is difference in dialogue. Or what they deserved.' To m e such a thing is at least that's a minimum requirement. N ot unthinkable. Gaita derives this statem ent I all ideas are right. This is not relativism . But did not make from a baroque extrapolation all ideas, including wrong ones, exist for a from a series of misreadings of what I did say. reason and must not just be proven wrong but Gaita's chain of insinuation begins fr om this comprehended in their cause. Even Helen statement of his: 'What can Wark mean when Darville must be comprehended, if she is he says that we should rethink the Holocaust, wrong, or that wrong thinking will not be free of the illusion that there exists absolute addressed in its cause but m erely suppressed evil and absolute innocence?' Nowhere do I or ignored. say we should 'rethink the Holocaust.' I do This is a conception of public intellectual refer to 'the gra nd fables of the early 20th cen­ practice different from the old notion of the tury'-fascism, communism and liberalism. intellectual as the representative of the I did say that Riemer 'defends' Darville's 'han­ universal, as someone who embodies the dling of the everyday quality of evil and its mind of God, the spirit of Man, the will of presentation of the idea that evil is never the Proletariat or the resolve of the Free absolute, but always has a heterogeneous World. That view sees the intellectual's value quality.' Gaita has fe lt himself fr ee to make not in his difference but in the degree to which my qualified scepticism into an absolute one, he represents the good of the community, and to transfer my scepticism about grand politi­ acts indeed as if he were the same as the good cal fables to scepticism about the Holocaust, of the community. and to mix that with the attribution of kinds of intellectual practice, be they moral, The common world of public life is, on Riemer's reading of Darville directly to me. ethical, political, or purely aesthetic. One can this view, a combat in which superi or repre­ Clearly, on the evidence here 1 can at least read a novel to produce criticism, sermons, sentatives must beat out lesser ones. It also claim that Gaita's procedure is careless. philosophy, or another work of art. What I said implies a hierarchy of forms of knowledge that Along the way, Gaita actuall y proves a about Darville hangs on this view of the place is determined in advance. There is universal thesis from Riemer's book that he makes a of artworks in the m atrix of public life. knowledge, which is the sa me as the good of half-hearted attempt to deny. As I read him, As a m edia studies scholar, what natu­ the community, and below that, m ere particu­ Ri emer claims that religious standard s of judg­ rally drew my attention was the wide range lars, and outsid e of that- what is wrong, and ment about a work of art can't be commu­ of discourses which h ad appropriated thus excluded. I think Gaita's procedure is nity standards in a secular public life. This Darville's book and set their distinctive can­ something akin to this. He certainly manifests for two reasons: a religious view necessarily ons of judgment to work on it. I saw the its m ost common fault-a blank inability to imposes on those of other religions, or those w hole debate an example of what, in my hear what others say when they speak at all of no faith, standards of judgm ent based on book Virtual Geography, I called a media differently. beliefs that others do not and need not share; event. A singular event, of which Darville, My readers may think what they like of and such a view cannot grasp the ethical Riem er, Gaita and many others are all jointly me. But I think I may safely put in the place significance of the autonomy of aesthetic the authors. It says very clearly at the end of of Gaita's terrible (in every sense) portrait of judgm ent from other forms of judgment. every one of m y columns in The Australian me, these few points: I am ceptical of gener­ Riemer runs the danger of making autono­ that I am a lecturer in m edia studies. It does alisations that go beyond the facts. Such m ous 'art' a modern religion, and to that not say that I am a literary critic or a moral scepticism is part of right thinking, not a exte nt his tastes are su bj ect to his own au thority. My judgments are of the Darville licence to think any silly thing; I believe that critique. Literature cannot function as a event, not Darville's aesthetics, m oral char­ the facts of the Holocaust require us to return 'higher' sphere of judgment in relation to the acter or knowledge of hi story. I say what I to them, always, and think again; the value

10 EUREKA STREET • S EPTEMBER 1996 of Helen Darville's transgression lies in the training. It is rubbish to say people will be something, then it is so. reaffirmation, in its wake, of the historical employed by small business. Has the govern ­ In short, I feel vindicated in having criti­ fact of the Holocaust, and its incitem ent to m ent seen how many people are unemployed cised the original article because the author's writing and speaking about a whole range of and how many small businesses there are? response was essentially irrelevant and not contemporary issues. Maths is not m y strong point but I don't know able to confront and refute a single obj ection. And finally, right thinking can only how so m any can be absorbed by so few. R. F. Holt proceed from the assumption that we are all Finally, I believe there was a strong com ­ Ashmore, Qld capable of thinking, and justice can only be mitment by this Coalition Government dur­ served when each particular way of thought ing election time, tha t there would be a m eets its limit in the thought of others, in reduction in unemploym ent numbers. That Open door the common world made of public exchange. may well be, but the question is how can you If one proceeds from the assumption that the hide all t hose untra ined, unskilled, From Maria Faggion other is thoughtless, one sees the other as unmotiva ted people who will not be able to In reference to the 'Line on Women' (Eureka som ething less than one's self, and presumes get work. At least in the past these people Street, December 1995) and 'Do N ot Pass Go' to judge of this other, and on behalf of all oth­ were in training. (J une 1996), and the women-as-priests debate, ers, a if the way one thinks is adequate for Br David O'Brien SDB may I say that the Church is not showing all people and events, without that assump­ Brunswick, VIC consistency in opposing ordination. Since way tion first being tested. And when one tests back the C hurch has declared numerou s this assumption of a superior right to right wom en saints: Joan of Arc, St Catherine of thinking, one finds it incapable of thinking Still wrong Siena, the two Saints Teresa and Therese, and of us all, in all our differences, as at least so on. potentially thinking, ethical beings. It pre­ From R.F. Holt If women can be declared aints, and saints judges. Gaita prejudges. His thought is preju­ Paul Collins' reply, in the June issue of Eureka are of enormous influence on the church, why dicial. It is still a valid element in the process Street, to my criticism of his article 'Coming ca n't they be priests? of creating the common world of judgm ent, Clean' (March, 1996) is, again, disappointing. Today, the geography and composition of but it is no substitute for it. First, he inaccurat ely tries to label m y sex has all been mapped out, named, analysed, We all have our faults. The ethic of a criticism as an example of som e unmention­ and jotted down. It is no longer a m ystery. public life is the mutual honouring of faults. able spook called 'pre-Vatican II scholastic Celibates need no longer be afraid of it. McKenzie Wark logic', nam ely the technique of reductio ad Life today is not the sam e as pre-war. We Sydney, NSW absurdum. This is nonsense; in both informal have a very different future to face: if we are and formal logic the reductio is a positive not careful, we will all fade into 'virtual real­ m ethod of argumentation for proving a ity'. A trained eye proposition(s). Education has come a long way in mod­ I was not arguing anything positively. I ern tim es; wom en have benefited even more From David O'Brien m erely an alysed his argumen t by fi rs t than m en. So, if we don't have enough men I must express m y concern and disgust at the paraphrasing it and then making comment on with the required intelligence and Christian cutbacks in funding, particularly to the reasonablen ess of its individual premises. charity, let's have a few wom en to fill the Skillshares but also to the CES, which the Paul Collins also contends that my para­ gaps, at least. Government has proposed. phrases of his premises were 'simplistic and A better qualified Priesthood, with som e The Minister (not personally, but through incomplete'. By definition, any paraphrase 'crea tive' persons added (women are m ore in­ an assistant in her department) replied to a must be 'incomplete' in the sense of not re­ tuitive than men ), seems to me to be the way letter which I sent her and included a whole peating the original word-for-word . A para­ to go. paragraph on what the previ ous government phrase or summary can, however, be fair and Much as I love Pope John Paul. had spent on labour market program s. T he accurate. This is also what is at issue and can Maria Faggion inference was that that money was wasted. It easily be evaluated by any careful re-reading Epping, NSW seems to m e a little ironic when all we heard of the article in question. from the then Opposition was that the then Second, Paul Collin s discusses the history government wasn 't doing enough to bring of celibacy in a quite dogm atic, one-sided way Shut door down the unemployment numbers. but makes no attempt to answer specifically The cutbacks are, in real terms, a hurtful my questioning of whether it is empirically From Dominic V. Crain way of dealing with the very people who are true that the laity and religious would over­ Ms Ulu, in her speech from which you printed doing som ething to help the unemployed. whelmingly suppo rt optional celibacy, or an edited text ('Do not pass go', Eureka Street, Already they have been hampered by things whether the very longevity of the institution June 1996) is remarkable in that here we have such as 'outcome performance biased fund­ is not perhaps indica tive of something other a woman wishing to be herself ordai ned, or ing' and so on . than error. have ordained women, in an institution for If the Government were to see how their Third, he reaffi rms his belief that Richard which she clearly has nothing but absolute cuts were affecting people, particularly the Sipe's US figures can be extrapolated to Aus­ contempt. less fortunate, a good example w ould be tralia. Clearly, readers already know what I can only ask-why? Brunswick Skillshare which has been forced Paul Collins believes in this respect. What Putting Catholic tradition to one side, she to 'axe' the Arabic job club, modern offi ce would be more interesting is whether the be­ distorts scriptural facts to suit her own ends, procedures course, building and gardening lief is based on fact. Finally, the Pope is again and like many radicals throughout history maintenance, security, and the advanced com­ vilified as having 'stymied the renewal of the before her, it is the same old story, if you say puter course. church'. There is no acknowledgement of any it long and loud enough, it becomes plausible. While this may not mean much to a lot of achievem ents whatsoever and we are to just It seem s so very odd that if the Catholic people, it does to those who really need som e accept that because Paul Collin s believes Church in its hierarchical institution is such

V OLUME 6 N UMBER 7 • EUREKA STREET 11 an anathema to her, why doesn't she a link between insufficient savings and CCI makes leave it? excessive gambling, which is growing From her own words, there is at rapidly? Yet governments increasingly least one which more suitably fits her encourage the latter, and furthermore protecting your needs, in the form of the Anglican they let the profits accrue to the (very) community, wherein wom en may be private sector- with no assurances candidates for ordination . that the public costs of gambling will home and family She desires, apparently, a Catholic be m et (social problems, inequality, Church in which there are no exclu­ etc.). as easy as calling sions in qualifying to become an or­ If governments at least ran the dained priest. casinos, then the profits could be used If she happens to read this note, I to reduce the defi cits and m ake up 1800 011 028 would hasten to add that I was mar­ som e of the lost savings (as govern­ ried to a woman for m ore than 28 m ents do with drinking). Don't we Call 1800 011 028 now and find out years, wh o was a staunch member of need a broader discussion of savings, more about CCI Home Building, H ome the Uniting Church of Australia, and spending and investment, with no ta­ Contents and Children's Accident an Elder, until she di ed in my arms, boos? Shouldn't we also know how the and a better Christian than she I have vast amounts of investment capital Insurance. You'll find the service personal yet to m eet. imported into the country over the last and attentive, the rates competitive and Dominic V. Crain ten years were largely wasted, if we are making a claim easy, right from the start. Bacchus Marsh, VI C not to repeat the same mistakes again? For honest protection for your home and Finally, immigra tion issues are dis­ famil y, call the Church's own insurance cussed as if the Government were free to make any decisions it likes and has company- CCI Insurances. In the dark the ability to enforce its w ill, as if From Dr Rich ard De Angelis, Australia had no binding international Senior Lecturer in Politics, Flinders obligations nor any legal or moral du­ ~. CCI Insurances University ti es to those migrants and permanent Colhlll1c Chutch Insuran ces Lmllled A C N 000 005 210 ~ 0 In recent weeks, the press has high­ residents already here. 324 St. Kilda Road, Melbourne, 3004 u li ghted problems of ga mbling, immi­ Australia isn't only a club or a busi­ gration, and the Expenditure Review ness that one has to beg or pay to join. Committee and its cuts to government Migrants are not simply a workforce programs, like universities or the AB C. that can be bribed or fo rced to live in I su ggest that a ll three topics a re the periphery. Permanent residents are treated, by much of the media and the not simply second-class inhabitants to The Philia Prize public at large, much too narrowly and be deprived of ri ghts of sponsorship, in isolation from each other and with HECS or social security to satisfy the inadequate background information. whims of bean counters or chauvin­ First , why sh ould the Budget's ists who wa nt to discriminate. Migra­ most crucial deliberations be secret? tion involves chains and networks of Why should the Finance and Treasury people, with friends and relatives and offi cials be abl e to draw up lists fo r a mind of their own. T hey have rights cuts, anonymously, without having to too and deserve answers without being For Creative Initiatives in Religion be qu estioned in writing or in person labelled as 'lobbies' every time a ques­ to assess the adequacy of their fac ts tion is asked. and reasons (as hap pens in the US Con­ Australi a does have rea l problems; gress)? Why can't Australians have a it will not sol ve them by na rrow The Philia Prize-acknowledging more transparent Budget process, in­ debates, in secret, with unrealistic the cont ribution and spirituality in volving parliament and its scrutiny, assumptions and littl e consultation. conte mporary Australian life. instea d of having to wait for m onths Dr Richard DeAngelis like peasants to see what the ca binet Flinders University, SA lords have decided fo r us It o put For further details and nomination forms: through parliament using party disci­ pline, with little discussion]? The Ph ilia Prize, PO Box I 08. Malvern,VIC 3 144 Nurture not nature Without going to American tel: (03) 9531 1383 lengths, (heaven forbid ), there could be fax: (03) 9525 6841 Whi le throwing out- er, recycling- our a much more informed, responsible, Melbourne White Pages, we noticed for inclusive, and adult debate if all the the fi rst time the caption on the back criteria and facts were on the table­ cover. Under a photograph of a World Conference on as the N ational Commission of Audit uniformed woman feeding some Religion and Peace recommends, ironi ca lly, in other possum-like creatures from a plastic respects. container appear the words: Sponsored in 1996 by the Second, a key economic problem 'Melbourne Zoo-ring-tailed lemurs Commonwealth of Australia needing to be ta ckled by the Budge t is in their natural habitat'. insufficient 'savings'. Could there be - from a correspondent.

12 EUREKA STREET • SEPTEMBER 1996 A new name for a familiar friend

C aritas Australia, the new name for a familiar force in fi ghting worldwide poverty and injustice, Australian Catholic Relief. Behind the new name, with its links to the international Caritas netwo rk , the dedicated group that began in 1964 continues its work on your behalf for the poor, the hungty and the oppressed worldwide. Through the international network of Ca ritas agencies, Caritas Australia Caritas Australia provides emergency relief in times The overseas aid and development agency of the I of natural disaster or armed conflict, Catholic Church. Formerly Australi an Ca tho li c Relief. I GPO Box 9830 in your state capital city and long-term programs including primary health care, literacy and I I'd like to help and enclose m y do nati on $ ______I agriculture. All aim to provide self-sufficiency, restoring dignity to I Please debit m y D Bankcard D Visa 0 Mastercard I our bmthers and sisters in need around the world. I DODD DODD DODD DODD I I Amount $ _ _ _ Expiry I Signed ------1

Mr I Mrs/ Miss ------:::::-=-::::-:-:---:--:------I Caritas (BLOCK leners please) turning faith I into action I Address ------1 I I ------,------.,----- Postcode _____ L------~ n ~ o~ 2 ~ x~ c ~ ...... ~~~ THE CHURCH

GEOFFREY R OB INSON Abuse and trust

Eureka Street asked questions of Bishop Geoffrey Robinson about the nature and extent of official, episcopal response to sexual abuse within the Church. This forthright article was his answer.

M ANY CCMMS O< SEXUAC ABUSE •g•in,r Chmch and will probably lack credibility in the eyes of the personnel are being well addressed. Some of those Catholic people and the wider public. There are ways persons who were not responding well are changing. of overcoming the problem, but most of them involve There is discernible movem ent in this field. But some voluntary surrender of a m easure of independ­ despite this, there are several problems blocking the ence, and this will not be achieved easily. way to a humble, honest and compassionate response Some individuals continue to react to claims of to claims of sexual abuse by priests and religious sexual abuse with fear-fear for the good name of the across the whole of Australia. diocese or institute, fear of the victim and of the emotional and financial demands 1. The issuing of the Pastoral Statement indicated that the bishops were of that might be one mind to address sexual abuse victims from a pastoral perspective. made, fear for the financial assets of Does this indicate that the weight given in the past to legal advice, which the diocese or in­ was partly concerned with saving Church funds, has been reassessed! stitute, fear of how many other cases What are the priorities now! might be there to be uncovered. There are 28 Latin and three Eastern dioceses, a Some lawyers are learning that it is far better to military ordinariate and no fewer than 128 religious reach out to victims with humility, honesty and institutes in the Catholic Church in Australia. Each compassion, but others still give the wrong advice of is independent of the others in this field, following acting defensively. Some people have still to learn that its own procedures and keeping its own figures. Some the abuse itself, terrible though it is, is doing less are responding to complaints well, others less well, damage to the Church than is the defensive response with the result that the Australia-wide response is of some Church authorities. uneven and there is no one who comes anywhere near In relation to offences against adults, some possessing all the facts for the country as a whole. Church authorities are still dismissing them as Furthermore, many claims are being heard in-house, consenting relationships. In some places there is still that is, by the superior of the accused (w ho may h ave been a long-standing 2. How will the bishops and religious leaders friend of the accused) and there is no realistic appeal and only some checks achieve the nine-point plan to address this issue! and balances. As long as this situation Is the expertise available within present continues to exist, the response of the Australian Church will remain uneven Church structures to yield the desired outcomes!

14 EUREKA STREET • SEPTEMBER 1996 an insufficient awareness of the inequality of power between, for example, a priest and a parishioner, and The Bishops' Plan of Action of the professional responsibility of priests and reli- gious to guard the 1. The Bishops and Leaders of Religious Institutes set 3. Do the bishops accept sexual boundaries. up in 1988 a Professional Standards Committee composed This professional of appropriately qualified professionals. The Committee will that they, as the leaders responsibility is continue to review and update, in the light of the discus­ of the Church, nationally admitted in the sion that has taken place at the Conference, the principles . d . case of a an d 1n wceses, are psychiatrist, for and procedures according to which the Bishops operate. responsible for example, but can 2. The Professional Standards Committee will take still be denied in advantage of the opportunity presented by the New South addressing the issue, the case of a priest Wales Police Royal Commission to make a submission and and coming to terms or religious. In will take account of any recommendations made by the relation to adults with the shortcomings Royal Commission. there is still some 3. Dioceses and Religious Institutes will be asked to of their predecessors! blaming of the engage professional and independent persons to make suit­ victims. There can able case studies of how incidents of sexual abuse have been also be talk of the victims being difficult or emotional or demanding or inconsistent. It must be remembered handled and how well or badly the needs of victims have that offenders do not usually pick on strong, intelli­ been met and what might now be done to assist victims. gent and self-reliant people, but on the weak and 4. Likewise, Dioceses and Religious Institutes will be vulnerable. It should not surprise that these victims asked to make a study of how an incident of sexual abuse later have their problems and the diocese or has been handled in relation to the community in which it institute must deal with them as they are. occurred, what lessons might be learned, what effect both the abuse and the Church body's response have had on the A N OFFENDER IS PERSONALLY RESPONSIBLE for the sex­ community, and what the Church body might now do to ual abuse, but more thought needs to be given to the assist the community. question of corporate responsibility by the diocese or 5. Meetings will be arranged through the counselling institute or even the whole Church. Catholic family, services of the Church in which Bishops and Religious Catholic school, seminary /novitiate, priesthood/reli­ gious life can be such a complete world that many Leaders might meet with persons who have suffered sexual offenders can claim to be 'creatures' of the Catholic abuse at the hands of a priest or religious and hear directly Church, that is, they are what the Church made them, their stories, hurts, concerns and needs. The counselling with all their psychosexual immaturity, compulsions, services of the Church are to be empowered to arrange such fears and anxieties. Clearly there is a difference be­ meetings whenever they believe that this would be helpful tween a person who in earlier years was accepted into to both victims and church leaders. a seminary at the age of 12 and a late vocation who 6. A widely representative Committee is to be estab­ enters at age 45. But it is not possible for the Church lished to prepare codes of conduct for priests and religious. to deny all corporate responsibility in all cases. In the It will consult widely, and seek the advice of victims of light of this, the sexual abuse. response to vic­ tims is based on 4. Can Catholics be 7. The Australian Catholic Social Welfare Commission and Centacare Sydney will be asked to co-ordinate a study justice as well as assured that their bishops compassion. of any factors peculiar to the Catholic Church which might There is a are now prepared to act lead to sexual abuse by priests, religious or other church permanent ten­ as a group in a leadership workers. The study will include a review of the relevant sion between the literature, interviews with experts and with relevant Cath­ needs of victims role within the Australian olic bodies, and with those offenders who are willing to and the rights and Church! Where do the assist. needs of offend­ leaders of the religious 8. In collaboration with the leaders of Religious Insti­ ers. While this tutes, it is proposed that a program be established to treat tension will orders stand in regard those clergy and religious who suffer from psycho-sexual always exist, it is all too easy for a to this issue! disorders. This program will contain a suitable spiritual diocese or insti- input. tute to find that it has in practice spent far more 9. The Professional Standards Committee will employ money on lawyers and on offenders (treatment pro­ a full-time Executive Officer to co-ordinate the above grams, place to live, activity to carry out) than it has projects and to assist it in carrying out this mandate.

V OLUME 6 NUMBER 7 • EUREKA STREET 15 PASTORAL ASSOCIATE on victims. There is an ongoing problem of what to The parish of Saint John the Apostle, West Belconnen, is do with offenders after they come out of prison and eeking to appoint a Pastoral Associate to work full or there are no easy answers. It must be recognised that part-time within our parish. in serious cases the problem can be the very right of The successful appointee will become an integral the person to use the title 'Father' or 'Brother'. member of the Pastoral team partnering Fr John Rate I have no desire to defend the media's handling (Parish Priest ) and Fr Roger Duggan (Assi tant) and will of these cases. Indeed, some quite dishonest things have primary responsibility for the continued develop­ have happened. There is, however, a serious problem ment and maintenance of the Parish home- based sacra­ m ental program s and the promotion of small fai tb when this is the only aspect of the matter that a group development groups. H e/she will also assist in maintain­ of priests or religiou s can talk about. T o limit ing linkages with and between faith development groups conversation to a criticism of the m edia, no matter in our parish and our primary school, as well as assisting how justified the criticism may be, is a form of denial in encouraging and facilitating the participation of all of the existence of the problem . After people have parishioners in the full range of parish ministries. finished blaming the m edia, they must admit that the The successful applicant will be a strongly motivated and committed individual possessing high energy levels abuse has happened, that it has been widespread and and appropriate qualifications. Applications from m arried that we ourselves do not know just how much more couples who wish to share the Pastoral Associate role will remains to be uncovered, especially when we go be welcomed. beyond the current topic of abuse of minors and con­ Remuneration and associated conditions will be subject to sider all forms of abuse. It is only when we acknowl­ agreement depending on the individuals' circumstances and edge the reality that we can begin to deal with our preferred working arrangements. own sense of shame and humiliation and then have Enquiries can be directed to either Murray Bruce the energy to move on from there and seek (AH (06) 254 0577) or john O'Heir (AH (06) 254 6780). the causes of abuse. Expressions to in terest suppo rted with details of qualilica­ ""T'"' tions and previo us experience shou ld be forwarded to: HERE JS ALSO A NUMBER of impossible dilemmas fac­ The Secretary .1. Parish of StJohn the Apo ti e ing the Church in this field. I shall here oversimplify, Blackham Street but people with experience in this field will recognise Kip pax ACT 26 15 what I say. If we reach a private agreem ent with victims, we are 'buying their silence', but if we do not, we are Denis Freney Memorial Scholarships putting them through the trauma of a court case. If Up to $1 0,000 we set up an inquiry we are not believing the claim­ ant, but if we believe the claimant without an inquiry, Appl ications are invited from people currently engaged in we are judging the accused without right of defence. (or about to commence) a research, writing or cultural If we tell a person that we are unable to investiga te a project which is judged to make a contribution to the complaint and they should go to the police, we are labour and progressive movements in Australia. rejecting the complainant and we are guilty of the The SEARCH Foundation will award scholarships to assist trauma that the police inquiry causes, but if we with the costs of such a project. Priority will be given to investigate the matter ourselves, we are guilty of a projects which have good prospects of publication or other public use of the results, but which do not have cover-up. If we house offenders and give them some access to other fu nding. activity and treatment, we are putting offenders before victims, but if we do none of these things, we are SEARCH is an independent, non-profit foundation guilty of putting untrea ted offenders out on the streets. established to assist activities which promote social justice and the development of a more democratic and egalitarian I have no magic answers to these dilemmas. It is society. Details of its aims and o bjectives are available on good to be aware of them and then try to find the best request balance in each particular case. Suitably qualified applicants should contact SEARCH for We should be grateful to those victims who have detailed application guidelines. had the courage to reveal the abuse they have suffered, Applications should be received especially those who have revealed the abuse caused by 20 September I 996 by members of our own religious institute or diocese. There must not be a complacent belief that the Social Education and Research Concerning Humanity (SEARCH) Foundation. time of crisis will pass and, without any special ef­ Room 608, 3 Smail Street, Broadway NSW 2007 fort on anyone's part, life will then be back to nor­ Phone: (02) 21 I 4164, Fax (02) 21 I 1407 mal again. The revelations have been so shocking that the very word 'normal' will have a different SEARCH m eaning after this. • I ii•IIJ: 1•0 •I•J: I Geoffrey Robinson is an au xiliary bishop in the ACN 050 096 976 Archdiocese of Sydney.

16 EUREKA STREET • SEPTEMBER 1996 FoREIGN CoRRESPONDENCE

ALAN NICHOL Under the roof of the world

ERMOR> THAN T>N Y>ARS, th,ee million Afgh"n

ball, no entertainment of any kind, severe punishment for and Rwanda. Their plea was for assistance with educating their stealing or immorality. children. They did not say that only boys are educated, that I had the chance to visit two refugee camps, Khaki and women and girls have a literacy rate of only nine per cent, and Inchian, while in Pakistan to conduct a course in refugee stud­ that they are not permitted by culture to leave their immediate ies for Christians working with local agencies. In Inchian, home environment, even in the refugee camps. north of Mansoureh, we m et with the health committee-15 Meanwhile, it is impressive that Christian agencies such turbanned m en who are elders among the refugees. They had as Church World Service Pakistan are hanging on in these very clear views about their homeland: they blame foreign camps, offering at least basic health services, and keeping the powers entirely for the continuous supply of arms to keep camps open to the occasional visitor who can take the mes­ the war going after the Soviet army left. One man said: 'We sage of the refugee leaders out to a wider audience. • have a Persian poem which says, "If one part of the body is hurt, the whole body is hurt." We are all brothers-whether Alan Nichols is an Anglican priest who works with World Hindu or Muslim or Christian.' I asked whether this saying Vision Australia. was not in the Qu'ran also, and they agreed that it was. The solution to the war in their view is simply to stop Above: camp elders at a refu gee health committee meeting. the supply of arm s. One man said: 'If you don't have lips, you Photograph by Brett Parris.

V OLUME 6 N UMBER 7 • EUREKA STREET 17 THE R EGION Another Indonesia INem j uNe, '" TH' ""Td'Y' •ftO< the people's confidence in the courts be dimin­ reminds me of that time. All the little lies'. Suharto Government had ousted Megawati ished. When Megawati's lawyers sought to Confidence that the conference would Sukarnoputri from the leadership of the challenge the legality of her removal from be unmolested grew with the appearance of Indon esia Democratic Party (PDI), I the leadership of the PDI by a government­ Peter Contra, chief executive of the major glimpsed a more dem ocratic Indonesia. sponsored 'breakaway group', the hearing commercial TV network, RCTI, licensed in Now, as the killing and bea ting resume, was postponed on the risible excuse that 1987 Bimantara Citra, a public company arrests persist, dread revives and officials the chief judge had a toothache. h ea ded by Suharto's son Bambang disinter the communist bogey, it seems If they can't go to law where else do Trihatmodjo. Gontha is an impressive man impotent to record that brief time and the people go but the streets? whose years as an executive in American grim optimists who contributed. But I am Given AJI's status, it was an open ques­ TV were evident in his aggressive charm no expert witness. Read others for context. tion whether the three-day conference and a speech that hailed technology and the Why were some of us who were to speak would be permitted to go ahead. A senior market as the paths to the future. Question at the conference allowed to enter the coun­ government official cancelled his appear­ time bought some sharp exchanges, con­ try while others were denied visits? A host ance at the last minute-an ominous sign. ducted in a mix of Indonesian and English. replied sardonically that the wonderful But Abdurrahman Wahid ('the Desmond His theme was 'I don't want to fight and die. thing about the Government's repression Tutu of Indonesia'), chairman of the 20- I'd rather retreat and com e back later'. Yes, was its inefficiency. The conference them e, million-member Muslim organisation, h e said, freedom of the press was limited, 'Open Skies: towards an open society- the Nahdlatul Ulema, pointedly took his place but Indonesia had gone too fast. 'If you go challenge of public broadcasting in Asia', on a panel- a good sign. Wahid asked full speed you get riots.' was displayed on a small banner outside the whether it was better to be bold and closed, Why didn't his network cover the riots? hotel venue. This act alone raised com­ like Tempo, or euphemistic, symbolic, even Asked a Briton from Article 19, the anti­ m ent among some Indonesia watchers . m eek, but still publishing, like Kompass. censorship organisation. Ah, it's a very Java­ The co-hosts were the Brussels-based Although this was a recurring them e nese culture here, and you have to read International Federation of Journalists and among the older participants, you sensed between the lines, said Gontha. 'I want to Indonesia's Alliance of Independent Jour­ the impatience of the young. To them, a keep my licence. I want to protect my nalists (AJI) . The Jakarta Post refers to AJI softly, softly approach to criticism and dis­ investors, my staff. I don't want to go as fast as 'unrecognised', which is not the sam e as closure has shielded corruption. The dis­ as you. But I can say today that Indonesia illegal. Membership of AJI has cost some torting eff ects of self-censorship were has corruption. In Malaysia, if you journalists their jobs. The sole government­ everywhere. When young journalists from ~ say that today they detain you.' approved journalists' association attacks various m edia outlets arrived to cover the AJI. Fonner AJI chairman, Ahmad Taufik, conference and discovered AJI's role as co­ .1 HE NEXT SPEA KER BEGAN, and just as I was and two colleagues, including the office host, some were uncertain about whether thinking that Gontha's performance, and boy, were jailed in 1995 for 'insulting the they could listen, let alone write. Confer­ at this particular event, were signs of a President' under a rule which the Dutch ence participants were reminded that when greater openness, Gontha interrupted to colonialists had used against an earlier gen­ Republil

18 EUREKA STREET • SEPTEMBER 1996 democrat, too experienced to be excited like the young activists, was troubled. He said that among the occupants of PDI HQ were Balinese who had sworn to fi ght to the death. Perhaps some did. After troops T HEY c.ccm " A .!.~~uL~t;o~:~~: :~h~:}gy The 'epone

V OLUME 6 NUMBER 7 • EUREKA STREET 19 r fles

L wm SAMU.C " ON A WA

20 EUREKA STREET • S EPTEMBER 1996 Solving hyperacute has created a demand that is outstripping supply in most Western countries. In 1994, about 40,000 Americans T HE HUMAN BOOY~~1 ~:!~~o~ful defence mecha- were waiting for an organ transplant, five times the nism known as complement, so called because it helps the bet­ number of people who donated an organ in the US that ter-known antibodies and white blood cells which guard against year. According to the US Institute of Medicine (IOM) intruders. in Washington DC, half of those on the waiting lists die Complement comprises more than 30 proteins in the blood before receiving a suitable organ. which can attach to certain molecules on the surface of a foreign Short of a massive shift in public attitudes cell, and trigger biochemical reactions which cause lysis-liter­ towards organ procurement, transplant doctors are ally rupturing the cell's membrane-or clumping of cells. having to look elsewhere. Some European nations, When cells and an organ from other species are attacked by such as France and Austria, have a 'presumed con­ the immune system, the cascade of reactions initiated by com­ sent' system requiring you to refuse the use of your plement is known as hyperacute rejection. This process quickly organs upon death, but even in these countries, the leads to the destruction of the foreign cells or the organ. To stop donor rate is dropping due to lower road tolls and im­ the complement system attacking the body itself, each human provements in public health. In many countries, in­ cell has proteins called complement regulatory factors (CRFs) on cluding Australia, doctors need written permission its outside m embrane which eith er prevent complement mole­ from a donor, and even if that has been obtained, it cules attaching to the cell, or destroy any complement which may be overturned by the donor's family upon death. manages to attach. The science of genetic engineering now appears In order to overcome the hyperacute rejection that results to offer a solution-a solution based on creating trans­ from the transplant of pig tissue into a human, genetic scientists genic animals for use as organ banks-and big busi­ are exploring several research strategies. The main strategy is ness senses a bonanza. one of counterattack, finding ways to 'shoot down' the comple­ For a moment, consider the monetary value of a m ent proteins before they do too much damage. Researchers have second-hand organ. Hospital costs for a kidney trans­ succeeded in inserting the human genes which express several plant typically total about $50,000, of which $10- CRFs into the genetic makeup of, first, mice and more recently, 15,000 is the cost of collecting ('harvesting' is the pigs. technical term) and transporting the organ from its When organs from these transgenic animals are exposed to donor to the recipient. A transgenic animal kidney, human blood, they survive for longer periods than organs from collected on-site from an animal worth maybe a few unmodified animals. Some recently-published research showed hundred dollars, would essentially eliminate the har­ that heart grafts from a transgenic pig could survive in a baboon vesting and transport costs, and therefore may be for up to 30 hours, compared to one hour for normal pig grafts. worth up to $15,000. Harvesting a viable heart is more A second strategy proving fruitful is akin to the military use costly, usually about $30,000, because the organ must of Stealth technology to hide your aircraft from enemy radar. be collected and transported quickly by plane or hel­ Human blood contains naturally-occurring antibodies to pig cells. icopter to the operating theatre. An animal heart suit­ About three years ago, researchers found that 80 to 90 per cent of able for transplant may be worth about $30,000. these antibodies located foreign cells by detecting a particular Given that the annual demand for transplant carbohydrate or sugar molecule known as GAL. This sugar occurs organs in Western countries is about 80 per million in all animals except humans, apes and Old World monkeys. of population, you begin to appreciate why animal­ Several research groups are busy looking for ways to reduce to-human transplantation has got the company direc­ the quantity of GAL in the cells of the donor animal. One tors as excited as the doctors. approach, which is to inactivate the gene responsible for the But two major questions are unanswered: Are offending sugar has been achieved in the mouse, but is not yet animal-to-human transplants safe? And are they possible in the pig. Experiments at St Vincent's using this method ethical? The researchers themselves are at odds over have produced transgenic mice with organs that last six to seven the risk posed by unknown AIDS-like viruses cross­ times longer in human blood than organs from normal mice. ing the species barrier, while the ethicists are only Some are tackling the problem by adding a human gene into just beginning to ponder the tangled issues of cost­ the animal DNA which makes the animal cell produce high levels benefit, informed consent and animal welfare. Time of a particular human enzyme known as H-transferase. This is running out for a reasoned debate. In May this year, enzyme competes with the enzyme which makes GAL. By this the Melbourne Herald-Sun newspaper alleged in method, lower levels of GAL ought to be made in each anim al breathless paragraphs that M elbourne's Austin cell, thereby making the cell a smaller target for attack by the Hospital was 'gearing up' for a pig-to-human liver human immune system. transplant. The page-one story claimed 'the next Other strategies include the introduction of human bone mar­ patient on the liver transplant waiting list is likely to row into a baboon so its tissues can 'learn' to mimic some of the be hooked up to a pig's liver if a human one is not immunological features of human tissues, while some research­ available'. The Austin denied the story as 'specula­ ers have already begun looking beyond the first hurdle of hyper­ tive in the extrem e,' but there is little doubt such acute rejection at the longer-term rejection problems which must procedures are likely to be attempted in Australia in be conquered before xenotransplantation becom es reality. the next two to five years. - Brett Wright

VoLUME 6 N UMBER 7 • EUREKA STREET 21 Animal-to-human transplantation, or xenotrans­ Sandoz's commitment is no isolated case. In the plantation, is a practice medical research ers and United States, a $25 million firm, Alexion Pharma­ surgeons have toyed with for decades (one of the first ceuticals, made significant advance with the devel­ serious attempts was a pig-to-human kidney trans­ opment of a genetically-engineered protein which the plant in 1902). But expectations have remained low company hopes will allow researchers to implant a due to the immense immunological problems associ­ pig heart into a human. In July last year, Alexion ated with cross-species transplants (see 'Solving signed a $10 million deal to fund pre-clinical research hyperacute rejection'). Experiments conducted since into xenotransplants with US Surgical, the world's the 1960s have shown that non-human organs (usu­ biggest maker of surgical staples. Under the deal, US ally from chimpanzees and baboons) can function in Surgical bought 10 per cent of Alexion. humans and support life. Before the rise of the dialy­ Another US firm, the Boston-based DNX Corpo­ sis m achine, a small number of critically-ill renal ration, has also been a leader in the xen otransplant patients received kidney transplants from chimpan­ field. In August 1994, DNX entered into a joint ven­ zees. Of these, the longest survival period was nine ture with Baxter Transplant Holdings, a wholly-owned months. Perhaps the best known case was the Baby subsidiary of Baxter Healthcare Corporation, a world Fae experiment in 1984 in California where a new­ giant in health care products, with annual sales of $12 born baby with a fatal h eart condition received a billion in 100 countries. Then in September 1995, at baboon 's heart. She survived for 20 days. about the sam e time as the Imutran acquisition, Bax­ An organ transplanted into a human from an ter bought out DNX's share of the joint venture. unrelated species is subjected to a massive immuno­ These strategic m ovem ents and investments are logical reaction known as hyperacute rejection, so­ being watched closely around the world. Yet little has called because of the ferocity of the response, com­ been said to date about the impressive research pared with the more manageable rejection associated activity underway in Australia, and the commercial with a organ from another human. Hyperacute rejec­ interest this research is attracting from overseas. A tion is a biochemical blitzkrieg which can destroy a team of 35 researchers at St Vincent's Hospital in Mel­ kidney or a liver within minutes or hours. The attack bourne have developed a transgenic mouse which is m ediated by a group of proteins in the blood known expresses human proteins capable of blunting com ­ collectively as complement. If xenotransplantation is plement, and have begun to reproduce the work in ever to become a viable m edical practice, the research ­ pigs at Bunge Ltd's research piggery in Corowa, NSW. ers must first learn to repel an attack by complement. The researchers have also identified a promoter gene The solution offered by genetic engineers is not which would ensure a high level of protein expres­ to suppress the immune system of the recipient with sion, and a technique for inserting several gen es at drugs, as you would with a human-to-human trans­ once into the DNA of the pig. These developments plant, but to modify the genetic make-up of a donated and others by the St Vincent's team are protected by animal organ to make it last longer inside the human patents or are the subject of patent body. The high -profile leader of this research is David applications. White, the research director of Imutran Ltd, a British biotechnology company. In 1992, White's team at Cam ­ A NOTHER, SMALLER TEAM of xenotransplant re­ bridge University developed the world's first transgenic Searchers, based at the Austin Research Institute (ARI) pig by injecting human DNA into a pig embryo. The in Melbourne, made headlines in the medical litera­ technique produced a live, otherwise normal pig with ture in 1993 with the discovery that pig cells contain organs and blood vessels which express certain human a particular sugar molecule that 'gives away' a cell's proteins that neutralise complement and make the pig's presence to human antibodies. This laid open the cells less susceptible to attack by the human immune possibility that if the gene responsible for the sugar system . Pigs are the favoured candidate for xenotrans­ could be knocked out in a transgenic pig, then hyper­ plantation because they are more plentiful than acute rejection may be averted. Although the 'knock­ baboons or other primates, less likely to attract ani­ out approach' is not yet possible in the pig, the ARI mal welfare objections, and large enough to yield or­ team is making progress by finding ways to make pig gans of use in the human body. cells express lower levels of the sugar molecule. They Since White's early work, research has proceed­ too have patents protecting areas of their research. ed rapidly in Europe, the United States and Australia. Xenotransplant research is also underway at Last September, Imutran was acquired by Sandoz, the Melbourne's Walter & Eliza Hall Institute, where a giant drug manufacturer and maker of Sandimmun team under Dr Tom Mandell is investigating the use and Neoral, two important immunosuppressive drugs. of pancrea tic islets from animals as a cure for juve­ A tatement issued by Sandoz at the time said 'results nile-on set diabetes. The condition affects 50,000 from research with primates receiving genetically­ Australians and is the leading cause of blindness in modified pig h earts showed that Imutran had over­ adults and a major cause of kidney failure. com e the problem of hyperacute rejection.' Trials in Overseas interest in the Australian work is well humans are expected to begin later this year. established. The St Vincent's research was initially

22 EUREKA STREET • SEPTEMBER 1996 funded by Baxter H ealthcare Corporation to the tune T he issue is not a hypothetical one. Late last year, of $400,000, and the Austin research was conducted a transplant scientist at the University of Pittsburgh, until last year under an agreem ent with Alexion . Ac­ Suzanne Ildstad, gained approval from the US Food & cording to Martin Pearse, a senior scientist at St Vin­ Drug Administration (FDA) to transplant bon e m ar­ cent's immunology research centre, the researchers row from a baboon into a critically-ill AIDS patient have a continuing legal obliga tion to Baxter. 'If we in a last -ditch effort to save his life. T he experim ent, becom e commercially successful, they (Bax ter) have which apparently failed, was widely criticised by re­ first right of refusal on anything that com es out of it,' searchers, including some prominent transplant sci­ h e said. The project is now funded through a $15 mil­ entists, fo r being premature and poten tially dangerous. lion R&D syndicate involving Bresatec, an Adelaide­ Like much of the research going on in xenotransplan­ based biotechnology firm. Bresatec, which is working tation, Ildstad's technique is a patented invention . to m arket transgenic pigs that grow quickly and pro­ In explaining its reasons for approving the exper­ duce a high yield of lean meat, recently attracted crit­ iment, the FDA said there was little risk of the pa­ icism from the Australian Consumers' Association, tient infecting others with an unknown virus as 'it's which argu es that genetically-m odified food should unlikely he will survive long enough '. But a number be labelled. of virologists have said the FDA's approval of this ARI's collaboration with Alexion-worth about experiment 'opens up the door' for further experiments $100,000-ended with the arrival of US Surgical, but and the risk of a deadly virus spreading through the Alexion retains the licence for some of the technology human population . developed here. The ARI is now looking for Many scientists, here and overseas, are in favour a new commercial partner. of regulatory controls above and beyond the in-house ethical review processes fo llowed in hospitals and T HE c oMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENTS h ere and overseas research institutions. Four Australian States have laws are a significant concern because they appear to be governing in-vitro fertilisation, a well-understood pushing the pace of research ah ead of public debate. technology adapted from animal husbandry, but there N orman Ford, director of the Caroline Chisholm are no laws specifically fo r the procedures entailed Centre for H ealth Ethics in M elbourne, says by xenotransplantation . At present, parliaments in xenotransplant researchers have to dem onstrate that Victoria, South Australia, Queensland and Western the costs of the procedure, finan cial and personal, Australia stipulate the terms under which a woman are m atched by the benefits. 'First, you would be may be assisted to conceive, but not the term s under putting people through a lot of hell, and that has to which sh e might receive a heart from a gen etically­ be worth it for the patient. And second, there has to m odified pig. be cost-benefit; don 't ask the taxpayer to fund exot­ The h ead of the m olecular im m unogenetics lab­ ic m eans of keeping people alive just as an ego trip oratory at the Austin Research Institute, Mauro for a few doctors,' h e said. Sandrin, has begun to organise the fo rmation of a Moreover, almost n othing is reliably known committee t o draft guidelin es fo r Aus tralia n about the risks of infection arising from xenotran s­ research ers and gain public support for this research. plants. Most researchers feel the risk of unknown vi­ Sandrin, who believes pig- to-human liver trans­ ruses passing from baboons to humans is substantial, plants are likely within three years in Australia, but are more comfo rtable abou t using pigs because says m ore research is needed on th e risks posed by humans have lived close to pigs for thousands of years. viruses and retroviruses. 'We don 't kn ow w hat th e But similar views were held about the likelihood of long- term immunological im pact of these organs humans becoming infected by the agent which caus­ will be, and we n eed to get som e public input,' h e es m ad cow disease. said. What can we meaningfully predict about the be­ 'If the public says "We do not want to use ani­ haviour of viruses and other agents in pig tissues that m als for this", we would have to abide by that deci­ have been genetically engineered to elude the human sion .' immune system ? At the Alfred Hospital, Lloyd Samuel is prepar­ A report by an IOM committee concluded in July ing for another four-hour session on the dialysis m a­ 1996 that clinical trials should m ove forward only chine. These days h e personally inserts the large after carefully-co-ordinated federal guidelines and oth­ intake and return lines from the m achine into a mod­ er safeguards had been put in place. The report ech­ ified vein, without a local anaesthetic, and settles oed warnings from Britain's influential Nuffield down to watch television or work on his laptop com­ Council on Bioethics in March . The report also ex­ puter. At 53, he worries if it is too late for a kidney amined the problem of informed consent. How can a transplant, when it com es, to help him rebuild a ca­ single patient, especially one desperate to live, respon­ reer. 'The longer it goes on, the less ch ance I have of sibly give consent to a procedure which may produce putting it to use.' • harmful eff ects, such as the spread of a deadly new virus, for the community at large? Brett Wright is a fr eelance journalist.

VOLUME 6 N UMBER 7 • EUREKA STREET 23 Borderline law

handed straight back to the Russian police. ence in the post-Soviet era, but because a Tmerchant'""" banker '""" or "'""""an Olympic 'MM'G"'NT athlete."' I have just returned from the Latvian country which lacks the rule of law and We have little affection for the kind of folk Human Rights Office. This tiny Baltic na­ cannot guarantee the protection of rights is welcomed by Emma Lazarus's verse on New tion deals with its asylum-seekers using a a political liability, and this is an obstacle York's Statue of Liberty: cruder but imilar approach to our own. to political and economic investment­ The Republic of Latvia, population 2.8 mil­ and it needs both. Give me your tired, your poor, lion (half Latvian, 34 per cent ethnic Rus­ Latvia has not, however, adopted the Your huddled masses yearning to sian-many Latvians now live in Australia), UN trea tics, conventions and guidelines on breathe free, shares borders with Lithuania, Belarus, the treatment of refugees. The Human The wretched refuse of your Russia, Estonia, and the Baltic Sea. Across Rights Office-established in October 1995 teeming shore. that body of polluted water, if asylum­ with UNDP assistance-had been well Send these, the homeless, seekers can get there, Scandinavia offers a aware of claims that Latvian officials were tempest-tost to me, refuge. With a history of hundreds of years illegally trafficking would-be refugees across I lift my lamp beside the golden door. of occupation-by Swedes, Russians and borders to Russia and Belarus before In Australia, of course, we lift the Germans-for 50 years, from 1941, Latvia Svetlana, Muslim wife of an Iraqi asylum­ airbridge and send them 'home'- if, to a was a reluctant state of the USSR, only seeker, Adel Han12a, made her far more Timorese, Portugal can be. reclaiming its sovereignty during the abor­ serious claims in early July. Her husband, Chris Sidoti, imprinting his own stamp tive Russian coup. Now, it has its own she believes, has been bea ten and might on the endangered office of Human Rights parliament, president, and courts, but with­ lose his life as the result of his trc

24 EUREKA STREET • SEPTEMBER 1996 reach Sweden, h e claims, to save himself and his whereabouts were unknown. The they please. The Human Rights Office, from being killed for plotting against records were unavailable. After an approach operating under interim legislation, con­ Saddam. Within a month Adel had been to the Minister it was admitted that he was tinues to n egotiate and bargain with senior arrested as an illegal immigrant, and being held, in a prison elsewhere. HRO bureaucrats and the Ministers on h ow it detained in a police station, then in Olaine, lawyers interviewed, briefl y, two former may carry out its responsibility to protect where he claimed h e was maltreated, and Olaine residents who were obviously injured the rights of the most vulnerable Svetlana was prevented from seeing him. and said they had been beaten. When, three people: strangers in a strange land. N o effort was made to document or sub­ days later, they went back with an inter­ stantiate his claim to be a genuine refugee. preter for a full interview this caused con­ H RO STAFF WILL NOT DI SC USS the claims Svetlana claimed that immigration au thori­ sternation to officials. At Olaine HRO made by Svetlana, other detainees or their ties forced her husband to cross the Latvian/ efforts to talk privately to other residents relatives, though shortly after I left Riga Russian border illegally, or be shot: h e came were crudely obstructed: the camp Direc­ Svetlana went, in desperation, to the local back, was caught again and, he claimed, tor and a plain-clothed, self-described 'un­ press and told some of this story. Nor would beaten by Latvian officials at the border, official representative' of the Immigration the lawyers in the Human Rights Office and again detained. While he was in deten­ Police videotaped every conversation and wish to be heard to complain about their tion in Latvia his parents were killed: he interfered with efforts to talk to camp resi­ treatment, but I saw them, and they had escaped and tried to stow away on a ship, to dents in private. At the prison, the two been very frightened. They are, in fact, very avoid what he described as 'no law' in HRO lawyers were obstructed, threatened young, braver than they know, and learning Latvia and what he feared would be indefi- when they refused to inform officials what a lot, fast.

In the Human Rights Office, Latvia nite imprisonment. He was terribly bea ten, had been discus ed in the interview, then How strange it is to return to Aus­ and again tried to escape. He then 'disap­ detained because they refused to hand over tralia and find nobody really interested in peared.' Svetlana was denied contact with the tape. Their interpreter was forced to the moral of this story. These events in a him, because her marriage was not 'offi­ talk to officials alone, and returned intimi­ tiny Baltic state which has only a five­ cial'. According to Svetlana, one da y two dated, and refused to complete his duties. year 'his tory' of represen ta ti ve democ­ men wearing sunglasses, who claimed to be U nnamecl detainees in Olaine have since racy, have their echo in Australia, with immigration officials, went to her m other's written directly to the United N ations in 'democratic' and individualist traditions hom e, made h er accompan y them to Geneva, pleading for help. They say that, going back hundreds of years. I do not S vetlana at her workplace, and ins is ted that because of the Human Rights Office inves­ believe that we beat, tarve or dump ille­ Svetlana persuade her husband and his tigation, police visited Olaine and tried to gal immigrants at the borders of hostile friends to cross the border. The next day force the three men who had spoken to neighbours. I trust-or I used to trust­ they telephon ed her, and put h er husband 'journalists' (HRO investigators) to 'go back that Australian officials would not lie on the line, and she could hear him com­ to Moscow' and, when they refused, closed about, or obfuscate, th e rights of immi­ plaining of pain, panting, breathing hard, the doors, used gas and beat them with grants and their proper treatment. Yet it and he said that he had received treatment sticks, breaking one's hand, and took them would seem that, in the 1990s, immigra­ for a h eart condition-she believed he had away by force. Conditions for the remain­ tion authorities of both nation s h ave been beaten. She went to the Human Rights ing detainees h ave deteriorated since: roughly equivalent respect for the orders Office for help. Then, she said, matters Svetlana says she was told they would be of courts, and the role and responsibili­ becam e far, far worse for her husband, other taken to the border in groups of 4 and forced ties of statutory watchdogs su ch as Sidoti illegal immigrants in Olaine, and herself­ back. and the Commonwealth Ombudsman. and immigration officials told her that if Latvia does have a system of laws, courts Has our global village becom e a global she did not co-operate she would lose her and ju dges, bu t it does not have the same citadel? Advance Fortress Australia? • job, and Adel would 'hurt.' tradition of respect for court orders, which When Human Rights Office investiga­ Australians used to take for granted, nor for Moira Rayner is a lawyer and freelance tors visited Olaine that day, they were told novel statutory powers. Clearly, bureau­ journalist. Her e- mail address is: that Adel had n ot been seen for a m on th, crats and police are accustomed to doing as 100252.324 [email protected].

VOLUME 6 N UMBER 7 • EUREKA STREET 25 S PORTING L IFE In the outer

The traditional Australian football codes are in a state of flux. Jon Greenaway ask s if the games are on the way to marketing themselves out of existence. Wests v Illawarra. Photograph by Andrew Stark.

Eo""" fo< " divmion it i' voRupert Murdoch has fl exed in order to get Ltd's plans were delayed by a decision of the Phil Cleary, the former federal member the jump on Kerry Packer by forming his Supreme Court in April, eight existing clubs for Wills and captain/coach of Coburg in own rugby league competition. And con­ were to be excised from the current compe­ the VFA (now called the VFL) comm entates sider that as the 1996 seasons draw to a tition and two crea ted in Adelaide and New­ on the local Victorian competition for ABC close, it is the strength-or rather the m on­ castle to form the new competition. An TV. He believes that in the national gam e etary value-of our collective passion for appeal lodged in the federal court by Super the role of the terrace as a point of contact watching grown men run into and jump League will be heard in coming m onths. between football tea ms and their support­ over each other in the pursuit of a bit of Added to this mixture of uncertainty for ers has diminished and the role of TV has inflated leather, that will have fans of either the punters is Rugby Union, which having increased. This has witnessed the dimin­ complexion wondering w here their game discarded the quaint overtones of amateur­ ished role of 'the club' as a social force: 'The will be, come Autumn 1997. ism, is picking up fans with an expanded club was a central part of the gam e-the The AFL will have added one new team Super 12 regional competition. interrelationship between the club and the in Port Adelaide to the national competi­ Somewhere in the middle of these gran­ people and the locality,' he says, 'but now tion, but it is the ones that m ay be taken diose designs, supporters will have to ac­ we don't talk about clubs because they're away that concern supporters. The merging commodate their loyalties-and their just a collection of foo tballers who play on of Melbourne's clubs, punctuated by the simple desire to see their team run around m obile stages and are understood more in disappearance of Fitzroy, is seen as the on the weekend. The new reality of being a terms of the television set.' inevitable consequence of the push to na­ supporter of one of Australia's two main Cleary feels that this severing of the tionalise the VFL that began with the relo­ codes is well described by an advertisement connections between community and club, cation of South Melbourne to Sydney in which is currently showing during the occasioned in the first part by social and 1982. As Eureka Street went to press, the telecast of AFL matches. The game's stars cultural shift, has also been exacerbated by Footscray /North Melbourne merger looked hoist a banner which declares 'always for the move to a national setting for the 'niche' to have stalled but Melbourne/Hawthorn the fans' in the middle of the MCG and game of Au tralian Rule . He concede that was pressing ahead, despite the efforts of through it bursts a gaggle of supporters. The the expansion of the competition, particu­ som e former greats to remove the Hawks ad closes with the Coca-Cola logo superim­ larly the creation of artificial clubs in West­ fro m the equation. posed atop the empty southern stand. ern and South Australia, has been necessary

26 EUREKA STREET • SEPTEMBER 1996 given the increased number of mass specta­ cle of the bigger venue, just as the AN Z and McConville, was the changing of t he tor sports in the m arket place. But as a Sydney Football Stadiums preside over ground's nam e: 'Part of it was the euphoria consequence, the parochialism which has League. In Footscray-the heart of Mel­ surrounding the death of Ted Whitten and carried the gam e fo r so long is draining bourne's West-a muddied, gravel-ridden marking the legend, but it sort of signalled away. relic still holds tim e back a little. to m e an identity with a m edia fi gure, 'The old assessm ents were a bit senti­ The Western Oval was renam ed the ra ther than an identity with the locality. m ental in a way-"We're changing the Whitten Oval after the death of Footscray Footscray expressed through the character gam e, it'll never be the sam e". Well, you legend Ted Whitten last year, and accord­ of Ted Whitten, rather than the Western can put that to the side because it's not the ing to historian Chris McConville-who Oval. ' most important question any more. The has contributed to a history of the club yet McConville says the symbolic value of more important question is will football to be published- it is a symbol of a club grounds such as the Whitten Oval are im­ survive?' that has tried to stave off m ergers and finan­ portant fo r maintaining a connection for Australian Rules is now played at the cial ruin by localising the club in its heart­ people who grew up in an area but m oved elite level in grand stadiums across the land. It is a tactic which he says has been an away to live in other suburbs in later life. country-Football Park, the WACA, the economic failure: The hom ogenisation of the game and its SCG, the Gabba, Waverley and the MCG. 'Footscray has colonised other suburbs, venues will lea d to a drop in the number of The old suburban ba ttlefields, like [for their support] it's just that unfortu­ season tickets purchased, he suspects, as Essendon's Windy Hill and St Kilda's nately the other suburbs it colonised are the association between team and supporter Moorabbin, with their club lore written in economically bankrupt. It just happens to becom es less certain. the stands and the outer, have been passed lie in a very poor area,' he says. A telling The rancour that consumed Rugby over for the anonymity and greater specta- m ove in recognition of this failure, for League prior to this year's season abated

S ~c' no' RAG ou" WITH Till~~CR~pl<~~n~~on:db~~!-~~~ang

V OLUME 6 N UMBER 7 • EUREKA STREET 27 has regional sides in Australia, New Zea­ land and South Africa playing one another­ fo llowed by a test series between those three nations-is packing in the crowds. The falling attendances at League ga mes seemed to have been matched by the num­ bers that trotted off to see these other spec­ tacles. Masters believes, however, that which­ ever way the matter is resolved, the fans will return, if for no other reason than that they are fickle. In an article published in last Spring's Meaniin, Masters described the difference in the way Sydneysiders and Melbournians support their teams: 'Mel­ bourne is the city of the painfully durable marriage. Sydney is the city of the one­ night stand. So it is with foo tball'. 'It is a very resilient ga m e/ he offers. 'It has been " deaded" about three or four times in the last couple of decades and has always come back.' somewhat when players and teams settled However Masters suggests that there is He suggests, however, that while tradi­ down to play the game. The existing com­ still the possibility of all the clubs consoli­ tions will continue at the grass roots level, petition has been saved by the fact that dating under one competition: 'If, on the with the differing class associations of m ost clubs are internally cohesive with the other hand, they get relatively small gains Rugby League and Union (League was administration and players siding with one as a result of the appeal it will create the brought about in 1910 in large part by the camp or the other. An exception is St ground for compromise. There will be some issue of compensation for injured players George-a club which throughout the his­ discussion between Packer and unable to work. The working man suffered tory of the game has a tradition of success ""r Murdoch on that, I'd say.' more under the intransigence of the admin­ rivalled only by the now battling South istrators of the day.) With Murdoch's influ­ Sydney. The club is split down the middle. .1. HIS HAS ALL HAP PENED in a climate which ence there is the potential for a hybrid gam e Roy Masters coached the Saints for six couldn't be less favourable for Rugby League. to emerge for the benefit of cable TV. years during the '80s after being at Western The Sydney Swans have a struck a purple Masters believes that this is the express Suburbs for four. He now writes on the gam e patch and possess two of the game's big intention of Maurice Lindsay, the head of for the Sydney Morning Herald and believes stars in Tony Locke tt and Brownlow English Rugby League, who initiated a series that there is some bitterness down at Kogarah m edallist Paul Kelly. Professional Rugby of gam es played under both sets of rules Oval; however, their on-field performance Union through the Super 12 concept, which between the Rugby club, Bath, and League has been far from shabby, as they look a good chance to make the finals. What he would prefer to see is a compromise between Packer and Murdoch so that the gam e can earn back the good faith of the fans: 'If [the Federal Court] decision falls in favour of Super League to the extent that they can get up next year, then we'll have twin competitions, and even­ tually the ARL one will die because they won't be funded to the extent that Murdoch will fund Super League.' His words were echoed soon after we spoke by the almost rueful comm ents of the chairman of the South Queensland Crushers, Dick Turner, after the ARL re­ fused to bail his club out of financial strife­ John Quayle, ARL's chief executive, argued that if they gave money to the Crushers, they'd have to give money to all the clubs which had asked for help. He observed that if his club had sided with Super League, the fiscal malaise which threatens its future Essendon supporters all. Top left: vocal locals. Above: Da vid and Stephanie Lewis, from Princeton, New would have been avoided. Jersey, USA, where they follow Essendon's fortunes on the Internet. Ph otographs by Bill Thomas.

28 EUREKA STREET • SEPTEMBER 1996 team, Wigan, earlier in the year. assumptionT,o,n that:: the,~~~ world is one'~ big'~~~ level playing,~~~~~=~ field. What if, inos=tead,~ The suggestion, however, is effusively we were to recognise that being dirt poor (for example) might affect your denied by Peter Fitzsimons, a former Rugby track times? What if we were to refuse to concede that New Zealand and international who is also a sports writer for China have equal populations? These questions began to gnaw at me as the Sydney Morning Herald. He believes morning after morning, I entered that curious state of altered conscious: that Rugby's star is rising so dramatically ness known as Channel 7. By the time my infant son had learned to lisp that it will go it alone now that the game 'Goodonyer Australia', I had begun to look up global statistics. has turned professional: The official results as they appear in the newspapers are based on a 'Rugby just doesn't need League's busi­ ranking system to delight the heart of Norman May. Success is rated by ness,' he argues. 'It may be that League will the number of gold medals, and where those are equal, mere silver is counted, and so on, increasingly need Rugby's business. Basi­ down to dreary bronze. This system yields a ranking, but what's needed, if other factors are cally the attitude of Rugby will be that the mtroduced, 1s a score. The score in the table is calculated by allowing 3 points for a gold leaguie can do whatever they want to do.' medal, 2 for a s1lver and 1 for a bronze. The second column of figures shows the Gross Fitzsimons does concede that there will Domestic Product, expressed as a percentage of the United States figure. At $25 850 for be greater m ovement of players between every soul within its borders, the US is the world's richest country, and it fair to the codes, particularly from League to Un­ seem~ assume_that this constitutes some kind of advantage. The next column shows population, ion instead of the reverse which was previ­ and agam, the more people you have (other things being equal) the more Steve Moneghettis ously the case, but that there will now be are out there poundmg the streets. The final score was arrived at by this formula: open competition between the two codes Score, multiplied by 100, divided by %US GDP per capita, divided by population. for the viewing customer. 'The standard of . The results wil~ not be popular down at the stock exchange. Cuba{ The trade embargo Rugby Union in the Super 12 has given the 1s clearlynot workmg -or then again maybe it is, because the resultant poverty boosts the game an enormous injection', he believes. hgures mcely. Out of the top ten countries, seven are present or past Marxist states and 'In Australia, Rugby Union has fo r a very others like them: Ukraine, Poland and Russia, all come in much higher than the US. 'who long time been the poor relation of Rugby won the Cold War, anyway? These results will fortify John Major in his campaign for an League ... and now things have changed Instltute of Sport because they strongly suggest that the winning combination is govern­ around. It's too early to say that we are the ment dollars plus dragooning. glamour gam e in town but it's odd that . Then aga_in there's Jamaica-and Kenya-and Ethiopia. Each of these provokes a Rugby has come good in the public eye at d1fferent log1c . I stop short of saying the last shall be first- no set of numbers is that the precise moment that League is wob­ beautiful. No, the figures are not influenced by Marxist thought: they actually come from bling terribly.' Th e World Factbook 1?95~ a publication of the CIA (Available on the N et at http:// Perhaps Rugby Union will be a test case www .odc1.gov / Cla/pubhcatwns/95fact/index.h tml.) for the effect commercialism has on a ga me, . Australia at 17th still looks pretty good, although outperformed by N ew Zealand, which having for so long been protected by ama­ 1s _a str;m on the ANZAC spiri~, and even Ireland, which is surely some kind of joke? teurism. Apart from the recent World Cups, Bntam s popular press was carrymg on about losmg to Kazakhstan; it should cheer them it only came under greater public scrutiny up to note that they crossed the line 38th in a tight-knit bunch with other big losers like when inter-Tasman rivalries were excited China, (35) the US (36) and Japan (39). by a Bledisloe C up match. As Peter It won't last. In four years' time, the sporting machines of the former Soviet states will Fitzsimons himself attests there is really have f~llen into _disrepair: the velodromes will be pinball parlours. That can only m ean that no way to tell if it will lose its 'soul' but the w1ldcard w1ll prevail, so get your money on outsiders. At the closing ceremony in that within the ga m e the thinking' has Atlanta, IOC President Samaranch called upon the youth of the world to assemble in changed: 'We've got to make this a televi­ Sydney in the year 2000. Are you listening, Moldova? sion spectacle; if it doesn't live on televi­ sion it doesn't live. It's the name of the Country Medal Score % US GDP (per capita)• Population {000,000)• Final Score ga me in the modern sporting age.' l. Cuba 51 4.87 10.9 96.0 While football fans in Sydney or Brisbane 2. Jamaica II 11.80 2.6 35.9 3. Bulgaria 28 14.82 8.8 21.5 might feel their patronage is being auctioned 4. Kenya 14 4.53 28.8 16.9 to the highest bidder, in Melbourne, loyalty 5. Romania 35 10.79 23.2 14.0 seems to be more honoured in the breach 6. Hungary 30 22.05 10.3 13.2 7. North Korea 10 3.59 23.5 11.9 than the observance. 8. Belarus 23 19.84 10.4 ll.l Markets, TV deals, star quality: these 9. Kazakhstan 21 12.38 17.4 9.7 are the bywords of a new era. And as the 10. Ethiopia 7 1.47 56.0 8.5 games are increasingly played around the 11. Czech Rcpu blic 22 28.43 10.4 7.4 12. Ukraine 43 12.65 5 1.9 6.5 country and around the world, television 13. New Zealand 14 64.37 3.4 6.4 underlines their character. No longer part 14. Greece 20 34.31 10.6 5.5 of 'Us v. Them', the channel- surfing sports 15. Ireland 10 54.39 3.5 5.3 16. Russia 136 18.64 149.9 4.8 fans of the future may be too ambivalent to 17. Australia 68 80. 15 18.3 4.6 barrack. • 18. Denmark 15 76.83 5.2 3.8 19. Norway 13 85.76 4.3 3.5 20. Finland 10 62.44 5. 1 3.1 Jon Greenaway, Burel< a Street's assistant • Calculated from The World Factbook 1995 editor, learned his sport north of the Murray. Bruce Williams' day job is as Head of the School of Arts and Media, LaTrobe University.

VoLUME 6 N uMJJER 7 • EUREKA STREET 29 T HE C AROLINE CHISHOLM S ER IES: 13

J.S . G REGORY White Australia, Asia and 'la longue duree'

I NAN SBS I NS

30 EUREKA STREET • S EPTEMBER 1996 charges of racism . 'It's an important question we are not fac ing up to in this country', Cohen com plained, 'because there's a fea r that the minute you question immigration you are ipso facto a racist. And that's not fa ir'. Adam s did not think that the debate was being seriously silenced, but thought it should be cautious. 'We live in difficult times and don't want to inflam e sensibilities', he ra ther uncharacteristically suggested. Cohen also raised the issue of the optimum population fo r Australia, and expressed a fea r that the environment would be seriously affected by a high intake of migrants. It was, like so m any SBS program s, well worth looking at, though inconclusive and open­ ended, in the end perhaps not conveying much m ore than som e strong views. Although, unfortu­ nately, I inadvertently wiped the tape I made of it, and so could not check my source as thoroughly as I would like, I have continued to mull over the program . Only a few days earlier I had had a short opinion piece published in the Melbourne A ge questioning, on the basis partly of my personal experience, the fear of the 'Asianisation ' of Australia expressed by som e candidates in the Federal election . In that article I suggested that some of the main fo rces changing the culture in which I, like Barry Cohen, was brought up, were of white, Anglo- Celtic origin, certainly not Asian, and that som e Asian influences on our culture were as likely to be positive as problem atic. Yet despite having used such arguments, I could sympathise with much of what Lane and Cohen said, agreeing that we should try not to allow multicultural policies and pressures to turn us into som e kind of patchwork society; that those concerned about immigration policies are not overtly racist (though I think som e, even of the m ost responsible ones am ong them, are effectively so); that the transplantation of a European culture to this remote part of the world was a remarkable achievem ent, whatever the rough justice it involved for som e, and that it would indeed be nice for my grandchildren if we could, as Lane said, 'keep it that way'.

B uT AS A HISTORIAN FOND OF LONG PERSPECTIVES, especially Chinese and European, I fo und myself having to agree to som e extent with Phillip Adam 's emphasis, even though his sweeping general­ isations about China's 'ancient dominance of the world' made m e wince. Do we not, as he asserted, have to rethink our place in a radically changing world? Can we really expect (as distinct fro m hope) to 'keep it that way' ? Can we really limit the population on this large island continent at som e level we white Australians decide is comfo rtable for us? If we are ready to look at such questions, the concepts of the great French historian, Fernand Braudel, derived from h is study of the Mediterranean region, seem to be worth som e consideration, difficult though it is to translate them to this part of the world. Brandel made a distinction between the long-lasting 'structures' of a region, the shorter but not brief 'conjunctures', and the passing events; between geo­ graphical time, social tim e and individual time; between 'submerged history, almost silent and always discreet', and 'conspicuous history, which holds our attention by its continual and dram atic changes'. In historical analysis, he concluded, the individual is 'im prisoned within a destiny in w hich he himself ha little hand, fixed in a landscape in which the infinite perspectives of the long term tretch into the distance both behind him and before ... the long run wins in the end.' (The Mediterranean) What is 'the long run', la longu e dun~e , likely to m ean for Australia, white, black or whatever, given its geography and history, the structures within which it must operate? The eminent Indian economic historian K.N. Chaudhuri has applied Braude­ lian insights to his study, Asia Before Europe. How might Australia, specifically white Australia, fit into the scenario of Asia after Europe? Is it part of the struc­ tures of that wide region, or a separate structure, or just a fa irly substantial con juncture which will, in the end, be overtaken by geographical time? What relevance fo r those white Australians like Terry Lane, desirous to keep Australia European in culture, does this kind of conclusion have: 'To man as an individual no fea t of exploration, no odys ey is impossible ... (but). .. mass removal by a group or society is m ore difficult. A civilisation cannot simply tran plant itself bag and baggage ... For at bottom a civilisation is attached to a distinct geographical area, and this is one of the indispensable elem ents of its composition ... a civilisa tion exists fu ndam entally in a geographical area which has been structured by men and history. That is why there are cultural fro ntiers and cultural zones of amazing permanence: all the cross fertilisa tion in the world will not alter them '. Has white Australia, transplanted two centuries ago fro m its metropolitan base, made thi continent its own distinct geographical area (pace the displaced indigenes) and created on it a structured

V o LUME 6 N u MBER 7 • EUREKA STREET 31 civilisation capable of withstanding the mounting presence and pressure of Asia after Europe? Can white Australia seek cross fertilisa tion, economic and other, from this modern, aware Asia and not be fundamentally altered by it? The answers to such large, even over-large, questions are blowing in the wind, but it is perhaps worth flying a kite or two in search of them. A little reflection on what we mean by Asia might be as well at this point. The word, and therefore the concept, is not at all Asian in origin. K.N. Chaudhuri observes that there was no equivalent word in any Asian language, though of course it has entered them now. But in Chinese, for example, the word for Asia is not, like most place names in that language, a descriptive two­ character compound (as in Beijing=northern capital; Shantung=east of the mountain; Hong Kong=fragrant harbour), but a construct of three characters which, when pronounced in standard Chinese, produces a sound approximating to the English 'Asia'. It is a compound which would have thoroughly confused Confucius, both linguistically and conceptually. Modern Asians are, of course, not confused by the concept, and som e now use it frequently, indeed glibly, to assert the distinctiveness of their values and cultures to keep undesirables like Australians at arm's length. But in doing so they are behaving like Europeans, or at least using their terminology and concepts. For Europeans the term was first used by Greeks and Romans to name quite limited regions, but came to be extended to apply generally to the world east of Suez. It helped, as did later saying like 'the inscrutable East', to make some kind of unified sense of that world. Whether or not any such distinct Asian entity actually existed was secondary to the European need to feel there was one. Whatever it may be, it is certainly very diverse, a good deal more so than its putative opposite, Europe, which is, heaven knows, diverse enough. But Europe, or a great part of it, at least shares a good stretch of history from Roman times, and also a dominant religious tradition which for quite

In historical analysis, Fernand Braudel concluded, the individual is 'in1prisoned within a destiny in which he himself has little hand, fixed in a landscape in which the infinite perspectives of the long term stretch into the distance both behind hiln and before ... the long run wins in the end.'

a few centuries, made it not total nonsense to call the whole region Christendom. One cannot say the same for Asia, despite the wide spread of Buddhism throughout the region. The religious, cultural, linguistic and ethnic differences between, say, India and China, as well as other major players in the Asian league, seem far greater than the word 'Europe' conjures up. Whether used by Europeans or Asians, the term 'Asia' is a catch-all word, very indefinite in both it content and its geographic extent. Does it extend west to the Middle East and to what Europeans call Asia Minor, as well as south to Australia?

W JT ESETTLE MENT IN AusTRA LIA BEGAN just over two hundred years ago, when European civilisa­ tion, with the British as its vanguard, was pushing forward very firmly and extensively in Asia. Various European powers had been present in some force in Asia since the sixteenth century, but the later decades of the eighteenth saw the British make a great leap forward by laying the founda­ tions of their extensive empire on the Indian subcontinent and knocking very firmly, though at first politely, on China's door to urge that 'the central kingdom' be more widely opened to the outside world. Apart from these two most populous civilisations of Asia, its other regions, from the various smaller states of South East Asia to the hermit kingdoms of the Far East, Japan and Korea, either had already or were soon to feel the force of the Western presence. From 1788 on the indigenous tribal peoples of Australia also felt it. Had they been capable of putting together such a document they would no doubt have echoed the sentiments contained on the Chinese emperor's condescending dismissal in 1793 of the British and their urgings-'We have never valued ingenious articles, nor do we have the slightest need, of your country's manufac­ tures'. But neither great civilisations nor non-literate hunter-gatherers could escape the force of the expansion of Europe. Within a few decades China had been obliged to begin to open its doors as the Europeans wished; British rule, direct or indirect, extended over most of India; and British ettlement, convict or free, spread over the Australian continent. Just how far the British decision to send the First Fleet to eastern Australia was prompted by its contemporaneous push into Asia is a question historians debate but need not detain us here. It

32 EUREKA STREET • SEPTEMBER 1996 seems clear that British settlement in Australia was conceived at least in part as 'a halfway house on the new trade routes' to Asia, as Geoffrey Blainey has put it, by 'harnessing the westerlies across the Southern Indian Ocean, rounding Tasmania and then sailing past Norfolk Island and the east of Papua and N ew Guinea. This seems a strange way of sailing from the Thames to Canton. In time of war, however, it had advantages, for it avoided the narrow Indonesian straits where French and Dutch frigates could lie in wait' (A Land Half Won). Such strategic considerations soon faded however, and Asia did not become in any sustained or positive way a focus for early white Australian energies, interest or enterprise, as it surely would have done had such strategies remained relevant into the nineteenth century.

L ROUGHOUT THAT CENTURY, AND WELL INTO THE TWENTIETH, white Australia could avert its eyes from Asia and look almost exclusively towards Europe and the motherland. Nevertheless, to some extent Asia remained always in the consciousness. Misguided convicts escaping from the first settlement are said to have imagined they could find som e road out of Botany Bay to it, while the gold rush years stimulated the fear that large numbers of Asians might find their own roads to Botany Bay and beyond, prompting severely restrictive immigration policies from white Australia. Asia was always there, if only remotely, uncertainly. Things are now a good deal changed, though not entirely. Over-optimistic businessmen may substitute for the misguided convicts, and Botany Bay airport provides too easy a road into Australia from Asia in the view of many white Austral­ ians. But the European-based empires that once provided a protective bulwark for white Australia are gone, and the peoples of Asia now assert themselves in the world with a good deal of confidence and success. Europe and the West remain tremendously powerful and influential, but the world

What is 'the long run ', la longue duree, likely to mean for Australia, white, black or whatever, given its geography and history, the structures

within which it must operate~ doe seem to have moved back towards something like the old global balance, when no civilisation dominated the whole, as wa the case during most of white Australia's hi tory. There may well be a clown-side to this evening-out of world power if the predictions of the American political scien­ tist, S.P. Huntington, prove accurate, and a clash of civilisations becomes the dominant feature of international politics. Better perhaps a dominant Europe than a rampant Islam or China. But there can be no doubt that the place and power of the West in the next century will be very different from what it was during the first two centuries of white settlement in Australia. All this is obvious enough, though often obscured in the burly-burly of clay-to-day politics, in the detail of Brauclel's 'conspicuous history'- White Australians are probably rather m ore aware than som e, of the sweep of this long wave of history, however, because we are more out on a geographical limb than most other white societies. South Africa is another even more exposed, but we are well aware, and I think to some degree always have been, that our European-derived culture does not match our geography very well. Hence the somewhat frenetic attempts of some to assert that we are part of Asia. We have so far coped with this imbalance by a combination of good fortune and a measure of good sense and flexibility. The good fortune lies in the fact first that, though relatively close to the main lands of Asia we are not all that close, and have well-defined frontiers. Second, for most of our history no Asian country, save one, ever had a capacity to challenge our security seriously. When for a time Japan did so, great and powerful friends were at hand to help defend us. We were united in the face of that threat, as we were in the creation and implementation of the policies we felt we needed to keep Australia white.

H owEVER, THE WAR CHANGED OUR PERCEPTION of the wider world radically and we moved away from our narrowly Anglo-Celtic traditions towards what is now called a multicultural society, a society that since the seventies has even admitted a significant number of migrants from Asia to its citizenship. D espite arguments over the proper level and best mix of our migrant intake, plus concerns that too great a mix will produce a society lacking cohesion and any shared cultural

VoLUME 6 N uMBER 7 • EUREKA STREET 33 focus, over the past half-century Anglo-Celtic white Australia has shown a degree of fl exibility and, despite som e pockets of protest, of general tolerance and acceptance toward others, including Asians, of which it has reason to be proud. However, there appear to be limits to this tolerance. In recent years the increased numbers of Asians settling am ong us, whether legally or illegally, and in whatever capacities, have created some resentments about such specifics as jobs and tertiary educa tion places, as well as m ore gen­ eral, vaguer fears about the possible undermining or 'sm othering' of our culture and way of life. This has prompted dem ands for tighter restrictions on our only-recently liberalised immigration rules, especially towards Asian migrants. N o one, so far as I am aware, is suggesting a return to the old White Australia policy, which signifies a realistic recognition that the world, including the Australia of the late twentieth century, is not that of the nineteenth or early twentieth . On that basis the advocates of m ore restricted policies, even when they direct their argumen ts mainly towards the Asian intake can, reasonably enough, deny any charge of racism . They are not racist in any crude, graffiti-scrawling sense, and no doubt som e of their best friends are Asian. But they do insist that we have moved fa r enough away from the old, crudely racist-based policies; that if we move further our society m ay lose any cohesive cultural core. L CALL FOR A REDUCED PROGRAM OF MIGRATION overall is one thing, and this may be Terry Lane's position as it was that expressed by Barry Cohen on the SBS program. But to call, as some appear to do, for reductions aimed against particular, though ill-defined, groups is quite another. Such a policy would mark a significant step backwards towards an irrecoverable past, and would not be easily sustainable, either nationally or internationally. It seem s unlikely that white Australia could now be united behind such a policy as it once was behind the old, overtly racist, restrictive poli­ cies, while am ong the now much m ore aware-of-the-world and mobile Asians, it would be likely to stimulate an already allegedly high rate of illegal migration, not to mention other possible reac­ tions. White Australia would then need to deploy an ever-larger proportion of its resources to policing its borders and to seeking out and deporting illegals. A policy aim ed at restricting all immigration to stabilise our population at a level deemed acceptable on environmental or other grounds by some white Australians would also surely have som e difficulty in winning general acceptance, both within and beyond the country. Without attem pting to comment on the m orality of, say, 25 or even 50 million Australians deciding to keep the population at that level, (by one or two-child fa mily policies as well as immigration controls?) I quote this passage from an essay by a recent cultural counsellor at the Australian embassy in Peking: 'By virtue of its size, sparse population and, apparently, abundantly exportable natural resources and primary products (wool and iron ore are the best known in China), Australia is seen as a rich land given rather Some of the basic elements of that culture and tradition, such unfa irly to a small group of whites rendered lazy, if not as our Christian ethic and our democratic institutions, are slow and stupid, by the ease of their circumstances. Aus­ currently under far more pressure from some of our Anglo­ tralia is felt not only to need people, but poses a challenge Celtic leaders than from any Asian element in our population. t o a Chinese sense of pro letarian justice, or at least a sense of w hat the Chinese could put to good use' (Nicholas Jose, Chinese Whispers). Whether or not Phillip Adams is right about China going into the next century as 'the dominant political fa ct on earth', there can be little doubt that an attempt to keep this continent quite sparsely populated by heavily restrictive immi­ gration policies, especially of a discriminatory kind, would provoke som e hostility and would sit oddly with any other policies directed towards close economic and diplomatic ties with Asia. White Australia may well decide to try to pursue such policies, but they would seem to require creating, in the not very long run, som e kind of fortress Australia. Given the ongoing globalisa tion of the world, apparent in the rapidly increasing m obility of financial resources, information and ideas of all kinds, as well as of people, the capacity of nation states to control in detail many important developments within their borders, and across them, is eroding. We are witnessing the demise of the nation state, according to some theorists. Borders of all kinds are under increasing stress, especially those of wealthy Western societies. Australia is fortunate in having no permeable land fro ntier of the kind the US has with Mexico, but we too are wealthy, technologically advanced, off ering attractive possibilities, while our frontiers, though difficult of access, are long. Whether

34 EUREKA STREET • SEPTEMBER 1996 any Asian communities are likely to m ount the kind of pressures Mexicans curren tly do on the US is impossible to predict with certainty, and would depend on m any developm ents far beyond our influence, but given the balance, or rather the imbalance, of factors involved-of space, wealth, numbers-the possibility seem s real. Immigration, the control of our frontiers and entry points, is certainly likely to be a long-term problem for this society. A desire to preserve and nourish the m ain tap-roots of our inherited culture is a perfectly reasonable national aspiration . But white Australians need to beware of seeing that culture as som e kind of immanent, ark-of-the-covenant thing, that only those of a particular line of descent can be trusted to preserve, nourish and enrich. Of course there is a connection between race and culture, but it is acci­ dental, not biological or innate. We should not underestimate the capacity of humankind to undertake odysseys, to cross cultural frontiers, fuse val­ ues and share standards. Why otherwise make an issue of human rights on the international stage? Of course a rapid and large infusion of new arrivals from a single source would be threatening, but we are not faced with that kind of situation. 'Asia' is not a single source thrusting a unified alternative culture at us. Politicians, commentators and opinion makers who argue as if this is the case, and who generally present a defensive, nostalgic and inward-looking cultural ideal for this society as it enters the 21st century, are surely pointing us away from the future that actually lies ahead. Of course no-one, historian or other, can predict with any certainty what that future will be, but som e basic realities of the kind Braudel emphasises-the external pressures of geography, world politics and economics; the internal pressures of shifting perceptions, values and social structure-m ean that Australian society must anticipate that it will becom e ethnically much less predominantly white/ European than it has been over the past two centuries. What this will m ean culturally is an open question, but it is very unlikely to mean, within any kind of foreseeable future, the 'sm othering' or subversion of our inherited culture, insofar as we can define what that still is. Som e of the basic elem ents of that culture and tradition, such as our Christian ethic and our democratic institutions, are currently under fa r m ore pressure from som e of our Anglo-Celtic leaders than from any Asian elem ent in our population . Asian influences will no doubt, over time, change that culture in ways both desirable and not so desirable, but white Australia has been doing that itself since first settlem ent.

A FLEXIBLE, NON-DlSCRIMlNAT ORY MI GRATION PO LI CY remains the m ost realistic and defensible path, both m orally and practically, for white Australia to follow. Multicultural policies that tend to entrench and emphasise group difference should certainly be rejected by governments. In this regard the education policies of the new Federal government, commented on by Judith Brett recently (Age, 7 JuneL are disturbing. The m elting-pot ideal that Lane argues fo r is an honourable one, but we need to recognise that the old Anglo-Celtic core will have t o melt a little as well as the new additives. To shift the m etaphor, our obj ective should be to create a tapestry, not a patchwork quilt. The pattern of that tapestry will no doubt take on an increasingly Asian coloration over the next century or so, but need not be the less attractive for that. The Anglo-Celtic strands in it will certainly not disappear, for our inherited culture, though less dominant in the world than earlier in our history, rem ains very strong. Its distinctive geography and history provides white Australia with a structure that should enable it to preserve the m ain strengths of its ever-changing culture well into the future, even if we m aintain our current, non-discriminatory immigration policies. But it is also a structure closely linked, by virtue of the global forces of geography, economics and Braudel's 'submerged history', to the large, long-lasting structures of Asia. Ultimately these may determine the nature of civilisa tion in this part of the world. But that, surely, is for the tres longue duree. Meanwhile we might, to revert to one of Barry Cohen's worries noted at the beginning of this essay, try encouraging the Chinese am ong us to take up cricket . They m ay develop as much apti­ tude and respect for that icon of Anglo (not so much Celtic) culture as som e other Asians have!•

J.S. Gregory has taught East Asian history at Melbourne and La Trobe Universities and has also published a study of the secularisa tion of the state in Victoria.

V o LUME 6 N uMBER 7 • EUREKA STREET 35 THE CHURCH

The Italian job

When asked, as he frequently is, whether he will be the next Pope, Carlo Maria Martini sr, Cardinal Archbishop of Milan, responds by saying that his great hope is to spend his remaining years in Jerusalem. Geraldine Doogue, interviewing the Cardinal during his recent visit to Australia, focused on issues closer to home.

G ERALDINE DooGUE: We might focus on what The third thing which works for me in the church works in the Church rather than what doesn't work. is a sense of communion. Of course, a communion which is made of human defects, divisions-they were Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini: I think it's a very good already in the first church. We read of them in the question. I take this as a principle: whenever there is Acts of the Apostles and the epistles of St Paul. But a problem or some lamentation or something wrong, all in all there is such a great communion and unity I also ask myself what does work. We always have to which is a continuous miracle. The fact that you may start from the certainty that the Holy Spirit is doing go to another place and be received as som ebody of something in the church. the family and be perfectly at ease is something unique But personally, what really works for me in the in the history of the world. church? First of all, the scripture. The church gives Another thing which works really in the church Handling the press: to me the scripture from which I derive all my pray­ is saintly life, not only in the saints of the past, but Cardinal Martini in ing and believing, all my spiritual life. The scriptures the saints in the present. We are very much closed to Melbourne. are a great strength for the entire church. I experi­ examples of sanctity because we are blinded by some Tran slating questions ence this continually with young people. examples of wicked conduct. I'm sure that if we look from left field: The second thing which works is the Eucharist. at our communities-! think of many families, many Fr Mark Coleridge. When we have this, we have everything. When we sick people I meet on pastoral visitations who are Photograph by put in the centre the scripture and the Eucharist, we really saintly people, who are masters of spiritual fohn Casamento. see that church can do an immense good for people. expression.

36 EUREKA STREET • SEPTEMBER 1996 Sanctity doesn't get a great press in Australia. It's lems. We have the difficult readings of life. Easy read­ not something which makes the front pages. The ings are easy to accept but don't really explain life church sometimes feels that it ha less to say to mod­ and death. This is what the church has to offer. ern society than it once did. What do you think is Are you saying that the church embraces society or the church's contribution! What is the language it is at odds with it. You asked 'what is modern socie­ may use in order to get heard! ty!' Where then is the church to pitch itself! We hould not confuse the real mind of people with I am a bit uneasy in speaking of church and society as what is on the front page of the paper. We must of two geometrical things which have to be intercon­ examine the media thoroughly. There is much good nected or opposite. I speak of people and ideas. I would in it but also a certain inability to cope with the real speak of philosophers, thinkers, poets, people from mind of the people. the sciences. Society is a general concept. It looks at a general movement. There are persons. A person can be trained scientifically or according to a certain What contribution does the church have to make to philosophy. With this you have to have dialogue. Not modern society! How can it speak in a way that peo­ so much with society. ple hear! I think, paradoxically that the church should not be I think in Australia a lot of the people who might be too much worried about what modern society thinks. searching never get to meet the church in any form . What is modern society? It is something theoretical. You seem to have found new ways of bringing the We have to deal with real people. Real people have church to them. For example, your monthly dialogue great despair, anger, desires, loneliness, emptiness of with Umberto Eco. Could you tell us about that! heart. The church can give them very much. I think I I met with Umberto Eco, whom I knew already. We am actually very fortunate, lucky to have met so many were asked to write each other letters to be published people-unbelievers also-who long for a meaning in monthly by a general magazine called Libera-not life. Maybe they don't come to church very easily. religious but general. They have prejudices against the church but they want We decided to write not by quarrelling but by something meaningful for their life. I said yesterday saying to each other what are the reasons you believe to a journalist that I regularly meet people or do not believe. We took many problems. About life, who are far from the church. morality. The last one especially was very much con­ sidered by non-believers. I asked him, 'Please explain HEN I INVITE UNBELIEVERS to speak about the rea­ W to me how you, who are a non-believer, can found sons why they don't believe, they come in thousands. your morality?' He was in a certain uneasiness, but We have very good conversations. I always say to them he tried to give an answer. I don't mind whether you believe or not, I just ask There is another thing, which I call the chair for that you are thinking. If you want to think, you are non-believers. I had this idea: I am a believer but I welcome. Many people want to think and want to have in me a non-believer who claims every day his have reason for going forward in life with some hope. reasons. There is a struggle in me. I said, why not give voice to this inner struggle? So I decided to ask How would you compare and contrast the struggle non-believers to come and to explain why they don't to believe of the modern generation with, say, your believe. Thousands of people came who didn't come generation! to church. They didn't want a sermon. They wanted My generation received the traditional beliefs and to be illuminated about the purpose of human life. I accepted them superficially. It was not driven to did this for five or six evenings in the state universi­ strong decision. Now we are in a generation where ty. The difficult thing was to stop people from com­ everybody thinks they can do whatever they want and ing because the place could only hold 1,400. discover the beauty and the danger of freedom. He or This is one way of contact. But there are many she discovers that it is necessary to take decisions in ways. Every appearance of the church is the occasion life and to have values and orientations. not so much to give a sermon but to speak about the I remember in my generation, for example, men real problems of life which are without end. When I didn't listen to the sermon. They stayed out and when do these things I always put myself in question. They the sermon was finished they went back into the ask me to explain my interior ethic of these problems church. This is absolutely unthinkable today. There and I put myself in the same position as are fewer people, but those who go want to go, and many others. We search. they want a good sermon. They are very exacting. They really want the gospel explained. L is is a new model of authority you're talking I say that Christianity is the most difficult read­ about. ing. You have in the gospels different readings for one I don't pretend to represent a new model of authority. text. Easy readings are false readings. Difficult read­ But I think a good example was Paul VI. He was a ings are really the readings which explain all the prob- great searcher. Each of us has problems. Dark points.

VOLUME 6 NUMBER 7 • EUREKA STREET 37 Difficulties. If we give expression to them and con­ have places in the churches. The priests are not fro nt them with the gospel we see how much light enough. We are starting to put together what we call we see in our lives. a pastoral unity-small parishes where we need the Do you encourage your priests to do thaU Do you help of lay people. think parishioners are ready for that! We have also ordained permanent deacons. We've Not all parishioners. This is more for intellectual peo­ tried to form a laity, not to take the place of priests, ple. But parishioners should be aware of the fact that but to do the things which priests are not called to we are ready to listen to hard questions. do. Sometimes we want to clericalise lay people, but their place is in the professions, the family, in poli­ So you don't seek to provide an answer. Ceitainly tics, administration and so on. But we need also the not in the first instance. help of many people who are ready to collaborate in I am certain that people cannot receive an answer if the church. their question is not spelt out. It might be good to end on structure I notice that I'm thinl

38 EUREKA STREET • S EPTEMBER 1996 HIGHER E DUCATION

J.J .C. SMART Academics and the amateur spirit

w.NVCR' MANY yea

V OLUME 6 N UMBER 7 • EUREKA STREET 39 been professional enough. There is also the curious collegiate. Vast bureaucracies have grown up. There notion of a professional foul, where even an amateur are reviews, quality assessments and demands for in­ player may be so unfair as to give away a free kick to formation. The situation is bad here and perhaps worse prevent the probable scoring of a goal. No doubt this in the United Kingdom. A year or so ago the Vice­ is not in the true amateur spirit, even though it is Chancellor of the University of Glasgow, in a column easy almost unthinkingly to be tempted to in the periodic newsletter for alumni, pointed out the ""{X T it in the excitement of the moment. escalating effect of government requests for informa­ tion. First they must go to the governing body of the v vE ALSO HAVE THE PEJORATIVE WORD 'amateurish'. university. Then a lot of verbiage will have to go on To have the amateur spirit certainly does not imply to the senior academic committee or board. At every being amateurish. To have the am ateur spirit stands stage there is an escalation of verbiage and time tak­ to being amateurish somewhat in the way in which en which could have been spent on teaching and being childlike stands to being childish . To be research. All this arises from lack of trust. In the old childlike is to have the virtues of days universities were trusted a child, innocence, frankness, An English friend of mine had to look after their own affairs. curiosity, or whatever, while University bureaucracies were being childish is to have vices her lectures assessed by an relatively small. At the Uni­ characteristic of children, such as educationist. It was in what had versity of Adelaide in my time sulkiness, proneness to tantrums, we had a great Registrar who and lack of concentration. 'Child­ been a good polytechnic and prided himself on keeping his like' is a word of approbation, which had become a university. department small. H e knew while 'childish' is pejorative. everything and you could ask Thus I do not wish in the The chap said 'Your lecture was him something at lunch in­ least to imply that having the good but it was too academic'. stead of sending him a letter. amateur spirit need imply a lack Now the university is mana­ of professionalism. I am a profes­ She said 'I thought this was gerial and the Registrar's sional philosopher, and yet I want supposed to be a university'. The department is huge. This in­ to extol the amateur spirit among crease in university bureauc­ philosophers, as among other chap said 'We are competing racy, due in no small measure academics too. with television'. It makes one to government lack of trust, A lecturer with an amateur means another reduction in spirit will enjoy lecturing and will want to weep. There must be efficiency, since money spent try to enthuse the students with better ways to deal with the on administrators could other­ the subject matter. In doing so, he wise be spent on teaching and or she will of course be concerned unemployment problem. research. to inculcate competence. Turning Some of my younger aca­ out enthusiastic ratbags is not what we should want. demic friends tell me that because of this sort of thing Indeed enthusiasm motivates hard work. Remember administration takes up 20 per cent of their time. Sup­ Phelps' aphorism about lightheartedness and whole­ pose for the sake of argument that all these reviews, heartedness. Similarly an academic should publish an quality assessments and the like eliminate five per article or book because he or she is delighted to have cent inefficiency. Then there could well be a net loss discovered new arguments, facts, hypotheses or ex­ of 15 per cent. Consider the question of dead wood in perimental results and wants other people to know universities. (I speak here of the older pre-Dawkins about them. Even purely pedagogical or exegetical universities, of which I have som e experience.) In my papers or books should be imbued with the mission­ subject I find it very hard to find much that is dead ary spirit: 'Here is great stuff-you must know about wood. Certainly there are som e who publish nothing it'. This attitude is of course by no means restricted or little, but this often comes from modesty or per­ to academia. An engineer can be wildly excited about, fectionism rather than an inability to do so. Such peo­ say, welding problems with steel tubes, just as much ple can be fine and lucid lecturers who keep up with as (say) a neurobiologist may be excited by unravel­ their subj ect and who are far more valuable than some ling the perceptual systems of insects. One may all who on paper might look better on 'publish or perish' the same regret some (but not all) of the emphasis, criteria. But suppose that there is two per cent of dead due to government pressure, on essentially R and D wood. Would it not be better to carry this dead wood work, some of which allows industrial firms to avoid than have the other 98 per cent wasting so much of doing this work in their own laboratories. their time on reviews, quality assessments and dead Of late the biggest threat to the amateur spirit in wood eradication meetings? Moreover now that ten­ our academies has been due to government pressure ure is so much reduced (an anti-dead wood m easure) on universities. Partly in consequence universities lecturers are distracted fr om their proper work, by themselves have become managerial rather than worrying about the future and filling in the long and

40 EUREKA STREET • SEPTEMBER 1996 unnecessarily complicated job applications that man ding subjects. Governments like to maximise the nowadays seem to be the norm. number of posteriors on lecture room seats so as to I have said that publication should come from reduce unemployment figures. An English fri end of having something to say that one believes is worth­ mine had her lectures assessed by an educationist. It while and from having the missionary spirit. I applaud was in what had been a good polytechnic and which the desire to publish from these m otives. I plead and had become a university. The chap said 'Your lecture plead with younger colleagues when they delay pub­ was good but it was too academic'. She said 'I thought lication through m odesty or perfectionism even this was supposed to be a university'. The chap said though they have something important to say. It is a 'We are competing with television'. It makes one want shame when their fine m anuscripts stay in a drawer to weep. There must be better ways to deal with the and the philosophical public are unable to read them . unemployment problem . It is the pressure to publish from 'publish or perish' This lack of trust, leading to government reviews, motives that I deplore. quality assessments, and judging by outside research Actually those who publish from this motive, or grants, comes partly from cultural cringe. In my sub­ mainly from it, are less likely to be the ones who have ject we philosophers know how highly Australian something interesting to say. To satisfy the publish philosophy is regarded overseas, especially in USA and or perish mania, second-tier journals get started to UK. I am sure that the same thing applies in m any accommodate the articles that do not get accepted by other subjects, astronom y, chemistry, m athematics, the first-tier journals. Then third-tier journals to m edical sciences, and so on . With m ore knowledge accommodate articles that miss the second tier. And on the part of bureaucrats and politicians so on it goes. (See W.V. Quine, Theories and Things, there would be m ore trust. Harvard University Press, 198 1) Then libraries have to buy the journals. This costs m oney and library A WORD AGAINST EMPH ASIS on OUtside research shelving space even though m ost of the articles are grants. In som e subjects, such as mine, m ost of us read by fe w people other than their authors and the need only a pen and paper (or perhaps a laptop ). We referees. Is this really the 'productivity' that govern­ should be praised (a nd not disadvantaged) for doing m ents speak of? It is, I gather (fortunately I retired good research without troubling the taxpayer. (I con­ quite a few years ago), the case now that the length of cede that nowadays som e younger philosophers may articles is taken into consideration . Is this not an in­ need grants to provide relief teaching, now that stu­ vitation to reject one of the m ost admirable of liter­ dent-staff ratios are so bad.) We know that our best ary virtues, nam ely conciseness? Thus I would argue universities are good by world standards. There is a that reliance on the am ateur spirit would reduce story told to m e in 1950 by Father Finn, Rector of bureaucracies and waste of academic tim e, and would Aquinas College, University of Adelaide. God was increase efficiency and the right sort of productivity, pleased with the three orders, the Dominicans, the the unm easurable sort. Franciscans and the Jesuits and said that he would Som etimes, of course, the fact that an article has give each a boon . 'D eepen our apprehension of the few readers m ay not be a criticism . The subject matter distinction between essence and existence,' said St may be a difficult one. My father once asked the very Dominic. 'D eepen our traditional humility and piety' great astronom er Eddington how many people would said St Francis. 'What about you ?' said God to St Ig­ understand a book that Eddington was writ- natius. Ignatius said, 'We have been doing pretty well, ing. 'Six', said Eddington. That is all right. just leave us as we are'. It would have been well if all vice-chancellors had told this story to Dawkins at the sJMILARLY I DEPLORE THE USE of Student-staff ratiOS time of the notorious Green Paper. so much to determine the structure of faculties. Som e Let me end with another Phelps story. (This essay subjects, su ch as classical lan gu ages attract few is m eant to be both wholehearted and lighthearted.) students but are highly deserving all the sam e. Math­ When Phelps was young, T ommy Case, the President em atical physics has few students because few stu­ of Corpus, a philosopher and old cricketer, cam e up dents are clever enough to learn it. There is a danger to him and said 'Young man, philosophers are like that university fa culties will be numerically domi­ mules. They never produce anything, but they try very nated by the soft er subjects. There is also a danger hard'. A nice story, though grossly unfa ir to philoso­ that the less soft departments may be tempted to at­ phers. (Indeed Case him self had, in an idealistic age, tract m ore students by putting on soft or Mickey commendably written a worthwhile philosophical Mouse branches or offshoots of their subjects. This is book Physical Realism.) self-defeating. What is the good of getting m ore stu­ Be that as it m ay, as an Australian let me say dents in this way if you have to appoint Mickey Mouse 'Better an unproductive mule than a productive lecturers to teach the Mickey Mouse courses? Indeed rabbit.' • there is a danger that, over all, the giving of m oney to universities on the basis of student-staff numbers may J.J.C. Smart is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, lead to depressed standards even in the totally de- Australian National University.

VOLUME 6 N UMBER 7 • EUREKA STREET 41 BooKs

JACK W ATERFORD The light in the hill

in politics. 'Given Kelly's consid­ awft erwards, '""'our build OU'i nW

42 EUREKA STREET • SEPTEMBER 1996 intimacy and isolation of life at Parlia­ Showing that her own sense of it is in n o build up a formidable array of weapons to m ent Hou se: it is still a hard building to way deficient, sh e cites a speech by Jo e m eet the impending challenge'. 'work'. The m odern press gallery, she says, Gullett, attacking Menzies for hardly ever The chapter by Jim George traces the is ' much more socially fragmented; po­ attending to debate in Parliament and dominant policy edifice back to a neo-real­ litical journalism has become more a job giving an impression that Parliam ent did ist view of international relations as a form and less a way of life. Formal academic not matter. • of ungoverned anarchy which can never­ qualifications of ga llery journalists are theless be understood in rational terms as high, but, partly because of high turnover, Jack Wa terford is the editor of the Canberra the outcome of nation states engaged in the a sense of his tory is generally lacking'. Times. utilitarian pursuit of self-interest. To take two examples which have em erged since BooKs: 2 the book went to the printers, neo-realists BRIAN T OOHEY succeeded in subordinating concerns about global warming to the interests of the Aus­ tralian coal industry. Likewise, if the Ameri­ cans weren't so antagonistic, Australia could now be in a position to brandish a A u•T•Ac , AN~~:,e ~f~~~,~~~,d~=~e:Smany intelligence nuclear 'm ailed fi st' along the neo-realist policyelites regard Graeme Cheeseman and Robert Bruce0 (edsL Allen & 'swaps'- backed lines advocated by Labor's Foreign Minis­ economic change Unwin, Sydney. 1996. ISBN 1863 73 975 0 RRP $24.95. by a media finally ter, Bill Hayden. in Asia as un- bludgeoned into It is all a long way from the more pro­ equivocally a good thing. Think of the ex- 'understanding Asia'- that dissidents gressive notion of internationalism which port opportunities! Political change in Asia should no longer pose a security threat by once shaped Labor's perspective and ap­ is another matter. It creates instability and advocatingself-determinationforirianJaya, pears to have persuaded the Coalition For­ ultimately threatens our national security East Timor, or Aceh. eign Minister, Alexander Downer, to ban in a far more disturbing fashion than any- David Sullivan's chapter highlights the land mines and condemn Port Moresby's thing during the Cold War. To our policy- way in which the roles of scholar and policy recent assault on Bougainville . But Downer making elite, stability is represented by adviser have become dangerously inter- is being rapidly pulled into line as the President Suharto, kept in power with the twined in developing a defence posture security orthodoxy asserts itself just as help of Australian-trained Special Forces. which can construe the plight of the surely as its economic counterpart retains The threattoregionalsecurityisrepresented oppressed as a threat to our national secu- bi-partisan support. by pro-democracy demonstrators. rity while feting their oppressors as our Labor's decisions to acquire the furthest­ Danger and Dread Frontiers poses a strategic saviours. Sullivan says that crucial ranging conventionally powered submarine refreshing challenge to the n eo-realist assumptions about security issues: in the world and additional F1-11 strike foundations of a defence policy established have so thoroughly seeped into official bombers, project military power far from by Labor and largely continued by the Coa- defence policy and planning that (some) its shores. With the Coalition's subsequent lition. Edited by two academics, Graeme defence academics and defence officials are decision to boost the Army's mobility, Cheeseman and Robert Bruce, the book for all intents and purposes now one and Australia now seems well placed to return consists of a series of interrelated essays by the same. The university has become the to a policy of 'forward defence' as predicted nine authors who attack the unquestioned dumping ground for career officers and ci- in Cheeseman's chapter. assumptions behind the notion that secu- vilians seekingrefugefrom the rigid nature Cheeseman and Bruce note that the idea rity is synonymous with the possession of of bureaucratic life. The institutional sym- for the book came from a conference Aus­ military power. As the authors note, the biosis of university and government con- tralian Defence Force Academy conference orthodox debate in Australia proceeds as if cerning Australia's defence became most in December 1994 to mark the release of issues such as poverty, human rights, en vi- noticeable under the tutelage of Professor the Keating Government's Defence White ronmental degradation and conventional Paul Dibb: present head of the ANU's Stra- Paper. The 'self-reverential and triumphalist arms control had no bearing on the security tegic and Defence Studies Centre and tone was encapsulated by the declaration of of a nation's citizens. former/present senior defence bureaucrat. one of the participants at the conference Instead, Australian security is sought in As Sullivan observes, Dibb is in the and drafters of the White Paper, Paul Dibb, a return to a 19th-century-s tyle balance of unusual position of holding down a schol- that "no one had laid glove on it".' power. Never mind that the balance often arly job while insisting that his prescrip- This claim provoked Cheeseman and collapses into war: Australia's best hope is tionsforthe 'real world' are uncontaminated Bruce into organising a response which tries to keep the US 'engaged' in the region and by theory. When he talks, for example, to recognise that human history is replete to 'enmesh' its own military forces more about the balance of power as the central with examples of the folly of adhering to closely with those of its South East Asian organising principle between nation states, orthodox perspectives 'which act like intel­ neighbours. That way, China, Japan, Korea, he claims that h e is merely making an lectual Maginot Lines, ignoring alterna­ Russia and India might just be held in a observation which 'remains true'. Another tives, resisting dissent, and preventing delicate equipoise. Meanwhile, Indonesian contributor, Lachlan Strahan, notes that adaptation to ch ange'. Notwithstanding generals and their Australian counterparts Dibb adopts an inflexible realist model of Dibb's boast, the authors have succeeded in will have participated in so many joint the rise and fall of great powers in which he laying a glove upon the orthodoxy. • exercises that there will be no room for 'accepts the a priori premise that large pow- misunderstanding between the two coun- ers must fight for supremacy; he antici- Brian Toohey is a freelance journalist and tries. Moreover, there will have been so pates conflict and, therefore, the need to radio commentator.

V oLUME 6 N uMBER 7 • EUREKA STREET 43 BooKs: 3

PETER PIERCE All in the telling

Samoan household in kilts. His walking INT''"'" " I' '-"ND, Abn Sand,on dmlly Robert Louis Stevenson and the Appearance remarks, 'a parrot gets the last word, and of Modernism, Alan Sandison, Macmillan, tours of Europe have been brilliantly turns out to be a two-hundred-year-old London, 1996. ISBN 0 333 6206 7 4 RRP $104.00 retraced by Richard Holmes in Footsteps deconstructionist'. The parrot, named for (1985) . Journeying to the United States, the infamous pirate Captain Flint, although forgotten. 'What is. Prince Otto?' Sandison Stevenson married an older woman, Fanny it is actually a female, exclaims 'Piece of properly, if a touch sardonically enquires. Osbourne. This has licensed much psycho­ eight!' and Stevenson's wonderful tale is His reading of Stevenson's books sends logical speculation, some of which Sandison done. But not done with: its study forms an us eagerly back to them, through judicious, entertains. Stevenson was, he says, 'the arresting section of Sandison's first-rate, if often unexpected turns of analysis, and only child of devout Calvinist parents who cumbersomely titled critical study, Robert phrase. That Stevenson is 'a serious theo­ doted on him and on each other'. He had Louis Stevenson and the Appearance of rist in the art of fiction whose concerns are 'personal difficulties with procreation and Modernism. Sandison, known for his very modern' is demonstrated at more length heredity' (this is obscure, not necessarily brilliant work on the literature of imperial­ than was needful. Sandison's own theory is snide) and perceived himself 'as genuinely is m, The Wheel of Empire, followed always most agile and illuminating when and irredeemably trapped in, if not child­ Stevenson's path, leaving a chair at Strath­ directed to the particulars of texts. For hood, at least late adolescence'. Of m ar­ clyde, in Scotland, to head south, where he instance he understands that Stevenson's riage, Stevenson sagely advised that 'no was Professor of English at the University is essentially a melodramatic imagination, woman should marry a teetotaller, or a m an of New England, Armidale, for eight years alert to the vertiginous sense of loss which who does not smoke'. And let him have the until his retirement in 1993. can suddenly disrupt the most placid of last word on his parents' legacy: 'the children Sandison's intention is to explore a lives. The dissection of terrors, imposed of lovers are orphans', Stevenson mordantly remark of Gertrude Stein concerning 'a from without, or generated by characters' observed. future feeling', a proleptic modernism which own inadequacies, is one of Stevenson's Four time, early in the 1890s, Stevenson she detected in Stevenson's fiction. (But master themes. came to Australia, having sailed across the she discovered it everywhere, especially While Sandison persuasively suggests Pacific from Samoa. He met J.P. Archibald near at hand.) Convincingly Sandison dem­ the influence of Stevenson's fiction on at the Bulletin and visited Julian Ashton's onstrates that Stevenson was a proto-mod­ Joseph Conrad, one comparative context is artists' camp a Balmoral in Sydney. There ernist whose writing was imbued with not offered at length. Sandison might have are scenes in the Sydney Domain in the concerns for authority and 'self-engrossed dissected Stevenson together with other novel The Wreck er (1892) which he wrote textuality', with 'ceaseless questing among fervid imaginations of the 1880s ancl1890s: with Lloyd Osbourne. Feted by the Austral­ forms', a self-consciousness alert to his Rider Haggard, H.G. Wells, Conan Doyle. ian press, Stevenson used its attention to own practices. 'My theories m elt, m elt, Source-hunting will only explain in part inveigh against missionaries, profiteers and m elt', Stevenson avowed,' and as they m elt, this ultimate phase of Romanticism, with others kinds of European and American the thaw-waters wash clown my writing its remarkable flowering of invention and who preyed upon the people of the Pacific. and leave unicleal tracts-wastes instead of prodigality of strange story; its discovery of In Samoa he died suddenly of a cerebral cultivated forms'. correlatives in exotic lands and London haemorrhage. Prudently he had written his Stevenson's polished, relentlessly var­ streets for the flights and torments of the own epitaph: ied works are anything but 'wastes', not early modern consciousness. In the words Here he lies where he longed to be; even the last of the m , The W eir of of an acute admirer, G.K. Chesterton, Home is the sailor, home from sea, Hermiston, left unfinished at his death. To Stevenson's romance realises the ideal And the hunter home from the hill. the world he gave the classic studies of 'which is promised in its provocative and beleaguered children, Trea sure Island and beckoning map; a vision not only of white Stevenson's veritable home became Kidnapped, which once were read by young skeletons but also green palm trees and Government House until it stood once too people who cherished these stories into sapphire seas'. Stevenson wrote Treasure long in the way of a cyclone. But he lives. adult life. He revised the Arabian Nights in Island in a cottage in the Scottish Highlands, To re-read Trea sure Island is to summon two volumes of stories; after a long delay one wet September, to amuse his stepson something of the wonders and clarities of wrote Catriona, sequel to Kidnapped; Lloyd Osbourne. The book made him rich childhood. Here is a world where Blind Pew produced one of the classic horror stories in and famous; gave him the means to seek tips the black spot to Billy Bones, Israel Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (the such an island for himself. Hands climbs the mast to murder Jim absent article suggesting the sensationalis­ Notwithstanding that he had written Hawkins and pirates really do sing 'Yo-ho­ ing bent of a newspaper headline); wrote 'For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, ho and a bottle of rum'. Sandison be thanked extensive travel literature (a lthough any but to go . I travel for travel's sake. The great for bringing a great writer in a minor key exertion might have been fatal for one in his affair is to move', Stevenson settled into back within our ken. • tubercular condition), besides novels for legend in Samoa, rejoicing in the honorific which he is still renowned, such as The 'Tusitala', teller of tales, while remaining Peter Pierce is senior lecturer at the National Ma ster of Ballantrae and others now nearly sufficiently nostalgic to dress his extended Centre for Australian Studies, Monash.

44 EUREKA STREET • SEPTEMBER 1996 TH' 'An TH'" TIAR,, in particular) is especially inclined craft of acting, and the differences o veR Roger Oakley, above, Eureka Street's theatre pages have to swallow up young actors, make between stage and screen work with focused on playwrights and their them stars (or tabloid celebrities) for these very experienced Australian in Michael Gurr's Sex Diary of an Infidel. plays, theatre companies, festivals a week or a year or two and then spit players. and other organisations, as well as them out again. Mature and experi­ Julia Blake studied academic trends and developments in Austral­ enced actors are used more sparingly drama at Bristol University and then ian theatre. in this demanding medium (often trained for the stage at the Bristol But we have rarely paid any direct winning challenging guest roles or Old Vic Theatre School before going attention to the frontline troops: the ongoing secondary roles in serials, into British Rep in 1960. After mar­ actors who have the immediately as well as character parts in mini­ rying Australian actor Terry Norris, visible task of making the plays come series and some often excellent one­ she migrated to Australia in 1963. alive on the stage. off telefilms), but they are more likely Blake is proud of the fact that she has What is often not so visible is the to survive the ordeal and to achieve never had to earn money at any trade vital role played by actors in the a longer-term screen career. other than acting, but she is also difficult process of getting a play Film-and feature film more par­ deeply conscious of the luck in­ from the page to the stage. Leaving ticularly-is inclined to be even more volved. There was sufficient work aside the kinds of commercial con­ selective; it takes a pretty good and around in those days, she told me, in siderations that drive theatre com­ versatile actor to withstand the mani­ radio serials (ABC and commercial) panies great and small to employ fold pressures of working on a major and one-off dramas, and in the bur­ actors with popular screen exposure film and then to get invited back geoning TV industry (playing guest in order to get audiences into the again. The best of our actors, how­ characters in long-running police theatres- it is nonetheless of incal­ ever, seem to make the transition dramas, for example) as well as on culable value to have intelligent, from stage to small screen to big stage, for both husband and wife to dedicated, and experienced actors in screen and back again to the stage be able to work in Melbourne, bring the cast of any play, and especially a with regularity and apparent ease. up three children and lead a pretty new play. Julia Blake, Monica Maughan and normal life. Radio drama was espe­ Film and television are also vora­ Roger Oakley have each had distin­ cially useful for pregnant actresses. cious devourers of acting 'talent'. guished careers on stage and success 1988 was a memorable year for TV (and commercial TV soap opera on screen. I recently discussed the Blake, and in some ways it typified

V o LUME 6 N uMJJER 7 • EUREKA STREET 45 the way our leading actors have to diversify their focus-and to travel, in more ways than one-in order to satisfy demand. After finishing a Melbourne Theatre Company engagement early that year, in Tom Stoppard's adapta­ tion of the Ferenc Molnar farce, Rough Crossing, she went to Sydney for Neil Armfield's production for Belvoir St Theatre of Ibsen's Ghosts (to much critical acclaim), then back to Melbourne for a feature film (Gear­ gia), then back to Sydney for the multi-award-winningTV adaptation of Sumner Locke-Elliott's Edens Lost (an ABC co-production with British TV interests, also directed by Armfield whose risk-takingapproach was vital to its success) before embarking on the national tour of Rattigan's The Browning Version with Paul Eddington. Despite greatly enjoying some film work (such as the widely­ acclaimed Travelling North, Father with Max von Sydow and the more recent sequel to The Thorn Birds for Warner/CBS), Blake has a distinct preference for work on stage, particularly new Australian work. She has given luminous stage roles have included Elizabeth satisfying, he says, about playing performances in Playbox Theatre Proctor for the first MTC produc­ arseholes; it is also good to have the Centre productions of Michael tion of The Crucible and countless chance to play against type some­ Gow' sA way, Hannie Rayson's H a tel others for that company, including a times. Memorable stage roles have Sorrento and-most recently­ memorable part in Robert Hewett's included an uncle in Ayckbourn's Joanna Murray-Smith's Honour. Gulls in the late 1970s and, more Season's Greetings (his pathetic pup­ Both of the latter were premiere recently, multiple cameos in pet show being a particular highlight productions and Blake derived con­ Armfield's productions of Tony of that MTC production) and the siderable satisfaction from their Kushner's Angels in America and totally sleazy (and utterly different) success, not only for her own per- Patrick White's A Cheery Soul. In Max in Michael Gun's Sex Diary of formances but also for the both of these productions, her an Infidel. Another very satisfying writers and the company. capacity to transform in different play for Oakley was David Mamet's roles was such that hardened critics savage Glengarry Glen Ross. M ON ICA MAU GHAN BEGAN her and seasoned subscribers alike were Most recently, h e has trans­ acting career in 1957 with the old sent diving into their programmes formed yet again for the decent Union Theatre Repertory Company during the intervals to see 'who was backbench parliame ntarian, and continues it this month with its that actor playing so-and-so?'. Cameron Rickman, in Gurr's Jeru­ successor, the Melbourne Theatre She, too, has had recent success salem. The Gurr plays were both Company (MTC), in Arthur Miller's on the screen, most notably as the premieres, and their critical success The Last Yankee: (for which 'I have title character's mother in the ABC's had as much to do with the quality to learn to tap-dance', she told me­ Damnation of Harvey McHugh. But, of the acting as with any Julia Blake as ' at my age!'). In the interim, Maughan like Blake, her nominated career other production aspect. Marge, right, above, has practically done it all, from stage highlights were mainly on stage. with Elspeth to film to TV, although she con­ Roger Oakley- Maughan's part­ 0 AKLEY, HOWEVER, IS QUICK tO Ballantyne fesses to lacking confidence and the ner in Harvey McHugh-is a New deflect praise for his performances: as Hilary, in necessary craft for radio drama. ('I Zealand-born actor who has worked 'It all starts with the script', he says, Hannie Rayson's was just written into a long-running in Australia for the past nineteen with as much emphasis on the TV Hotel Sorrento, radio serial for the ABC,' she said, years, mostly in modern drama and scripts as the best stage plays he has at the Playbox, 'and then after four episodes I went often playing what he calls done. He has no preference for stage Melbourne, 1990. into a J.C. Williamson's tour'.) Her 'arseholes'. There is something or screen, but is happy to do either,

46 EUREKA STREET • SEPTEMBER 1996 I want to invest

response actors get in TV. There's no with confidence in ' . live audience, you depend so much over 70 different A. on the director and crew for response, she said, citing a Melbourne ABC e~hical cameraman, Roger McAlpine, as pro­ viding a particularly supportive inv~ents! 'audience reaction.' (Oakley agreed with this, stressing how good the You 001. invest your savings and superannuation in: Harvey McHugh crew had been.)The • Saving Habitat and Rare Species • Low Energy Technologies other problem is the lack of rehearsal, • Clean Water which all actors complain about in • Affordable Housing television. A typical3-day rehearsal • Recycling period (prior to a 4-day shoot ) can be ami earn n competitive financial return from mostly taken up with setting cam­ investing in the Australian Ethical Trusts: era angles, dealing with wardrobe • conveniently • with confidence and script adjustmentsi 'th ere's • for a competitive return barely two half-days for actual • with as little as $1,000 rehearsal.' There is one compensa­ • monthly savings plan option tion: for TV and film, you can work For full details, make a free call to 1 800 021 227. more normal, daylight hours, instead Thr Australian Ethical Trusts arr managed by Austrtdinn of the endless nights and ElhiCIII hrvrslmrnl Ud, ACN Ofl3 188 930, wlrich rvrrs weekends of stage life. rstniJUsllrd in19861o pool invrslor snvi11gs to crNdc n more fnirmtd sus f11 innh/r soc.:icty. lm'fstmctrt cmt only br mndr 011 thr npplica ti011 form bound into the lodgrd a11d rrgisltrcd A N EXAMPLE GrYEN by Julia Blake prospn: lu s dnlrd 24th Octob

VOLUME 6 NUMBER 7 • EUREKA STREET 47 cedes that of course context families, in these people. Their arguments, always affects our choices­ regrets, disappointments ... we recognise and then deftly reminds us them . that acknowledging this The acting is terrific with none better will not let us off the hook. than Blethyn. Deservedly she won Best - Ray Cassin Actress at this year's Cannes Festival. Leigh, much acclaimed for Life is Sweet and Nal

48 EUREKA STREET • SEPTEMBER 1996 for som e innocent fun. But then George portraits of five slightly bent fellas trying a few of the extraneous members of the falls in love with a single mum called Lace desperately to stunt their growth. team in the fog of a Prague night, and (Kyra Sedgwick) and the fun turns serious. -Jon Greenaway injecting the rest with a little darkness and This is a romance. No, George is dying of a distrust. This couldn't be the sam e group of brain tumour. It's a medical malpractice people that TV taught us were the ideal film. Wrong again. The tumour has liber­ DuhNAH! espionage team: highly motivated, incor­ ated George's brain from all normal con­ ruptible, patriotic government agents­ straints. The penny drops for the final time. Mission Impossible, dir. Brian De Palma country first, team second, oneself last. But It's a film about the inner self. It's about (Greater Union). it could be De Palma cinema. Or at least it's teaching kids that eating apples is impor­ There has been a lot of busy people a good start. tant so that the apple can continue its running from TV studio (and archive) to De Palma does more than just start: he journey; death is a stage in the journey. movie set in the last few years, trying to sees this piece through. His penchant for There is no real pain in living, an idea couple the popular reach of television with the crazy camera angle keeps your eyes which can be refuted by the simple fact of the blockbuster summer movie (The alive, he breathes life into computer tech­ sitting through the last hour of this arduous Flintstones, The Fugitive, The Addams nology-e-mail is an engaging central char­ film. Phenomenon could well be to New Family and many more). The results have acter-and in the film's best set-piece he Age Spirituality what The Ten Command­ been patchy at best. Inflating a television to gives Tom Cruise an opportunity to per­ m ents was to biblical fundamentalism. the size of playhouse doesn 't give you form balletic feats worthy of the Bolshoi. -Michael McGirr SJ cinema. And with the rise of product place­ -Siobhan Jackson m ent you're often not even missing out on the ads. In the race to win the TV audience I don't wanna ... with a great big Yabbadabbadoo the Telling the truth difference between the two mediums can, Kicking and Screaming dir. Noah Baumbach sadly, be forgotten. Brilliant Lies, dir. Richard Franklin (independent). Amongst the torrent of We ought to be grateful then that Brian (independent cinemas). David Williamson's twenty -some thing, life-in -a-bucket-of­ De Palma not only understands the play has been adapted by the director and chips movies that the dedicated cinema­ difference but uses it to great cinematic Peter Fitzpatrick into a fair enough sort of goer has been wading through of late, the effect. He pays his dues to the serial format film that uses flashbacks to convey differ­ odd one has managed to avoid the descent that was the original Mission Impossible ent characters' points of view about a case into banality which has claimed the others. by creating credits that give the audience of alleged sexual harassment. All the ingre­ Kicking and Screaming is one of these. glimpses of possible past or future mis­ dients are there: backlash polemic, systemic The film succeeds as a story because it sions, all choreographed to one of televi­ victimisation, undercurrents of dark sexual tackles the trivial head-on, via five disarm­ sions most familiar and infectious themes, antagonism, and yet, and yet ... ing, feckless characters: Chet, the erudite (ending on a 'Duh-NAH! no less).Then you The trouble is, despite the worthiness of sophisticate, Otis the neurotic, Max the find yourself in Kiev, in the wind-up of a the subject matter, the result never rises cynic, Skippy the try-hard, and Grover the mission: a slobby, drunken spy type-' give above your average G.P. or maybe Blue jilted lover. A group of friends, having fin­ me the name'; the coiffed waitress with Heelers standard of dramatic intensity. ished university, who aren't exactly strid­ poisoned drinks, Beauty dead on the bed, Certainly not as real or compelling as ing out into the great wide world to carry all and rubber masks. Mercury or Phoenix: the television com­ before them. Hamstrung by their It's TV magic, cinema kitsch-De Palma parisons keep cropping up because some­ idiosyncracies, they spend an entire year paying homage. how this work just isn't big enough for the doing absolutely nothing, yet somehow He is often criticised for his clever but big screen, and the direction keeps remind­ managing to get themselves into the stuff imitative style, which makes his choice of ing one of a TV series-the slight cosiness of life: love, rejection, and betrayal. When Mission Impossible an interesting one. of it all, the fact that, with the exception of these greater moments arrive, Baumbach Certainly it isn't original material, but one Anthony La Paglia, who has a very compel­ ensures that they are well disgui ed by the can't help feeling that De Palma delights in ling screen presence, the actors seem to commonplace. The effect is not unlike the challenge of making this beast his own. recite their lines. Raymond Carver doing comedy. There are First he does a little house-keeping, losing The script doesn't help this. It hasn't no jokes in this movie, but it is very, very eradicated Williamson's tendency to make funny. his characters speechify rather than peak. At the centre of Kicking and Screaming Counselling Michael Veitch, so good as Rocco in Mer­ are the memories Grover has of his time cury, is wasted h ere-only given flashes of with Jane. She left him to go to Prague, and, If you or someone you know real characterisation; the rest of the time he by his way of thinking, turn into a bug and could benefit from professional has to be a cardboard buffoon. The Carides complain about American coffee. His writ­ counselling, please phone sisters, Zoe and Cia, occasionally warm up ing, mixed with the re-creation of their and interact with Ray Barrett, who hams it courtship, colours the world around him. Martin Prescott, BSW, MSW, up disgracefully as their wheezing wreck of The only real disappointment of this film is MAASW. Individuals, couples a father, but there ain't no poetry in it, that it doesn't really go anywhere during and families catered for: damn it. these sequences, and overall the effect would Maybe the problem is that Rashomon have been improved without them. At the Bentleigh (03) 9557 2595 did it all so much better. end, though, we still have the whimsical -Juliette Hughes

VOLUME 6 NUM BER 7 • EUREKA STREET 49 •

WATCHING BRIEF Americavision

I couNT IT ' Hmke of ,.,1 Cra zy Horse project, (where numerous offspring of a dead im­ luck that I was hom e for the migrant Polish sculptor carry on his life's project, busily blast­ best episode yet of Th e ing a m ountain twenty miles from Mt Rushmore into 'an Art Simpsons. Deco paperweight the size of a small Alp') is som ehow genial, The evil genius, Sideshow benign . They're working so damned hard after all, even if the Bob, escaped from jail and held aesthetic result is in the sam e street as those Franklin Mint the archetypal American town decorative plates. of Springfield to ransom , using a stolen atom bomb from the His regret over the loss of the natural mountain to kitsch loosely guarded stockpile. All television was to stop; all sta­ is part of an important thread running through Hughes' thesis: tions were to shut down, and yes, he was fully aware of the the importance of our links with the natural world. The early irony inherent in giving such orders using the detested m edi­ episodes of the series deal with the way that Americans saw um. Of course he was defeated- but by his own weakness, hav­ the incredible abundance of the place, its spiritual significance ing been unable to resist the cute retro look of a '50s vintage and the way this translated into art that held som ewhere a bomb that failed to detonate at the cru- narrative of hope-the artist as 'God's cia! moment. The clever humour, the stenographer'. allusions to Dr Strangelove and various I was intrigued then, that he did not Hitchcocks, made this a joy. ' consider Barbara Kruger's work on the The Simpsons is full of the healthy American flag, particularly since h e self-mockery one associates with the showed Frederick Church's famous Civil best of British television. Sideshow Bob War painting 'Our Banner in the Sky', is a brilliant creation- the burned-out, with its clear evocation of patriotism as marginalised American intellectual­ fi xed, literally, in the stars, a m anifest literally the cultural terrorist. H e has destiny indeed. But perhaps she comes been embittered by having to work as under his disapproval as one w ho seeks the sidekick to Krusty the Clown, wild­ inspiration from the m edia rather than ly successful presenter of violent car­ fro m nature: Susan Rothenberg's horses toons and vulgar commercialism. get far longer shrift than Jeff Koons' kit­ There are resonan ces here­ ten. The contempt in Hughes' voice is consider the real sideshow in American barely contained as h e qu es tions the 'high' culture: the PBS poor relation that, sm army Koons about the 'spirituality' of underfunded and cast out to fend for itself ever since Reagan, his giant plaster kitten-in-a-sock. Koons replies that he is go­ still informs and challenges the American viewer though pro­ ing to beef up the spirituality by giving the image long Ba mbi­ grams like American Visions, Robert Hughes' tour de force of like eyelashes. 'Very spiritual, Bambi, yes ... ' says Hughes, and Am erican history-as-seen through things made by m en and for a moment I though t he might hit Koons. I was reminded of wom en (seen first, in fact, on ABC television ). Micawber confronting Uriah Heep: truculent quixotry versus I Hughes fulfils the m os t important criterion of good criti­ sleek confidence trickery. cism : he shows us how to enj oy good things more deeply and Hughes pulls fe w punches about this sort of thing: the '80s, understand them better, even if we do not always agree with he says, produced some 'low, dishonest' work. T he triumphant, all his judgm ents. The 'visions' under his consideration are slightly incredulous laugh of the auctioneer, as som e rich phil­ mainly the handiwork of Americans, their architecture, paint­ istine wins Andy Warhol's fl ea-market collection of cookie jars ing and sculpture, and the thinking behind them. for $21 ,000, reminds us that this is the country where the sucker If that limits his scope by excluding consideration of the is never given an even break. If he is a little curmudgeonly about impact of cinem a and television, we don't often feel the gap; Warhol et al, you can 't help respecting his implicit demand the richness he off ers is so satisfying, so frequently deligh tful that craft and aesthetic must be able to carry the weight of the and fascinating. Hughes goes one further than Sideshow Bob: idea. Postmodern etiolation angers him. In his conclusion to he uses television as his m ere tool withou t bothering to con­ the series he sees 'inventiveness and that sense of possibility tend with its grip on the perceptions of most other people. flagging badly'. The final episode, 'The Age of Anxiety', isn't That other expatriate commentator, Clive James, knows the quite a jeremiad though: he m ourns the loss of American art's power of the m edium, and continually exposes its ploys and 'plain em pirical speech and spiritual hopes' but then quotes pretensions. But som ehow I feel safer with Hughes. H e is a Scarlet t O 'Hara's ' tom orrow is another da y. ' There is an wonderful aphorist, in a heavier vein than Jam es' but he is anticipatory gleam in his eye as he seems to visualise some also a strong moralist who va lues honest effort and has a parousial new broom . Righ t on, I say. • fan tas tic eye. When he lends it to you, you see things in a light that is harsh yet magnanimous. His disapproval of the Juliette Hughes is a freelance writer and reviewer.

50 EUREKA STREET • S EPTEMBER 1996 Eureka Street Cryptic Crossword no. 46, September 1996

Devised by Joan Nowotny IBVM

ACROSS 4. Poor Claude's course, just beginning, has come to a dead end. (3-2-3) 8. The scent wafting round near the front of the hospital is malodorous. (6) 9. Returned later, but included refutation. (8) 10. Reproving teacher? (8) 11. Journalist, at the end, returned dead happy! (6) 12. The camp I organised, I insisted, was important. (8) 13. As the result of a prudent U-turn in policy, fortunes were on the rise. (8) 16. That was some catch! A US fraudster disguised as a woman at home in Germany ... (8) 19 . ... Was she the lady of the house or the schoolteacher? (8) 21. A season bound to bring new promise. (6) 23. When upset, I eat mint in private. (8) 24. The doctor found traces of diseased tissue-hence this prognosis. (8) 25. Go back afterwards, round north, to make payment for accommodation. (6) 26. Make a recording of the badger in its burrow, in case you are asked for the tape. (8) Solution to Crossword no. 45, July/August 1996 DOWN 1. Some unusual masters in the world of 7 -down prefer their classes di­ vided according to ability. (7) 2. Judges out east are chasteners of those who grab bags from old ladies, for example. (9) 3. Strong desire to remember worst rhyme first! (6) 4. Having a spine with a peculiar mulic curvature, I thought I'd better take my educational history to the job interview. (10,5) 5. Free French to include top tenor in opera script. (8) 6. Run over? (5) 7. Ace made different play in the olive grove of ... (cf. Paradise Regained Bk iv). (7) 14. Salesman on edge and getting a rebuke. (9) 15. Unlike 7-across, father has a gift with a sweet and pleasant smell. (8) 17. Subtle aroma, pH level ascertained, emanating from ancient Greek vase. (7) 18. Off the right track about the beginning of Havana cigars? Put the butts in this con tainer. (7) 20. Took examination on anger as a form of irony. (6) 22. Creepy crawly mites are miserable things. (5)

Please send two free copies of Eureka Street to: Na1ne ...... Address ......

...... Postcode ...... My name is ...... Address ...... Postcode ...... Tel ...... & Penguin Special book Offer Pocket Jokes edited by Phillip Adams & Patrice Newell

A selection of tasty (and not so tasty) offerings, many from Australia's leading personalities and infam ous wits. Moses, psychiatrists, and Stalin cop it in this one. One lucky reader could also clean up a $500 reward if h e or sh e manages to track down any joke in existence proffered by Malcolm Fraser.

Thanks to Penguin, we have ten copies of one of the funniest contributions of the year to give away, each worth $5.95. Just put your name and address on the back of an envelope and mark it 'Eureka Street September Book Offer'. Send your entry to Eureka Street, PO Box 553, Richmond, 3121.

Via Eureka Via Veneto, Via Sistina, Via Condotti. Your chance to visit all those fa mous streets, and more in Eureka Street's Win-Win competition 1996.

The winner in the inaugural Eureka Street Win-Win raffle is to be flown to Italy with a partner next year, to visit Roma, Firenze and Venezia. On us and CITWorldTravel.

In addition to the major prize there will be: • $800 worth of interstate travel by plane or train • a colour television set • a choice of mobile phones Look for tickets and more information in your October issue of Eureka Street. But if you can't wait that long, call the office now on {03} 9427 7311 and we'll see if we can get you on the road earlier.