Vol. 5 No. 7 September 1995 $5.00

Facing change Alan Nichols on the future of democracy in Burma Rowan Callick, James Griffin and Michael Zahara on twenty years of independence in Papua New Guinea Fred Chaney on leaving the WA Liberals

Big books for Spring with Gerard Windsor, Margaret Coffey, Max Teichmann, Keith Campbell, Paul Coltins, lan Bell and Paul Tankard The Change In younger, idler days he used to wonder What had become of all that he had learned. Sane as the next man, he'd been prompt to forget Most of it out of hand. To polish and marshal Minutiae, like an idiot savant, Was never his gift, his calling. The craquelure Close to the door-jamb, the mirror-flash as a meat-van Hugged a roundabout, the solitaire Au bade of a sparrow trying out the day- They were dismissed to the nothing from which they came.

It was the same with those other invaders, the books. Turning the pages as if unleaving a forest, He gave them away, apart from oddments and offcuts: The nickname of Albert the Great, Hobbes with his picture Of laughter as martial, Cleopatra calling for billiards. As he got older, his question displayed the answer Knotted within it: all that he'd ever learned, Favoured or exiled, was turning into fear- Not of the kind that insight can bring to heel, But the shear of the ice-wall meeting the unplumbed ocean.

Peter Steele

2 EUREKA STREET • SEPTEMBER 1995 Volume 5 Number 7 September 1995 A magazine of public affairs, the arts and theology

CoNTENTS

2 29 POETRY THE DEVIL'S ERA Th e Change, by Peter Steele. Twenty years after his death, Eam on De Valera is rem embered by Frank O'Shea. 4 COMMENT 30 BOOKS 7 Gerard Windsor takes issue with T erry VIEWPOINT Eagleton's Heathcliff and the Great Fred Chaney explains what made him Hunger: Studies in Irish Culture; Mar­ jum.p. Muriel Porter looks at two sides of garet Coffey reviews David Fitzpatrick's deliberations at the Anglican Synod (p8). Oceans of Consolation: Personal A ccounts of h ish Migration to Austral­ 9 ia, and Andrew Hassam 's Sailing to CAPITAL LETTER Australia: Shipboard Diaries by Nine­ teenth Century British Emigrants (p33}; 10 Max Teichmann look's at Eric LETTERS Hobsbawm 's A ge of Extrem es, The Shmt Twentieth Century, 1914-1991 12 (p34}; Ian Bell assesses The State We're FREE FOR ONE, NOT FOR ALL In, by Will Hutton (p36); Keith Camp­ Alan Nichols investigates the new state bell argues with Frank Tipler's Th e Get a lift of affairs in Burma. Physics of Immortality , Modern Cosmology, God and the Resurrection throughout Spting 15 of the Dead (p 38} ; Paul Collins reviews A FRAGILE INDEPENDENCE Bruce Kaye's A Church Without Walls. with the season's Rowan Callick, Jam es Griffin and Being Anglican in Australia (p42); Paul Michael Zahara survey the past and Tankard looks at the revival of the essay big books. future of independence in Papua N ew form in three new Australian collec­ See pp30-44 Guinea. tions (p43). 21 45 FOOTBRAWL THEATRE It's every which way for Rugby Leagu e, In Queensland, Geoffrey Milne reviews Cover: and other m arvels. Released Burmese democracy reports Mike Ticher; David N adel Miss Bosnia leader, Aung Sa ng Suu Kyi, and reviews two histories of the AFL (p23) . Sir Michael Somare, first Prime 47 Minister o[ Papua New Guinea. 24 FLASH IN THE PAN Graphic by Liz Dixon. Graphics ppl2, 13, 15-20 by LEUNIG DRAWS A CURLY ONE Reviews of the films: Vanya on 42nd Li z Di xon Moira Rayn er reads th e funeral oration for Street, Apollo 13, Mina Tannenbaum, Cartoons pp3, 5, 6, 10, 38-40, 42, politi cal correctness. Window to Paris, On Our Selection, 48 by Peter Fraser. Anne Fwnl< Rem embered and Burnt by 25 the Sun. ARCHIMEDES Eurelw Street magazin e 50 Jesui t Publications 26 WATCHING BRIEF PO Box 553 FED UP EIREANN Richmond VIC 3 12 1 Tel (03 )9427 73 11 Paul Ormond recalls the fraught history 51 Fax (03 )9428 4450 of the Irish famine. SPECIFIC LEVITY

VOLUME 5 N UMBER 7 • EUREKA STREET 3 EUREKA StREEt C OMMENT A magazine of public affairs, the arts A NDREW HAMILTON SJ and theology Publisher Michael H. Kell y SJ Editor A different boat Morag Fraser Consulting editor Michael McGirr SJ N A <>Nccc o" tN )u", two stotie' •bout "'ylum Editorial assistant: Jon Greenaway 0 seekers made headlines. They sh owed the good and the bad Produ ction assistants: J. Ben Boonen CFC, faces of Australian attitudes to refugees. Paul Fyfe SJ, Juliette Hughes, The first story described how the D epartment of Immi­ Catriona Jackson, C hris Jenkins SJ, gration had freed from detention 18 East Timorese asylum Paul Ormonde, Tim Stoney seekers. The second story reported a speech by Alastair Nicholson of the Family Court, who trenchantly criticised Contributing editors the Australian policy of detaining the children of asylum Adelaide: Greg O'Kelly SJ seek ers. H e reportedly compared the remote detention Brisbane: Ian Howells SJ Perth: Dean Moore cen tres in Western Australia to concentration camps. Sydney: Ed mund Campion, Andrew Ri emer, The freeing of the East Timorese refl ected Australian Gerard Windsor policy towards refugees, the Department of Immigration and Europea n correspondent: Damien Simonis the Government in the most favourable light. After they had US correspondent: Thomas H. Stahel SJ arrived in Australia by boat, their representatives claimed they had been tortured, and asked that they be released from Editorial board detention because of the risk to their mental health. Peter L'Estrange SJ (chair), T he claims and request w ere investigated by the Margaret Coady, Margaret Coff ey, Department of Immigration, which judged that the welfare Valda M. Ward RSM, Trevor Hales, of the asylum seekers would be best served by their release Marie Joyce, Kevin McDonald, into the community while their claim for refugee status was Jane Kelly IBVM, being heard. Peter Steele SJ, Bill Uren SJ The decision to release the East Timorese was strongly Business manager: Sylvana Sca nnapicgo attacked by the Indon esian Government, because it seem ed Advertising representative: Tim Stoney to support the claim of torture. The Indonesians also argued that they sh ould not be given refugee status. In response the Patrons D epartment of Foreign Affairs made it clear that the decision Eurelw Street gratefully acknowledges the support of Colin and Angela Carter; the to free the East Timorese from detention had been made on trustees of the estate of Miss M. Condon; humanitarian grounds without reference to the Department. A.J. Costello; Denis Cullity AO; Furthermore, Senator Evans insisted that the decision on W. P. & M.W. Gurry; Geoff Hill and refugee status would be made independently of the D epart­ Janine Perrett; the Roche family. m ent. Thus, the treatment of the East Timorese asylum seekers Eureka Street magazine, ISSN I 036-1758, was governed by th e conviction that their human dignity Australia Post Print Post approved could be respected adequately only by release from detention. pp34918 1/003 14 The priority of their dignity over more abstract Australian is published ten times a yea r interests was maintained unequivocall y in the procedures by Eureka Street Magazine Pty Ltd, which led to their release, and in the fa ce of the opposition 300 Victoria Street, Richmond, Victoria 3 12 1 of a powerful neighbour. T his was Australian refugee policy Tel: 03 9427 73 11 Fa x: 03 9428 4450 and its administration at their most heartening. Responsi bi li ty for cdi tori a I content is accepted by The criticism by Alastair Nicholson, on the other hand, Mi chael Kell y, 300 Victori a Street, Richmond. drew attention yet again to an Australian practice which Printed by Doran Printing, dem eans huma n dignity. Although the government has 46 Industri al Drive, Braeside VTC 3 195. remained obdurate i n maintaining detention, it is so © jesuit Publications 1993 damaging a practice that it will inevitably attract criticism Unsolicited manuscripts, includi ng poetry and from representatives of bodies like Amnesty, civil rights fiction, wi ll he returned onl y if accompan ied by a groups and family courts, which deal daily with other viola­ stam ped, self-a ddressed envelope. Requests for tions of human rights. Only those w ho administer it from a permissio n to reprint mate ri al from the magazine distance fail to recognise its evil. should be addressed in writing to: While the nature and effects of detention were well The edi tor, Eurel

4 EUREKA STREET • SEPTEMBER 1995 that Australian deten tion cen tres are run like con­ The easy assumption that the sole criteria gov­ centration camps. Although the eff ects of deten tion erning the treatm ent of asylum seekers and other are exacerbated by the remoteness of Western Aus­ minority groups should be Australian interests and tralia, the regime and physical facilities of deten tion public opinion is of concern. For it m eans that groups centres are generally reasonable. Moreover, within the which do not enj oy support or influence in the com­ limits of their primary responsibility to ensure that munity can be deprived of proper protection. The the inmates do not escape, the officers are mostly 1m­ treatment of the Cambodian boat people dem onstrat­ Inane. ed that. More recently, the Government has decided The real evil of detention lies in the fact that to prevent Chinese wom en from seeking refugee sta­ vulnerable and innocent people are deprived of their tus on the grounds that they were persecuted under liberty. Some, like victims of recent torture, and the Chin ese one-child policy. This decision which children, suffer noticeably. All are diminished.The declares the dignity of the women to be irrelevant, is experience of detention is shared by most asylum inspired solely by the fear that Australia m ight face a seekers. They arrive in Australia, hoping that their considerable number of applications for refugee status. journey's end has brought them to a nation where The belief that Australian interests and public human dignity counts. Those with out correct opinion should solely control Australian policy, would documentation are placed in detention. undermine the virtues of Australian administration, Many becom e disillusioned with Australia. displayed in the treatment of the East Timorese. The decision to release them into the 'IEIR EAR LY WEEKS OF DETENTION, however, are not community w as t aken after con - ' (:; · ~t orflve purposeless. They fill in forms, m eet lawyers, and are sultation and investigation into ~OU a.r~. J ,v~~"te ·· · interviewed by officials. But as they wait, sometimes their physical and mental con- or- a. ~(; m onths, for a response to their application for refugee cliti on . Broader political es oPt~ ~ status and then again for the result of their appeal, considerations were not l.e 1J.--..J 1 ~G \ the lack of activity, initiative and m ental stimulation canvassed. Similarly, nl.eet . Fn? work upon them. Without daily distraction, they their application for 16r- easily fall victim to their m em ories and their fears, refugee st atus will be ( \\ n and becom e preoccupied with sm all illnesses and judged by the crite- (((( L(f> ~'--.- anxieties. Because in all societies, imprisonment is ria established in punishment fo r wrong-doers, they may be beset by th e international irrational guilts or by anger against the community conventions, with- ~ which imprisoned them without cause and without out decisive input trial. This experience of detention diminishes asylum by the Department seekers, and makes them less able to live creatively of Foreign Affairs. ~ in the Australian community if they are granted Any appeal w ill be refugee status. D etention is the bad face of the adjudicat ed by a Australian attitude to asylum seekers. tribunal independent of Finally, the response t o Justice N icholson 's the government. Together, these m easures guarantee speech and to the freeing of the East Timorese shows that the human dignity of the asylum seekers will be that in Australia proper respect for human dignity protected from the pressures of politica l or in terna- remains precarious. Som e of the judge's critics m erely tional expediency. showed ignorance of the effects of detention, arguing This regime, however, is threatened by th e that it did not infringe on human dignity. But others assumptions that decisions should respect only public claimed in effect that it was a m erited punishment opinion and Australian interests. If it shares this view, fo r queue jumping, and that it needed to be made harsh the executive will naturally believe that it has the in order to deter others. From such a perspective, the right to legislate and regulate freely without regards humanity of the asylum seekers is irrelevant. to moral considerations or to previous law. And judges The reaction to the freeing of the East Timorese will com e under pressure t o endorse what is was m ore complex. M ost commentat ors drew convenient to the executive. Moral considerations of attention to the eff ect that the decision would have human dignity and justice then become irrelevant. on relation s w ith Indonesia and on Aus tralian The history, theory and practice of detaining interests in the region. But they recognised equally asylum seekers endorses this pessimistic view of the the widespread Australian antipathy to the Indonesian political process. The freeing of the East Timorese, administra tion of East Timor. however, encourages a more liberal and consoling The decision to free the asylum seekers was there­ view of the health and of the fu ture of Australian fore seen implicitly to be in line with Australian opin­ political institutions. ion. In the evaluation of the decision, the condition and the needs of the East Timorese them selves were Andrew Hamilton SJ teaches at the United Faculty not seen to be of great relevance. of Theology at Parkville, Victoria.

V O LUM E 5 N UMilER 7 • EU REKA STREET 5 COMMENT: 2

CJ-IRIS M CCILLION A blind eye to Bosnia

CARES1' ASKED A RE­ to remain unmoved by the outcome. the limit of our statesmanship. In CENT newspaper headline above a Serb militias may be guilty of the face of reality we persist with photograph of a busload of refugees 'aggression' or 'genocide' (these are this approach beca use we believe fl eeing the Bosnian town of Zcpa. the terms used by the United Na­ that all judgments arc relative and T he question ecmed to sum up the tions and the International Court of that there

6 EUREKA STREET • SEPTEMilER 1995 VIEWPOINT: l

F RED CHANEY Faction as usual T,,o ,uNc woe m•y be" good Howard or hi s electorate's support precluded it. a way as any to explain both my for him. His refusal to bend the knee Members of the party are consti­ leaving of the Liberal Party of West­ to the faction was the justification tutionally barred from supporting ern Australia in August 1995 and my for the execution. How clare he put non-party candidates. That is a staying a member of it since it start­ his obliga tion to the party or the sensible enough rule for a political ed to slide twenty years ago-about electorate before factional interest' party and to escape that rule you half way through my period of mem­ Sometimes what is needed is a must lea ve the party. bership. simple choice, and Paul gave m e David Honey, the party's State You know the story. Put a frog that. Would I assist his campaign as President, helped too. His demand into cold water and slowly hea t it an independent Liberal? There was for silence from all party members up. The gradualness of the process every reason to support him but one: after his narrow win over Reg With­ prevents the frog from being alarmed m y m e mbe rs hip of the party ers at the State Conference was an so it stays there until it cooks. In impossible request, as I beli eved contrast, if you drop a frog into that in many areas the process of really hot water it will jump out. the party had been co rrupted to What has been happening factional advantage. Silence in sin ce the richton-Browne such circumstances is complicity. fa ctionalisation of the party be­ Internal differences are a neccs- gan in the mid 1970s has been a sary feature of a democratic par­ gradual ea ting away of essential ty. Keeping such differences out elements of the Liberal Party­ of view may be sensible, given a 'Menzies' child'- in m y state. It media desperate for signs of disa­ was mea nt by Menzies to be 'in greement as a sign of disarray. no way conservative,' but rather But this goes beyond diversity of an inclusive party for middle views to integrity of process and Australia. Tolerance, fair dealing institution. and trust, based on a common In any other state of Australia purpose, were key characteris­ I would still be a member of the tics of the party I joined in 1958 . Liberal Party. In seats within Since 1976 they have been in Western Australia, like Pearce, process of becoming a thing of Stirling and Tangney, I would the past. Branch stacking, ruth­ vote for Liberal ca ndidates and less number crun chin g and will support them. But I won't by driving out of good community­ my presence add to the pretence, minded m embers- even people voiced by apologists for the Party, who had held senior office in that there arc no problems in the Liberal governments-becam e Party beyond crude language par for the course. What has been directed at a journalist. It is much Like the frog, I allowed the grad­ more serious than that.Until the ualness of the process to disguise its happening since the party shows that in substance it has fundamental danger. I even stayed changed beyond the panic reaction aboard as I thought through the Grieb ton-Browne to get rid of Crichton-Browne in the implications for good government of fa ce of un acceptable public opinion, the gradual and inevitable transla­ factionalisation of the I can't go back. Until C richton­ tion of party dirty deeds into the Browne faction beneficiaries in the processes of go vernment itself. party began in the 1nid seats of Moore and Curtin are The party's failure to endorse Paul replaced by the MPs they displaced, Filing, the sitting Liberal m ember 1970s has been a and until the State Parliament's for Moore, was the shock I needed to independent Liberals are invited make me leap. Paul, the red-headed, gradual eating away of back, the public, like m e, is enti­ conservative, pugnacious Liberal, is tled to believe that it is faction as in many res pects a quintessential essential ele1nents of usual in the Western Australian western Liberal of the old tamp. Liberal Party. • There is no doubt about his honesty the Liberal Party (Peter Walsh: 'h e was an honest cop', Fred Chaney is a former Leader of said with surprise) or his direction. in my state. the Opposition in the Senate and No doubt about his support for John Liberal Minister.

V OLUME 5 NUMBER 7 • EUREKA STREET 7 ViEWPOINT

M uRIEL P oRTER Peace with honour, unfortunately

NEW AUSTRA LI A prayer well as in the family, that these same brief skirmish over an Aboriginal boo k, passed by the Anglica n Sydney conservatives used for years 'Thanksgiving for Australia'. The Church's General Sy nod when it met in th e ir a tte mpts t o sto p th e prayer, hauntingly beautiful, and recently in Melbourne, erupted into ordination of women . The same gen erou s in i ts e mbrace of all th e secular m e dia ov er two argument prevents their ordaining Australians, was written by Lenore seemingly minor issues. women as priests in Aus tralia's Parker, an Aboriginal woman from The most controversial was the largest diocese, and prevented their northern NSW wh o serves on the change to the bride's vow in one of formal recognition of the episcopa l na tion a l Angli ca n Wo m e n ' s the two forms of marriage provided o rd ers of Penny Jamieson, Bishop of Commission . Tha t commission in the new book, ca ll ed A Prayer Dunedin, N ew Zealand, when she submitted the prayerto the Liturgical Book fo r A ustralia. Conservative visited Sydney recently. Commission, only to see it turn up Sydn ey m e mbe rs s u ccessfull y And yet, the synod passed the in the draft prayer book somewh at moved an amendment requiring the am endment by a com fo rtable major­ ' edited'. Specifica ll y Aborigin a l bride to vow to 'love, cherish and ity. It seem ed so small a m atter, so terms such as 'Grea t Creator Spiri t' honour' her husband. H er husband, unimpo rtant. After all, there is the had disappeared in favo ur of 'Holy however, will sim ply have to vow to other, contemporary, marriage ser­ Spirit' . ' Mother earth' had been ' love and to cherish' her. vice which will be used in m ost parts deleted in favour of 'this earth'. T he It seem ed such a simple matter, of the country. Surely allowing this pra yer had lost its integrit y, its defended later as off ering 'freedom 'fr eedom of choice' could not hurt? authe ntic lin king of Christia n of choice'. Conservati ve coupl es who But it does hurt man y of the tradition and Aboriginal spirituality. wa nted a conse rva ti ve service could wom en members of the General Lenore and her Aboriginal brothers be accommodated, but others wou lei Synod, fo r a start. Ju st 3 7 of them, and sisters protested. rem ain entirely free to choose the out of 225, and only six of them T h e Wo m e n ' s Commission, more contemporary second form of ordained women. (There were more however, fo ught to have it restored marriage with its equal vo ws, the bishops than women present at the in its o ri gin a l form , a n d t h e arg ument went. synod. ) The numbers, in a church opposition was surprisingly muted. What the Sy dney fundamental­ where women make up at least 60 Such op position as there was, seemed ists rea ll y wanted the bride to vow per cent of loca l congrega tions, say it to centre around 'Mother Ea rth'. T his was obedience- subjection- to her all. Wom en arc still the 'oppressed is not part of Christia n tradition, husband. But the proponents of the majority' among Angli cans. some maintained, and might even c ha n ge kn ew th ey wo uld ge t And it hurts because this is not be 'new ageist'. 'Mother', in the nowhere with the word 'obey', not m ere ly permiss io n for a m ore religious context, has always been a in 1995. N ot even in a compromise conserv ative form of liturgy. If this difficult word for conserv- gesture t o get the prayer book were no more than a nuance of style, ativc Angli ca ns. through the synod. So, the ambigu­ designed for the bride who wants a ous and seemingly in offensive word wedding service like her mother's, EUT THE ORI GINA L PRAYER WaS, in 'honour' was chosen, and the synod then there would be no problem. But the end, wa r m I y accepted, an d accepted it, for the sa ke of the w hole this differentiation in the marriage Aboriginal bi shop, Arthur Malcolm, book. (General Sy nods require three­ vow strikes at the heart of the declared the new prayer boo k now quarter majorities in each of the three Christian understanding of male/ acceptabl e to 'blackfellas'. A small houses- bishops, clergy, laity- to female relationships. step, but an important one, that may pass important matters like prayer It m.ean s that, in an Anglican come to be seen as the moment when books and women priests.) formulary, women are still depicted the Anglican hurch recognised It was, however, a high price for as subordinate to men. It is a back­ Aboriginal spirituality at last. the synod to pay. For what the con­ ward move, and a painful one, even So, one step fo rward, one step scrva ti ves from Sydney wanted to if it is only actuall y put into practice back. That was the story of the Gen­ e mphasise on ce m ore was the in marriage cerem onies in a minority eral Synod once m ore, a depressingly ' headship' of men. In this case, in of parishes. familiar pattern in Anglicanism . T he the family, a woman must recognise The press made much of the con­ church with the genius for compro­ headship by 'honouring' her husband troversy, though church leaders com­ mise, oft en touted as a model for a in a way not required of him in plained that the issue has been scn­ future unified church, sometimes return. So true mutuality in marriage sa tionalised andmis- reportcd. The comprornises once too often. • is denied; the woman is subordinate. press in fa ct understood that this It was the claim of the hea dship 'minor' move c mpromised a prayer Muriel Port er, a Melbourne jour­ argument, which contends that there book designed to meet con temporary nalist and academic, is a member of is a God-giv en absolute authority of Australian spiritual needs. the General Synod and its Standing men over wo men in the church as The other ' minor' matter was the Committee.

8 EUREKA STREET • SEPTEMBER 1995 Going West

L woRST TillNGS HAPPEN when ' party has been out of so tight that even when those who have been beholden to power for a long time. It is then in no position to distribute him have realised what a liability he now is, they have found those spoils which are so essential to the Australian party it very difficult to break loose. system. It becomes difficult to attract new blood and new Those pitched against him have played as dirty as ever ideas, because people ration their energy and idealism for he has. Disgusting as his wife-bashing was, those who leaked things that seem possible. The rumps that remain fight each the files were almost as reprehensible and have certainly other, whether over tiny points of ideology or over the blame done battered wives a disservice. [Now, if being the subject for the past debacles, so that no sane person would want to of an order is to be a public matter, those to be made the join them. The cycle stops only when power seems attaina­ subject of them have a right to have the facts determined ble again, usually because of the incompetent administra­ before orders are made, something likely to increase, not tion of the party which is in power. reduce, any scope for compromise or changed behaviour.] At the state level in Victoria, the Byzantine intrigues The impact of the leak was really minimal in his faction of the left factions of Labor, which played a major role in but the damage to the wider party, particularly outside West­ the collapse of Labor Government in that state, continue to ern Australia, was obvious. The pressure on John Howard render that party virtually unelectable-whatever other to act and to be seen to m.oderate the brawls was also a fac­ incentives the Premier, Jeff Kennett, might throw the elec­ tor, though Howard's own realistic tmwillingness to engage torate's way. in acts of valour actually likely to bring him into contact The other thing which can break the cycle, of course, is with the enemy meant little had to be done. a session of good old-fashioned bloodletting, a catharsis At first the push failed, though the closeness of the num­ which sets the basis for a rebirth. In Queensland, for exam­ hers emboldened some who would once never have dared ple, electors are prepared to believe that the local Nationals to stray. It was the arrogance of Crichton-Browne in victory­ have reformed themselves after the Dark Ages of Job; in NSW and his sexual coarseness (which shocked a puritan constit­ a pragmatic Labor had noticeably learnt some lessons from uency untroubled by mere wife-beating)-which finally its last spell in power. showed he had to go. Purging his influence will take a gen­ In Western Australia, by contrast, politicians have rarely eration-even with a willingness on the part of those who learned anything from their rejections by the electorate. But have now seized the reins and who would frankly prefer to they seem to be able to get re-elected in due course because reopen for trading on the same terms as before. I the other side, usually just as bad, forfeits the confidence of would not bury him yet. the voters. The ALP of Western Australia is still fundamen­ tally the party of Brian Burke, and is still engaged in a pro­ BUT THE PROBLEM IS NOW, probably, sufficiently neutral­ cess of punishing those (including Carmen Lawrence) who ised that it does not by itself stand in the way of a victory by were 'disloyal' to him. The party's institutions are as Howard. But Howard must know by now that unless he can corruptible as ever and it has never conducted any inquest broaden the party in Western Australia, this lot will cause into how its own structures debauched the state. him even more trouble in government. Which does not mean that one would cede much moral But if members of his own side are doing their best to authority to the other side. The Liberals are in power there keep him from the Lodge, he can at least be grateful that because the luck of the other side finally ran out. Until it Carmen Lawrence, from the other, is breaking her neck for did, the Liberal Party, deprived of the spoils, was preoccu­ him. It takes a rare political talent to turn an inept and gmbby pied with bickering, turning off potential supporters, and exercise in smearing, in which one was not principally in­ being corrupted itself by the cmmbs from the Burke table. volved-a misdemeanour, but not a hanging offence-into It would not be entirely fair to say that Noel Crichton­ high farce. First she spends hundreds of thousands of Browne and his faction were motivated primarily by right­ taxpayers' dollars defending, and yet still leaves herself open wing politics. On most issues, in fact, they have been fairly "to having her word flatly contradicted by some of her own pragmatic. The only policy principles that have united them former colleagues and staffers. Throw in some of her have been abhorrence of Aboriginal aspirations and detesta­ psychologising about her tormentors, and not a few will ask tion of small'l' liberals, such as Fred Chaney, or even con­ whether questions about her behaviour and grasp of reality servatives, such as Ian Viner, who have preached doctrines come into the balance too. of tolerance. One of the things which helped make the Her fate is not, as she would suggest, predestined by a faction so strong was its organising, under the patronage of media which lets women rise only to dash them. If ever there Sir Charles Court, to prevent any move by Fred Chaney to was conscious image-making inviting a second look, it was the House of Representatives in the 1980s. by her. Indeed, there have been few politicians of her rank Like Graham Richardson and others who have control­ who have endured less scrutiny-even now. • led the machines, Crichton-Browne has enjoyed his reputa­ tion as a puller of strings. And his strings have been pulled Jack Waterford is editor of the Canbena Times.

VoLUME 5 NUMBER 7 • EUREKA STREET 9 Letters

Dividing the Eureka S treet welcomes letters As 1 do with all the others. from its readers. Short letters are 'I don't ca re' he says. goods more likely to be published, and 'I'm an alcoholic-but I just don 't From Race Mathews all letters may be edited. Letters care'. Les Lewis loves m e. It is possible to take a less benign view m ust be signed, and should .in­ of the ro le of Mr Santamaria in the Upon reflection 1 realise clude a contact phone number and m a rginalis ing o f dis tributis m and Les Lewis loves m e. Catholic social doctrine in Australian the writer's name and address. Les Lewis is God. politica l life than is expressed by Peter John Allen Hunt,( letter Eurek a Street August '95) Mercwcther Heights, N SW while at the sa m e time agreeing with Mr Hunt that it is time to pi ck up the The right note pieces. What seem s cl ea r is that the evolved di stributism exemplified by From Ma slyn Williams the Mondragon Co-operative Corpora­ I enj oyed Anne O'Bri en's Lifting the lid tion in Spain has a great deal to offer (Eurelw Street, August '95) not only for countries like Au strali a, not least as a its qu

10 EUREKA STREET • S EPTEMBER 1995 CURRENCY PRESS If the cap fits The performing arts publisher

From Jim Griffin The screenplay of Rolf de I agree w ith Peter Hunt (Eurelw Street, Augu st '95) that a discussion of the Heer' s controversial film Bad relevance or irrelevance o f distrib­ Boy Bubby will be available utis m today would be very useful, but shortly. it was not the concern of my article ' OCil}

VOLUME 5 N UMBER 7 • EUREKA STREET 11 TH E R EC ION :l A LAN NICHO LS Free for one, not for all

B URMA-WATCH ERS HAVE BEEN STU:,UNC over one another to explain why the military junta suddenly released democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi after six years of house arrest, and what might be the consequences.

US PROFESSO R JOSEF SI LVERSTE IN thought that perhaps Our own Senator Evans should take som e credit. He foreign investment was not coming in fast enough, has remained firm on Burma throughout. a nd that trade with Thailand was in trouble. The What is happening now I currency (k ya t ) is almost worthless, so the black In her first week of fr eedom she ca ll ed a press m arket and corruption thrive. conference, m et leaders of h er own political party, He also wondered if cracks were appearing in the them selves out of prison only a m onth earlier, and military government, which calls itself the State Law walked around town without causing any ri ots. So a nd Order Restoration Council (SLORC). Maybe far, so good. She called for release of all political Prime Minister Than Shwe, who ordered the relea se, prisoners. Maybe she intends to make her dem ands had a different opinion from that of the military leader, one by one, so as not to frighten the military too much . Khin N yunt. Students in exile on the T hai border There are severe limita tions on her freedom: wondered the sam e. Human Ri ghts Watch director current law prohibits assembly of m ore than five Sidney Jones, visiting Australia, said that the military people at a time; the draft Constitution Convention were showing they have nothing to fear by releasing pro hibits her entry into politics. Bu t in an interview her. with US Congressman Richardson som e m on ths ago, One event, which occurred the week befo re Suu Aung San Suu Ky i h ad alread y rejected the Kyi's release and which received virtually no m edia Cons titution as invalid. H er courage is already coverage in the West, was a new peace agreem ent with o bviou s: sh e appea red a t a M artyrs' D ay Ra lly, the ethnic Mon people. Cease-fi re talks have also start­ celebra ting Burma's liberator, her fa ther, General ed with the Karen people (sec Emel

EU REKA STREET • SEPTEMBER 1995 of that disaster will last for months. And no-on e is goin g hom e yet. As well, SLORC broke its own cease-fire early August by attacking Karenni villages opposite the T hai border near Chiang Mai, sending several thou sand n ew refugees across. What happens next? Aung San Suu Kyi will be closely watched. Professor Silverstein said the military will be looking to 'trip her up. ' The draft Constitution prohibits anyone married to a foreigner (as Suu Kyi is) from participating in politics, but NLD sources within the country have said in the last month they would accept a tran­ sitional government where the military retained some power. T he nations of the world w ill review their policy on Burma now she is free. The US have been maintaining a 'two track' policy of opposing human rights abuse, but cooperating with SLORC on reducing the drug trade. But journalist Berti! Lintner's recent book exposes SLORC as beneficiaries of the drug trade. should be dealt with. It is said SLORC have given him Burma-watchers have different scenarios for the free rein in the Wa area. future. My own preferred stages are these: first, all The UN High Commissioner for Refugees should political prisoners should be released- this has to be be free to carry out its mandate to oversee returning the next step towards democracy.Then a genuine refugees, to ensure their protection. This appli es to cease-fire with all ethnic armies and their political over 100,000 Muslim Rohingyas in Bangla- leadership which would include a commitment to desh as well as 90,000 refugees in Thailand. maintaining ethnic culture, language, and identity for I sh ould like to see an a mnesty for the Mon, Karen, Kachin, Shan, etc. di ssidents, so that the denwcratic leadership Sai Wonna, student from the Shan nationality in in exile can return hom e. Otherwise the The West Burma, who was brought up in Karen State, said to 'brai n drain' would be tragic. Nations like m e: 'This is really important. The current cease-fire Lebanon have never recovered from the mas­ should demand is really the winners in the conflict not firing any sive migration during their long civil war. It m ore. It is not a political peace which affirms the is a great pity that so far the nations which international nationalities. There is still a lot of di strust of SLORC have welcomed Suu Kyi's release have not because they have broken their word many times.' challenged SLORC about their continuing re­ monitoring Sai E That Naing, a student at a Melbourne fusal to allow Dr Sein Win, and other university, said: 'SLORC has no right to decide who pro-democracy leaders at present in the US, of the reduction should lead the country. People will decide and choose to return to Burma or Thailand. who will become their lea der. Burma can only survive The Burmese students in exile, and those of the drug trade, as a federal union because of the indigenous studying abroad (including AusAID scholars nationalities who make up half the population.' in Australia) should be welcomed hom e and so that any given amnesty, so they can freely participate connections with A NOTHER ISS UE WHI H NEEDS addressing is forced in Burma's future. Sin ce 1942, Burmese labour on government works, such as road-building, students in every generation, have provided which have happened mostly in the ethnic areas. The dem ocratic lea dership, often at the cost of the military can artificial value of the currency must also be addressed, their lives. to reduce the black market, corruption and forgery Burmese student Mya Aye, a student at be explored. (recently, 500 kyat notes have been circulating in La Trobe University, said: 'Students inside markets, but the highest official currency is 100 Burma are still very influential. They should k ya ts). The West sh o uld demand international have a say in the future. The students in exile monitoring of the reduction of the drug trade, so that in Thailand ca nnot play this role. They will be seen any connections with the military can be explored. as another democratic organisation outside the coun­ In particular, the infamous drug dealer Law Si Han try. This is what happened even to U Nu (former

VoLUME 5 N uMBER 7 • EUREKA STREET 13 Prime Minister) when he was in exile.' Political commentators such as Professor Allan CCI makes Patience of the Victoria University of Technology, are working on new definitions of 'constructive engage­ protecting your m ent' which take into account Aung San Suu Kyi's release, and which spell out the next steps required home and family to move Burma towards humane governance. Trade and tourism will be increasingly important. If there is genuine peace with the ethnic groups, the as easy as calling gas pipeline to Thailand and other developments would proceed smoothly. But of course the whole pop­ 1800 011 028 ulation would want to see benefits spread evenly, or the rich will simply get richer. Call 1800 011 028 now and find out The ultimate goal must be to restore democracy, more about CCI Home Building, Home but of what kind? If a Lower House of Parliament is Contents and Children's Accident elected by universal adult suffrage, where would the Insurance. You 'll find the service personal military fit? One possibility is an Upper House on the Thai or and attentive, the rates competitive and Lebanese model, where various groups in the com­ making a claim easy, right fi:om the start. munity have proportional representation. Thailand For honest protection for yow- home and has an Upper House of representatives of military, family, call the Church's own insurance universities and other community groups, all company- CCI Insurances. appointed. Lebanon has a Parliament made up of its 16 different communities on a proportional basis. The Palestinians are exploring this kind of model at the CCI Insurances moment. Another model is South Africa's Cnr lw /r r Ch urch / nqmmce .~ Lmwed A C N 000005 210 Government of National Unity, where large 324 St. Kilt/a Road, M elboume, 3004 minorities and tribes have a place.

SUCH SO-fEMES WOULD ALLOW minorities within ethnic areas (such as the Pao people in Karen State) to have some direct representation, which they would never get by standard township electorates. I had reached this conclusion before researching the 1947 Constitution of Burma, and found to my amazement that it made such provision, although in the period of conflict after independence from Britain and the assassination of Aung San, it was never put CATHOLIC AND GAY OR LESB IAN? into practice.The 1947 agreement provided for a GAY OR LESBIAN AND CATHOLIC? representative of the 'United Hills Council' of Shan, Kachin and Chin on the Governor's Executive ACCEPTANCE offers ... Council. The intention of the Constitution was to create a federal union, with right of secession of understanding Kachin and Karenni after ten years, and in an interim friendship period 22 seats for the Karen in the Chamber of Deputies, with a Karen Minister for Karen affairs. The discussion and exploration of the Constitution envisaged a bicameral legislature, with issues of sexuality, spiritual ity, a 125 seat Chamber of Nationalities and a 250 seat scripture and theology Chamber of Deputies. So perhaps the 1947 plan simply needs reinventing. a sense of wholeness Ultimately, only the Burmese will be able to monthly Mass make these choices. The freeing of Aung San Suu Kyi is the first in what may be be a thousand steps towards social events democracy. ACCEPTANCE MELBOURNE INC Alan Nichols is an Anglican priest working with PO Box 2 76 Carlton South 3053 World Vision Australia. He was assisted in preparing Te l (03) 97 49 6616 or (03) 9484 4914 this article by Sai Wonna, a student from Burma studying in Melbourne.

14 EUREKA STREET • SEPTEMBER 1995 THE REGION: 2

Row AN CALLIC K A fragile independence

'In spite of the mounting political pressures and numerous crises we are faced with from time to time I am still optimistic about the country's future. Papua New Guinea is a country of very rich and abundant resources. There is no shortage of firms and investors eager to develop those resources.' -Michael Somarc, 1975 'Papua New Guineans arc worse off now than they were at the time of our indepcdcnce. This nation is in ruins right now. The only people who can rebuild it arc the people, not the government, not politicians and burec-mcrats, not multi­ national corporations; not the World Bank and the IMF. But right now our people do not have the capacity in its required amount, lack confidence, and are suspicious about government policies and initiati vcs.' -Sir Michael Somarc, 1995

D

V OLUME 5 NUMBER 7 • EUREKA STREET faire, of PNG as a state fo rged of 800 a number of highly promising writ­ Such is the material scope of most societies, which could learn from ers found powerful voices in the push Papua New Guin eans: far different the mistakes of the earlier gcnenl­ for self-rule, including Kumalau Ta­ from their aspirations. Three years tion of dccoloniscd nations, some of wali, John Kasaipwalova, Russell ago, Parliament-confronted by a which were already imploding in Soaba, Rabbie N

EUREKA STREET • SEPTEMBER 1995 THE REGION: 3

MI HAEL ZAHARA Put out more flags

In the years preceding Papua New jet, with a retinue of 80. Guinea's Independence on Septem­ This she duly did. I cannot ber 16, 1975, there was an enormous now remember how either she amount of controversy, debate, ran­ or her gang were quartered. cour and passion, most of it growing Perhaps it was well out of town from high principles and some of it because Mrs Marcos succeed­ from personal ambition. The Con­ ed in being extremely late for stitutional Planning Committee led the State Opening of Parliament pre­ legislation had to be adopted unal­ A world away byFrJohnMomis, which was chargee\ sided over by the Prince of Wales, on tered by the Constitution. That was from Imelda: with the task of drafting the consti­ the grounds that she was having her the legislation concerning merchant Michael Zahara, above, tution, and the Government, led by hair done. She came clattering in shipping of both the England and who now lives and Michael Somare, fell out terminally wearing one of the famous pairs of Australian Parliaments. The Cabi­ works as a la wyer and often. Nevertheless the Consti­ shoes, although, from the noise she net was very anxious not to adopt in South Devon. tution which reflected the highest was making, perhaps she was wear­ any foreign lawsi I had to explain to ideals of all parties was eventually ing several, comprehensively delay­ them that the Merchant Shipping produced and came into operation at ing proceedings . She succeeded in legislation seemed to work but that the commencement oflndepenclence looking oddly mannish with her nobody could understand it. Day. strong arms, shoulder pads and grim The red, gold and black flag of the It was Michael Somare's wish jawline. Independent State of Papua New that Papua New Guinea have the Before that State opening the Guinea was raised at half-past nine Queen as Head of State, and that Organising Committee had issued a on the n1orning of Septe1nber 16. caused a flurry of late amendments code which advised us among other This was a good thing because an to the draft. things that 'special permission is earlier House of Assembly Select To say that the strains of the being sought from her Majesty the Committee on Constitutional De­ recent past were forgotten in the Queen for the wearing of decora­ velopment had recommended a pur­ euphoria of the day would be foolish, tions and medals with tropical, for­ ple, green and gold flag of surprising and indeed Papua Besena, a small mal or day wear'. Many had been hideousness and the name 'Pagini' Papuanrights party, engaged the serv­ concerned about this. for the new nation. ices of a rainmaker in an attempt to At eleven minutes past five on The visitor who received by far spoil the celebrations. He achieved a the afternoon of Monday September the warmest and most sustained ap­ light drizzle, not dissimilar from the 15, the Australian Flag was lowered plause curiously was Colonel Mur­ achievements of Papua Besena it­ by members of the Papua N ew Guin­ ray, the 85-year-old former Admin­ self. ea Defence Force and presented to istrator. He had become famous dur­ The greatest strain fell on the Sir John Guise. Amongst those ap­ ing his time in Government House, Independence Celebration Organi­ plauding were the Australian Prime between 1945 and 1952 as 'Kanaka sation,who had to balance the com­ Minister, Gough Whitlam and his Jack Murray' for inviting some Pa­ peting requirements of the local and eventual destroyer Sir John Kerr. It puans to tea and coming up with the visiting dignitaries, not always with was a moving and exciting moment revolutionary sentiment that it was success. So Sir Sonny Ramphal, the accompanied by an impres- 'impossible to continue to use the Commonwealth Secretary General, sive feu de joie. word native if it m eant less than attended the Heads of State dinner n1an'. given by the Governor General, Sir T.HE I NSTANT AFTER midnight, In a way that welcome symbol­ John Guise, on the basis that his Independence can1e through the ised both the importance and the status was equivalent to that of a clever technical device of an act of prevailing sensitivity of the day. • head of state, which may be true, but theoretical revolutions. This meant also it was a fact that he had not been that the Constitution arose in Papua M i chael Zahara worked as a invited. New Guinea, not simply by an act of government lawyer in Port Moresby. The biscuit was taken, however, the Australian Government. In the He was on the personal staff of John by Imelda Marcos, which if you think preamble it states 'we the people do Kaputin when he was Minister for about it is unsurprising. The Philip­ now establish this sovereign nation Justice and of the late Oscar Tam­ pines hac\ not responded to Papua and declare ourselves under the guid­ mur when be was Minister for Prov­ New Guinea's invitation, but two ing hand of God to be the Independ­ incial Government. He was one of days before Independence Day a ent State of Papua New Guinea'. the very few non-Tolais to have been message was received that Mrs Mar­ The preparations for tllis moment initiated into the Tuban Society of cos would be attending in her private were so good that only one arena of East N ew Britain.

VOLUME 5 NUMBER 7 • EUREKA STREET 17 THE REGION: 4

JAMES GRIFFIN 1 1968 UNN'~~~~?~:"~~ it ~~:,ve~!,d e~~~ ojority' of Popu' still be expansive, at least in the Blokes were driving trucks, doing New Guineans could 'participate in instant model atPortMoresbywhich jobs the locals could easily do and management ofthelife)ndustry and hired cattle stalls at the Showgrounds would have to do on less than half politics of the country. That may be in1966 to put 58 (six female) students the wages. To take students into the more than a century ahead'. This, at through a preliminary Boroko Hotel's beergarden still need- a time when the rest of the colonial (matriculation) year. The Vice-Chan- ed a little nerve although the DOGS world was moving to self-determi- cellor had his office over Kriewaldt's AND NATIVES KEEP OFF sign had nation and an independent Indone- garage. Eager to recruit staff to been taken down some years before siahaddeclareditsintention to move pioneering conditions, UPNG at Ela Beach. However the second theboundaryo£Asiatothe14ldegree allowed us to travel from Melbourne nation-wide elections had been held meridian, half way across the island by ship in lieu of first class air fares. in1968 on a common roll and 10 out of New Guinea. To ease the transition for six chil- of 94 MPs had organised themselves So PNG was to be placed under dren under the age of 12 to a different under young Michael Son1are into a indefinite tutelage to Canberra and life, my wife and I had applied for the Papua New Guinea United Party Australians who contained them- Changsha en route to Hong Kong (PANGU PATI). It was committed selves behind a White Australia pol- and back. to early self-government, though not icy at home were going to have a At our table was Melbourne psy- with a target date, and its members permanent residential stake in PNG chiatrist and identity, Guy Spring- would refuse to be bought off with (In fact, Hasluck breached the White thorpe, who had been in the same ministerial apprenticeships. They Australia Policy in 1957 by making class at Wesley College with Bob wanted to be a constitutional oppo- special provision for Chinese in PNG Menzies. His anecdotage frequently sition. to take up Australian citizenship, veneered the undertone of conster- But- can you believe it now?- hoping they would all take a slow nation that I, allegedly a 'professor', before the elections the Minister for boat to Coolangatta and not blur his was going to Papua New Guinea to the Territories, Chades Barnes, ad- dream of a White Australian-PNG muck things up for the white set- monished people to avoid parties. In partnership). By the late 50s, Has- tiers, perhaps even abet a revolution the Highlands (40 per cent of the luck had, perforce, to modify his by jumped-up natives. From Adelaide population and most in need of po- timetable but it was still hopelessly Mrs Triskett, with her powdered and litical education) his kiaps (officers) out of tune with the times. It needed rouge-lit cheeks, pearls and diam- actively discouraged them and events like the Congo catastrophe antehairbraceatdinner,wamedme warned that early independence (1960) and the fall of West New about miscegenation. Dreadful Don could threaten Australian aid and Guinea to Indonesia (1961-63) to alert Dunstan, it was well-known, was a that it would mean Highlanders him to what Harold MacMillan 'quadroon' fromFiji:hewascorrupt- would end up as 'grasscutters' for famously called 'the winds of ingSouthAustralia. Athletic, knock- the more advanced coastals. Special change', although Hasluck always about Charlene Freer, whose hus- Branch police conspicuously, in tim- refused to believe that Africa could band, Sam, clenched a healthy arti- idatingly, took notes of people and provide any analogies for PNG. san fist at the thought of a Melane- proceedings at public party meet- Territories proceeded to tighten sian sporting the superiority of an ings. Somare and his men were de- its grip on even the minutiae of ad - academic degree, toldusbowtokeep rided, abused and discriminated ministration in remote areas; Can- ' coons' from the verandah: get a good- against by the white-led majority in berra ruled directly by telephone and sized dog, put in a sack, beat the Parliament but by 1972 they had telex. In 1968 the key PNG depart- livin' bejasus out of it and then get made their point. mentofDistrict Administration was your 'hous boi' to let it loose. Stiff Before coming to thefull point of put under the stetson-hatted trail- cheddar for the boi, but one bloody this reminiscence- whether Gough blazer, Tom Ellis, who used to stand great watchhound! Whitlam acted correctly in pressing up in churches in his Western High- Th ey were our preliminary days. 'early' independence on PNG-it is lands domain and say: 'God i makim It was 1968, mark you, just seven necessary to look at the confusion mi Nambawan bilong yupela' ('God years before independence. UPNG and, in certain areas, negligence in made meN umber One over buildings did not open until 1969, Australian policy. When that ener- L you' cf Romans 13:1). although classes had moved in 1967 getic, humane but stuffy and arro- to the more comfortable Adminis- gant statesman, Paul Hasluck be- HERE 1s NO SPACE here to recite trative College. came Minister for Territories (1951- the provocations on the Gazelle In Port Moresby there was only 63), he said that self-government Peninsula and in Bougainville in one business owned and operated by could not come until Europeans and 1968-9 except to mention that that a 'native'- a garage. Jn the shops Papua New Guineans had 'solved wise and learned Commissioner of white women still acted as counter- the major problem of living togeth- Police, Ray Whitrod, found his re-

EUREKA STREET • SEPTEMBER 1995 pressive tasks so distateful that he continued from p16 now down to par with the $A- the resigned in early 1970 to go, of all has provoked the cynicism about subject of humour: what currency is places, to Bjelke's Queensland. What political leaders that is n ow wide­ worth so little you can see right Australia was facing was the pros­ spread, and that ca used 60 per cent through it? T he kina, of course. pect of repressing nationalist move­ of the 109 MPs to lose their seats at The popular PNG explanation: ments and gaoling dissidents. Whit­ the last national election. too much politics. And they're right. lam saw this clearly and, having sat­ Young West Scpik p oliticia n Through succeeding national elec­ isfied himself in 1969 that he could Gabriel Ramoi wrote in a paper on tions the level of educational attain­ defeat Gorton or whoever in 1972, h e Ethics and Leadership in 1987: ment of parlia mentarians has risen­ made his Barnes-storming visit to 'When leaders becom e blind to the at first holding out the prospect of PNG just prior to New Year 1970 ethical concerns of the ma jority and better informed and m ore enlight­ and promised self-government and involve themselves in corrupt prac­ ened decision-making. But so has independen ce within his first term tices with impunity, the people have the direction of day-to-day adminis­ of office. With Somare's unexpected every right to demand a change.' tration by politicians extended ever but welcom e accession to the Chief Ramoi has known a few. Recently further down the levels of the bureauc­ Ministership in 1972, that released fr orn two years' jail for theft racy. The politicisation of virtually eve­ promise was kept. of public money, he is now employed ry significant PNG institution, except as a senior adviser to the Finance arguably the courts, the media and the EOR GE'.T THE CHATTERING TORIES who Minister, Chris Haiveta. churches, combined with the mani­ want to usePN G's current problems As careers and cargo were discov­ fest ease with which returns from to berate Whitlam in its 20th ered by leaders, 'development', top the country's dominant fo reign ex­ anniversary year and bewail the of the agenda for a decade or so, go t change earner- the resource indus­ passing of allegedly good times­ lost again. try-and fr om the other major injec­ especially for whites. In a recent report, the World Bank tor of funds, the aid sector, have Whitlam was correct to declare says: 'Despite a $US5 billion econo­ been captured by the Port Moresby that no matter what PNG might my and impressive growth this dec­ ba sed rent-seeking elite, have acted want-or fail to want as a result of ade, PNG is virtually alone in the as a magnet to lure an entire educat­ colonial dependence- independence developing world- including Africa­ ed generation into the political web. was non-n egotiable, even, more or in experi encing a significant deteri ­ What counts in politics every­ less, in its timing. Australia had in­ oration of basic social services. The where, as to a lesser degree in busi­ ternational responsibilities, som e of statisti cs suggest that investment in ness, is of course the dea l, rather which could not be effectually dis­ the people of PNG has stopped.' The than the process. Under the PNG charged while it remained a middle human stories suggest the same. A electoral system the group that votes imperial power. doctor fri end in PNG, who has played for a winning candidate is the group Lack of development was not a a vital role in aiding suffering Irian that benefits from 'development'. reason for continued colonisation. Jayan refugees and Bougainvilleans, Similarly, the Moresby-based polit­ And he might have added: neither recently described the dis integration ical elite has, since the Bougainville was the prospect that PNG leaders of the aid post orderly n etwork, a rebellion began in late 1988, revi sed might prove incompe t ent and lack of medicines in clinics, a decline its own deal, re-cast its contract with corrupt, might even emulate Bjelke­ in vaccinating children, the system ­ the nation, to focus on splitting the Petersen or Brian Burke. Or their atic looting of a health centre-a revenue from resources with those police act like Terry Lewis' wallopers cable stolen, disabling the genera­ landowners lucky enough to live on or those in N ew South Wales or tor, water pipes taken to convert or near an ore-body, oil deposit or Victoria in the late sixties, or their into home-made gun barrels, hospi­ accessible rainforest, thereby creat businessmen look to Bond and Skase. tals forced to keep ratchetting up ing-or recognising- a new Whitlam rightly said: the unique fees and beg corporations for aid, the power group. thing about PNG in 1970 was that average life expectancy diminishing. 'alone among the significant popula­ T he kina, the nation's currency, L AST CH RI STMA S Prime Minister tions of the world, its people make with its unique hole in the centre so Sir Julius Chan claimed: 'PNG will no final decisions on any matter af­ it can be worn on a string round the be flu sh with cash this year. ' And fecting their welfare'. neck by people wearing traditional aft er eight months of virtually zero Again, hemighthaveadded: there dress (no pockets), has for much of government spending except on sal­ was much in Australia's well-inten­ its life been the subject of pride by aries, he may at last be proved right. tioned post-war record to suggest that Papua N ew Guineans, not least in About $US450 million is heading more Australian administrators like its ea rly years when Australi an pub­ PNG's way via an 18- months' struc­ Hasluck and Barnes would not n ec­ lic servants still working there were tural adjustment program in which essarily result in wiser decisions than given the choice of payment in Aus­ the World Bank, the IMF, Australia Papua N ew Guineans could make.• sie dollars or kina. Many chose the and Japan are participating. N ext former; the latter soon soared and month too, the Government will James Griffin is Emeritus Professor value, and was for years convertible finish paying fo r the carry of its 22.5 of History, University of Papua New at $1.40 or so. On a vi sit to PNG last per cent stake in the Ku tu bu oilfield . Guinea. month, however, I heard the kina- The Lihir gold mine is at last being

V oLUME 5 N uMHER 7 • EUREKA STREET 19 built, 13 years after its discovery, grabbed the banks' liquidity, they international element again proves hugely boosting the construction and can only with difficulty obtain the vital as PNG is enmeshed with the transport sectors. And the Mineral foreign exchange to m eet suppliers' fast expanding neighbouring Asia­ Resources Development Corpora­ bills, and the government is only Pacific economies, providing con­ tion is being fattened up ready for paying its own bills sporadically. tinuous momentum. market-if its debt and other en­ Until they are in a happier fram e of Taking over the reins from the cumbrances can be disentangled. mind, employment growth will re­ colonial administration, establish­ With ever bigger areas being logged­ main marginal, and foreign inves­ ing an independent nation, grappling in preparation, of course, the largely tors-who always seek out the views with the opportunities and challeng­ Malaysian loggers hasten to add, for of local businesspeople-will be dis­ es of hosting vast mines, were rela­ 'palm oil' ventures or the like-yes, couraged. tively glamorous issues for PNG's C han's Santa-style forecast Yet in PNG, not only are the elite to fo cus on. Ensuring efficient m ay prove right. rewards of getting policy right con­ delivery of services, stripping gov­ sidered m arginal, the sanctions for ernment of non -essentials, shifting BuT WHO IN PNG will be flush getting it wrong are non-existent. from owning equity and operating with cash? The schizophrenic con­ Thus failed and discredited leaders, businesses to facilitating them with­ stitutional N ew Dea l approved by and policies, are constantly recycled. in fair markets are less obviously Parliament in late June, that Sir attractive tasks. But there is broad Julius sees as the high water mark consensus that the country's very of his 26-year political career, sev­ In Port Moresby and elsewhere, viability will be assessed accord­ ers the 18-year contract with sal­ ing to its capacity and willingness aried provincial politicians andre­ the paradoxes of modern PNG to implement such aims. Success writes it with a much bigger, more will persist: the sounds of city in rebuilding institutions and in eli verse group of local government being more inclusive, drawing back leaders whose expectations may nights in which gunfire into the decision-making orbit tal­ be no less but who are more easily ented and experienced Papua New divided and ruled. It both returns alternates with gospel choirs. Guineans discarded through the power to the capital and decen­ politicisation process, may help tralises further. And it creates a new The penalties apply to a failure to encourage those who have effectively political cadre between the two: pro­ cut deals, not to policy inadequacy. withdrawn from the nation back to a vincial governors, who will be the Proven corruption and incompetence retribalised hinterland, to participate key distributors of government lar­ are no bar to office. On such defenc­ in the broader economy beyond a gesse. The raison d'etre of both tradi­ es the PNG media hurls itself brave­ passive reception of domestic rcmi t­ tional and m odern leadership in PNG ly but mostly without impact. Re­ tances. Tax commissioner Nagora has been distribution rather than cent events, when the government Bogan said last month his 'client wealth crea tion- the latter typical­ backed clown at its very first, m odest base' stood at just 61,386 individual ly being the role of women in M ela­ reforming step, of facilitating a vol­ taxpayers in a nation of 4 million. nesian societies. There are no wom­ untary registration of Iand- in the The task of establishing a mod­ en among PNG's 109 MPs, and de­ face of violent dem onstrations from ern nation from a tribal society with creasing numbers among senior bu­ various alienated social groups-ap­ no tradition of an over-arching state reaucrats. pear to rule out a programme of sub­ remains monumen tal (t hough it is PNG leaders have been increas­ stantial reform. not helped by the reckless discard­ ingly visiting New Zealand to sec if Th e structural adjustment deal ing of the very monuments that have they can lea rn from the recent trans­ cut by the government with the Bank, m arked its progress; the country's formation of that similarly sized the Fund, and their funding partners first parliament building, a former country. The 'Look North' push into including Australia, cannot be fully isolation hospital, is now a vandal­ Asia by Paias Wingti derived from implemented. But no matter. In the ised, pitiful shell ). But while such a hopes of a similar transformation of short term, the problem of a disas­ history makes governance at best PNG. The chief Asian investments trous lack of foreign exchange will tough, at worst impossible, it also in PNG in the '90s have consisted of have been overcome, thanks to the m eans that Papua New G uineans, logging leases, trade stores-now savings of foreigners via the struc­ 20 years on, have not been bullied or being rapidly delocalised-and fully tural adjustment funds and Lihir. In cowed by their governments, mere­ protected packaging operations, such the m edium term, such fo reigners­ ly disappointed and deserted by them. as the crushing of Korean clinker for and most Papua New Guineans too­ And in Port Moresby and else­ cement (not the most auspicious will look for a government-led trans­ where, the paradoxes of m odern PNG source, in the light of recent tragic fusion of funds from recurrent to will persist: the sounds of city nights events in Korea) and the canning of capital spending, a rapid improve­ in which gunfire alternates with mackerel ca ugh t in C hilean waters. ment in the provision of schools, gospel choirs. • Meanwhile PNG's own small to health and infrastructure, and a fo­ medium sized businesses are having cus on attracting investment in job­ Rowan Callick is Victorian bureau a rotten time at present-they can't providing export industries. T hen in chief of the Australian Finan cial borrow because the government has the longer term, if all goes well, the Review and its Pacific specialist.

EUREKA STREET • SEPTEMBER 1995 SPORTING LI FE: MIKE TICHER Footbrawl

ON12 Aem , 1993, Cante.bmy-Bankstown Rugby League club held a special multicultural day at their Belmore Sports Ground home in Sydney's south-west. A crowd of 27,804 turned up to see the Bulldogs thrash Parramatta 42-6, with thousands m ore turned away. This season, the corresponding game attracted a meagre 8,079 to Parramatta Stadium, the The arrival of Super League has served to high­ new home of the now-renamed Sydney Bulldogs. light the drastic, possibly fatal, erosion of such bonds The Shadow lengthen: Strange things have been happening to Rugby in Rugby League's heartland. Canterbury- Banl< stown League in the intervening period. New clubs have been Canterbury's experience this season is sympto­ played Parramatta at Belmore in 1993. added to the competition. Old ones have changed their matic of the crisis which has overtaken the code, Now they're the 'Sydney names, their hom e grounds and their jumpers. And, above all in Sydney, where radio and TV ratings have Bulldogs' and play at of course, Super League has arrived. News Ltd's drive plummeted, and prospective sponsors fight shy of the Parramatta tadium. to create a new competition, which seems set to take Super League impasse. The reaction to Super League off next year, has thrown league into a state of tur­ by supporters has been characterised above all by Ph oto: Dalla Kilponen moil unparalleled since rugby split into professional apathy, disillusion with the game as a whole and a and am ateur codes in 1908. 'plagu e on both your houses' m entality . Once Whatever the outcom e of N ews Ltd's interven­ renowned for their clo e-knit, family character, the tion, it is already clear that every aspect of the ga me Bulldogs have been split down the middle by Super will be up for re-evaluation in its aftermath, includ­ Leagu e, with the players divided between the two ing the structure of football clubs and their social role. camps. Crowds have slumped to pitiful levels as the 'Football clubs and their social role' is a phrase 1994 grand finalists have played out much of the sea­ which doesn't appear too often on the back pages, son in an atmosphere of suspicion and rancour. where sport is still presented largely a a self-con­ It is clear that the malaise in Sydney Rugby tained domain. But there i more to Super League than League predates Murdoch's assault. Its roots lie in the the newspaper depiction of a straightforward power­ attempt to expand the code from a suburban to a na­ struggle between Rupert Murdoch and Kerry Packer. tional level. The introduction of team s from Canberra Professional sport is, and always has been, a busi­ and Wollongong in 1982, followed by N ewcastle, Bris­ ness. However, it has never been only that. One dif­ bane and the Gold Coast in 1988, meant that the old ference is that, unlike competitors in other markets, inner-city clubs, restricted to smaller catchment are­ sports clubs attract passionate and seemingly irration­ as for players, sponsors and spectators, struggled to al loyalties which cannot easily be changed or, once compete on an equal basis. With the addition of a fur­ destroyed, recreated. Such loyalties arise because foot­ ther four team s in 1995- based in Auckland, Towns­ ball clubs (of any code) are more than just a random ville, Brisbane and Perth- the pressure on some collection of players-they stand for something. of the competition's oldest m embers to Once, clubs represented real communities- the merge or face extinction becam e intense. people who actually lived in Carlton, for example, or Balmain. Now that those small-scale suburban com­ I TWAS A SITUATION FRAU HT with difficulties for the munitie have been scattered, or absorbed into a much Australian Rugby League. The attractions of a national larger entity (s uch as the inner-city) the associations competition were clear. Clubs in new cities sparked of any given club have becom e m ore complex. They interest in the code and m eant that league could offer may include confessional elements- Collingwood's substantially bigger markets to TV and sponsors. At once close relationship with Catholicism is the best­ the sam e time, however, there was a reluctance to known example in Austra lia. Or clubs may come to force the demise of famous clubs such as South Syd­ denote social class, as the rivalry between Western ney, Balmain and StGeorge, which had been the back­ Suburbs ('Fibros') and Manly ('Silvertails') showed in bone of the league for almost a century. The failure of Sydney Rugby League in the 1970s and early '80s. A the ARL and the clubs them selves to resolve this di­ club m ay itself act as a social glue and source of iden­ lemma led to the current desperate situation. tity in areas where a sense of community is weak, as The inner-city clubs certainly had problem s­ the Raiders undoubtedly have done in Canberra. small crowds, above all-but they also had assets.

V OLUME 5 N UMBER 7 • EUREKA STREET 21 These were their history, their famous club colours, club's name, or where it plays its matches. and their associations with the local area. They were It's partly because these channels of communi­ assets not simply in a sentimental, romantic sense. cations were allowed to calcify that the ARL has been Balmain's famous gold jumper with a black 'V' for so conspicuously incapable of mobilising mass pub­ example, was, in hard-nosed m arketing terms, a price­ lic opposition to Super League. ARL chairman Ken less brand mark, which ensured almost universal Arthurson has based his appeals for support on 'tradi­ 'product recognition'. Canterbury's hugely success­ tion', 'loyalty' and su ch em otive, but essentially ful multicultural days were the perfect example of meaningless phrases as 'the people's ga me'. Yet it was how such traditions and symbols could be linked to under the ARL's auspices that Rugby League first the changing nature of the club's surrounding sub­ bega n to cast off all that was most va luable in its tra­ urbs in order to attract a whole new audience. ditions and arrogantly disregarded the views of the However, such imaginative initiatives proved to 'people' about the significance of their clubs. be the exception as the Sydney clubs jockeyed for The arrival of Super Lea gue has thrown the ARL's survival. In stead, they chose to abandon their sub­ missed opportunities into sharp relief. Super League urban identities. Balmain were also drawn to the envisages 10 licen sed, privately-own ed better facilities of Parramatta St adium and teams, later to be expanded to 12. Under the recrea ted themselves as the Sydney Tigers, simul­ taneously discarding their old home at Leichhardt N ews Ltd, being in the entertainment business, Super League Oval and the old club jumper. Once the epitome has no interest in such intangibles as tradition or iden­ of working-class Sydney, Balmain's appeal had tity. Indeed, the idea of Super League was created be­ model, football stea dily declined as the suburb underwent rapid fore the clubs even existed to play in it. T hey have to gentrification. Ea stern Suburbs, struggling with be ca lled into being to fulfil the aims of the Super clubs become similarly low attendances, were reborn as the un­ League. Under the Super League model, football clubs gainly Sydney City Roosters. become little more than franchises, with no more little 1nore than Such radical changes in the Sydney Rugby deep-rooted attachment to their surrounding commu­ League landscape have not only been accepted, nity than the local branch of a supermarket chain. franchises, but encouraged by the ARL. Rather than intro­ By seeking to create teams where previously duce regional divisions below the national league, there were none, or by amalga mating two or three with no more they insist that clubs which cannot compete at old ones, Super League is looking for a new kind of deep-rooted the top should merge. The manoeuvres of Can­ football follower- one who enjoys top level football terbury, Balmain and Easts were clearly designed per se, either in the flesh or, more likely, on televi­ attachment to to position them as favourably as possible for such sion. Yet for many supporters, the interest lies in fol ­ mergers. The results, as Canterbury shows most lowing the fortunes of their own club, however their surrounding graphically, have been ca tastrophic. hopeless it may be, not in seeing elite sport between The fundamental reason for their rapid dis­ two essentially m ea ningless tea ms. While clubs man­ community integration seem s clear- the 'Sydney Bulldogs' ifestly failed to nurture this kind of loyalty under the m eans nothing to anyone. T he club has sloughed ARL, Super League seeks to destroy it totally. There than the local off its very identity, which was bound up with should be nothing surprising about the ruthlessness the name Canterbury-Bankstown and its hom e with which N ews Ltd has pursued its 'vision'. The branch of a ground at Belmore. A vital sense of belonging and truly depressing aspect of the Super League saga has continuity ha s been lost. been the inability of the ARL, and Rugby League sup­ supermarket It's this disconnection of clubs from any porters in general, to turn the crisis into a communi­ community ties which is the most disastrous leg­ ty issue-to argue that football clubs can and should chain. acy of the past few years. This is most obvious in function as organic social institutions, not just vehi­ cases where clubs have physically removed them­ cles for profit. selves to new stadiums, but it is also reflected in Instea d, when Super League came along, the ARL the ARL's rigidly authoritarian structure, which ef­ and the older clubs got swamped, unable to find solid fectively prevents individual clubs from actively mar­ ground on which to rally support. They did so, not keting them selves to the local community, even at because they clung too firmly to their old traditions, the level of producing their own club merchandise or but because they had thrown them away as useless a matchday program . baggage, incapable of seeing how they could be up­ The reliance on poker-m achine revenue from dated and expanded to place the club at the centre of their Leagues clubs made the football operations com­ a community. placent about the numbers coming through the turn­ N ext season, the Bulldogs are going back to Eel­ stiles. And although all Rugby League clubs (except more-too late, probably, to repair fully the damage the privately-owned Brisbane Broncos) are theoreti­ clone by this season. • cally answerable to their members, this avenue of input from the grassroots has also been largely ignored, Mike Ticl1er is a freelance writer who patiently awaits even in deciding such fundamental questions as a the South Sydney renaissance.

22 EUREKA STREET • SEPTEMBER 1995 SPORTING Lrn: 2 D NADEL

A "w"""GOGM ""'c~ick to kick ten surviving Melbourne The\ inter Game: The Complete sell cars with the jingle 'football, clubs play on fiv e grounds, History of Australian Football, meat pies, kangaroos and Holden and if the AFL had its way Robert Pa. coc, The Text Publi!>hmg cars'. In the intervening years, sales Company, 1\clhourne, 199'1. the number of grounds of m ea t pies and Holden s have Isr.-..; 0 s.:;561 64-1 x r.RP ~9.95 would be reduced to three. dropped, but football has remained a Football Ltd: The ln ~> id e tory of For Football Ltd, major part of Australian identity. the AFL, Linnell, a leading sports Australian Football has been Garry Linnell, lronbark, SyJncy, journali st, has interviewed central to the culture of two-thirds 1')95. 1s11 0 ,\30 ~5665 8 RRI' 17.95 the m ajor participants in of Australia for over a century. the development of corpo­ Football matches attrac t large as a brutal military colony and its rate fo otball. He has cov­ crowds, particularly in Melbourne. present as an international entrepre­ ered machinations behind T el evision broadcasts of AFL neurial centre. Rugby is an interna­ the attempts of the corpo­ matches are amongst the highest tio n al gam e w h e re te rritor y ra te sector to confine the rated programs, and football sells (property) is contested by brute force. national game to a series of more newspapers than politics and Australia n Football represents business propositions. We crime combined . In Melbourne Melbourne's past as the site of Aus­ see the late Commissioner, almost everyone follows a team, at tralian manufacturing and the base Jack Hamilton, ca ught be­ least nominally. In sharp contra t to of liberal dem ocratic capitalism and tween the two beer monop­ the other fo otball codes, AFL sup­ its present as a socially conserva­ olies, both of whom ha ve port is not restricted to m eni women tive, inward-looking society. Aus­ bought sponsorship rights comprise a third of football crowds. tralian Football is seen as a national to different aspects of the Considering the im porta nee of ga me which is freer, more egalitari­ sam e matchi Doctor Geof­ football in Australian society, there an and inclusive, in which skilled frey Edclsten, on the night have been remarkably few serious individuals battle for success rather he has been awarded the tudies of the subject. While there than terri tory. right to buy the Sydney are popular biographies and club Othe r expla n a tion s can be Swans, drawing his partner histori es, it was not until the early offered. Australian Football requires Bob Pritchard aside at the eightie that three books were pub­ much larger ground than Rugby and celebrati ons and telling him ] ished offering serious scholarship public land was more accessible in that h e h as n o m on eyi on football. Up Where Cazaly, by the newer fr ee colonies of Victoria Ranald Macdonald losing Ian Turner and Leonie Sandercock, and South Au tralia than it w as in his way and arriving late to was part social history and part Sy dney during the nine t eenth John Elliott's Mt Macedon economic surveyi Bob Stewart's The century. As well, there was the m eeting of presidents of Australian Football Business. was problem of selling a ga me in N ew powerful clubs to consider an analysis of the football industry South Wal es tha t w as called a brea kaway N a tion al and Kill for Collingwood, by Richard Victorian Football in its early years. League in 1984. Stremski, was the first club history Chapter 13 of The Winter Game While he reports the re­ to go beyond simple narrative. opens with the observa tion that 'The actions of the majority of Robert Pascoe's Th e Wi n ter years 1981 to 199 1 witnessed a deep­ the key players, Linnell's is Game develops and pays tribute to ening of the corporate culture in more than the story of indi­ Turner's work. It is broader than Up football, coinciding with the domi­ viduals. He has also record­ Where Cazaly. Pascoe has attempted nance of economic rationalism in ed most of the major m oves to write a complete history of the national politics'. Football Ltd: The in the corporate develop­ ga m e, covering all states and all Inside tory of the AFL by Garry m ent and reorga nisation of levels, from its origins as Victori an Linnell describes this the AFL. Football Ltd does Rules, to the founda tion of the process of change. not explain the fa ctors be­ Fremantle Dockers. Unlike Turner, hind the transform ation of Pascoe discusses the history of D URING T H E LAST FIFTEEN YEARS Australian football but it is changes to the gam e, as a ga me, as the VFL (Victorian Football Leagu e) an entertaining description well as surveying its social context. has transformed fro m a twelve-tea m of the process. Pascoe attempts to explain the suburban competition, playing all 'deep cultural rift' dividing Australia its ga m es on Saturdays, to a na tional David Nadel is writing a be tween Rules a nd Rugby. H e competition, renamed the Austral­ PhD on the commercial­ describes these codes as reflecting ian Football L ague, with sixteen i ation of Australian Rules the different origins and cultures of teams playing in all mainland states. Football at the N ational Austra lia's two major cities. Rugby Games are played across the week­ Centre fo r Australian Stud­ (both codes) represen ts Sydney's past end fro m Friday to Sunday night. Its ies, Monash University. Leunig draws a curly one

I am not a Chairperson: I am a human being. M ichael Lennig's 'thoughts of a child lying duty to respect it in everyone else, without exception. in a child care centre' cartoon, published in both Th e Political correctness has never been an effective Sydney Morning Herald and Th e Age in late July, political tool in this country. Fear of criticism might, struck a very raw nerve. His unexpected and power- according to David Williamson in an A ge interview ful image of the 'cruel, ignorant, selfish' mother of a on 23 April, have encouraged self-censorship. Certain- heartbroken baby launched an avalanche of angry ly I am not aware that Williamson or any other play- letters from working mothers, child care ex perts, wright has been successfully 'complained' about. He women's groups and anti-feminists upon The Age. believed men were afraid to write about perceptions Nothing of the kind hit Th e Herald. That may say which might affect women and minorities, even if som ething significant, not just about the culture of they sincerely believed they were truthful. On the the two cities, but about the state of 'political cor- other hand, he acknowledged that the threat of criti- rectness' as a standard of public criticism in this cism acted as a brake on making unwarrantable gen- country. era li sations and a 'spur to thinking more deeply'. If When I became Victoria's last Commissioner for so, a good has been achieved. Equal Opportunity in 1990 I became responsible for 'Po litical correctness' has been used as a defen- the laws which, some would say, have created or sive epithet so loosely that it is now thoughtlessly fuelled'PC'. One of the first pleasures of my new of- appli ed to acts or statements from anyone who wants fice was to receive an rude letter from one Babette a better or a different world. It is meant to imply that Francis, accusing me of being a feminist ideologue, the critic is a humourless ideologue with infl exible before I'd clone anything. standards and perceptions: a bully and a bigot, rather In the years which followed, whenever I spoke than a champion of the oppressed. Th e term is ready on public issues, there was always som eone ready to to drop, rotten, from the tree now. It was always a accuse me of driving a 'vast engine of bureaucratic joke, and it's a tired one now. All that 'politically cor- oppression'. Yet I had no power at all but to speak for rect' language was a hoax. Nobody uses terms like those intimidated into silence and encourage them, 'kindness impaired' (c ruel); 'ethically disoriented' where I could, to use my office as a haven for a private (cri minal ), 'vertically challenged' (s hort) or 'aurally rem edy. inconvenienced' (deaf). T he flirtation with alternative The charge was- is- deeply ironic. I had come spelling by some women 15 years ago died then, too, to the Office as a civil libertarian lawyer, not through though it stuck in the memory of anti-'wim- the women's movement. In my time I had willingly minist' columnist, P.P. McGuinness. allowed myself to be the 'Chairman' of two com miss- I ions or tribunals, not because I think gender-specific T 's A LL ovm, FOLKS. I would not accept a 'PC' defence titles don't matter, but beca use I detes t fabricated from some people, anyway. I find no difficulty what- languagc-'chairperson' is a clun ker-and laboured ever in vigorously criticising and refusing to peddle jokes. or publicisc the views of hate propagandists, such as I had even experienced punishment for bei ng out Rush Limbaugh, or Australian ri ght-wing or racist or of sync with my sisters when, in the ea rl y 1980s, I redneck radio commentators, or 'historians' who feed resisted the establishment of a women lawyers' conspiracy theories that are vei led anti-Semitism ('our association and was accordingly campaigned against traditional enemies' ). However, how to do this is a by its m embers when I stood as a ca ndidate for the questi on of tactics: I would have let David Irving in, Council of the Law Society on whi ch, I argued, wom - but spent as much money as was necessary to coun - en lawyers finally had the numbers to take over and teract his di shonest 'scholarship'. These people incite transform. The split vote helped to ensure that did race hatred, and it is evil, and it is their purpose to act not happen. I learned something about politics there. politically. With such a history I had to find a way to accom- I also believe that m embers of privileged castes, modatc m y lifelong commitment to free speech and such as bosses who h arass or re ject vulnerable civil liberties, on the one hand, and the need for laws workers, and corporate hea ds who oppress minorities, regulating public behaviour on the other; between deserve to be outed and shamed, as should public fig- individual human rights and fr eedoms, and social ob- urcs who tell 'things that batter' or 'pearly gates' jokes. ligations. I found my resolution on the premise that Those who crea te-writers, poets and artists- to assert an individual human ri ght crea tes a relative are in a special ca tegory. They should not claim to be

24 EUREKA STREET • SEPTEMBER 1995 above or beyond responsibility when their creation hurts or destroys lives and happiness. Their audience has the right and duty to respond to art vehemently and passionately and the creators know how vulnerable they have made themselves. However, morality and decency and political respon­ sibility do not have a role in literature or music, or Spot on art (of any kind). It is not the business of art to con­ form or make us feel comfortable. Nor is it 'political A FEW WEEKS AGO, on a cold snowy night, Archimedes found himself on a correctness' if a critic reacts with rage, grief or disap­ mountain peak in the middle of the Namadgi National Park, about 45 kilo­ pointment. It is the sign that our culture is alive if its metres south of Canberra, sitting at the most precisely defined point in space artists and writers and painters and poets, and and time in Australia, the Orroral Geodetic Observatory. satirists and actors and playwrights and The physicists at the observatory can calculate their position to the nearest dancers, challenge it. centimetre. They also maintain four atomic clocks, one of which is Australia's national primary standard of time, accurate to one ten millionth of a second. L EUNIG's CARTOON D ID THAT. It upset me for days. The Australian Government spends about $1.5 million dollars a year on Then I realised that Leunig is not a politician, but a the observatory, as part of the Australian Surveying and Land Information satirist. We looked into his mirror, and we saw-a Group (AUSLIG) in the Department of Administrative Services. This money little distorted, but recognisably ours-our own m ean allows scientists to fire laser beams at passing satellites for up to 16 hours a world and, as Swift said, every man's face but our own: day, six days a week, through the country's fourth biggest optical telescope. malice through the looking glass, Leunig's existen­ While this may sound like the ultimate game of space invaders-using real tial pain, our own existential guilt. Only laughter beams and UFOs-it is actually one of the many unheralded scientific tasks keeps hope alive. that underpins a modem society. It would take a great dea l to persuade m e that a Today's satellites are equipped with special reflectors. These reflectors book should be suppressed, or a cartoonist hanged return light from any angle back in the direction it came. When a laser beam (som e architects of public buildings, maybe). Litera­ strikes a satellite in orbit, the light is reflected back to the beam's origin. ture in particular offers itself as a privileged arena for Because the speed of light never varies, the time taken for light to travel to the great debates of society to be conducted in the the satellite and back- about a quarter of a second for the Optus satellites­ secrecy of our own hea ds. provides an exact measure of the distance the beam has covered. They must be heard in what Salman Rushdie de­ Such measurements are an important means of keeping track of the posi­ scribed, in his 1989 Herbert Read Memorial Lecture, tions of satellites. It's easy to calculate where orbiting satellites should be, as 'the voice rooms' in the great house we live in, in but the unforeseen forces in space can move them off track. Knowing precise­ which one day you may find an empty and unimpor­ ly where satellites are is important for their management and for interpreting tant looking room where the information they gather. But with a worldwide network of 40 satellite laser ranging stations­ there are voices ... voices that seem to be whisper- there is another one in Western Australia financed by the American space ing just to you ... talking about th e house, about agency, NASA-much more can be achieved. By comparing measurements everyone in it, about everything that is happening between stations, latitudes, longitudes, and altitudes on earth can be deter­ and has happened and should happen. Some of them mined with great accuracy-to within a centimetre at present and to within a speak exclusively in obscenities, some arc bitchy, millimetre in the near future. These measurements now form one of the bases some are loving, some are funny, some are sad. The of determination of datum points for mapping. m ost interesting voices are all of these at once ... Being able to pinpoint when a measurement was taken is an important literature is the one place in any society where component of the ability to compare measurements between stations and within the secrecy of our own heads, we can hear match different measurements at the same station. Accurate measurement of voices talking about everything in every possible time, and the synchronising time measurement between stations, is a prima­ way. The reasons we ensure that the privileged ry concern. So Orroral has the important role of maintaining and distributing arena is preserved is not that writers wa nt the in Australia the world time standard, known as co-ordinated universal time. absolute fr eedom to say and do whatever they Position measurements using satellite laser ranging are now so accurate, please, it is that all of us need that little, unimpor­ it's possible to detect tiny changes in average land and sea surface levels over tant looking room . We do not need to call it sacred, time periods of less than a year. The technology is already being used to help but we do need to remember that it is necessary ... determine the influence of the Greenhouse effect on raising ocean levels. It Wherever in the world the little room of literature can also be used to detect the earth's wobble, as it spins on its axis, and the has been closed, sooner or later the wall s have come minute continental movements along fault lines which presage earthquakes. tumbling !own. The Japanese, in particular, are interested in setting up a network of ranging stations to monitor such seismic movements. It is hard to find words plain enough to write such a The Orroral Observatory is typical of the unobtrusive scientific operations truth. • that keep a modem country functioning. •

Moira Rayner is a lawyer and freelance journalist. Tim Thwaites is a freelance science writer.

VoLUME 5 NuMBER 7 • EUREKA STREET 25 CoMMEMORATIONs: 1

PAUL ORMONDE

/ Fed up Eireann

L N., TO ''NCAO O'CONNO,, ' disapproval of subsidised improve­ new generation around the world is ment schem es; there was also an aware that ISO years ago Ireland attitude, often concealed, that Irish suffered a famine. Ironically, her song fecklessness and lack of economy 'Famine' makes the point that there were bringing a retribution that really was no famine, because there would work out best in the end,' was plenty of foo d. Foster writes. It's just that the food was not on So Irish landholders with con ­ the tables of those who needed it, tracts to send their agricultu ra I and the United Kingdom Govern­ produce to England continued to do ment could not bring itself to a so. Irish peasant fanners who relied determined intervention that might on their small plantings of potatoes have eff ectivel y aJ! eviated th e for their daily survival were largely among the farmer classes,' he says. hunger. The Act of Union in 1801 left to have faith in Providence and Right now, around the world made Ireland and England one the free m arket when their potato people of Irish b

26 EUREKA STREET • SEPTEMBER 1995 Louis de Paor: 'The only thing you the execution of Charles I, arrived need to know about Ireland is that I in Dublin as civil and military left it.' Most Australians of Irish Governor of Ireland. background now have few or no links So Ireland, still in royalist hands, with Ireland, nor any m emory of was co nquered yet again, w ith family talk of the 'home' country. It cruelties, particularly at the battles is as if their forebears, having left of Drogheda and Wexford, which Ireland, left its m emories too. They seem to remain in Irish mem ory even wanted to start afresh. Perhaps, as more trongly and bitterly than the one participant in the Melbourne fa mine. Cromwell set in train the commem oration group commented, dispossession of Irish Catholics of that was a good thing. It made them their holdings and of power in their Australians unambiguou ly. own land. He set the scene for an The idea that the Irish wanted to executive authority based in London, forget the famine-and other painful and the establishment of Protestant m emories of Irish life-is reinforced and English landlordism . 'A terrible record', in David Fitzpatrick's moving study Over the the next 50 years Penal cartoon, left , from Oceans of Consolation (Melbourne Laws were enforced restricting the Weekly Freem an, University Press 1995), based on 111 access of Catholics to education, land 16th April, 188 1. letters exchanged between Irish ownership and public office, ensuring Photography came emigrants to Australia in the 19th that in time they would be reduced in too late to recmd century and those who stayed in to serfdom . On the dea th of any the famine. before and after the famine. In the Ireland. The famine is mentioned Catholic landowner, the land auto­ years immediately after the famine, only in passing. matically went to any son who would the pace of migration doubled. Thinking about the famine-and embrace Protestantism. In 1600, The descendants of the original researching what happened- h as Protestants owned 10 per cent of the Irish diaspora in Australia have little h elped participants to better under­ land; by 1 788 they owned 95 per awareness of the famine-even older stand them selves as Australians of cent, according to a recent TV docu­ Australians whose grandparents had Irish background- why most Irish mentary on the famine When Ire­ som e experience-if no t of the in Australia started life at the bottom land Starved produced for Radio famine- of its grim aftermath, rarely of the social pile, and even now, T elefi s Eireann. The Church of spoke of it. In Melbourne, the Famine having clawed their way to respect­ Ireland, which can be traced back to Commemoration Group has been ability in what was until relatively the pre-Reformation Church, was the fo rmed to mark the occasion with a recently a predominantly Anglo­ established church, gaining m ost of series of events which link the Irish Sa xon culture, are still under­ its tithes fr om resentful Catholic experience with famine today. They represented in the social and finan­ peasants and tenant farmers. feel that in the blotting of the mem­ cial power structures of the nation. By 1840, Benjamin Disraeli, later ory, something of va lue has been It was mainly the Catholic Irish to become Prime Minister but then a lost. An exhibition of famine m em ­ who suffered in the famine. They 36-year-old reforming Tory, was able orabilia called Gorta (Irish for fam­ were the laborers and the peasants to declare in the House of Commons: ine or hunger) has been held in Ad­ because the British made them so. A elaide at the Migration Museum and series of repressive m easures in the I want to see a public man is moving on to Canberra and Sydney. preceding ce nturies en s ure d come forward and say what the Convenor of the Melbourne group Protestant hegem ony in an over­ Iri sh question is. One says it is is humanities academic Val Noone, whelmingly Catholic land. a physical qu es tion, another a whose Irish forebears came to Aus­ The English first establish ed spiritual. Now it is the absence tralia just after the famine, as did the themselves in Ireland in the 12th of the aristocracy; now the forebears of his wife Mary Doyle. century under Henry II. It was a absence of railways. It is the Yet they inherited very little knowl­ Catholic England that did it- and Pope one cl ay and potatoes the edge of the famine and its significance Rom e was not entirely unhappy that next. A dense population from relatives or from their (Catho­ the troublesomely independent Irish inhabit the island where there lic) education. Another participant church might be brought is an established Church which Louis de Paor, an Irish academic now under better control. is not their church; a territorial living in Melbourne, r £erred to eth­ aristocracy, the richest of no-psychological research indicating I N 1541 , H EN RYVIII-no longer in whom live in a distant capital. that the Irish are the only ethnic communion with Rome-declared Thus they have a starving group in the United States who do himself King of Ire land, thus population, an alien Church not know their history. confirming what had b een a and the wea kest executive in Is the situation so different in developing de facto occupation of the world. Well, what would Australia? The late Vincent Buckley, the land for three centuries. In 1649, gentlemen say if they were as Irish as he was Australian, recalled Oliver Cromwell, fresh from over­ reading of a country in that the words of his Irish grandfather to throwing the English monarchy after position 1 They would say at

VoLUME 5 N uMBER 7 • EUREKA STREET 27 Centre for Strategic once: 'The remedy is n .: volu­ Whether the Irish, in control of th eir Economic Studies tion.' But the Iri sh could not own affairs, could have, or would have a revolution- why? have dealt with the fa mine any m ore Because Ireland is connected effectively than the English can only DIALOGUES ON with another more powerful be a m atter of speculation . country. T hen what is the What is su re is the legacy. The AusTRALIA 1s consequence? The connection Irish left Irela nd as they never had wi th England became the cause before. T h e youngest a nd fittest of the present state of lrelancL tended to be the emigrants, because FUTURE If the connection with England the weaker a nd poorer had ne ither Seminars in honour of th e late prevented a revolution and a the m ea ns nor the will to Professor Ronald Henderso n revolution was the on ly make the break. remedy, England logica ll y is in AucusT - Nov1 MHER 1995 the odious position of bein g the C EC IL Woonii AM -SM ITH, in her S EPTEMBER S EM INARS ca use of a.IJ the misery of masterly book The Great Hunger­ Ireland. Wh at then is the duty fl' eland 1845-1849, Hamis h 6 September of an Engli sh Minister? To Hamil ton 1962, wri tcs: effect by his policy all those Meeting Australia's changes which a revolu tion The famine left hatred behind. Environrnent Commitments would effect by force. That is Between Ireland

0 during the famine to ea c the di stress Cl of their tenants is well recorded. Paul Ormonde is a Me lbourne writer -< That many Irish landlo rds behaved and member of the Fa mine Com ­ badl y is also weU acknowledged. m em oration Group.

28 EUREKA STREET • SEPTEMBER 1995 C OMMEM ORAT ION : 2

F RANK O'SHEA The Devil's era

E ,MON "' v,,, sustained, obdurate courage.' contests of athletic yo uths and the died twenty years ago He may have regarded partition as laughter of comely maidens, this m onth at the age of his grea test failure. The 1948 declara­ whose firesides would be fo rum s ninety-three. tion of a republic caught him unawares for the wisdom of serene old age. In his day, Eamon de (he had just returned from a triumphant It would, in a word, be the home Valera was a world fi g­ world tour which included a visit to his of a people living the life that God ure. De Gaulle paid him old friend Daniel Mannix of Mclbou rn c desires that men should live. the suprem e and excep­ and ·m honorary seat in Federal Parlia­ tional! y rare tribute of m ent in Canberra while it was in Rare! y have words left their speaker speaking with him in session) and may have destroyed an y open to so much ridicule and mocking Englis h. John F. initiatives he could have taken on the abuse. But they were delivered at a time Kennedy seemed genu­ border. H e called on the British Foreign when Hitler had Europe by the throat inely honoured to m eet Secretary, Lord Hom e, in 1958 with a and there were signs that Fascism and him during hi s Irish vis­ proposal that in return for unity, Ireland its attendant evils might triumph. And it, turning back after the could rejoin the Commonwealth. It is while they might have given poor con­ formal goodbycs to hug known that Cardinal Dalton, his old solation to the thousands who trekked Dev's petite wife Sincad. school fri end, had made such a proposal out of Ireland in the middle years of the Two comments by British Secretary the previous year. century, at the time they were deli v­ for th e Dominions, M a lcolm He was a poor orator, with the bad ered they appealed to the all-pervading MacDonald, illustrate the kind of reac­ teacher's habit of trying to explain Catholic conservatism of Irish society. ti ons to him by a politician of hi s time. things too much. H e eschewed plain In contrast, what kind of vision has After one m eeting, MacDonald wrote, speaking and loved anything which been given to Ireland by de Valera's 'He began som ewhere about the birth savoured of wordiness and potential successors? The recent report of the of Christ and wants a commission of loopholes. To an outsider, this may Beef Tribunal shows us a country in four picked solely to give ... a judgm ent appear to be an almost endearing trait; which official corruption is at uncom­ as from God himself as to how the for someone looking for action- some­ fortable levels. Drug abuse, crime and world, and more particularly Ireland, one like Sinn Fein leader, Michael Col­ unwanted pregnancy are unsolved prob­ should have been ruled ... ' Notwith­ lins, say, it would have been infuriat­ lem s. The cosy firesides have been standing this annoying return to first ing. He had an obtuse, semi-theological replaced by television and talkback causes, MacDonald judged de Valera to mind, forever looking for exceptions radio. be 'the m ost cons istent and honest and extrem e cases; a lay ca rdinal, some With a mixture of ascetic remote­ statesman in his adherence to policies called him; 'a sacerdotal heron', was ness, unflinching self-belief and obdu­ and principles whom I have known in Professor (later Senator) John A. rate ruthlessness, de Valera led Ireland any part of the world.' Murphy's description . His ascetic mien through most of its first forty years of However, it is the fate of heroes and and ungainly walk led Gogarty to refer independence. H e founded a national­ villains to be judged by the standards of to him as 'a cross between a ist party which defied all conventional the times in which the judgm ents arc ""{X T corpse and a cormorant.' wisdom and precedent by never split­ made rather than by those of their own ting during his Lifetime. Not on I y did it times. By modern light, Dcv's m ethods v vHE HE WANTED, he could be not split but it beca me the archetype of and actions were at best inconsistent eloqucn t, as in his famous speech deliv­ di sciplined poli tica I success whose la t­ and devious, at worst dishonest and ered as a radio address on St Patrick's ter-day collapse is all the m ore stark for motivated by a lust for power. But he Day in 1943: that fact. had some notable successes. H e kept Although it had its interlude of his country together. One only has to That Ireland which we have internal savagery, everything that look at any of an umber of post-colonial drea med of would be the home for happened in Ireland after the founding examples in this century - Algeri a, a people who valued material ofFianna Fail in 1926 had the imprint of Libya, Vietnam, Cambodia, the central wealth on! y as the ba sis fur right democratic process. Dcv must be given American states, the former Soviet living, of a people who were much of the credit for that. e mpire, Portug uese colonies sa tisfi ed with fru gal comfort and For sure, the country he handed over everywhere- to realise the importance devoted their leisure to the things was backward, impoveris hed, theo­ of that achievement. Likewise, his of the spirit- a land whose cratic, a dreary Arcadia, but it was stable determined defence of neutrality was countryside would be bright with and democratic and ready for the reforms praised by his latest and by no means cosy home teacls, who e fields and of his successor Sean Lemass and those most flattering biographer, Tim Pat villages would be joyo us with w ho followed. • Coogan, as 'a diplomatic feat of high sounds of industry, with the Frank O'Shea is a teacher at Marist order and a remarkable display of romping of sturdy children, the College Canberra.

V OLUME 5 NUMBER 7 • EUREKA STREET 29 BooKs: l

Born-again tribesman

HcathcliH and the Great Hunger: Studies in Irish Culture, Terry Eagleton, Verso, l ')9S. 1'>1\N I K'>9H 4 932 6 HIU' SS'i.OO

IN'"' 1960,, T"' oecAoe of Shoed the Eagleton mind at work-eighty & Ward Stagbooks, I read Terry pages of peristaltic stringen cies Eagleton. Then I lapsed for thirty rolling out this new, immensely years. But Eagleton has now decided stimulating organic reading of its to have his say about Ireland, and I subj ect. am a reader again. In illuminating the Irish cultural Hea thcliff and the Great Hunger imagination it works for me on the was signalled last year by Eagleton's sam e c harged l evel as Oliver so crisis-racked, hyperbolic, improb­ attack on fellow Oxford don, R. F. MacDonagh's States of Mind. But able?' And: Foster, the Carroll Professor of Irish whereas MacDonagh's work is his­ History. Eagleton is a born-again tory illuminated by wide and pointed even if reality is not di sowned Irishman . This rebirth may have literary reference, Eagleton's history in Irish writing, then in a taken place some time ago; he says is scrupulously a matter of second­ venerable tradition from Sterne in his Preface that he has long been ary sources. For a literary scholar his to Beckett it is calculatedly a patron of Irish musical sessions, know ledge of Irish historiography is banal, opening an ironic rift and, I am told, he came close to strikingly broad and up to date-but between its own meagreness having recorded a ballad of his own it is strictly that; h e boasts no original and the self-consciously about the infamous airport at Knock, research, so that his preferen ces elaborate languages used to Co. Mayo. among the scholars and the argu­ record it. This bathetic gap But only now has he come to ments a re just that much more between form and content, of addressin g at length the Irish subj ect to the pressures of tribal which Ulysses is the supreme question, and his rebirth has been in loyalty and political persuasion. modern exampl e .. . the only form that he can conceive of But there is no question that he is as possible-as a nationalist, tribe of steeped in the literature of Ireland The s u ggestiveness of such the Gael-although an opponent in (certainly from the 19th century and analysis just keeps rippling. the late controversy rather sneered at least up to those coeval events, Yet for all Eagleton's famili arity that he was one of the gentry the publication of Ulysses and the with the body of Irish writing and Eaglctons of Gal way, a failed branch foundation of the Irish Free State), the acuteness of his observations on of the Anglo-Irish Ascendancy. and the real strength of his historical it, I get no sense that he actually Apart from proclaiming four, reading is the weight it brings enjoys, let alone loves, literature. unnamed, Irish grandparents, the one to his discussion of the Bodies of literary work arc solely germane source that Eagleton literature. loci for realising a host of social, himself chooses to claim is his political, psychological proble­ moth e r's birth in the same H EATHCLIFF AND TI-lE Great matics. Novels exist to exemplify Lancashire mill-town of Bacup that Famine would be worth it alone for (rather more than to confront) various had 'produced the great Irish radical the treatment of realism or its national dilemmas. So total an Michael Davitt'. absence in Irish fiction. If the nine­ absence of expressions of admira­ The book is both exhilarating in teenth century novel is a phenom­ tion or pleasure I find unnerving. its analytical ripples, and at the same enon of the stable, bourgeois society, The approval or disapproval that time oddly n arrow, even naive, in its then, argues Eagleton, you don't look Eagleton gives off is premised on a emotional sympathies. The chapter, for it- not in its normal fo rm- in writer's political percipience or tribal for example, 'Form and Id eology in Ireland. 'How is one to produce realist identity. The heat or cold become the Anglo-Irish Novel' is a gem of narratives for a history which is itself predictable. Joyce, in Eagleton's

30 EUREKA STREET • SEPTEMBER 1995 Though there is a good deal of evidence that the landlords' overall conduct was indeed less than creditable, there is an important sense in which such evidence is finally bes ide the point. 'There are no good or bad se ttlers,' Sartre once remarked, 'only settlers'.

Coming before judge Eagleton the settlers cannot 'scape whipping. It has to be said that fo r him the identificatory label 'the Anglo-Irish' is a term of opprobrium. For Yeats it might designate 'no petty people, the people of Burke, the people of Swift ... ', but for Eagleton it is the people responsible for the Original Sin, and, in this case, probably irredeemable. Every m ention of them is a slur. A logically wobbly remark about Swift gives the idea:

To hold that Reason itself is alway true and just, though scaling, does well, Yeats badly. that the killing of Irish children th e reason of individuals is Whatever of the private or plat­ under the age of five was an weak and wavering, is to Members of form man, the Eagleton of these pages unacknowledged but widely suggest among other things the Eagleton has little time for the light touch. executed English strategy in that the upper-class Anglican pantheon: On the couple of occasions when it ea rly modern Ireland. Establishmen t in Ireland was in Maud Gonne, left, does show it tends to a coarseness­ principle eminently rational, 'an Englishwoman the heavy hand rather than the light There follow a number of qualifi­ though one would have a hard l

V o LUME 5 N uMBER 7 • EUREKA STREET 31 ical rift between landlords and N obel Prize by them .' Or 'Among The pity of it is that Eagleton has peasantry proved insuperable. her other achievements [Charlotte let loose in his book a bitter, butting (Eagleton claims that the great motif Despard] was deeply dis- polemic, which is ultimately a of the fiction of Maria Edgeworth liked by W.B. Yeats'. distraction from his marvellously and Lady Morgan is leadership.) rich, new landscape. The chance of a T h e Celtic and then Literary A s FOR LADY Gn.E.GORY, 'before jibe turns up in the most unexpected Revivals of the 19th century were a she cam e to collect Gaelic folk tales, places and Eagleton won't let it go. substi tutc for this radical shortcom ­ her future husband William had The 19th century novel is: ing: 'An aesthetic hegemony replac­ fram ed the infamous Gregory clause es the failed search for political lead­ in the depths of the Fam ine, a m ea ns in volved in a ceaseless self­ ership.' Eagleton is not inclined to test which ... no doubt despatched censorship, a silent slanting be generous to the enterprise. A tra­ some unnecessary extra thousands and reg ulati ng of itself which dition, not so much of lea dership as to their graves'. seeks to negotiate between the of summoning one's tribe to leader­ As far as all three were concerned, demands of truth and the ship, was doomed. Yea ts was: the Gaelic League was 'the most requirements of political precious achievem ent of the so­ diplomacy. The Nineteenth the la st great inheritor of that ca ll ed Celtic Revival, with an influ­ Century Irish novelists are thus lineage. Viewed subjectively, ence far beyond the charmed circle among the first hi storical that tradition was full of of the Abbey Theatre'. revisionists ... ublime good will, ge nerous Apart from his prefatory familial intentions, dedica ted self­ bow to Michael Davitt, only once in Heathcliff and Lhe Great Hunger sacrifice. Viewed objectively, it the book docs Eagleton unequivo­ is emotional partisanship of a high represented one of th e most cally salute anyone. For five curious order. Eagleton has no truck with devious pieces of political pages the muscle of his writing what he sees as the illusion of polit­ opportunism in modern Irish collapses and h e gi vcs u s three ical neutrality, but Roy Foster, the history. But it was an panegyrics that read as entries for man seen as the arch-enemy, even opportunism to no ava il. The the frustratingly non-existent Irish som ething of the Anti-Christ in the Ascendancy stopped their ears Dictionary of Biography. Three matter of Ireland, is hardly open to to the ea rn est invocations of republican activi ts, Constance the sam e charge of denunciatory fury. Ferguson, O'Grady and Yeats. M arkiewicz (the onl y Anglo-Irish No doubt a revisionist cannot Instead, they pulled up stumps person ever known to have been afford such righ teousness, but if and hea ded for the Home redeemed), Maude Gonne and C har­ Foster is actually ca mpaigning for a Countries. lotte D espard (both Englishwomen particular tribe, he is doing it with and known to the Irish, as Eagleton infinite ly more subtl e t y. The Inevitably then, the major literary concedes, as Maud Gone Mad and strategy must lie somewhere in the representatives of this people are Charlotte D esperate). concessionary three-step of his argu­ trea ted without enthusiasm . Synge There is som ething a little too ments and the choice of his non­ makes 'befuddl ed comments on the correct and critically abeyant in mainstream (as vi ewed by a n

32 EUREKA STREET • SEPTEMBER 1995 BooKs: 2

MARGA RET COFFEY Home and a-weigh Oceans of Consolation: Personal Accounts of Irish Migration to Australia, David Fi tzpatrick, Melbourne University Press, ISBN 0 522 845800 RRP $69 .95 Sailing to Australia: Shipboard Diaries by Nineteenth Century British Emigrants, Andrew Hassam, Melbourne University Press, ISBN 0 522 846726 RRP $2.4.95 I N JuLY, 1858, FANNY D AV IS whiled away the journey to and strictures and warnings but the resounding note is one of Australia by noting in her shipboard diary that of her fellow kindness. So many of the writers have a capacity to draw steerage passengers som e two dozen would be 'over in a aside veils, between here and there, now and hereafter. They corner singing, .. .in another place will be a lot of Scotch girls dream of each other. Fathers and mothers say good-bye to dancing ... then the Irish will be squatting down under the sons and daughters, commend them to God and urge them to boats talking over everybody's business but their own and 'Strive to meet m e in Heaven'. The reader knows there will vowing eternal hatred to the English-' be no other opportunity and understands, I think, that funda- At least the talking part of Fanny's animadversions on the mentally they knew that too. Knew it increasingly as time Irish rings true. It's an observation echoed by historian David went by. Fitzpatrick in his Oceans of Consolation when he writes that His book, David Fitzpatrick says in his preface, 'invokes 'the Ireland of many emigrant imaginations was a place of the m emory of two historians who bequea thed m e som e- relentless conversation. Letters, words, and the memory of thing of their passion- but, alas, only shadows of their words drew separated kinsfolk together, even as their diver- conviction'. He is referring to Manning Clark and to Brian gent interests dragged them apart.' It is into the centre of that Fitzpatrick. The passion is certainly there, in the extraordi- pull and push that David Fitzpatrick draws us via a collection nary, m eticulous research through which each correspond- of 111 letters, of which 55 were sent to Australia and 56 to ent is placed in a many-faceted milieu and each set of family Ireland between the years 1843 and 1906. They represent fortunes is traced. (He arrives at some wonderful connec- exchanges between 14 different groups of people, for the tions: the most lyrically eloquent writer has an intimate most part between family m embers separated by emigration, relationship with Donald Bradman. You must read to find and virtually all of whom are people of humble origin and out.) If his remark about conviction implies scepticism, then minimal education-emigrants of the steerage classes. They that is there too, usefully questioning received ideas-and are people therefore who hold much in common with the notably alert to ideas about class loyalty, sectarianism and great majority of nineteenth century Irish emigration to the nature of religious identity. There are moments when it Australia, even when they are Protestant, not Catholic. intersects too crudely the letter writers' expressions of reli- Our images of Irish emigration to Australia post-Famine gious belief and our reading of them. Is language never the are so often of mute figures, sometimes solitary figures, but unconstructed expression of something at the cen- more frequently great crowds of figures, and we attach to E tre, just sheer testimony, one feels like asking. them archetypal stories. Very often, of course, they are borrowed images, disguising the fact that Irish emigration tO ANNY DAVIS, WHO MADE THOSE INITI AL REMARKS about her Australia had a different character from Irish emigration to shipboard companions, features in Andrew Hassam 's Sailing America. David Fitzpatrick makes the point that during the to Australia, an analysis of shipboa rd diaries kept by nine- Great Famine there was rather little movem ent to Australia, teenth century British emigrants. It's not the sort of thing that Irish people settled here against a background of gradual you would present to the relative doing the family history, recovery and social reorganization. To realize this makes unless they were well into discourse analysis. Andrew Has- those emigrants' stories no less moving-recovery was rela - sa m 's preoccupation is with division of time and space and ti ve and reorganisation m ea nt rupture. The individual voices social organisation, the way diary accounts organise and David Fi tzpatrick lets us hear tell us these things and at the explain the journey. A shipboard diary insisted on a begin- sa me time they tell of us of the complexity of Irish social, ning, a middle and an end (I can understand that!); it economic and religious life and association. So, with this in described zones demarked from one end of the ship to mind, one very good way of observing the 150th anniversary another (zones proper to sailors, single men, married couples this year of the start of the Great Famine is to read Oceans of and single women ), and it conveyed the vertical social strat- Consolation. ifica tion on board that mimicked class rul es in Britain. It is a big book, over 600 pages, and even though many of Sailing to Australia reads like a thesis, with all the footnotes the letters are surprisingly long, most of the text is Fitz- embedded in the text. The extracts from letters are eked out patrick's accounting, interpretation and refl ection. N either in a way that makes one think of tissue donation-oh for the the footnotes, the preface nor the piece on sources at the end whole live body once m ore. Perhaps the observations being are to be missed but it is the letters that compel. For all the made are not banal, but by the time one gets to the end, the distances, real and experiential, between the correspondents, most vivid impressions have been made by the diary extracts and for all the formalities of letter-writing, they are pro- themselves and by the fact that so few arc extant despite the foundly present to one another. Sometimes family affection departure from Britain between 1788 and 1880 of 1.3 million is spoken of as if it were only a contemporary possibility, now free immigrants, eight times the number of people who were that we are all properly reconstructed. The letters of Oceans transported from Britain to Australia. • of Consolation tell us otherwise-they are suffused with yearning, for people mostly, and for place. There are laments Margaret Coffey is an ABC broadcaster and producer.

VOLUME 5 NUMBER 7 • EUREKA STREET 33 B OOKS: 3

Mustard gas to silicon chip

Age Of Extremes, The Short Twentieth Century, 1914-1991 , Eri c Hobsbaw m, Mi chael joseph, London, 1995. 11\SN 07 18 1 3307 2 RRI' $45.00

and 1974, preceded by the announced th t.: dea th of God ? He Age of Catastrophe. T he must surely have di ed in Flanders or Gold en Age conta in s the the Ukraine; failing that surely he Cold War, the Korean War, was fated to perish in Si beria, at the G ulags' winding down, Auschwitz, or H iroshim a? Mao's Grea t Leap and his T hat thousands, t hen millions of C ui tural Rcvol uti on, Vi etnam, the people, many fro m de mocra cies, bloody partition of India, Arab-Isra eli with their belief in human rights, in Ho""' wM, one of BIsaiah Berlin remembers it World War, which smashed the old for four years, and 10 million dead, only as the most terrible century in order and set the tone for the rest of made m e feel, as an ado lescent Western hi story, Rene Dumont as a this century. It sm ashed not simply hearing of this, that I was li ving in a century o f massacres and wars; the political ord ers and the system society of lunatics, or som - William Golding thinks this the m ost of states-that was bad enough­ nambulists. violent century in human history. but just about everything else be­ Only two of the other nine really sides. A USTRAL IA WAS STILL li ving the think much of it. Thus Spanish Nobel T hi s fi rs t Great War was a lie that the First War had been a La urea te Severo Ochoa la uds the bayonet driven into the heart of fa mous victory, and worth all the marc h of scien ce, while Italian li beralism , of humani s m, of belief in death and the troubl e into the l930s. sc ie n ce N o be l La urea t e, Rita humankind's intrinsic reasonabl e­ I could hardly stand it. D id no one Montalcini, thinks the em ergence ness and sociability, our desire for read Wilfred O wen, or Rem arque? of women aft er centuries of repres­ freedom, of inevitable progress, even Hobsbawm is or was a Marx ist, sion, plus the ri se of the fourth estate, of democracy itself. People thence­ and a polymath, and examines many to have made it all worth while. forth could be trea ted as things, as differe nt things in thi s book­ But at best it's one, or two cheers means to whatever society rcqui red, science, culture, economics, politics, Modernism prefiguring for the 20th century, and those of us and not as end in thcmsclvc , as war, but he doesn't, I think, rea li e madness: a still from who haven't been enjoy ing oursel vcs Kant put it. how propaga nda was born and grew the film, Hitler, A Film nearly as much as we'd expected, No more the sanctity, or even up so fa st during WW I. from Germany, by now know the reason why. the va lue of human life. T heSomme, T his has been the century of Hans ju rgen Syberberg. And yet Hobsbawm finds among Verdun, T annenberg fi xed all that propaganda, of peopl e mobilisati on, all this a Golden Age, between 1945 nonsense. Hadnot Nietzsche already and the exposure of Man's total

34 EUREKA STREET • SEPTEMBER 1995 sugges tibility, and the strength of Hobsbawm is masterly in his econ o mic conseq uences of the his desire to belong: to the group, the analysis of Western capitalism, its decline of fa mil y; th e sexual crowd, the nation; far, far stronger crises, its recuperations and its revolution, feminism or the youth than his desire to be free, and enormous wealth creation, and the culture. We must wait and sec what independent-minded. Erich Fromm social goods which this wealth m ade turns up. wrote a book The Fear of FTeedom to possible-the grea t m edical leap There are long chapters on the explain the attraction of Nazism for forward, the enormous strides in food c ultural his t o ry of th e West . the German petit bourgeoisie of the production, and the resulting popu­ Hobsbawm is no great admirer of art 30's, but the phenomenon pre- dates lation/pollution crisis we are now etc. between the wars, or after. Nor that time, and extended far beyond living through . Wclfarism , and the of cultural relativism and humans the Germans. interventionist big-spending State, having a right to everything, a right And lo ng before WWI, the rode on the backs of the never-ending to do their own thing. Hobbes' Man Austrian, Grillparzer, wrote prophet­ boom which ended in 1974. in the State of Nature was like that. ically, 'Huma nity; Nationality; ,.,..., Then the landslide started. Eventually he had to call up a State Bestiality' (t h ough bestiality has and some laws . many roots, not one). Hitler and Mus­ .1. HE CLO ilA L MARKET in goods and But the rea l worri es for Hobs­ solini, Lenin and Stalin, Lloyd George services, labour, ideas, life-styles, bawm as we approach th e and all the succeeding generati ons of capital and technology, has produced Mille nnium are the population populist politicians and charismatic a world w here everyone lives or explosi o n a nd en vironmenta l leaders saw through the Enlighten­ wants to live in cities, and take on mayhem . Not war-although war m e nt a nd liberal m yth s of the life-styles which the existing and social chaos could easily follow, individualis m a nd reason and inhabitants are believed to possess. surely? Christian compassion, and behaved Whether the six billion global This is a deeply sa ti sfying book according! y. inhabitants now, or the 10 billion by a man who has brought distinction The Churches, the Liberals, the who will be here in 2030, will achieve to everything he has attempted in a Social Democrats, and the Conserv­ the promised affluence and desired long life of struggling to make sense atives had failed their adherents, and status advancement, is a giga ntic of our collective lives, and, latterly, always would, and this, along with problem fo r a future which Hobs­ by his remembrance of things past. Depression and its humiliations for bawm comprehensively refuses to He does this with erudition, wit, ca pitalists and economists, destroyed predic t. We canno t prophesy­ and completely without rancour or just about all rational hope. having tried so often and having dogmatism. To review it with justice, Apparently people cannot live fail ed. But the wea ther looks terrible, without yawning omissions, is like without hope, so Fascism, Comm­ he thinks. trying to play a piece of Paga nini on unism and N azism took over the H e notes the em ergence since a school orchestra violin. ideological agenda. They were the '70s of enormous transnational Stalin's last ride: bust delusional systems-manic defences corporations and m ega-banks, which removed from Prague after again s t anxiety, and given the are rapidly sheph erding the world's Max Teichmann is a freelance writer the fa ll of European insights of the leaders into the trade, finance, produ c tion a nd and reviewer. Communism. weakness of their m asses, totalitar­ communica tions into a few ia n social and political forms pens, running over politica l followed naturally. borders and into national The technology for full psycho­ c ultures a nd political logical and economic mobilisation systems as they go. was now available, the media willing H e neither criticises nor and able, so ruling elites h ave used prognosticates, as is perhaps this m ode of governance ever since. proper for an ex- Marxist Advertising and P.R. blossom ed internationalist and admir­ correlatively. er of economic growth. But As has been noted elsewhere, others can . Hobsbawm is determinedly one­ He a lso n otes dime n sion al when exa mining workings of som e oth er Fascism, Nazism and Stalinism . He Marxist predictions besides is sparing on how the Fascist and centralisation; Finanz Kap­ Nazi societies worked, what were ital, machines replacing t h eir appea ls, a nd w h at t h ei r workers; a burgeoning army m embers thought they were seeing; of unemployed, widening and on what living next door to gaps between rich and poor Stalin, and Beria, or the Great Helms­ people, and countries; the man and his40 million dead Chinese actual immiscration of th was rea l! y like. Eastern Europe, under poor. But he won't predict Communism for 45 or 50 years, gets the possible outcomes. li ttle mention. Similarly with the socio-

VOLUME 5 NUMilER 7 • EUREKA STREET 35 I AN B ELL Disraeli's Reven_

Hutton contends that Thatcher­ ism directl y exacerbated these problems through financialliberali­ vv--~· / sa tion, tax cuts, soaring consumption a nd 'intcrnationalisation' of the ~ economy. Indeed, the Thatcher­ --- /,..../ Major years have seen the deepest ""_..... The State We're In, Wi ll Hutton, recessions of the post-war period and Jn n BN 0 2~A 031'itlN l HR I' $39.9S Manufacturing barely grew in the pe ri od. For Hutton, both the stru c­ in this influence, for the British tures of the British political econom y economy has not only been through and recent policy have militated continued relative decline, but in aga ins t a do pti o n of th e more recent years, decline accelerated by successful strategies identified with public policy. Indeed, according to Germany and japan; namely, co­ Will Hutton, economics editor of operative and inclusive pattern s of The Guardian in the mid-I 990s, politico-econo mi c devel opm e n t IN~'M'n 19n' c"'""' tho Btiti'h there is the end of a sense of belonging centred on productivity growth state elite sponsored the crea tion of to a successful national project. through innovation. the first libe ral , international Hutton's prime focus is a key Hutton's reform agenda is major. economic order. The arrangements problem in Anglo-American political It includes curbs on transitional it built lasted until at least 1914, and economics: low investment. H e finance and the creatio n of new represented the apogee of British suggests, provocatively, that the arrangem ents to promote industrial power and laissez-faire capitalism. proble m is not ' th e burde n of innovation such as public in vcst­ Thereafter, the post-1945 efforts of government', but the financially­ .ment banks and equity links between Labour Governments notwithstand­ o riente d c h aracter of Briti s h finance and industry. He also argues ing, there was a tendency in Britain ca pitalism. Invoking an influential for the 'republ icanisation' of the cen­ to treat the nine teenth century strand of historical scholarship, tral bank to make it more fe deral, experience as 'foundational' and to Hutton contends that the financial accountable to society's di verse in­ institutionalise the terms of its past sector centred on 'the City' has been terests and focused on the goa l of an success. di sengaged from, and uncommitted inclusive and cohesive society. Hut­ ln this li ght, the Thatcherite to, long-term Britis h indus trial ton is also keen to defend ancl 'demo­ effort to revive aspects of Victorian development virtually from the start cratisc' the welfare state to give the liberalism seems less surprising. It of the industrial revolution. middle-class a strong stake while is also unsurprising that the forces Tt s focus has been on maximising constructing a politi call y sustain- promoting this course represent a short-term gains globall y. As a result, able set of cross-class and partial reassertion of the dominant British industry has had to pay inter-generational barga ins. coalition of the pre-World War I era premium prices for capital, and focus associated with the defence forces­ cxcessi vel yon short-term eli vic\ ends A CRITIQUE Of THE BRITISII State the finan cial complex known as 'the and the fea r of take-over, at the is a second key concern of Hutton's City' and the Conservative Party. expense of investment in research book. He deems it only 'semi-mod­ The British case casts a long and development (R&D), and its ern' because th e power of the shadow over those societies, like workforce. This, in tum, has meant majority in parliament is virtually Australia, in the Anglo-American a largely adversarial relationship unrestrained, a kind of 'elective dic­ mould, especia ll y in econ omi c with unions, aimed at limiting wage tatorship'. It was this structural policy. There is, however, a paradox costs and, latterly, union power. feature whi c h e n a ble d the

36 EUREKA STREET • SEPTEMBER 1995 Thatcherites to prosecute their tern of growth centred on 'the C ity' ? agenda so vigorously. Hutton is also The core of Hutton's program is to scathing about the lack of a more balance the financial form of British elaborated division of powers within capitalism with mcchanisrns for the state, which has impaired, inter 'republicanisation'-defincd as broad alia, the supervisory capacities of access to social processes to all the judiciary. More generally, the sections of business and all classes. lack of a written constitution under­ In an era of intensified neo-libcr­ mines the ability of the state elite to

V OLUME 5 N UMBER 7 • EUREKA STREET 37 - ,)

BooKs: 5

K EITH CAM PBELL Had we but world enough, and time

The naturalism is bolstered with "'"""'NG", '"" The Phy~ics of Immortality, brTea thtakin"'·'gl 'y, bold book. Tipler is an expli cit redu ction ism. Physics is a mathematical physicist, whose Modern Cosmolog}', God and the the base of everything. Physical expertise is in cosmology, the explo­ Rc~urrcct ion of the Dead, Fra nk reality is the whole of reality. T here J. Tipler London, Macmillan, 199:1. ration of the implica ti ons of general arc not even any minds, as distinct !first puhlrshcd bv l )ouhlcday 1994). relativity and quantum m echanics spiritual substances, in the Tipler I'>I:N 0 3.'\.1 ()[,' ()41-{ 1\1"1' SW.9'> for the nature and destiny of the scheme of things . So one migh t universe. That is rare enough. Tipler m etaph ysical implica tions, and that expect a straight-forward naturalistic is a m em be r of an even m ore any attempt to place positivistic hostility to the claims of traditional uncommon species, the cosmologist restrictions on the scope and depth reli gions. But not a bit of it. T ipler able to write for the layperson. of scientific enquiry is a fatal sclf­ argues that cosmology actuall y It is the work of a prodigious m u til a tion. supports what he takes to be the two reader, with many appeals to philos­ He adopts, again to applause from most important components of an y oph y, and many digressions into the this reviewer, astra ight-forward and religion- be lief in God, and the arca na of scriptural interpretation­ uncompromising naturalism. This expectation of life after death. in severa I religions. It is replete with is a book exploring the being of God How can this be? As m any appre­ citations from holy books, and the and the hope for eternal life; yet it c iate, the eq uatio ns in genera l disquisitions of the heroes of the rests on no appea Is to realitic , forces, relativity w hic h describe the fo undation of the United States. This o r happenings beyond the range s tructure a nd evo lutio n of the makes for more enjoyment, but less recognised in contemporary ph ysica l universe as a whole do not, of them­ foc us in the argument. theory. selves, specify a unique world. T hey The author begins splendidly, There arc no ghosts in Tipler's must be supplem ented by a deli t iona l insisting that until the current machines. And he has no qualms in assumptions- about the total m.ass divorce of theology from m ainstrea m identifyin g humans as machines, of the unive rse, for example- before physical science ends, theology will quantum engines of a complexity of an unambiguous hi story can be told. labour under a f

38 EUREKA STREET • SEPTEMBER 1995 to 'bounce', giving rise to another proved version of familiar human collapse and use it to ensure their expansion cycle. For this is but a life; his sch em e has a place for bea­ survival and ben efit to the very last. new variant of the old nightmare of tific vision, for being taken up into Especially as time draws to its the Eternal Return, which Tipler the Infinite Mind that is the Omega close, the whole Universe can be rejects. Accordingly, the world will Point. considered as a unity acting as a collapse to a singularity, of infinite How can these things be? The single being. Tipler calls this the temperature and density, at a finite argument depends on the assurnption Omega Point in its Immanence. It is time hence. This is the Omega Point that Life is driven by an imperative this complex which is making the (the nam e comes from T eilhard de to survival, and will do whatever it (s uccessful) attempt to m obilise total Chardin, but the science owes noth­ can to ensure its continuation. information by re producing, in ing to that mystical palaeontologist ). Human civilization on Earth is pe rfect e mulation (computer There are no How does this make possible any doom ed. We already know that long simulationL all the human beings version of eternal life? Well, there before we exhaust the potential that have ever lived. Including us. ghosts in will certainly be no fl esh surviving resources of this planet, it w ill That, indeed, is a bare minimum. the far from halcyon conditions to becom e uninhabitably hot for Tipler endorses the 'Many Worlds' Tipler's be encountered as the Last Days Intelligent Machines implem.ented interpretation of Quantum Theory. approach. But life is possible, for life in DNA bodies. So to survive we will So all possible human li ves- which machines. is, by Tipler's definition, an infor­ have to decamp. did not get a run in this particular mation-processing phe nomenon. world, but did in som e other-join And he has Life requires no specific embodi­ the multitude. This 'resurrection' as ment. It consists in the collection, re­ computer program s running on high no quahns in tention, and usc of information, sub­ power machines wi 11 be experienced ject to development by processes of by us as renewed life. It will admit of identifying natural selection. Information can indefinite m eliorati on. As the work be coded in any number of different of the Omega Point, it can be fairly humans as structures, of ever increasing resist­ described as God's resur- ance to extrem es of temperature and recting us to everl asting life. machines, pressure. It is life so under- stood that endures to the end. H OW DO WE GET LAUN CHED on quantum Humanity will in fa ct spread into this fabulous interstellar career ? BUT HOW CAN there be eternal life deep space, not as DNA devices, but Tipler has a fascinating discussion engines of a if the whole of Reality culminates as cybernetically indistinguishable of the technical problem s and possi­ and time ends at the Omega Point? emulations in computers made of bilities. The current human frame is complexity of Experience is what tn

VOLUME 5 N UMBER 7 • EUREKA STREET 39 I , I

I'

-~ small obj ect at a di stance of several What arc we to make of this religio n, it is important always to ., ,, :I il. \, Jl light years, we will need a m etal len s sequence of theses, so dram atic in bear in mind the sea-change that t he a billion kilometres across, but of thcmscl vcs, and presented with such concepts arc undergoing. very li ght construction (2 tri Ili on typically America n hyperbole? T h ere For exa mple, the love of God, tonsl), orbiting in ou r own arc minor interna l inconsistencies, which is to sustain our resurrected solar system. T his lens can and what arc acknowledged selves to immorta li ty, turns o ut to be manufactured in space by to be s peculations be t he ca lc ul ated 'altruism' of <1 making usc of conven ie nt rcsti ng on as­ system m aximizing its own survi va I iron-nickel asteroids. Tipler, sumptions chances. lndccd all the 'activities' of <1 true American, even costs God need careful interprct

40 EUREKA STREET • SEPTEMBER 1995 present book, we arc told that the philosoph y could well be firmer. One information which saturates the End unexpect ed nca r-isotropy of the winces at naive, unnecessary, and of the World, providing the infinite background radiation, as we now find ac tually self-damaging appeals to mind of God and the fi nite minds of it, is not to be cxpla ined by som e Lcibniz's Identity of Indiscernibl cs creatures. But the argument docs not peculiarity of the original expansion, and Be rkeley's Idealism . And on the do enough to show that apart from but ' in m y solution, the tempera­ Eternal Return, this is scarcely a the resurrected programmes, there tures arc the sa m e because other­ carica ture of his discussion: will be the integrati on, and purpose, wise the universe in the fa r future and will, necessary for a rea l Person. would be inhospitable for life.' (p l 52) The Eternal Return is an obnox­ The O mega Point is said to wish for Tipler is a He goes on the recommend this ious doctrine, since it renders allli fe som e ou tcom cs, and to decide against 'solution' by equivocating on 'deter­ ultimately futile, undercutting any others, but the requisite unity fo r crash-through mine'. T he future 'determines' the idea of genuine progress and re al this is not established. present only in the second, inferen­ culmination. It is thus a philosoph y Opinions will differ on whether or crash tial sense, of the two distinguished of despair. Furthermore, Nietzsche resurrection as a mere emulation above. We arc left without a mecha­ held to th e view, and this ga ve in tcl­ running on a computer is res urrec­ reductionist. nism, any array of forces producing lectual a i.d and comfort to the Nazis. ti on enough. I myself find other the situation, and so left without a So th e Eternal Return ca nnot occur. difficulties more pressing. He just takes real explanation. • There is the question, already Th e diffi c ultie in Tiple r's This is disappointing in a work broached, of whethe r computer­ it as given, positi o n can be seen in thi s elsewhere insisting so properly on based intelligent 'Life' will actually implication of his views: ph ysical evidence for (and share our survival clri ve. without need 1. Suicide is a possibility for all against ) physical hypotheses. •There is the question of whether humans, before space colonisation the information necessary to recon­ for discussion takes place, A GAIN, T H E PHILOSOPH Y OF M IND s tru c t the quantum s ta t es of 2. There arc currently no living used as a support for his account is a currently living bodies will still exist or defence, forms outside the Earth, good deal too sanguine. Tipler is a to be exploited in the la st cl ays. 3. The Earth will be consumed in crash-through or crash reductionist. •There is the question of whether that there is the fi ery end of the Sun. He just takes it as given, without the intelligences of that tin

V OLUME 5 N UMBER 7 • EUREKA STREET 41 BooKs: 6

P AUL C OLLI NS

God and country / ' / '~ A Church without Walls. B<•iug Anglic;~n i n Australia, Bruce Kaye, lla rpc r C ollins Re lig ious, M elhn urnc, 199.'i. ( 0) JSBN 1 86 :~7 1 SS76. RRP $ 19.9:1. \\ ) 0 NE OF THE MOST serious gaps (where, it is claimed, they used the "-._ in Australian historiography is a reformed Roman Ea ster liturgy of L ::------general history of the role of the 195 1 a year before St Pa trick 's Angli ca n C hurch. Give n the key Cathedral across the ro

42 EUREKA STREET • SePTEMB ER 1995 BooKs: 7

PAUL TANKARD book is taken up with the theological issues that face the church in its search for identity. A couple of key theological question s confront Anglicanism. Lucky Dips •From what sources does it draw its belief? •What is its notion of authority (that is, how does it decide on what it believes), and in what way is Angli­ T '"d c"'Y' we ncod to «­ broadmindedncss. Dale asks uncom­ ca n C hristianity 'socially enmeshed' lea rn old ways. and lea rn new ways, fortable questions, such as what's with Australian society? of reading. Ideally, essays need to be really in toothpaste, why we buy/ All of these questions arc inter­ read in an 18th Century coffee house, watch/say/eat what we do, and ge n­ connected. Kaye argues that or else when commuting by train. era lly how the recent past became scripture, reason and tradition are, We have here three new collec­ the present. As his title indicates, in the words of Hooker, 'the three­ tions by Australian writers, herald­ hi s speculations bounce nicel y fold cord not easily broken', which is ing (one can only hope) a new prepar­ between two opposite gravitational the hallmark of classical Anglican­ edness on the pulls of hav ing ism . He says that Anglica nism 'did part of readers to Text and Sex, Don Anderson, Vi mage, Syd­ complete fr ee­ to not resort the principle of Scrip­ e ngage in the ney, 1995 . ISII N 0 09 183073 7 RRI' $ [4.95 dom with re­ ture a lone' but it holds for' a conjunct kind of cultural 480 Words On Anything: wild theories, gard to subject authority given to this combination co nv e rsa ti o n idle thoughts and essential ex planations, matte r, a nd of sources'. that only essays David Dale, illus. by Matthew Martin. the strict de­ But this leads direct! y to the ques­ can m a nifest. Hodder and Stoughton, Sydney, 1 995.1~1\N mands of word tion of who interprets these sources? (The fact tha t 0 7336 0126 X RRP $16.9S length and reg­ Wh at replaces the Pope in Anglican­ I've recently The Floral Mother, and other essays, Kate ular publica- ism ? This is not easy to answer, for found simi! a r Llewellyn, Angus and Robertson, Sydn ey, ti on. Kaye points out tha t Anglican volumes by 1995. ISBN 0 207 18702 9 RRP $17.95 H e has n ' t authority is dispersed through the Barry Oakley, the room to church community ra ther tha n Chris Wallace- explai n a n y­ in vested in a centralised authority. C rabbe and Lcs Murray in the thing new, so he concentrates on the For those of us trained in the remainder catalogues may count for familiar or the topical. Mastery of Fiihrerprinzip of papal authority this n othing.) T ogether, these three this form consists of establishing is all rather vague. Kaye quotes Eng­ exhibit much of the fl exibility, the amusing and hitherto unsuspected li sh th eo logia n, Stephe n Sykes, utility, the sedu cti vencss of the essay re lationships, without having to saying 'The means of judging matters form. They each how an awareness defend seriously hi s suspi cions in concerning the faith are in the hands of the ambiguous, delicately poised any detail. Little truths frequently of the whole people of Cod by reason role and status of the essayist. Their emerge, usually as asides: 'the drug of their access to the Scriptures ... it s tyl es co uld ha rdly be m ore of the '90s (the Decade of Sincerity) is distinctively Anglican that this contrasting, beginning with the orig­ seems to be Ecstasy and its clones. mea ns is given to them in the liturgy inal circumstances of publication­ ... Ecstasy makes yo u reveal yo ur of the church backed by Canon law'. which in my research experience deepest fee lings, even when you don't However, Kaye thinks that this seem to dictate most of an essay's h

V O LUME 5 N UMBER 7 • EUREKA STREET 43 ,, r - I,I I ~ I,

•;, r) ~ i

1 ; clutte red, clo tted, with nam es. ture as the scriptures of a cult of non­ itself. Unfortunately, it will not also '-1 XJ \. T here are the nam es of the writers m eaning, and in its playing with read itself. he' writing about, and the nam es of confrontation; witness the unkept T here arc a far more leisurely 18 other writers about whom (he'd like promise of his supposedly provoca­ essays in the Kate Llewellyn collec­ to remind us) he could as easily tive an d poli tical title, and t he tion, The Floral Mother. They write. Anderson uses proper nouns learned but cia bora tel y m eaningless appeared originally in a variety of as tali smans, a sort of shorthand, a essay of the same name. places, mostl y up-market women's code, to do the wor k we expect of T hese characteristi cs, and va ri­ magazines; and there are no do ubt prose: to explain. T hat be uses more ou s re p e titi o n s of phrase a nd som e who would regard them all as than he needs is presumably the instance, give a sense of the essays as 'women's writing'. But I thin k, on manifestation of a conviction that fragm ents of a continuous text, the whole, this coll ection is the most everything about whi ch he knows is which could start anywhere, but successful of the three; certainly the connected to everything else. 'Milan would eventually cover the least limited in its usefulness. Kundera or was it Joseph Brodsky?' sam e ground. Her work emphasi cs important he asks us, irrelevantly. In fact, he aspects of the essay form-its open­ as ks the same questi on in two di f­ R EAD LI KE A NOVEL, Text and Sex ness to the personal, the everyday, ferent articles. One would think that would quickly becom e tedious, but the adventitious. H er subjects, such in t he 17 months between them, or as a 'dipping into' book it is equall y as Figs, Bro the rs, Weather, arc prior to book 1 ublication, he could unsa tisfactory, because any given grouped together under Nature, Food have sorted out the matter. But of page tends to sound a lot like any and Fam ily. She adopts a meditative course, it's not actually confusion other: an allusion to Joyce, puns, style: each of her essays is a scrie of compounded by sloppiness, but a rh etorical questi ons, in cidental men­ observations and anecdotes on the rhetorical strategy by w hich he tions of a half-dozen writers and ti­ chosen subject, fi ll ed ou t occasion­ shows that he wears his learning tles. The ostensible subjects of his ally by some casual research, or a lightly. reviews arc seldom pursued vigor­ poem, letter or recipe. The parcnthctical 'or was it?' is ously enough to make it particularl y Like many essays, these sound Anderson 's characteristic locution . va luable as literary criticism . It sug­ like instalments of a conversation, In the m ass of a collection, his prose gests that any texts, of which certain although it's not as disciplined a quickly becomes irritating in its proper nam es arc-to initia tes-the conversatio n as some readers of smugness, a sort of inverted patron­ keys, m ay be combined to produce essays may appreciate. T he individ­ ism , its dogmatic figuring of litera- more text, which virtuall y write ual essays do not purs ue themes or arguments, or even elaborate analo­ gies. Sometimes the links arc too Directed by Dr. John Shea, OSA, with staff: arbitrary, like school essays on (vir­ Are you looking for Pastoral Counseling: Theories tually) Everything I Can Think Of Basic Skills in Pastoral Counseling: Skills About (W hatever). Pastoral Counseling Practicum But Ll ewellyn so obviously has Special Issues in Pastoral Counseling the right sort of eye and personality PASTORAL Directed by Dr. Janet Ruffing, RSM , for a miscellaneous essayist, that we with staff: arc prepared to forgive occasiona I COUNSELING Spiritual Direction: Theology and grammatical inclegancies, and by a and Practice fra nk autobiographical thread, he Pastoral Counseling: Skills avoids the risk of generalisation to Sp iritual Direction Practicum w hich h er topi cs would expose her. SPIRITUAL History of Spirituality Her pieces arc rich, rural, rclation­ These two sequences, which can be sh ip -centrcd, fu ll of wonder. T he DIRECTION? combined in the academic yea r, are reader ends up assembling much of integrated in a total curriculum with a her story: where she lives and has Graduate School of distinguished faculty in theological, biblical, lived, who her fami ly were

44 EUREKA STREET • SEPTEMBER 1995 THEATRE

G EOFFREY MILNE Balkanising the boards

T,DM mo" I '"""" in went to press late enough to list the prepared paper to a bemused and Brisbane the Courier-Mail ran a bea t- new Board members-none of whom curiously muted audi ence. It was a up story suggesting that the nea rby was present on opening ni ght in the depressing night, and I suspect that Gold Coast Arts Centre's inaugural Cremorne Thea tre. the company has go t the job in front s ubscription eason of to uring The play in question was a late of it to rebuild community confi­ productions from 'down south' was Arthur Mille r piece, Th e La st dence. I also suspect that Aubrey 'a harbinger of trouble' for the 'fra gile' Yankee, a very slight 'chamber play' Mellor is much missed in Brisbane Queensland theatre scene. about two middle-aged, middle­ at this moment ... The next da y was State election American couples, both of whose If things were depressing at QTC clay-an election that was to smack wives are in a state mental institu­ headquarters, things were genuinely incumbent premier Wayne Goss tion suffering from clinical tragic in Bosnia in the sam e week. rather severely, and w hich took more depression. However, Louis Nowra and the in- than a week to get a result, while creasingly buoyant La Boite The­ the local arts community waited atre (w hich is now Brisbane's nervously. In 1993, there was apparently principal and high ly credible al­ The week before, Aubrey Mel­ ternative company) made light lor's successor as Artistic Direc­ a morale-boosting beauty of it all with their world premiere tor of the Queensland Theatre pageant in Sarajevo, production of Miss Bosnia two Company, Chris Johnson, had ' re­ the winner of which got to nights later. signed' her position half-way Like so much of Nowra's through a three-year contract, ride out of town to safety on remarkable stage writing, this is under co nsiderable pressure (it a U.N. truck. based on actual events. In 1993, would appear) fro m an increas­ In Louis Nowra 's hands, this there was apparently a morale­ ingly dissatisfied Board. In the boosting beauty pagea nt in sa m e week, five n ew Board becomes a fabulous travesty Sarajevo, the wi nner of which appointments were announced of show business in general got to ride out of town to safety and Janis Balodis was appointed and beauty pageant protocol on a U.N. truck. In Nowra's as an 'artistic consultant', to guide hands, this becomes a fabulous t h e co mpan y through the in particular. travesty of show business in remainder of 1995 Evidently, gen eral a nd beauty pagea nt Johnson's programming, manage­ In 70 minutes, Miller makes a protocol in particular. ment style and company restructur­ couple of useful points about the Each of the six contestants (in­ ing had lost the confidence of the tragically debilitating symptoms of cluding the darkly handsome Lidija, Board (a nd, it was widely alleged, of depression and advances the inter­ who turns out to be none other than the broader Brisbane theatre com ­ esting hypothesis that depression in Boris, a soldier in the regiment of munity). American women is a result of their General Jez, who is the contest' More damning was the perceived husbands' lack of material achieve- sole judge) has a very real incentive decline in artistic standards, espe­ ment. Otherwise, nothing much hap­ to w in and they compete very fiercely ciall y in her own occasional produc­ pens on an over lit, inappropriate set indeed, especially for the tions. A Peter Pan last November cluttered with extraneous furniture General's sexual approval. and a production of the Brecht/Weill and set dressing (som e of which ap­ Threepenny Opera this May were parently belonged to another pro­ N OWRA RESERVES HIS best Wit for mercilessly flayed by the critics, the duction which was to occupy the the talent section, in which one latter, being variously described as same space later on as an ea rly show). Muslim girl sings 'These Boots Were 'heavy-handed', 'seriously lacking in Afterwards, opening night drinks Made for Walking' in Bosnian, an­ stylistic coherence' and 'a produc­ were punctuated by a speech from other does a lengthy (a nd brilliantly ti on in search of directi on '. the QTC Board chairman (in which apposite) passage from Waiting for What turned out to be Johnson's no mention was made of the upheav­ Godot, while Lidija does a seductive final production for the QT opened als of the past week) and by a curious adagio act oblivious of the bomb in the same eventful week, adding little seminar paper on the dramas of dropping and snipers' bullets fl ying poignancy to the whole saga. The Arthur Miller by the hapless director. around outside the underground production programme, incidentally, Whatever the facts concerning the night-club. stillli ted Johnson as Artistic Direc­ company's troubl es might be, I Company directorSueRidergives tor and Balodis blandly as Drama­ couldn't help feeling rather sorry for the play a splendid production with turg in Resid ence, even though it Chris Johnson as she read out her a fin e cast drawn from the show's

VOLUME 5 N UMBER 7 • EUREKA STREET 45 Sydney co-producer, Teatar di Mig­ lot of en ergy and vitality at the grass­ enough for the community who ma, and from what is obviously a roots of Brisbane theatre. There are crea ted it .I found the play itself a bit strong pool of loca l talent. It is at also exciting developments up north, tam e (li ke an ea rl y Tcs Lyssiotis in a once a deli ciously funny and aching­ with genuinely local professional good mood ), although the production ly poignant piece of theatre. Rider groups at Cairns (Just Us T hea tre used the cavernous Princess Theatre has run the now fu lly professional Ensemble) and Townsville (Theatre at Woolloonga bba very well and there company since 1993, and her pro­ Up North) springing up to fill the were some marvellous m oments. gra mme, of world premieres andre­ void left by the fa ilure of the exter­ One of them was a traditional runs of recent Australian writing, nally imposed, touring New Moon Island goat dance drea m ed by the bl ended wi th successful productions Thea tre of the 1980s. grea t -g randmother, played wi th of classics, looks very Still in the same heady week (o n much passion by Tereza Loizu, one promising indeed. election nigh t, in fact) I ca ught the of only two professionall y trained fina l, packcd-ou t perform ance of actors in the large cast. However, I A SEN SE OF BUOYAN CY was also I Yitha (The She-goat} by another suspect that the group that ca m e evident at the Metro Arts Theatre, born -again Brisbane theatre compa­ together for this project will go on an experimental/ fringe venue in the ny, Street Arts Community T hea tre (in classic Street Arts fas hion) to city, wh ere a no th er Australian (in association with the Queensland forge more bi-cultural drama and I premiere (Bait, a play by Vogel award­ Ethnic Communi ties Cou neil). This suspect, too, that it won't all be winning noveli st, quite as soft and Andrew McGahan) comfortable as this was d eserved! y show. playing to good au­ Nowra reserves his best wit for the talent section, Street Arts has diences. T his is <1 in which one Muslim girl sings had an enviabl e rep­ very w itty (if slight­ 'These Boots Were Made for Walking' in Bosnian, utation as a nurtur­ ly long) satire about another does a lengthy cr of new work and a group of public as an incubator for servants who seem (and brilliantly apposite) passage from the emergence of doomed for I ifc to Waiting for Godot, while Lidija does a seductive new groups, such as dispatch dole adagio act oblivious of the bombs dropping the gifted Rock 'n' cheques- until the Roll Circus and the arriv

46 EUREKA STREET • SEPTEMilEil. 1995 nary efforts of both emotion and re­ Jewish backgrounds, who stumble straint by a script that asks the world. upon each other aft er a bal let class. They come to the party. Which is Ethel, a plump air-hea d, smoth­ what Chekhov is all about. ered by her rich, grossly tasteless -Michael McGirr SJ mamma, m eets Mina, an artistic rebel living in the shadow of the Holoca us t. T hey have li tt le in Lift off common, but childhood fr iendship grows, nurtured by the intimate Apollo 13, dir. Ron Howard IH oyts) . agonies of growing up in Paris in the If yo u're into films with expensive ea rl y seventi es. E mba rrassin g looking gizm os, life-a nd-dea th strug­ mom ents at groovy parties, trying to gles in the void of space, and actors rem ain upright on four-i nch cork looking like untethercd zeppelins as platform s and the first brea thless they bounce off the walls in big wh itc encounters w ith men are all better suits, then Apollo 13 is yo ur film . sh a re d . Mina a nd Ethel a r e It's the story of the third mission inseparabl e until the demands of to the moon- eight months after the conservative adul t life and conflicts first landing- that didn't go accord ­ over love take their toll. ing to plan . An explosion in an oxygen Mina Tannenbaum is described tank puts the three astronauts' li ves by the director as a com edy- dram a­ Vanya's return in danger. Their spa cecraft loses pow­ western, where the cowboy buddies er and breathable air, so that any are girls. But the film is too sensitive Vanya on 42nd Street, dir. Louis hope of a landing is quickly lost and to the atmosphere and complexities Mall e !Independent cinem as) . If you the goal of the voyage becom. cs the of Parisian culture to fit easil y the st art with som e thing as fin e ly safe return of the three men from the familiar Ameri ca n m odels of the wrought as Chckhov's Un cle Van ya dark side of the moon. The drama w este rn and ' buddy' m o vie. Its and add the weighty talents of both that unfolds is intended to be com ­ affectionately comic documenta ry Louis Malle and scriptwriter, David pelling viewing and largely is. feel a nd so m e c h o king ly sad Mam et, you may well fear for the One of the difficu lties directors m oments bring it closer to Robert results. I had visions of the play have with films based on actua l Altman's N ash ville than to Thelma disappearing unde r t oo much events is to balance fact with story and Louise. embroidery. The opposite is true. telling. Howard is fortunate in that D espite a wea k ending, if you Van ya on 42n d Street is lean . It sits there was no need to play with the want to see a gentle, sad and funny beautifully alongside an Australian truth to establish the drama. It's a film, this is worth a look. Even if you adaptation of the sam e same play, gripping tale. But it's the manic don't fall for Mina and Ethel land it's Country Life ldir. Mi chael Blake­ activity of the technicians on the m ore), which appeared briefl y on our ground, trying to work out ways to Etueka Street screens last year. Blakem ore set the get the astronauts hom e, that pro­ Film Competition play elaborately: house, garden and vides the best watching, and the pi ck Name the film star pictured above table furnishings were all used to of them is Eel Harris, as Hight direc­ and we'll send you $30.00- enough detail the kind of lifestyle C hckhov tor Gene Kranz. The helpless three for movie tickets and a choc-top characteri sti call y sees in threat. (played by T om Cruise, Freel Haisc for two. A hint-she worked as an If Blakem ore's film took its name and Kevin Bacon) can't provide much actor, writer and director, and she from one half of Chekhov's subtitle suspense off their own bat. died recently. Send entries to: !'scenes fr om country life'), Malle's It would have been fun if the fi lm EUieka Street Film Competition, film could just as well be called explored the psychology of three men PO Box 553, Richmond 3121. The 'scenes'. It originates in a N ew York crammed in an object no larger than winner of the June/July competi­ stage production directed by Andre a walk-in-closet, hurtling through tion was Mary Campion of Mait­ Gregory and is set in a ca vernous, space towards an uncertain e nd. But land NSW, who correctly identified decaying theatre on 42nd Street. this is Hollywood, and the heroes Bette Davis and Joan Crawford in There are nets above the actors to must be stoic in the face of adversity. the dark tale of self-deception, catch falling plaster. Thcfilm deftly - Jon Greenaway Whatever Happened to Baby fane{ alerts us to where a particular per­ formance of Uncle Vanya is taking place, a venue as decrepit as C hek­ Odd couple hov could long for, but docs not lose its way in self-consciously wea ving Mina Tannenbaum, dir. Martine Chekhov's material in and out of a Dugowson !Greater Union and inde­ m odern context. Instead, the film pendents). This is a funny, quirky focuses on a group of actors, in ordi­ story of a twcnty-fi ve year friendship nary clothes, being put to ex traordi- between two girls of very different

V O LUME 5 NUMBER 7 • EUREKA STREET 47 hard not to), you'll fa ll in love with the window by his next-door neigh­ Paris. The evocative recreation of bours, led by Gorogkhov (Viktor Paris in the '70s makes the city Mikhailov ), who revel in the material almost as m uch a player in this fi lm excess of Paris and take back to St as the two girls. Petersburg everything they can get - Jane Buckingham their hands on. In a s tudio apartment outside the window Nikolay m eets Nicole (Agnes Sorai), a young artist. Frus­ Ballet Russe trated with the constant stream of Ru ssians marching through h e r Window to Paris, dir. Yuri Mamin apartment, Nicole follows them ba ck (independent cinemas). C. S. Lewis' through the window to modern-day The Lion, The Witch and The Ward­ St Petersburg. robe told the story of four children Here we see the squalor and staying in an old English country deprivation of a contemporary St home, who discover the fantasy Petersburg trying to come to terms world of Narnia on the other side of with a developing market economy, a wardrobe. In Window to Paris contrasted with t he beauty and Nikolay (Sergeuj D ontsov), a n affluence of Paris. unconventional music teacher in St The climax comes when Nikolay Petersburg, m oves into a vacant takes his students-m etaphorically apartment, only to discover a the future of Russia-on an excur­ window magica lly leading onto the sion through the window to visit the everything else, then you won't go roof-tops of Paris. world they've heard so much about. wrong. Nikolay is accompanied through This ' magical realist' style is You'll pi ck up a few good tips normally associated with the Latin about retrieving dead bodies, finding American tales of Gabriel Garcia work for the intellectuall y chal­ Marquez, or Isabelle Allende. In lenged, keeping ahead of the banks, Window to Paris, a joint Russian/ running for Parliament when you 've French production, Mamin demon­ go t nothing to stand on but a case of strates an elegant sensitivity to the whisky and getting through a wed­ form, with a distinctly European cling where the flies outnumber the flavour. It is a gentle, quirky and guests. The kind of lessons about life wonderfully funny film, light-heart­ that never grow old and always get edly explo ring the changes yo u through. confronting many Eastern European But once he had a few drinks, countries. Dad declared that if Joan Sutherland -Tim Stoney had come out with him twenty years ago when we settled on the creek, then we wouldn't have got so much By crikey as the first acre cleared. Good job we SEARCH FOR MEANING AND had Mother. On Our Selection, dir George Wh aley -Michael McGirr SJ COMMUNITY THROUGH THE (Village Roadshow) Cripes! The CREATIVE PROCESS critics have go t a fl amin' bee in their A weekend of lectures, seminars and bonnet about this particular film. Out of hiding workshops, presented by practising arts But Dad declares that in all the times workers, clergy and those actively working h e's had to sit through Mr Rudel 's Anne Franl

48 EUREKA STREET • SEPTEMBER 1995 Second World War. sens1t1v1ty that avoids the easy The best thingabout Anne Frank course of recrimination and instead Remembered is that it's not just looks to the tragic. about Anne Frank. The film provides On a long summer da y in 1936 a moving account of her life before, Serguei: Kotov (Nikita Milkha kov), during and after her period in hiding, an idolised revolutionary hero w ho through the recollections of the peo­ fo ught the Tsar's white armies fo r ple who knew her best: her family, the Bolsheviks, is relaxing with his friends, rela tives, classmates and yo ung and beguiling wife Maroussia those who suffered in the N azi con­ (Ingeborga Dapkounaite) and six­ centration ca mps with her. We get a year-old daughter Nadia (N adia sense of the trem endous courage and Milkhakov) . They live in a rambling dedication of people like Miep Gies country house with a collection of and others-who daily risked their eccentric relati ves and friends. Melbourne Writers' li ves to take supplies to the hidden T heir life seem s perfect until it is fa milies. disrupted by the return of Dimitri, Festival Blair m anages to avoid over-sen­ an old love of Maroussia's. Though timentalising Frank. Instead, we see initially there is a sexu al tension her, not as a defi ant hero, but as between them, it becomes clear Dim­ ...... for readers yo ung teenage girl, with all the at­ itri is not there to rekindle old pas­ te ndant a nxie ties-one pe rson , sions but to arrest Serguel. Dimitri's "Australia's premier literary event" am ong m any, who suffered during disappearance ten years ago, which the N azi regime. so devastated Maroussia, was be­ Sydney Morning Herald In this year of commemoration cause of his recruitment into Sta­ the film is poignant reminder that lin' secret poli ce. T he fi lm hinges the victims of war are seldom its on the-mostly silent- battle of heroes. In this respect, Ann e Frank wills between Sergu ei: and Dimitri. October 16 to stands as a stark exception to the Burnt by the Sun is a subtle work 22,1995 rule. but it fairly sparkles. It is understated, -Tim Stoney especially when you consider the CUB Malthouse, South period of history it deals with. But Melbourne and other city the political acts a the context-a Recasting Russia giant ba ckdrop to a story of integrity venues and betrayal that unfurls and closes Burnt by the Sun, di r. N ikita like a fan. T he final scenes, in which Melbourne' s ninth annual Milkhalkov (independent cinemas), erguci:leaves the house decked out celebration of books and writing resurrects the ghosts fro m Stalin's in his military fi nery-the others will see a stunning line-up of era of repression in the 1930s-in unaware that he has been arrested by international guests rub particular the reign of terror of his the secret police-gathers together shoulders with the cream of the secret poli ce. It docs so with a the sentiment and creeping evil local literary community. This underscoring the film. year' s overseas guest list -Jon Greenaway includes Ruth Rendell, Peter Ackroyd, John Berendt, Jack Hodgins, Joseph O' Connor, Counselling Shobha De and Tom Robbins who will join with, amongst many, If you or someone you know many others, Helen Garner, Frank could benefit from Moorhouse, Kate Grenville, Robert G. Barrett, Elizabeth len Dwyer ~ professional counselling, please phone Martin Jolley, David Malouf and Paul 9882 5991 Jt Davies in seven days of frenzied Prescott, BSW, MSW, 015 830077 ~· literary activity. MAASW, clinical member of the Association of Information: (03) 9820 0042 Catholic Psychotherapists. Individuals, couples and Bookings: (03) 9685 5111 Speciali sing in: families catered for: -ti' M edica l and Dental Clini s from September 1 -ti- Ciubs -ti'Offices -ti' Schools St Kilda, (03) 9534 8700 -ti- Showrooms -ti' Factori es Bentleigh (03) 9557 2595

V OLUME 5 N UMBER 7 • EUREKA STREET 49 tlct

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50 EUREKA STREET • SEPTEMBER 1995 Eureka Street Cryptic Crossword no. 36, September 1995

Devised by Joan Nowotny IBVM

ACROSS 1 & 5 End of leg dance concluding series which takes place in September. (8, 6) 10 Untrue, alas! Liar's fabrication would equate this code with Rugby, for example. (10,5) 11 It's heart-stopping to be without card I acquired under arrest . (7) 12 Mute ape shocked at losing limb. (7) 13 Bazaar drama, hopefully exhibited on the occasion of 1 & 5- across. (4,4) 15 Symbol I seem ed to hear on the Mount in the desert. (5) 18 They say that som e add up! (5) 20 I react curiously on VE day, as if I were artistically talented. (8) 23 Everyone, for example, at the beginning of Ea ster Day said w hat they saw. (7 ) 25 Adjusted the courtyard with straight settlem ent. (7) 26 What a pity her pathos is misplaced' What is needed is someone to massage bodies not feelings ! ( 15) 27 The vessel in the study may dim the light. (6) 28 Little dog from old Beijing? (8)

DOWN Solution to Crossword no. 35, August 1995 1 Dilapidated Royal Navy cafe in this country? Unclear at the moment. (6) 2 Former pupil and maid are attentive and obedient. (9) 3 I find badly cooked rare rib steak an obstacle to enjoym ent. (7) 4 Sa dly, I call such a bloom er unpleasing. (5) 6 The cat breaks in with a yowl! If only it cou ld possibly sit and purr unobtrusively! (7) 7 Assign the student the whole Hebrew Bible to study. (5) 8 Eastern m ystics, perhaps, are not known for being so m ethodical. (8 ) 9 Numb with fr ight, pa relays frantic m essage. (8) 14 Clarity with which girl comprehends the hea rt of Ovidian poetry. (8) 16 Don't ge t weary in the long journey to this N SW town. (9) 17 Badly in need of cash, raced round the ambush in order to m eet the em ergency. (8) 19 Let the beginner light the coal fi re. (7) 21 In the hot sun a mighty wave swept all before it. (7) 22 Girl from 1-down, perhaps, who awkwardly toted equipment to begin with. (6) 24 Egg producer from 9-down, without a second thought? (5) 25 Viewed, it seem s, the place of action. (5)

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In order to be eligible for considerati on, a ca ndidate should: Sr Christine Burke IBVM • intend to pu rsue an academi c ca reer in Australia; Pastoral Director of 51 Francis Xavier Seminary, Adel aide • give ev idence of a capa city for successfu l resea rch; • justify the hope of hi s or her becoming a competent HosTED BY CATHOLI C W oMEN's LEAGUE, member of th e Teaching Staff of a terti ary insititute and a wel l-reputed Catholic in th at office; A USTRALIA • sati sfy th e selec ti on committee th at hi s or her fin ancial position wa rrants a grant from th e Fund. World Union of Catholic Women's Applications close on 30 September, 1995. Organi sa ti ons Assembly Further information and application forms may be obtained Australian National from: The Rector, University Chairman, Selection Committee Canberra, Feb 3-11, 1996 Newman College 887 Swanston Street For further inform ati on contact: PARKVILLE 3052 Secretari at: 32 ljong Street, Braddon ACT 2601 Tel: (03) 9347 5577 Fax: (03) 9349 2592 Phone/Fax: (06) 257 4980 or ca ll local CWL office

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