Tag: Politics

"The American election will not take place

Trump as Singularity, by Roland Kapferer

Arena Magazine no. 143

Roland Kapferer

Aug 2016

The American election will not take place
"While many commentators have expressed relief that the financial dust has settled after the decision…

Brexit and After

7 Jul 2016

While many commentators have expressed relief that the financial dust has settled after the decision of UK voters to withdraw from the EU, there is reason to think they relax too soon. Certainly in terms of immediate effects the political shockwaves in the UK are catastrophic and any ‘solution’ for either of the main parties is likely to have a medium (and probably longer) term unraveling effect. On the one hand there is a basic…
"Where EU leaders have got it wrong is that Brexit is less a crisis for…

Bumbling Boris the Confidence Trickster?

2 Jul 2016

Where EU leaders have got it wrong is that Brexit is less a crisis for Britain (though it is that), than the latest manifestation of a deep-seated European malady. A sense of the risk of the EU unravelling is alive in the air in Germany and France because the fear is that Brexit has launched a dangerous dynamic of EU disintegration that, if uncontrolled, may, like Brexit itself, prove unstoppable. Perhaps this is something of…
"What Australia currently lacks is a political party or movement that could bring about a…

Malcolm Turnbull and the Australian Nation

30 Jun 2016

What Australia currently lacks is a political party or movement that could bring about a renewal of our nation that is based upon the people whose everyday realities are grounded here. At this stage, such a development needs writers, thinkers, activists and publications to tell the story.
"A major challenge all political parties face is that Indigenous poverty is deeply embedded and…

Auditing Indigenous Poverty

Jon Altman

30 Jun 2016

A major challenge all political parties face is that Indigenous poverty is deeply embedded and structural and will take a long time, innovative policy and major investments to address. The diversity of Indigenous circumstances means that a diversity of approaches will be required, but the major parties are committed to mainstreaming or normalisation options. It is only the Greens that are serious about the recognition of difference and the need for approaches that emphasise social…
"After being funded by the CIA, having received over a million dollars in Government subsidies,…

No Poetry After the Arts Council? Quadrant’s Funding Cut

1 Jun 2016

After being funded by the CIA, having received over a million dollars in Government subsidies, Quadrant magazine has sustained collateral damage from George Brandis’ cuts to Australia Council funding. It didn’t take long for editor Keith Windschuttle to blame someone, predictably ‘the left [which] remains in control of the arts’. Instead of identifying enemies, Windschuttle might examine the market and its effect on the culture he seeks to defend. Now the Australia Council has thrown…
"As our popular political saying teaches us, ‘in Brazil even the past is uncertain’. Fiction…

The Brazilian Crisis: The Conflict of Past and Future in Brazil’s Current Crisis

31 May 2016

As our popular political saying teaches us, ‘in Brazil even the past is uncertain’. Fiction and reality, magical realism, political pain and social hope. I have no doubts that I have returned home.
"Senator Xenophon says the two-party system is so suffocating that politicians don’t do what they…

A Question for Nick Xenophon

21 Apr 2016

Senator Xenophon says the two-party system is so suffocating that politicians don’t do what they believe is the right thing. The Nick Xenophon Team, however, will be about centrist choices because according to Xenophon the choice shouldn’t be between Right and Left but between right and wrong. This sounds good, but how will NXT avoid the suffocating effect on its parliamentary members and what will count as right and wrong? What, politically, is its ‘big…

Arena Publications Podcast #2: From Cold War to Hot Planet 01 (15/11/13) – Humphrey McQueen and Raewyn Connell

21 Jul 2014

The first of a series of recordings from Arena’s 50th anniversary symposium, “From Cold War to Hot Planet”, held at the University of Melbourne in November 2013 and co-hosted by the University of Melbourne’s Australian Centre and Arena Publications. This first recording features freelance historian Humphrey McQueen and Professor Raewyn Connell, who opened proceedings by offering their perspectives on the Arena group and its cultural and political significance.
"Nature, beauty, politics By Matthew Sharpe

Bringing Them the Plague: Camus at 100

7 Jan 2014

Nature, beauty, politics By Matthew Sharpe

Arena Publications Podcast #1: Interview With Prof. Richard Falk (16/09/13)

1 Nov 2013

An interview with Professor Richard Falk, Albert G. Milbank Professor Emeritus of International Law at Princeton University, Visiting Distinguished Professor in Global and International Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara and United Nations Special Rapporteur on Palestinian human rights.
"GEOFF SHARP argues that the technoscience–capitalism convergence has supercharged climate change. We need a movement…

Climate Change is Not the Basic Issue

Arena Magazine 93

Feb 2008

GEOFF SHARP argues that the technoscience–capitalism convergence has supercharged climate change. We need a movement to tackle that.