Arts and Sport
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PETER DAY. Kyrgios: the anti-hero
Like the rest of us, Nick needs time: time to mature; time to know himself; and time to sort out the wheat from the chaff – as regards the latter, I think he’s already worked out that the media is mostly full of chaff… and don’t the media hate it, love it, know it, resent Continue reading »
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IAN WEBSTER. Protecting young people from our ‘favourite drug’ – alcohol.
Marketing of alcohol is out of control. 20% of those watching major sporting events on TV are under the age of 18 years. Continue reading »
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JOHN MENADUE. Cricket – alcohol and junk food.
Cricket has a dangerous relationship with alcohol and junk food. Continue reading »
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MUNGO MacCALLUM. The Olympic Games. A chance to celebrate and honour human achievements.
My favourite Olympic Games story comes not from Rio in 2016 but from Persepolis in 492 BC. The setting was the court of King Darius I, who styled himself Darius the Great. His Persian empire was vast, but there were problems: the Greek Ionian states had revolted, and although they had been ruthlessly put Continue reading »
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STEVE GEORGAKIS. Sport is only sport if you participate; otherwise it is a spectacle
The highpoint of sport occurred more than 2,000 years ago when the ancient Greeks established an education system which placed a significant emphasis on the playing of sport and in particular the educational value of participation in sport. The central role of sport in the education system coincided with the flourishing of Greek culture Continue reading »
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KATHY CHAPMAN & BRIDGET KELLY. Unhealthy sport sponsorship continues to target kids.
In the final month of the countdown to the Olympic Games, our sports stars are probably not eating and drinking the Games sponsors’ foods. Again, as in previous Olympics, the Olympic Games sponsors are Coca-Cola, McDonald’s and Cadburys, whose foods and drinks are not good choices for athletes due to their lack of nutrition and Continue reading »
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JOHN TULLOH. Olympics and oil – a tale of two South American countries.
Back in 2009, the International Olympic Committee made a bold decision. It decided the 2016 Games would be held for the first time in South America, a continent not noted for its political, economic or social stability. Rio de Janeiro in Brazil would be the host city even though the evaluation of three others Continue reading »
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PETER DAY. Despite alcohol and gambling in sport, let us never forget ‘the backyard’.
Sport is a majestic thing. Just like our imaginations, it takes us to so many good places. The backyard: where gran and grandson become batting partners in a fiercely fought family ‘Test Match’. The beach: where sand and water gently accommodate the thrills and spills of diving and catching and tackling and throwing. The family home: where mum’s Continue reading »
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STEPHEN LEEDER. Alcohol and sport.
Queensland’s victory over NSW in the June 1 game was reported as the highest rating State of Origin match ever and ‘the top TV event of 2016.’ Both teams carried alcohol advertising on their clothing into the match. The association of alcohol with sport is deep, complex and profitable. Sport provides a lucrative vehicle for Continue reading »
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MICHELE KOSASIH. Seven years on and still itching for change on the negative impacts of alcohol.
2016 marks seven years for the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education’s (FARE) Annual Alcohol Poll (conducted by Galaxy Research), and we continue to see Australia’s concern about the negative impacts alcohol has on the community. Continue reading »
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Evan Williams. The seven sacred cows of Australian politics
We are indebted to the Hindu religion for that useful term sacred cow. As every schoolboy knows, Hindus venerate the cow and forbid its slaughter or abuse. Our political landscape abounds in sacred cows – institutions or practices that are considered beyond criticism, immune to scrutiny and supported by politicians of all parties. Some sacred Continue reading »
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John Dwyer. ‘Health’ products and treatments that are often unproven and sometimes dangerous.
Health Care Advertising and Consumer Protection There are far more irritations than pearls available currently to those of us trying to champion the importance of having our health care underpinned by credible scientific evidence of clinical effectiveness. Though we live in the most scientific of all ages it is cause for concern that practices Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Supporting Adam Goodes.
This blog is a repost from 1 August 2015. Adam Goodes has been bullied and vilified because he has reminded us of our dark history and the discrimination that continues against him and many others in Australia today. We don’t like being reminded of the dispossession, killing, poisoning and discrimination against our own indigenous people. Continue reading »
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Robin Room and Michael Livingston. Alcohol companies target the 20% of Australians who drink 75% of the alcohol.
Researchers have known for a long time that alcohol consumption is quite concentrated in a small part of the population. They argue about the exact distribution, but there is substantial agreement that, so long as alcohol sales are not heavily restricted, consumption is distributed in a quite predictable way. That is, there are many light Continue reading »
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Michael Thorn. Caught Out: How Cricket Australia maintains Aussies high drinking average.
The runs are coming thick and fast in the current Victoria Bitter One Day International Series between Australia and India, bested only by the onslaught of alcohol advertising both on and off the pitch as well as in the commercial breaks in between the on field action. That barrage of alcohol ads on the Continue reading »
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Steve Georgakis. The unholy trinity of sports advertising in Australia – betting agencies, junk food and alcohol.
Why we shouldn’t be surprised that tennis is implicated in match-fixing. The first day of the Australian Open was marred by revelations alleging widespread match-fixing and cover-ups in men’s tennis stretching back more than a decade. World number one Novak Djokovic confirmed he was approached with a reported offer of US$200,000 in 2006 to throw Continue reading »
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Peter Day. Professional sport needs more ‘Pats’.
Despite all the feel good talk, the rags to riches stories and wonderful qualities that people like to associate with professional sport, when all is said and done, what really shapes and drives it are these three things: Results 2. Results 3. Results. Winning is everything, and self-interest, the “jockey”. In such a hyper competitive Continue reading »
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Dennis Hemphill. Essendon Football Club
Their club failed them, but Essendon players can’t excape blame for doping ban. Fingers are pointing again at the Essendon Football Club for its failures in the long-running supplements fiasco. This follows the Court of Arbitration for Sport’s (CAS) decision to ban 34 past and present players for one year for contravening the World Anti-Doping Continue reading »
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Michael Thorn. The Australian cricket captain says its about the brand and not alcohol.
Repost from 24/09/2015 Premier Mike Baird’s public comments at last week’s Thomas Kelly Foundation event in Sydney wasn’t the first time he has questioned the extent of alcohol advertising in this country, particularly its strong association with big sport. Baird made the self-evident point that such alcohol advertising has become omni-present and spoke about the Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Cricket and the sound of summer.
For me, the most memorable comment of the cricket season so far has been by Steve Smith, the Australian captain, explaining that the VB logo on their jackets wasn’t really advertising alcohol. It was only ‘branding’. I notice that he is now promoting Kentucky Fried Chicken. I am waiting for his explanation of how that Continue reading »
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Sean Gorman. Goodes is gone but the confronting truth remains.
For many AFL fans, the last week in September is the time of the year where we reflect on a season that could have been and dream of next year. One thing we can be sure of is that we won’t see Sydney Swans champion Adam Goodes on a football field again. This saddens me. Continue reading »
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Sandra Jones. Don’t worry about the kids: Let’s just protect the alcohol industry
A recent study from Monash University found that a quarter of all alcohol advertising on Australian TV was during televised sports. Importantly, 86% of alcohol advertising between 6.00am and 8.30pm (that is, when kids are most likely to be watching TV) was during sports programming. The broadcast of alcohol advertisements on commercial television in Australia Continue reading »
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Andrew Pridham. Adam Goodes and Rosa Parks.
Before last weekend’s match between the Sydney Swans and the Adelaide Crows, the Chairman of the Sydney Swans, Andrew Pridham, gave a very challenging speech about Adam Goodes and racism in Australia. He said that recent events are a seminal moment in our history. He commented that Adam Goodes ‘has shaken the nation’s conscience‘. He Continue reading »
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Marcus Woolombi Waters. We all know and admire the Haka … so why not one of our own?
The first I heard of the Adam Goodes Bumala-y Yuurrama-y (war dance) I was in Aotearoa/New Zealand. I had been watching my son play rugby. It was a carnival (under 12s) and they had just lost the grand final. After leading for the entire game, players and parents alike watched helplessly as the opposing team Continue reading »
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Tim Soutphommasane. Adam Goodes has made some people feel uncomfortable.
Racism comes in many forms: overt and covert, crude and subtle. The harms of racism also come in many forms. We know from a large body of research that racism can lead to stress, negative emotions, psychological damage, even physiological effects. We don’t always focus, however, on racism’s impact on our civic health. What I Continue reading »
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Peter Day. Warning: role models may shrink
Role models: We love them. We look up to them. We say we need them. We want to know them. We want to live through them. But who are they, and what purpose do they serve? In Australia they tend to be sportsmen and celebrities of note: young people who can kick a footy, smash Continue reading »
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Alcohol is a bigger problem than ice.
In the Herald Sun on April 8, 2015, Jeff Kennett, the former premier of Victoria, said that it was time to stop the promotion of alcohol. See link to article below. In this article he says ‘If it is good enough to ban the advertising of tobacco products, if it is good enough to make Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Alcohol and junk food – winning at the expense of our health.
If you seriously follow almost any major Australian sport as I do, you will be conscious of the saturation alcohol and junk food advertising. And in the run up to the centenary of Gallipoli there are no holds barred to link heroes and booze… VB now have a new television advertisement filmed at Melbourne’s Shrine Continue reading »
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Ian Webster. Alcohol-drenched cricket.
Michael Thorn is right; the ICC Cricket World Cup was an alcohol-drenched event (SMH Tuesday, 31st March 2015). Cricketers were once models of sportsmanship. There was even altruism and some became statesmen. Recall, “That’s simply not cricket.” No longer, as the game is subverted by money and alcohol. As I write, the ABC is broadcasting Continue reading »
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ICC Cricket World Cup: Alcohol-drenched culture needs to change.
Many media outlets today have drawn attention to the alcohol influenced behaviour of Australian cricketers as they celebrated winning the International World Cup. At the celebration in Federation Square in Melbourne yesterday morning, the Australian captain Michael Clarke seemed to be proud of the fact that all the team members had hangovers. In the link Continue reading »