GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

Oct 27, 2018

A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts covered in other media.

On ABC’s Saturday Extra this weekend (in case you missed it):

  • Andrew West discusses the second round of Brazil’s Presidential elections. How much of Brazil’s past is in the vote for Bolsonaro? Guest Sarah Maslin, The Economist Brazil correspondent.
  • Following the swing in the Wentworth by-election, is there room for another political party? Guests: Chris Wallace from the school of history at the ANU.
  • A Foreign Affair this month looks at an agreed referendum for Bougainville’s independence next year; Macedonia’s controversial move to change its name and the US mid-term elections and voter suppression with Simon Jackman (US Studies Centre). Melissa Conley Tyler (AIIA) and Jonathan Pearlman (AFA magazine).
  • Nicholas Wolpe, son of Harold Wolpe, one of the men arrested in Rivonia in 1963, talks about remembering the anti-apartheid struggle and what’s happening with the ANC?
  • Princess Margaret, the original “it” girl long before Meagan or Kate or Dianna. A new biography called Ma’am Darling has been written by British satirist Craig Brow.

(Andrew West is standing in for Geraldine Doogue for two weeks.)

Other commentary

Australia’s Coalition isn’t the only conservative government facing headwinds of its own making. In the UK more that 700 000 people have marched through London demanding a “people’s vote” on Brexit. Phillip Adams interviews Ian Dunt, editor of politics.co.uk on Britain’s political fault lines, some of which run through the border between Northern Island and the Republic.

While climate change is our main environmental concern, it is easy to lose sight of other environmental needs. Writing in the Guardian — Look after the soil, save the Earth: farming in Australia’s unrelenting climate — former governor general Michael Jeffery reminds us of the concept of ‘soil security’ which also underpins what he lists as the world’s six existential challenges: food, water and energy security, climate change abatement, biodiversity protection and human health”.

The idea of shifting embassies from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem goes beyond the idea of shoring up the Jewish vote. Although comparatively minor in Australia, there is a strong “Christian Zionist” movement in the USA, whose four million members have thrown their political weight behind Donald Trump. On the ABC’s Religion and Ethics program, Andrew West talks with Sean Durbin, the author of the forthcoming book, Righteous Gentiles: Religion, Identity and Myth in John Hagee’s Christians United for Israel.

“As much as our world hurtles toward digitized information, physical books remain popular, useful, and revered items.”  That’s Alan Taylor’s short introduction to his collection of 35 photographs of libraries around the world published in The Atlantic online.

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