November 7 – 13, 2020
News
Comment
Comment
Yanis Varoufakis
After the virus: How to design a post-capitalist world
“When even the bankers of the ultra-rich, along with the bailiffs working diligently on their behalf, are panicking about excessive inequality, it becomes hard to say our world is morally defensible. UBS recently reported that, between April and July 2020, as the pandemic’s first wave was surging, the collective stash of the world’s billionaires grew by 28 per cent and many millionaires joined their ranks. Surely the Swiss megabank is happy to see them laughing all the way to its doors, but it is also genuinely worried.”
Comment
Paul Bongiorno
Palaszczuk’s one day, and also the next
“There’s no doubt the prime minister had picked up on the enormous hurt suffered by businesses during the pandemic, particularly in the tourism sector, but what he had missed was people’s concerns about their health. To that end, older voters gave big swings in hitherto safe non-Labor seats on the Sunshine and Gold coasts. ”
Letters, Cartoon & Editorial
Culture
Profile
Singers Vika and Linda Bull
The Bull sisters took their gospel-singing Tongan background and perfectly blended harmonies and carved a decades-long career as both quintessential musician’s musicians and popular favourites. “I like the challenge of creating something out of nothing,” says younger sister Linda. “And then what happens at the end of that process is you get a song that you can sing for years.”
Visual Art
The Dobell Drawing Biennial
The eight artists in this year’s Dobell Australian Drawing Biennial unleash their imaginations in a transporting exhibition.
Fiction
Perfect as a shell
“When I was younger, I would look at my body in the mirror when I got up in the morning, between taking off my pyjamas and getting in the shower. I would drop the flannel pants and then my undies, letting my smell fill my nostrils. It was my body – it still is, though it’s a different body now – and I liked to remind myself of that as I faced my reflection and slid my hands down either side of my torso and across my hipbones, into the modest forest below. I would do the same at night before I went to sleep: clothes from the day discarded, hands exploring.”
Books
Life
Puzzles
Quotes
Environment
“What are you willing to change to help reduce emissions?”
The company, which knew in 1988 that burning fossil fuels was leading to higher carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere but didn’t act for more than three decades, polls its Twitter followers on what they are doing to address climate change. “Divesting from Shell” was not an option.
Queensland
“They should absolutely hang their heads in shame.”
The Queensland Labor senator hits out at the youth curfew – proposed by Liberal National Party leader Deb Frecklington for Townsville and Cairns – after Labor had safely won the election.
Rhetoric
“We want the law to be used in a proper manner. So we’ll be going to the US Supreme Court. We want all voting to stop.”
The Republican incumbent declares victory long before any result is announced. While some have expressed concerns about Trump’s age, he has proved himself willing to undermine the democratic process with the vigour of a 40-year-old first-term senator.
Law and order
“The feeling among our membership is that this is another example of ‘operational creep’ and dilutes the role and importance of AFP officers.”
The AFP criticises as encroachment the decision to secretly give 22 Border Force officers federal police powers. They aren’t going to be happy when they find out Victoria lets protective service officers carry a gun after just 12 weeks of training.
Commerce
“You’ve just got to get on with things. Businesses have got to go on as always. We’ve just gotta be careful.”
The horse trainer offered her professional opinion on Victoria’s lockdown measures ahead of the Melbourne Cup. If she’s looking for a career change, real estate sales might prove a better fit than epidemiology.
Courts
“Copyright law does not allow the ownership of generic concepts like warmth, kindness, empathy, or respect …”
The Netflix attorney responds to a claim from the estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, which argues the traits exhibited by Sherlock Holmes in the film Enola Holmes constitute a violation of copyright. They certainly don’t constitute an interesting character.
