Latest Articles
We are encouraged to rely more and more on government officials to do for us what we could equally well do for ourselves—and, maybe more importantly, not to do what might help us solve our own problems.
Sep 08 2024
10 mins
If we imagine a metric called the Pinocchio Scale, which measures the number of lies told by a politician as a percentage of his or her overall public statements, our current prime minister (for want of a better description), Airbus Albo, has moved well into uncharted territory.
Sep 06 2024
5 mins
Joe Dolce: ‘The Half-light the Low Light’ and ‘Culture’
The Half-light the Low Light
The half-light the low light
the candlelight match-lit and flickering
shadow and suggestion
the romantic light the mysterious light
the light of Rembrandt and van Eyck
the light tempered by darkness a tonal softness
the golden light the amber light the burnt-ochre light
the light for cuddle and caress
the lovers’ light.
Joe Dolce
Culture
Damnatio Memoriae.
Latin: condemnation of memory.
Official scrubbing.
Spanish tearing up the temples of Incas and Aztecs.
Leaden King George III, in 1776, melted down,
in Manhattan, to make musket balls.
Statues of Napoleon,
destroyed after Bourbon Restoration,
restored by Louis-Philippe,
destroyed again, during the Paris Commune.
Columbus toppled in Caracas,
Lincoln in London,
Washington in Portland,
Hussein in Baghdad,
Qaddafi in Tripoli,
Stalin in Budapest,
Lenin in Ethiopia,
Robert E Lee in Virginia.
General Benedict Arnold
redacted from Saratoga.
Books burned by Nazis.
Beatles bonfired in Birmingham.
6th…
Madam: Archbishop Fisher (July-August 2024) does not resist the attacks on his church by the political, social or scientific atheists and those who insist on not being told what to do.
Aug 29 2024
6 mins
To claim Aborigines have the world's oldest continuous culture is to misunderstand the meaning of culture, which continuously changes over time and location. For a culture not to change over time would be a reproach and certainly not a cause for celebration, for it would indicate that there had been no capacity to adapt. Clearly this has not been the case
Aug 20 2024
23 mins
A friend and longtime supporter of Quadrant, Clive James sent us a poem in 2010, which we published in our December issue. Like the Taronga Park Aquarium he recalls in its 'mocked-up sandstone cave' it's not to be forgotten
Aug 16 2024
2 mins
