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Hypocrisy, human rights and the Beijing games

The Beijing Olympic games, which began on August 8, are shaping up to be a perfect reflection of our times — taking place against a backdrop of human rights abuses, terrorism scares and under a blanket of chemical smog.

A life-long fighter for women's equality

Cups with no Handles: Memoir of a Grassroots Activist
By Carolyn Landon
Hybrid Publishers, 2008
288 pages, $29.95 (pb)

Hillsong's miracle make-up cure

The conservative Christian group Hillsong has launched a controversial new youth program “Shine”, aimed, it says, at “promoting self-esteem” in teenage girls considered to be “at risk”, due to personal problems or behavioural issues.

Will Doha, like Dracula, come back from the dead?

Like the good Count of Transylvania, the so-called Doha Round of trade negotiations of the World Trade Organization (WTO) collapsed twice — in Cancun in 2003 and in Potsdam in 2007 — only to come back from the dead.

Connecting with an Asian heritage

@details = Growing up Asian in AustraliaEdited by Alice PungBlack Inc, 2008, $27.95 (pb)

Sewerage reform: concrete sustainability ideas

Hydrologists such as professors Peter Cullen, Richard Kingsford and Derek Eamus, speaking at public forums in NSW earlier this year, warned that Australians are extracting water from stressed rivers and artesian systems faster than it is being replenished.

Letter to Evo — statement of solidarity

Democratic Socialist Perspective,