Culture

  • Norman Mailer and the 'good war'

    The media memorialised Norman Mailer after his death on November 10 with accolades about his stature as a literary giant, two Pulitzer Prizes, larger-than-life celebrity persona and reputation as an egotistical curmudgeon. But the substance of his ideas and his life beyond the image and the awards got little attention.

  • Iraq: out now!

    Iraq — The Logic of Withdrawal
    By Anthony Arnove
    The New Press, 2007
    178 pages, $26.00 (pb)

  • On the box

    Cuba: An African Odyssey — From Che Guevara's military campaign to avenge Lumumba in the Congo, up to the fall of apartheid in South Africa, 300,000 Cubans fought alongside African revolutionaries. SBS, Friday, November 23, 2.30pm. Heaven On

  • On the box

    Becoming Julia — An unflinching look at what makes a man and what makes a woman, with all stereotypes turned on their head. SBS, Saturday, November 17, 1.20am. Message Stick: Kokoda Dreaming — The Wanga Idingii project is an early intervention

  • Violeta Parra - mother of the New Chilean Song Movement

    Chile, that thin strip of land lulled to sleep by the Pacific and the Andes, has given birth to many people that have left their mark in the hearts of millions all across the planet: the Nobel Prize winners Gabriela Mistral and Pablo Neruda, the amazing composer Victor Jara, tortured and assassinated by Pinochet, our comrade Salvador Allende — and one of the greatest exponents of Chilean music, Violeta Parra.

  • Postcolonial perspective

    Who Is The Right To Know
    Macarena Ruiz, artist
    Trocadero Artspace, level 1, 119 Hopkins Street, Footscray
    November 7-24

  • South Africa: 'Babylon' and the murder of Lucky Dube

    The murder of South Africa’s reggae icon Lucky Dube on October 18, in an attempted car hijacking — one of South Africa’s most common crimes these days — has been condemned by all. The African National Congress (ANC) government has urged the nation to unite against the scourge of crime threatening “our democracy”. For opposition parties, Dube’s killing is further proof that crime is out of hand. As a deterrent, some have called for the reinstatement of capital punishment. There is a general feeling that the four “monsters” who recently appeared in court in connection with the crime should “rot” in jail. Typically, however, the debate remains very narrow and shallow.

  • On the Box

    The Book that Shook the World — The Little Red School Book has been described as "essentially a manual for kids on how to challenge the authority of the school system". SBS, Friday, November 2, 8.30pm. Australia by Numbers: Brewarrina 2839 —