Unleashed presents diverse and robust opinion about politics, society, belief and behaviour.
Last Updated: 25/07/2008 1:07:08 PM
25 July 2008, 12:00
The pink stain in advertising
Large companies and the advertising industry have got it all wrong about marketing to women, writes Bec Brideson.
"They ignore the realities of who is actually buying their products and keep targeting the male wallet, rather than the female purse and the pink–washing continues to leave its insidious stain." More...
25 July 2008, 10:00
The revolution may not be blogged
Hopes that bloggers would overtake the mainstream media world have been dashed, writes Trevor Cook.
"Making a living outside big media is not easy. Some stand-alone bloggers have built up decent audiences but financially life is still precarious for most of them. Many of the newly disappearing bloggers are tired of being popular but poverty-stricken and sleep-deprived." More...
24 July 2008, 17:00
The long ripples of Vietnam conscription
The 60s were a time of change, but Rafe Champion argues that in Australia a single factor, conscription, shifted the political landscape for decades to come.
"The end result was to catapult a large proportion of the educated middle class from a conservative or politically passive orientation stance to support for the ALP, or to even more radical positions." More...
24 July 2008, 10:00
Car shopping blues
A motorcyclist, Gregor Stronach is finding it hard to decide what car to buy.
"Japanese cars: too sterile. American cars: Far too large. Australian cars… well, I'd love to be able to say something nice about the Australian auto industry, but as the bum drops out of it faster than someone with rectal cancer, I can't see much hope for the future." More...
23 July 2008, 14:00
Fat acceptance
We need to realise that people can be healthy at every size, writes Lily O'Hara.
"Being fat does not necessarily mean that you are bad or unacceptable or unhealthy, and this is a lesson that everyone in society needs to learn." More...
23 July 2008, 10:00
Green pain of big business
David Horton has little sympathy for big businesses attempting to blame the greens for their woes.
"Companies will just shut down completely, the bosses weeping as they give the last few cents from their pockets to the sacked workers to try to stave off starvation for the wives and children. 'Oh woe', they will cry, as they gnash and wail, 'if only those extreme greens hadn't ruined everything for everyone!'" More...
22 July 2008, 11:00
Pigging out for peak oil
Nothing will stop our insatiable appetite for oil, writes Roger Sandall.
"Left to itself, turbo-capitalism cannot conserve resources. It will drain oil to the very last drop. And stable it's certainly not ... So hang on tight. We could be in for a wild ride." More...
22 July 2008, 10:30
A migrant's journey
The daughter of migrants, Serpil Senelmis has gone back to Turkey and found it isn't an easy experience.
"It's ironic that after being dubbed a migrant all my life, I finally get a true sense of what it's like to emigrate. Even my firm grasp of the Turkish language can't erode the sense of displacement I feel." More...
21 July 2008, 13:30
Australia's 'warrior culture'
Our conception of Australians at war is largely built around the idea of mateship and this skews the reality that war is also about killing and death, writes Jeffrey Grey.
"In deluding ourselves about the nature of war and soldiering, we run real risks as citizens in a western liberal democracy of failing to understand fully the implications of what we send others to do in our name and on our behalf." More...
21 July 2008, 10:30
The blokes biological clock
With new research showing that age is also a problem for men and their fertility, Katrina Blowers ponders a world where men are desperate to become fathers.
"Single women would be bowled over with romantic gestures as playboy types search for 'the one' over a one-night-stand. Sons would be targeted by those annoying "you'd better not leave your run too late" comments from wanna-be grandparents." More...
18 July 2008, 13:00
The not so beautiful game
The Olympics will throw up cheats and people will tut-tut, but David Long is outraged by a sport in which cheating is virtually an art form.
"The rules ... encourage the person getting tackled to make it appear that he has been tripped, kicked and altogether interfered with. In some countries this acting is coached almost from birth." More...
18 July 2008, 10:00
A Palestinian existence
Mustafa Qadri lived in the Palestinian territories and Israel for a few months and found Palestinians who take pride in simply surviving.
"...it becomes quickly apparent that the mere act of going to school or work, or cultivating your farmland is a powerful act of non-violent resistance. That is something that cannot be overstated." More...
17 July 2008, 10:00
A silent African voice
African religious leaders have remained disturbingly silent on the issue of Robert Mugabe's abuse of power in Zimbabwe.
"The bishops of Kenya and Nigeria saved their criticism for the church itself, attacking the ordination of the openly gay Bishop of New Hampshire, Gene Robinson, a man who, to the best of my knowledge, has not engaged in murderous human rights abuses or overseen the wholesale extermination of his opponents. " More...
17 July 2008, 10:00
Saving the children
New warnings for kids reading Little Red Riding Hood are a worrying sign, writes Helen Razer.
"You can't say, 'Child Protection: Bad Idea' without being taken into custody or receiving a stinging letter of rebuke from Hetty Johnson. No rational soul would suggest that children be exposed more regularly to risk." More...
16 July 2008, 11:30
Long live British kink
Max Mosley, the head of Formula One, is suing a British tabloid over images of him engaged in an alleged sadomasochistic orgy. Brigid Delaney says the trial is titillating Britain, after the sex scandal-free Blair years.
"What could be more British than being whipped for five hours by five prostitutes in prison uniform then putting the kettle on and all sitting down (gingerly) for a nice cup of tea?" More...
16 July 2008, 10:00
Recession revenge
Will Gen Y cope with the recession if and when it hits? Ben Power speaks to Gen X about how hard it was to find work in the early 1990s.
"I remember being told by my parents when I was in grade 12 that it was a pity that when I graduated from uni there would be no jobs. That was nice of them!" More...
15 July 2008, 14:30
Monkeying around with human rights
A Spanish parliamentary committee has recommended Spain give great apes rights to life and freedom. Senator Cory Bernardi wonders if we should be giving more rights to humans first.
"National legislatures are going out of their way to give human rights to non-humans, and yet they fail to protect the right to life of the most vulnerable humans: human embryos and unborn babies." More...
15 July 2008, 11:30
Downplaying date rape
A brouhaha has developed over media coverage of sexual abuse charges against a priest. But suggestions that it's all an attempt to sour World Youth Day miss the point according to Trevor Cook.
"The use of words like "candlelight" and "moonlight" in this depiction is designed to push us in the direction of the conclusion that alleged victim must have, after all, known what was going to happen. This is a classic rationalisation of 'date rape'." More...
15 July 2008, 10:30
Ending Murray politics
Max Finlayson says it is time to put aside politics and work together to save the Murray-Darling Basin.
"We need to accept that the ecological decline of our river has been driven by pettiness, selfishness and ignorance and then move beyond this." More...
14 July 2008, 14:00
RIP Big Brother
It's about time Big Brother was sent out to pasture, writes Gregor Stronach.
"We grew tired of watching strangers getting handjobs under wiggling doonas – and, to be honest, the whole 'unearthly green night-vision sex tape' thing was done by Paris Hilton. It was like watching an amoeba asexually reproducing inside a 1950s X-ray machine." More...
14 July 2008, 12:00
The Last Supper in Sydney
John O'Neill went to World Youth Day in Cologne, and says Sydneysiders should expect a touch of the surreal.
"Catholics will re-enact the final days of Christ's life at sites across the city, including The Last Supper, Christ's whipping and the placing of the crown of thorns, his nailing to the cross, death and burial. All the time public confessionals will be available in Hyde Park." More...
