Culture

  • Bringing the tragedy of war to life

    In the Rose Garden of the Martyrs — A Memoir of IranBy Christopher de BellaigueHarper Collins, 2004280 pages, $35 REVIEW BY SARAH STEPHEN In the Rose Garden of the Martyrs is a story of Iran told from the standpoint of someone who is both an

  • Joesoef Isak wins PEN Australia award

    Max Lane, Sydney Indonesian left-wing publisher Joesoef Isak attended the Third Asia Pacific International Solidarity Conference (APISC) in Sydney over the Easter weekend. In addition to speaking at a workshop on "Marxism in Indonesia after 1965"

  • Pearly gates

    At last at the Pearly Gates John Howard stood,St Peter with steely eyes looked at him good.He said, you've a bloody cheek comin' up here,With your fibs and no sorries and your campaigns of fear. Your "kids overboard" made us all feel quite

  • The human consequences of economic rationalism

    Three DollarsStarring David Wenham, Frances O'Connor, Sarah WynterDirected by Robert ConnollyNow showing nationallyThree Dollars follows somewhat in the footsteps of director Robert Connolly's last film, The Bank, the story of

  • On the box

    Message Stick: Koori Court — "Broken Bones" is a gritty tale of social realism, portraying both the negative and positive aspects of Indigenous family culture. ABC, Friday, April 15, 6pm. Get Up Stand Up: We Shall Overcome — Identifies the

  • Baxter at Easter*

    I saw the pricks pricking balloonsI saw them seizing kitesthey were protecting ignorance for the sake of all uptights.They all wore coppers' uniformsthey all had coppers' minds,barely a brain cell between them,these are John Howard's times.When

  • Resistance: the early years

    Resistance: A History of the Democratic Socialist Party and Resistance Volume 1: 1965-72By John PercyResistance Books, Sydney 2005338 pages, $29.95 (pb) REVIEW BY JIM MCILROY This is an important and timely book, given the transitional period the

  • Inside the US military machine

    America's Military Today: The Challenge of MilitarismBy Tod EnsignNew Press, 2004430 pages, $37 Will They Ever Trust Us Again? Letters from the War ZoneBy Michael MooreSimon and Schuster, 2004218 pages, $25 REVIEW BY ERIC RUDER Since September

  • Ear plugs

    Someone said somethingand it flew overone ear and passedthrough the other. And the third worldrolled over and groanedfor it had been beaten.and its organs were seeping outof deep, blood red wounds. it was tired.hungry.its bed mate, unhurt,white

  • On the box

    The Black Meteor — The arrival of a black South African soccer player to a small Dutch town challenges racism and small-mindedness. SBS, Monday, April 11, 11pm. Cutting Edge: Al-Qaeda in Europe — In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, the locus

  • A big, working-class heart

    RickyBy Ricky TomlinsonTime Warner, 2004448 pages, $24.95 (pb) REVIEW BY PHIL SHANNON "A window got broke, a door frame got knocked over and a couple of walls were toppled. Some guy slipped off scaffolding and sprained an ankle. Another claimed a

  • Bono stage right: Empire moves and co-opts in mysterious ways

    BY DERRICK O'KEEFE Like so many, I've by now become used to my childhood heroes letting me down. I long ago accepted that hockey legend Wayne Gretzky, to whom I dedicated many an early adolescent hour of memorising statistics (just ask me how many