We’re told to get over it at every turn, but it’s harder than they’ll ever know. The torrent of fudged facts and weasel words has kept coming all week from reprimanding columnists claiming that those who don’t support the right agenda are a bunch of bad losers. The implication is we aren’t ‘moral’, we are unpatriotic, we have no souls.
The last issue of NewMatilda was published just before the US results came in when we were fighting the surge of optimism brought on by the news of the exit polls arriving in our inboxes from American friends.
Then it was as if an eerie silence fell over the land and over the last issue of NewMatilda. Hardly a reader’s response was recorded last week which has made putting this issue out feel a little like throwing a bottle into the sea. We need your comments badly whether you agree with us or not. It makes us feel NewMatilda is necessary. Our writers need feedback whether you agree with them or not. NewMatilda is about triggering debate and when we don’t, we want to know why.
NewMatilda is also about working on policy alternatives and our real policy work starts with this issue. Check out the Policy Think Tank for our Building blocks for a National Health Policy and give us your feedback there too. Experts in the field need to hear from people who not only can see the inadequacies of our present ailing system but want to have a say in shaping a new one. Remember that NewMatilda is being read by policy makers and politicians as well as the rest of us.
The magazine again tackles some big issues. Language is one of them: Spencer Zifcak’s shocking piece on the High Court’s decision to hold a stateless person in detention indefinitely, Don Watson on the ‘post-truth political environment’, Meg Gurry on the parlous state of Asian languages teaching when expertise in the region is sorely needed. There’s a tough piece by Tony Clifton on Arafat and the opportunity to start to rebuild the peace process. Andrew West unpacks the fact of the Bush re-election. Madeleine Byrne examines the effect our ‘Pacific solution’ has had on asylum seeker policy in EU countries. There’s Dawn Service on Vanstone’s new National Indigenous Council and Kevin Childs applauds the take-up by local councils of car sharing and lots more.
New Matilda articles are now in PDF. Since our launch, many of our readers have asked if it is possible to download articles to print or forward to interested colleagues. We are pleased to announce that this facility is now available.
At the end of each article, there is the option to download the piece in PDF format. We encourage you to pass on hard copies of our articles or email them to your friends.
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