Vol. 3 No.5 June-July 1993 $5.00 China in focus: Trevor Hay and Paul Rule Rowan Callick on Australia and the Pacific Fred Jevons and Andrew Riemer on evolutions and revolutions in higher education Susan Ryan and Julian Disney on the path to a republic plus a feast of winter reading Volume 3 Number 5 June-July 1993 A magazine of public affairs, the arts and theology CONTENTS 4 28 COMMENT QUIXOTE 6 30 LETTERS WINTER READING Peter Craven talks to Robert Hughes about 7 American civilisation and its discontents; COMING TO TERMS Gerard Windsor puzzles over the somer­ Susan Ryan sizes up the task facing saults of Irish history (p34); Paul Rule jug­ the Republic Advisory Committee. gles with contending views of China (p37); Max Teichmann reviews Andrew Riemer's 9 The Habsburg Cafe (p41); Gabrielle Lord CAPITAL LETTER reviews Eleven Deadly Sins (p42); and Peter Craven reviews David Malouf's Remember­ 10 ing Babylon (p44). EXPANDING THE AGENDA In May, Eureka Street Julian Disney talks about trade, republican­ 45 won the Gutenberg ism and regional development. BOOKS ON THE RUN A ward, presented by the Reviews of The Oxford Literary Guide to Australia; Sydney Down Town; Wilder Australasian Religious 12 FIBS AND FABLES IN OLD PEKING Shores: Women's Travel Stories in Austral­ Press Association, for Trevor Hay discovers some of the past ia and Beyond; Michael and me and the overall excellence in in China's present. sun; The Debt Boomerang. Christian newspaper and magazine publishing. 15 47 ARCHIMEDES THE ONCE AND FUTURE KINGDOM Mark Skulley previews Exile and The King­ 16 dom, a documentary about the Aboriginal COUNTERPOINT community in Roeboume, WA. 17 49 REPORT FLASH IN THE PAN Michael McGirr on developments m Reviews of the films At Play in the Fields Cover photo: 'The Gate to Inner Peace', of the Lord, The Vanishing, The Miracle, Forbidden City, Beijing, Bougainville. by Emmanuel Santos; Sweet Emma, Dear Babe, Indecent Propo­ Photos p2 by Andrew Stark; 18 sal, Reckless Kelly, Simple Men, Best Graphic pS by Siobhan Jackson; ONE ISLAND AMONG MANY Intentions and The Stolen Children. Photo pp12-13 by Mathias Heng; Graphics pp18 and 47 Australia is a Pacific Power before it is an by John van Loon; Asian trader, argues Rowan Callick. 52 Graphics pp22-26 by Tim Metherall; SBS PROGRAM GUIDE Graphic p42 by Michael Daly; 21 Cartoon pSI by Dean Moore. VIEWPOINT 54 Paul Sinclair on racism and football. VOICE BOX Eureka Street magazine 22 55 Jesuit Publications, HIGHER EDUCATION SPECIAL SPECIFIC LEVITY PO Box 553 Richmond VIC 3121 Fred Jevons argues that a liberal education Tel (03) 427 7311 is a very practical matter, and Andrew Rie­ Fax (03) 428 4450 mer speaks up for the literary canon (p25 ). EUREKA SIAEEI COMMENT A m agazine of public affairs, the arts and theology TONY COADY Publisher Michael Kelly SJ Editor Morag Fraser Bosnia's war Production editor Ray Cassin Design consultant John van Loon INTHe 1970s I w" fm' time ch•inn•n of' junioe socw Production assistants team in Melbourne. I won't try to explain here how this came John Doyle SJ, Paul Fyfe SJ, about, but it was an instructive experience, especially in the Juliette Hughes, Chris Jenkins SJ. undercurrents and passions of multicultural life in Australia. There were kids (and families) from almost every ethnic group­ Contributing editors Greeks, Italians, Germans, Scots, English, Spaniards and every Adelaide: Frances Browne IBVM variety of Yugoslav. I remember with a sense of poignancy my Brisbane: Ian Howells SJ Darwin: Margaret Palmer bewilderment not only at the deep and abiding resentments Perth: Dean Moore between the different Yugoslav groups, but at their one point Sydney: Edmund Campion, Andrew Ri emer, of agreement-contempt for Bosnians. Gerard Windsor. Later, when I visited Yugoslavia in the early 1980s, I was European correspondent: Damien Simonis delighted at the beauty of the country and the hospitality of US correspondent: Thomas H. Stahel SJ the people, especially the Serbs in Belgrade with whom we Editorial board stayed. It was still, however, dismaying to find how deeply Peter L'Estrange SJ (chair), divided the country was and how much racial hatred persisted. Margaret Coady, Margaret Coffey, The seeds of the present horrors were clearly perceptible. Madeline Duckett RSM, Tom Duggan, What should be done to prevent the further slaughters of Trevor Hales, Christine Martin, 'ethnic cleansing' in what was Yugoslavia, especially in Bosnia? Kevin McDonald, Joan Nowotny IBVM, In particular, what is the moral standing of military interven­ Lyn Nossal, Ruth Pendavingh, tion to prevent further bloodshed? There can be no doubt that John Pill FSC, the sense of impotence that one feels on watching television Peter Steele SJ, Bill Uren SJ reports, or reading graphic newspaper accounts, about the mas­ Business manager: Louise Metres sacre and maiming of civilians in Bosnia, can readily prompt Advertising representative: Tim Stoney the desire to deal with the savagery by violent intervention; Accounts manager: Mary Foster but would it be right for the USA, or the Europeans or the UN Patrons to act on this sort of desire? Eureka Street gratefully acknowledges the If one is not a pacifist, the traditional outlook known as support of C.L. Adami; the trustees of the estate 'just war' theory provides a reasonable handle for discussion of of Miss M. Condon; A.J. Costello; D.M. Cullity; the moral options. Essentially, modern just war thinking is F.G. Gargan; R.J. and H.M. Gehrig; geared towards wars between established nations and is highly W.P. Gurry; J.F. O'Brien; restrictive in import. It comes in two parts: the jus ad bellum A.F. Molyneux; V.J. Peters; (concerned with when it is right to go to war) and the jus in Anon.; the Roche family; Anon .; bello (concerned with how one ought to conduct oneself in Sir Donald and Lady Trescowthick; war). It tends to restrict the resort to war to defence against Mr and Mrs Lloyd Williams. aggression, and, although aggression is an ill-defined idea in some respects, the general approach that sees war as a bad thing Eureka Street magazine, ISSN 1036- 1758, Australia Post registered publication VAR 9 1-{)756, unless it is a last resort against an obvious evil like invasion is is published eleven times a year a mostly healthy outlook. Most wars, even where justified, by Eureka Street Magazine Pty Ltd, involve appalling waste and destruction; they are, at best, 300 Victoria Street, Richmond, Victoria 3121. necessary evils, like amputations, so we need a restrictive moral Responsibility for editorial content is accepted by theory that helps us decide when we must resort to them and Michael Kelly, 300 Victoria Street, Richmond. how their harms can be limited. Such a theory should go hand Printed by Doran Printing, in hand with hard thinking about how we might limit the need 4 Commercial Road, Highctt VIC 3 190. for war and even eventually eliminate it. So just war © Jesuit Publications 1993 theory should go hand in hand with peacemaking The editor welcomes letters and unsolicited manu­ theory. scripts, including poetry and fiction. Manu cripts will be returned only if accompanied by a stamped, self­ L ESELF-DEFENCE MODEL has been criticised for giving too addressed envelope. Requests for permission to reprint much respect to existing sovereign states, and it is true that material from the magazine should be addressed in existing international law is perhaps excessively prohibitive of writing to: The editor, Eureka Street magazine, interventions by one state in the affairs of another, even though PO Box 553, Richmond VIC 3 12 1. this attitude often makes a good deal of pragmatic sense. In the 4 EUREKA STREET • JuNE-JULY 1993 case of the just war ethic, however, Military intervention can only be the self-defence model, even with its an option if the intervening force has restrictive intentions, does allow for precisely defined objectives that relate certain extensions, for instance, to to a plan for preventing the slaughter helping others defend themselves of civilians-by whichever side-and against aggression, especially where for so reducing the level of conflict and they are your allies. More difficult is its prospects for success that negotia- the case (or cluster of cases) where tions can take place which at least thereisnoattackingnation, butagov- take the Vance/Owen plan as a start- ernment is slaughtering large num- ing point. And all of this fairly quick- hers of its own population (as in Pol ly, for protracted involvement is Pot's Cambodia) and what is called for neither feasible nor desirable. My fear is a humanitarian or altruistic inter- is that the understandable wish not vention. Arguably, the Vietnamese to risk American, European or Unit- invasion of Cambodia and the Indian ed Nations lives unduly will lead to intervention in East Pakistan (later quick-fix solutions such as massive Bangladesh) qualify as such justified aerial bombardment. In Yugoslavia, altruistic interventions, even though, v ~ this is unlikely to achieve either mor- as in all of life, there were mixed mo- ~ al, tactical or strategic purposes. Air tives at work in both cases. More dif- power will certainly have a part to ficult again is the problem posed by -..;...---.:l..;.;;..;;;===.;;;;;;~~--~ play, but the sad fact is that consider- the idea of intervening in civil wars, where the nghts able ground torces may well be required to achieve the and wrongs on the opposing sides may be impossible required objectives. for foreigners to unravel. In the meantime, there are some signs that the com- The case of the former Yugoslavia, and especially bination of existing pressures plus the deterrence value Bosnia, falls into this last category, but with an added of the threatened use of force may be beginning to work.