LIMINAL

Countless firms have pulled their support and advertising from Alan Jones’ radio program after his Jacinda Ardern comments. Just what will it take to suspend him? The managers of the station should take him off the airwaves, but not just for reasons of language. The reason to pull him off is public health. Let me explain. One of the greatest threats to health is violence. Australia has a shocking record of violence against women. On average, one woman a week is murdered by her current or former partner. Overwhelmingly, perpetratators of domestic or family violence against women and children are male. Factors associated with gender inequality are the most consistent predictors of violence against women including male peer to peer relations that emphasise aggression and disrespect towards women. Jones, who appears to have trouble with women of influence, feeds and helps legitimise an already-existing set of attitudes that condone violence. There is mounting evidence that pub...

Without thinking about it much, children mimic their parents. It was when my husband — a veteran journalist — and I found ourselves glued to our phones for work at home, and tweeting compulsively, that I began to worry about what it was teaching our kids. What were we modelling? What was it doing to us? We were increasingly alone while together, particularly after our young teens retreated into their bedrooms to use their own smartphones, a development that quickened their inevitable withdrawal from us. Cyberspace is more intense and exciting than the real world, a world of continuous competition and commerce. It's also easier to navigate. But what grabs our attention there isn't necessarily what's needed for us to grow well. While we were working out boundaries for our children, I began to think about boundaries for us, looking for other ways to find joy and meaning in our own lives in the hope we could spark it in our kids, because it isn't children who are driv...

History is littered with examples where propaganda has led to appalling acts of violence. That's why the rise of social media in the hands of extreme groups is a deep concern, as is the role of public figures in potentially inflaming hate. Who could forget Rwanda. Twenty-five years ago this month the world heard of the genocide against the Tutsi. I was in South Africa covering that country's historic election of Nelson Mandela, a moment of euphoria, when shocking news trickled in of the mass murder of up to 70 per cent of Rwanda's Tutsi people by members of the Hutu majority. Civil war had been brewing in Rwanda before April, 1994. But the use of the media in skilled hands brought ordinary people, who had lived together for hundred of years, to extreme violence. The Tutsi were labelled as demons, rich and avaricious, out to get the Hutu. The Hutu were called on to kill members of a Tutsi rebel group that threatened the government, and their "accomplices" -...

I had the privilege of being selected for and participating in this year's Art Not Apart festival in Canberra. My contribution explored protest sites and the rise of inequality and racism. It's not easy keeping cool when your passionate about a good cause. Even progressives in the US determined to rally recently in support of a more inclusive society resorted to physical violence when confronting neo-Nazis. Confrontation of evil by the power of love with non-violent protest, as Martin Luther King wrote, is the most potent weapon available to oppressed people in their struggle for freedom. But when you are invested in social reform and impacted by injustice, it ain't easy to keep cool, any time, any where. To read more, see headline image, go to: https://artnotapart.com/artist/2019/toni-hassan/