It will come as no surprise to anyone that Christmas is on its way again. Every shop, it seems, is advertising the fact that there are only so many shopping days until Christmas, almost as hard as they're advertising the presents you can buy.
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The public has until December 16 to nominate any pesticides which it wants reviewed for safety purposes in the light of new research. Dr Kate Short from the National Toxics Network (NTN) is alerting people to their rights.
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Manyu Wana — A unique Aboriginal children's program incorporating music, magic and stories. SBS, 10.30am, Saturday, December 10. The Comic Strip Presents — Bringing together the best of British comedians. In this week's episode, Jennifer
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For Helio Tavares of the Timorese Democratic Union (UDT), political life started young. Today a member of UDT's regional directorate, since the age of 16 he has seen his country through a civil war and an invasion by Indonesia.
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The Birth Defects Monitoring Program (BDMP) is a US government effort to monitor birth defects using data collected when newborn infants are discharged from hospital. The BDMP was initiated by the federal Centers for Disease
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Based on highly reliably international contacts, leaked documents and horoscopes from several TV magazines, Nostradamus' Media Watch presents a highly accurate forecast of political events across the globe. Downer offered
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Ten years ago, on December 3, 1984, the Union Carbide Corporation leaked a poisonous gas into a slum neighbourhood beside its Bhopal, India, pesticide factory. As a result of the company's criminal negligence, more than 4000 people
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Australian education is presently undergoing some dramatic changes that will profoundly affect the type of education we receive and its role in Australian society. They are integrally related to the direction of the Australian
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Whose memories? In Western Australia a man was recently acquitted after being charged with sexual abuse by his two daughters, who remembered their abuse years later during therapy. His defence rested on a supposed "false memory syndrome".
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Looking out: Parts of the rainbow are violent"In all things that are purely social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress." — Booker Taliaferro
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Australia has the dubious honour of having the highest incidence of asthma in the world. Twenty-five per cent of children in Australia have asthma, and the rate has doubled over the last 10 years. To the well-known
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While Paul Keating was holding his November 24-25 national strategies conference, there was another economic forum addressing the problems confronting Australia. This was, literally, The Other Economic Summit (TOES), a people's
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Time Is On Our Side — The Rolling Stones Story — Part one of a series that traces the band's 30-year career. The series is full of interviews, unique session performances and three decades of recordings. ABC Radio National, Wednesday, December 7,
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Oil companies and Timor My congratulations to the members of Resistance and others, who protested against Gareth Evans' policies at the Park Grand Hotel in Sydney on November 21. Due to taking the kids to school, I arrived late, to find the long
News
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Tenants' funding withdrawnMELBOURNE — Thirty people gathered outside the office of the Victorian minister for housing, Rob Knowles, on November 30 to protest against the withdrawal of government funding of the Public
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Rally to defend community servicesADELAIDE — Protests over cutbacks by the state Liberal government continue as the December 10 rally to "Defend Community Services" nears. More than 100 parents and students
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Socialists to stand in WollongongWOLLONGONG — The Democratic Socialists have announced that they will stand Chris Pickering as candidate for the seat of Wollongong in the upcoming state elections. Pickering, a
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SYDNEY — Sydney's Leichhardt Oval was the scene on Saturday, December 3, of one of the angriest protest rallies in the city in the last 20 years. As the 747s howled overhead, around 15,000 inner city residents gathered to
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SYDNEY — A new bill, and proposed changes to others, as part of the NSW Liberal government's law and order campaign have been diluted following pressure from the public. However, police powers regarding young people and
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"It's excellent. It's the best outcome in the face of the government's intransigence", Greens (WA) Senator Christabel Chamarette told Green Left Weekly following the decision on November 28 to establish a Senate select
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Sydney fumes exceed limit SYDNEY — A study released by the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) has revealed that the amount of benzene (a carcinogen in petrol) over George Street in the central business district sometimes exceeds the
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SYDNEY — "Australians can be made to understand the problem with trading with Indonesia's genocidal generals", renowned author and film maker John Pilger told a 450-strong meeting here on December 2. "Trade is not the holy grail,
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Scientist 'alarmed' over Hinchinbrook go-aheadBRISBANE — The use of a recent scientific report to overturn objections to developer Keith Williams' controversial Port Hinchinbrook project was an abuse, an environmental
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The good, the bad and the gorgeous: Popular culture's romance with lesbianism Edited by Diane Hamer and Belinda Budge Harper Collins, 1994. 253 pp., $24.95 (pb) Reviewed by Kath Gelber With all the fuss about lesbians in popular culture
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ADELAIDE — On November 26, 120 people attended a protest rally over the privatisation of Modbury Hospital. Speakers, led by local residents, called for an ongoing campaign to save the hospital, the most efficient in the state. Lea Stevens from the
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East Timor exhibition visits IpswichBRISBANE — Community Aid Abroad's "East Timor 1942-1992" photo exhibition opened in Ipswich on December 3. The exhibition, on the Queensland leg of its tour, contains more than 100
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Smelter closure to cost 1000 jobsWOLLONGONG — Southern Copper Ltd (SCL) has announced that it will cease operations at its Wollongong smelter in January, laying off 400 workers from its own work force and possibly
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DITA SARI, the general secretary of the Centre for Indonesian Working Class Struggle (PPBI), is completing a visit to Australia to attend the Indian Ocean Trade Union Conference in Perth and to address several public meetings, including the December
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Shearers oppose union sell-outBALLARAT — The breakaway Shearers and Rural Workers Union (SRWU) is angry over the proposed award restructuring deal the right-wing AWU-FIME is set to conclude with the
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SYDNEY — The plague of aircraft noise generated by the opening of the third runway at Kingsford Smith airport is uniting affected communities in a powerful opposition — one that has NSW Labor politicians running for cover.
Analysis
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Tax the rich We've had the recession that we had to have and now, just when we thought it was safe to go out, Treasurer Willis, Prime Minister Keating and Reserve Bank governor Fraser are concurring with business economists on the tax increases
World
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The emperor has no clothes. The sham of the West's so-called peacekeeping operation in Bosnia has been finally stripped bare with the entry into the UN-designated "safe haven" of Bihac by Serb forces. Along the way, the Serbs
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MOSCOW — Amid bitter protests from miners, teachers and other sections of organised labour, Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma has begun implementing a program of "reform" designed to wipe the last traces of socialism from the
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MOSCOW — Even in a city which now has a reputation as one of the world's crime capitals, it can be easy at times to forget that crime exists. Newspapers might carry lists of the week's murder victims, but a reassuring piece
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Rwanda inaugurated its new parliament during the last week of November. The parliament is a broad-based legislature similar to that outlined in the Arusha Peace Accord of 1993. The government is led by the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) but includes
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HAVANA — The World Cuba Solidarity Meeting wound up on November 25, after five days of debates, speeches and the work of different commissions. The final declaration of this unprecedented event stated: "... we 3072 participants representing
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SYDNEY — For both Junilyn Pikacha, from the Solomon Islands Planned Parenthood Association, and Geraldine Maibani-Michie, from the Department of Community Medicine at the University of Papua New Guinea, women's rights are
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BRISBANE — Cuban environmentalist Luis Sanchez told a meeting here on November 25 that the most pressing problem facing Cuba since the fall of the Eastern bloc was the production of food. Sanchez is touring Australia as
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On tour in Sydney and speaking at the PNG Forest Benefit gig at the Harbourside Brasserie on Sunday, December 4, is Father Robert Lak, a prominent radio personality and founder of the development and political activist organisation Doa Foundation. He
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KUALA LUMPUR — "In search of a just world order" was the title and theme of a three-day international conference held here from November 18. Sponsored by the non-government organisation the Jamahir Society for Culture and
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Bougainville: cease-fire failsThe Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA) has declared an end to the cease-fire between itself and the Papua New Guinea Defence Forces signed in September before the abortive peace talks held
Culture
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Representations of the Intellectual: The 1993 Reith Lectures By Edward W. Said Vintage, 1994. 90 pp., $12.95 (pb) Styles of Radical Will By Susan Sontag Vintage, 1994. 274 pp., $12.95 (pb) Revolutionaries: Contemporary Essays By
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Three Colours: Red Directed by Krysztof Kieslowski Starring Irene Jacob, Jean-Louis Trintignant Reviewed by Vannessa Hearman and Karl Miller The trilogy Blue, White and Red deals with the themes of liberty, equality and fraternity,
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Pulp Fiction Written and directed by Quentin Tarantino Reviewed by Zanny Begg Pulp Fiction is an amoral film. It's a film full of violence. A young black boy's head is blown off in the back of a car. A boxer kills his opponent in the ring.
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Sabbath Bloody Sabbath Nativity in Black: A tribute to Black Sabbath Various artists Columbia Records Reviewed by Nick Fredman Before Metallica, before Soundgarden, before Spinal Tap even, there was Black Sabbath. With the insipid and
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Romeo of the Underworld By Venero Armanno Picador Australia, 1994 Reviewed by Kylie Hunt There's something savage and real about Romeo of the Underworld. Venero Armanno makes you take it seriously from the first word — stronzo. Or to
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Tumbling Dice By Brian Toohey Port Melbourne: William Heinemann Australia 1994. 348 pp. $24.95 Reviewed by Allen Myers Brian Toohey is much better known as an investigator of Australia's intelligence services than as an economics writer,
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A Greek-Latin collaborationMELBOURNE — Following last year's success of the performance of Pablo Neruda's Canto General, this year Canto Coro will be accompanied by the Australian Greek Choir to present Axion Esti.
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A Critical View of Western Journalism and Scholarship on East Timor By Geoffrey Gunn (with Jefferson Lee) Journal of Contemporary Asia Publishers, 1994. 271 pp., $25 (pb) Available by postal order from PO Box 703, Leichhardt 2040 Reviewed by
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Three Colours: Red Directed by Krysztof Kieslowski Starring Irene Jacob, Jean-Louis Trintignant Reviewed by Vannessa Hearman and Karl Miller The trilogy Blue, White and Red deals with the themes of liberty, equality and fraternity,
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SYDNEY — "Yiribana", a word from the Eora language believed to translate as "this way", is the name of a new gallery of Aboriginal art which has opened at the Art Gallery of NSW. Promotional material claims it to be the
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Didgeridoo Concerto Didgeridoo Concerto Ellipsis Arts Reviewed by Francesca Davidson Didgeridoo Concerto is an impressive 51 minutes of solo didgeridoo playing by musician Mark Atkins — reputedly Australia's leading Aboriginal
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MELBOURNE — A fortnight prior to the state government's "Arts 21" package being unveiled on November 23, the Melbourne Workers Theatre had its funding cut by $20,000. Arts 21 is the Kennett government's policy supposedly