Arts and Sport
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Showing one’s stripes: The MSO’s treatment of Jayson Gillham
Organisational management, especially when it comes to large entities, has little to recommend it. Arrange the schedules. Pamper sponsors and behave simperingly. Ensure a diet of pills to null the embarrassment. Mind the assets and fret over the brand. Sigh over ledgers and order spreadsheets. Continue reading »
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Melbourne Symphony Orchestra strikes the wrong note on Gaza
A well-known Australian band, The Cat Empire, has decided not to perform three shows scheduled with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra over the treatment meted out to Australian-British classical pianist Jayson Gillham. Continue reading »
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Will the real Olympic cheats please stand up
Because they are no longer the top dog in the Olympics, the US now wants to expand its kinetic and trade wars into the sporting arena, or at least the anti-drugs section of the sporting arena. Continue reading »
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The Olympic Games are not neutral and often used for non-sporting political and cultural purposes as the Paris Opening showed
I’ve never been a fan of the Olympics, although I occasionally check to see how Australia is going on the medal tally. I watched a bit of the opening extravaganza – it certainly wasn’t a “ceremony” – but got bored with Gallic self-importance, so I missed the Last Supper parody with a drag queen representing Continue reading »
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Why US politicians are picking on Chinese Olympic swimmers
As with Washington’s routine attempts to challenge all things Chinese as well as global multilateral agencies, its row with the World Anti-Doping Agency is par for the course. Continue reading »
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Why I’m not in the mood for the Olympic hurrah
The latest Essential poll published in Tuesday’s online Guardian revealed that a whopping third of those polled would, if given the chance, vote for the Mango Mussolini (the Donald). This is concerning. But it’s worse than first appears. Along with the dispiriting response to the Voice – based largely on conspiracy theories, lies and dog-whistling Continue reading »
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Afghanistan women’s cricket team seeks recognition
Since the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan almost three years ago, women’s sport has been cast into darkness there. Continue reading »
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Afghanistan’s underdogs upsetting the established order
One of the charms of sport is seeing underdogs upsetting the established order by overcoming teams they seemingly have no chance of beating. All sports have examples of such upsets. Long-term realities about relative strengths can fall in the short run. Ah, the glorious uncertainty of sport! Continue reading »
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Siding with the oppressors: WOMAD defends Ziggy Marley, ‘uninvites’ Palestinian artists
Two significant acts invited to play WOMADelaide 2024 have been treated in vastly different ways in recent months by the Director, Ian Scobie. Continue reading »
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Street play: A thing of the past?
We’d cross a long rope across the street and I used to have a dozen kids skipping down there. Even Mrs Munro came out – seventeen stone and she had no shoes on. She’d come out and skip. Continue reading »
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Day X approaches: Your silence is compliance
Where are all our rock stars? The battle for your freedom is raging. Led by Australia’s own Julian Assange, from behind his grey cell walls. Day X, Julian’s final appeal (20-21st Feb 24), is just around the corner and the global community rally behind him to make sure his keepers know the whole world is Continue reading »
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The power of play
A while ago I was – reluctantly – watching some television footage about the catastrophe in Gaza. To my amazement, a fleeting image appeared of two little girls, about 7 or 8, playing a hand-clapping game. I don’t know what nationality the girls were, or the location of their play. They could have been Israeli Continue reading »
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When celebrated dissidents find the grass isn’t greener on the other side
Ai Weiwei joins a long line of dissenters such as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Liu Xiaobo who became disenchanted by the West. Continue reading »
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The Khawaja Debacle: Freedom of expression for the Boxing Day test?
Usman Khawaja played an important batting role in Australia’s recently finished demolition of Pakistan in the first Test in Perth. The ongoing controversy, however, around his writings on his cricket boots and black armband as a protest display have raised questions about the relations of sport and politics and the role of sporting and other Continue reading »
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“It is vital for us not to look away”: Louise Adler on the place of politics in the arts
“The world looked away during the World War, and Jews, 6 million of our people, were murdered in that looking away… It is incumbent upon humanity to look at what is happening in Gaza now and to say we will not accept this. We will say no. Not in our name.” – Louise Adler Continue reading »
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The musician and the soldier: Two revolutionary lives
A frontline medic writes of two individuals she met in Kayah State, whose stories exemplify the diverse ways Myanmar’s youth are contributing to, and sacrificing for, the revolution. Continue reading »
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In praise of Afghanistan’s cricketers
Much has been written about the International Cricket Council’s World Cup competition being played in India, but relatively few of the words have been about the incredible achievements of the Afghanistan team. Against a backdrop of poverty, war, political turbulence and natural disasters, the team performed magnificently. Continue reading »
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In the beginning was the word – and the word was UWRF
Indonesia’s expanding dark side was hardly noticed by festival audiences at the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival (UWRF). But for all his domestic popularity, Indonesian President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo is no reformist liberal. Continue reading »
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In the Chinese new era, what’s new is old
Industrial transformation has accelerated China’s rise as a global power. In the New Era, which was officially recognised in the Chinese national constitution in 2017, the narrative of national rejuvenation is writ large: it underpins the Community of Shared Future, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and China’s various soft power campaigns. Continue reading »
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While Australia votes, India-Pakistan cricket is downstream of politics
On 14 October, my attention will wander between three unconnected stories as they unfold in real time. I will be in New Zealand on that general election date. Polls indicate the Labour government will be replaced by a centre-right coalition. But the peculiarities of the electoral system make election results and the outcome of post-election Continue reading »
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Battle at Lake Changjin: Will we choose pride, prejudice, propaganda – or peace?
The second highest grossing film in the world in 2021 barely got a mention in the Australian press. It was co-directed by three acclaimed filmmakers, cost close to US$200 million to produce, made $1 billion, and was nearly three hours long with a sequel of equal length. It ran briefly at the Event Cinema in Continue reading »
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Australia’s aborted cultural decolonisation
Over the 50 years since Patrick White’s Nobel Prize, the progressive cultural nationalists, who borrowed White’s honour, challenged a tired old elite, and then generated a new cohort of tired old elites. They had broken with Britain, but embraced America and its fantasy of the universal progressive empire that dare not say its name. The Continue reading »
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The biggest sporting event the West has never heard of
The last week in September saw the much delayed (due to Covid) opening of the 19th Asian Games. This event which is held on a four-year cycle involves participants from 45 nations, and perhaps unsurprisingly given the enormous populations in this part of the world sees a larger number of athletes taking part than even Continue reading »
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In the grim dark face of military madness
Increasingly I keep finding myself singing, even humming or whistling the old Graham Nash song, ‘Military Madness,’ sometimes hardly aware that I am doing so. Continue reading »
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The Greatest: Vale Ron Barassi
Of the proposition that he was the greatest there can be no doubt. Continue reading »
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Heading into trouble: Hazards of the Women’s World Cup
Much of the health reform urgings I have presented over the years have emphasised the importance of “prevention” and the paucity of attention it receives. Less than 1.2% of our health budget is spent on preventing health problems. OK, but what has this to do with the Soccer world Cup? Continue reading »
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Pay the (colonial) rent?
Internationally-acclaimed Indigenous artist Richard Bell’s latest ‘Pay the rent!’ installation at the Tate Modern in London goes to the heart of some of the intractable problems of Australian white settlement. Continue reading »
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Oppenheimer and the “forever” wars: Have we learnt nothing?
For the first time since the US achieved global domination economically and militarily after WWII, the military industrial complex and Biden administration fear the rise of China. They have decided that it must be crushed. The US, NATO and its compliant states have whipped up a frenzy of fear and loathing for the Chinese. This Continue reading »
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Cancelling strange British Empire legacy event just Aussie common sense
Elite sport is something of a sacred cow. To criticise it is to risk being considered unAustralian. So while Premier Andrews’ announcement that Victoria would not host the 2026 Commonwealth Games was not a wholesale critique of elite sport, I am happy to take up the baton. Continue reading »
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“The great gates of Kiev”: A Cold War story
Europeans endured two world wars in the 20th Century. Surely they have no wish to begin the 21st Century with a third. Continue reading »
