Etikett: Theconversation.com

After three years of investigations, the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide has delivered its final report with 122 recommendations. The commission has carried much hope for veterans and their families – now we wait to see action.

The veteran sector, including families, had lobbied for this inquiry for over a decade. For a long time, the call fell on deaf ears. The Ex Service Organisation Round Table even rejected the idea, saying veteran suicide was roughly the same as the national average.

The royal commission has addressed this question of poor data. Over the course of the inquiry, the certified numbers of people who died by suicide rose from around 300 to around 1,700. This was because a forensic focus was applied to the statistics.

These do not include deaths that may be suicide but have not been recorded as such, like single car accidents, for example. Ex serving veteran suicide is 26% higher than the national average for men and 107% higher for women.

What are the key findings?

The royal commission began its investigations thinking of veteran suicide as an individual mental health issue. Deployment trauma was expected to be a key influence.

It ended its investigations recognising that culture and systems had an overwhelming part to play. For example, there have been around 60 inquiries into military systems and culture over five decades and around 750 recommendations. Few have been met.

Commissioner Nick Kaldas explained:

When there’s been dozens of inquiries, hundreds of recommendations, and no one’s gone back to check whether they’ve acquitted the intent of the recommendations, I’d say that’s a failure of leadership.

The government tabled the seven-volume report in parliament on Monday. Speaking to media shortly before, Kaldas said:

What is clear from some of the horrible stories that we’ve heard is that many people simply turned a blind eye, over many years and felt that it was too hard, or they simply didn’t care enough to tackle the problems.

The commissioners point out that the veterans most at risk of suicide are those who haven’t deployed (gone overseas to fight). Why are service personnel who haven’t been deployed taking their lives?

The defence force is a hierarchical institution with a command and control culture. The rank system is legitimised through the military justice system. Commanders have complete control over their subordinates.

This maybe useful in conflict, but it’s exploited negatively in everyday service. The costs of service can be as great as the costs of war.

Physical and sexual violence was a common experience among the nearly 6,000 submissions.

Our research, some of which was commissioned by the inquiry, also developed the term “administrative violence”. This is when a commander mercilessly harasses or violates a subordinate.

Being made to paint rocks or sweep away rain, losing leave applications, prohibiting career progression and blocking courses of deployments are common strategies that strip the victim of purpose, identity and belonging.

Identity, purpose and belonging are central to an institution built around camaraderie and service. This is the mateship mythology of the ANZAC tradition.

In our research interviews, those who’d had bad experiences in the force all stated how much they loved their careers, the force, their mates and the job. The merciless bullying by a commander or peers leading to their termination was irreconcilable for them. The betrayal was painful.

Transitioning to civilian life is also a key issue. If a veteran is not supported, they also lose a sense of identity, purpose and belonging.

Many veterans transition successfully, but those who don’t can find themselves homeless, incarcerated or feeling suicidal. The Department of Veterans’ Affairs’ systems can and do exacerbate this, sometimes making it difficult for veterans to receive the support they need. Some, like Private Jesse Bird, have died trying to seek help.

What are the recommendations?

The report outlines 122 recommendations. It will take time to fully analyse them, but some important points stand out.

It comes as no surprise that a key recommendation of the commission is to establish a mechanism of independent scrutiny. The commissioners recommend the new body should monitor and continually report back publicly about progress on tackling the high rates of suicide among military personnel.

A similar recommendation was made by 44 senators in the 2005 inquiry. It was rejected and vetoed by the then prime minister, minister for defence and chief of defence.

Other recommendations have identified many of the factors that contribute to veteran suicide.

The Governor-General, Sam Mostyn, accepted the report at Government House.
Lukas Coch/AAP

There is strong focus on building a respectful workforce, identifying and addressing sexual assault, supporting victims and holding perpetrators to account. One recommendation suggests the government undertake independent research to find out the prevalence of sexual violence within the force.

This addresses much of the negative tribal, hierarchical and command and control factors underpinning the issue.

The quality of leadership is also addressed. The commissioners recommend commanders are assessed on their performance at achieving better cultural, health and wellbeing outcomes. They suggest strengthening the processes for deciding who gets leadership positions.

They also recommend reforming accountability checks on the force, including the role of the inspector general. The commissioners say this role should be done by someone who’s never served in the force to help ensure independent oversight.

The commissioners recommend the Department of Veterans’ Affairs improves veteran transition and wellbeing by better assessing ex service men and women, reducing wait times and bureaucracy.

The recommendations go much further, but these are of particular note because they address the closed, tribal and hierarchical character of defence force culture and systems. Importantly, there is a strong focus on education, research and information sharing to broaden our understanding over time.

Can defence be fixed?

The Department of Veterans’ Affairs appears to be taking this royal commission seriously.

The same cannot be said for the defence force.

Kaldas took the extraordinary step of speaking at the National Press Club in May. He highlighted the chief of defence and his organisation’s obstruction of access to important documents. Kaldas said:

I think there’s been systemic issues such as relying on parliamentary privilege for reports that have been tabled in parliament, therefore making it impossible for us to rely on or use those reports.

Many inquiries and investigations have concluded the Australian Defence Force is incapable of cultural reform.

This was recognised in the 2005 Senate inquiry into the Effectiveness of Australian Military Justice system. The force acknowledged this too in 2012 in the Beyond Compliance report written by the then Major General Craig Orme.

But the force has dragged its feet, or obstructed access to information in this royal commission.

Despite the resistance, there is cause for hope. The commissioners said:

[…] we have come across many, many really motivated, excellent people, both within the ADF and the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, who have tried their best within the system.

It’s clear the royal commission has made the case for defence force cultural reform inarguable. With the force’s recruitment and retention at an all time lows, the case for change could not be stronger.

The Defence all-hours Support Line – 1800 628 036 – is a confidential telephone and online service for ADF members and their families. Open Arms – 1800 011 046 – provides 24-hour free and confidential counselling and support for current and former ADF members and their families. Läs mer…

MSG is making a comeback. The internet’s favourite cucumber salad recipe includes fish sauce, cucumber, garlic and – as the video’s creator Logan tells us with a generous sprinkle from the bag – “MSG, obviously”.

But for many of us, it’s not obvious. Do you have a vague sense MSG is unhealthy but you’re not sure why? Here is the science behind monosodium glutamate, how it got a bad rap, and whether you should add it to your cooking.

What is MSG?

Monosodium glutamate (MSG) is a sodium salt of glutamic acid, one of the amino acids that make up proteins.

It occurs naturally in foods such as mature cheeses, fish, beef, mushrooms, tomatoes, onion and garlic. It provides their savoury and “meaty” flavour, known as umami.

MSG has been used to season food for more than 100 years. Traditionally it was extracted from seaweed broth, but now it’s made by fermenting starch in sugar beets, sugar cane and molasses.

Today it’s widely used as a flavour enhancer in many dishes and pre-packaged goods, including soups, condiments and processed meats.

There is no chemical difference between the MSG found in food and the additive.

MSG is often associated with Asian food but it also occurs naturally in many of the ingredients used in Mediterranean cooking, including tomatoes, mushrooms and Parmesan cheese.
Pixel-Shot/Shutterstock

Is it safe?

For most people, yes. MSG is a safe and authorised additive, according to the Australian agency that regulates food. This corresponds with food standards in the United States, European Union and United Kingdom.

Two major safety reviews have been conducted: one in 1987 by a United Nations expert committee and another 1995 by the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology. Both concluded MSG was safe for the general population.

In 2017 the European Food Safety Authority updated its stance and set a recommended limit based on body weight, aimed to prevent headaches and increased blood pressure.

That limit is still higher than most people consume. The authority says an 80kg person should not have more than 2.4g of added MSG per day. For reference, Europeans average less than a gram per day (0.3-1 gram), while in Asia intake is somewhere between 1.2-1.7 grams a day.

Food Standards Australia New Zealand says the European update does not raise any new safety concerns not already assessed.

Isn’t it bad for me?

Despite the evidence, the idea MSG is dangerous persists.

Its notorious reputation can be traced back to a hoax letter published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1968. A doctor claiming to have experienced palpitations, numbness and fatigue after eating at a Chinese restaurant suggested MSG could be to blame.

With a follow-up article in the New York Times, the idea of “Chinese Restaurant Syndrome” took off. Eating MSG was associated with a range of symptoms, including headache, hives, throat swelling, itching and belly pain.

However an early randomised control trial showed no difference in these symptoms between people who were given MSG versus a placebo. This has since been confirmed in a review of many studies.

The association between MSG, harmful side effects and Chinese food has been hard to shake since a hoax letter published in a medical journal in 1968.
travelview/Shutterstock

Can MSG cause reactions?

A very small percentage of people may have hypersensitivities to MSG. The reported reaction is now known as MSG symptom complex, rather than so-called Chinese restaurant syndrome, with its problematic racial connotations. Symptoms are usually mild, short-term and don’t need treatment.

One study study looked at 100 people with asthma, 30 of whom believed they had hypersentivities to MSG. However when participants were blinded to whether they were consuming MSG, not one reported a reaction.

If you believe you do react to added MSG, it’s relatively easy to avoid. In Australia, it is listed in ingredients as either monosodium glutamate or flavour enhancer 621.

Is it better than table salt?

Using MSG instead of regular salt may help reduce your overall sodium intake, as MSG contains about one third the amount of sodium.

One study found people who ate soup seasoned with MSG rather than salt actually liked it more. They still found it salty to taste, but their sodium intake was reduced by 18%.

MSG still contains sodium, so high use is associated with increased blood pressure. If you’re using MSG as a substitute and you have high blood pressure, you should closely monitor it (just as you would with other salt products).

Should I use MSG in my cooking?

If you want to – yes. Unless you are one of the rare people with hypersensitivities, enhancing the flavour of your dish with a sprinkle of MSG will not cause any health problems. It could even help reduce how much salt you use.

If you’re vegetarian or vegan, cooking with MSG could help add the umami flavour you may miss from animal products such as meat, fish sauce and cheese.

But buying foods with added MSG? Be aware, many of them will also be ultra-processed and it’s that – not the MSG – that’s associated with poor physical and mental health outcomes. Läs mer…

If you’re building, renovating or planning to install a solar battery, your builder or installer might ask whether you’ve considered upgrading from single-phase to three-phase power. This upgrade often comes with a hefty price tag.

So what’s the difference between single-phase and three-phase power, and which one will you need?

Understanding your electricity needs

Each house service connection has a maximum amount of electricity that can be drawn from the grid at any one time before the main fuse blows. The limit varies, according to whether you have single- or three-phase power.

The amount is calculated by multiplying a house’s “amps” and “voltage”.

An “amp” is a unit of electric current. Most houses in Australia with single-phase connections have a standard capacity of 63 amps.

In New South Wales, the standard is 100 amps.

However, some older or rural homes in Australia may still have connections of 32 or 40 amps.

Then there’s voltage, which is the pressure that pushes the current through your wiring to power your house. Current and voltage values are determined by the local distribution network service provider, the company that owns and operates the poles and wires.

Since 2000, the standard voltage in most areas of Australia has been 230 volts. In Western Australia, it’s 240 volts.

Multiplying 240 volts by 63 amps gives you 15,120 watts of power (a watt is a unit of power).

So that means in a home with single-phase power, you can draw about 15,120 watts (or about 15 kilowatts) of power from the grid before the main fuse blows.

But this would probably require using all your appliances at the same time – an unlikely scenario.

Your energy bill can help you understand how much energy you’re using (and you can compare to how much other Australians use). When you see kWh (kilowatt hour) on your monthly energy bill, it’s a measurement of your electric appliances’ wattage and the amount of time you use them.

If you can reduce the amount of energy you need to draw from the grid, you might not need to upgrade to three-phase power at all. Solar panels and a battery can cut your electricity bills, keep the lights on during power outages, and reduce your carbon footprint. Plus, you can store energy for later use, boosting your home’s energy independence.

Many people encounter the idea of three-phase power when renovating their home.
Dan Peled/AAP Image

What’s the difference between single-phase and 3-phase power?

Think of single-phase power as a single-lane road.

It’s perfect for handling regular household appliances such as lights, fridges, washing machines, small air conditioners, small induction cooktops, and regular wall chargers for electric vehicles.

But if too many appliances are running at once, the single-phase circuit in your home can get congested. This can lead to issues such as tripping breakers or flickering lights.

Three-phase power is more like a three-lane highway, with each phase carrying peak power at a different point of time.

It’s designed to handle heavy loads such as a more powerful electric vehicle charger, large multi-zone ducted air conditioning systems, high-end and large induction cooktops and their combinations.

Do you need 3-phase power?

For most households, single-phase power is more than enough to keep everything running smoothly.

Unless you’re running a big property with a large swimming pool, fast-charging your electric car, operating an elevator, cranking up ducted air conditioning, baking in multiple ovens, and powering a high-end kitchen full of gadgets – all at the same time – you probably don’t need to make the switch.

That’s good news, because upgrading to three-phase power can be quite pricey (potentially thousands of dollars).

Equipping every house with three-phase power would be like giving everyone a sports car when a regular car does the job just fine.

Installing three-phase power in every home would make the network infrastructure more expensive to build and maintain. Most homes don’t need that much power, so the extra capacity would go to waste – but everyone would still be paying for maintenance of that larger, underutilised system via higher energy bills.

However, things may be changing

As more homes go all-electric and solar battery systems and electric vehicles become the norm, however, more people will switch to three-phase power.

Three-phase power unlocks incredible charging speeds for electric vehicles (but before you get too excited, make sure your car is equipped to handle that extra juice).

You might think it’s smart to get a much bigger solar panel system than you need, so you can earn extra money from feed-in tariffs by exporting excess energy to the grid. However, single-phase rooftop solar can only feed up to five kilowatts at any point in time in a day to the grid. If your system goes over that, you’ll need special approval to connect it.

Switching to three-phase power can be a great move if you’re looking to install a larger solar system. It lets you harness more energy for your home and potentially send more power back to the grid. It’s worth noting that in Australia, however, the amount of solar power you can export varies by state.

For bigger setups, such as solar systems with batteries that can handle up to 30 kilowatts, three-phase power might be necessary. An electrician will ensure everything stays balanced in your connection.

For most of us, the best way to work out whether you need single- or three-phase power is to work out your total electricity use and seek advice from a registered electrical contractor you trust.

Some will calculate how much power you’d need if you were running all the appliances and powered devices in your home at full blast, all at once. But it’s worth questioning whether this scenario would ever actually happen in real life.

No one wants to overspend on something they don’t actually need. Läs mer…

The South Australian government is moving ahead with plans to ban children under 14 from social media. Under the proposal, teens aged 14 and 15 would also need parental consent to have social media accounts.

South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas has flagged the consequences for social media companies that don’t comply with the new rules would be “severe and harsh”.

He discussed the proposal with other state premiers and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at a cabinet meeting last week, and is encouraging national adoption of the proposed strategy.

Malinauskas has attributed the decision to “mounting evidence” of the “adverse impact” of social media on young people. This comes despite a lack of consensus among experts, with some researchers explaining there is “not a strong evidence base” of the harms social media pose to young people.

Similar laws exist elsewhere

South Australia’s move follows similar laws introduced elsewhere. In the United States, both Florida and Texas have passed similar legislation.

Like South Australia’s proposal, Florida banned children under 14 from social media, requiring parental consent for 14- and 15-year-olds.

In Texas, all teens under 18 now need parental consent to create social media accounts. This is not without controversy, with one commentator describing this as a “misguided attempt to make the internet ‘safe’”, while introducing a law that “infringes on the rights of all Texans”.

In Spain, the minimum age for setting up a social media account increased earlier this year from 14 to 16. Technology companies were also required to install age verification and parental controls on social media and video-sharing platforms.

When South Australia first proposed its ban in May, comments from the community were swift and polarised. At the time, I examined the limitations and potential problems with the technical solutions being proposed for such a ban, including privacy concerns for managing account holders’ data.

So how will this proposed ban work?

The legislation will impose a “duty of care” on social media companies, requiring them to ban children under 14 from social media platforms.

This means Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat and other platforms would need to take “all reasonable steps” to prevent access by any South Australian child under the age of 14. They’d also have to ensure teens aged 14–15 could only access platforms with parental content.

Bans and limited access would be overseen by a state regulator. They would monitor compliance and impose sanctions, such as:

warnings, infringement notices and fines
court proceedings that impose corrective orders or civil penalties.

Legal action could also be taken against providers by either a regulator or parents on behalf of a child who has suffered significant mental or physical harm.

The proposed ban would also provide “exemptions” for beneficial or low-risk social media services (such as educational platforms), which are not yet identified.

What are the challenges of getting this to work?

While exemptions may relieve concerns for those opposed to an outright ban, it’s unclear how specific exemptions would be agreed upon, or how “low-risk” content would be defined.

Another significant challenge is the process by which children’s ages and parental consent mechanisms would be identified and tracked.

Age assurance and verification processes are not foolproof. They require strategies like self-reporting (which is easily circumvented), age verification by an adult (which raises privacy concerns for young people), or steps like uploading government ID (which raise data security concerns).

What is also unclear is how social media companies will respond to this latest move to force them to control platform access.

In other jurisdictions with similar bans – like Florida or Spain – these companies are notably silent. It may well be that to test the long-term viability of these bans, individuals and governments will need to take social media companies to court to prove the platforms have harmed children. Läs mer…

Australia’s construction industry is facing a perfect storm: enormous targets for building – 1.2 million new homes and A$230 billion worth of infrastructure over the next five years – at the same time as net migration is forecast to halve.

Without as many migrants, Australia might not have the workforce it needs to meet these targets.

Unless it does something different. Our team at the University of Technology Sydney has been examining the barriers to employing existing migrants in the construction industry, and we find they are substantial.

Migrants who arrived in Australia in the past five years account for only 2.8% of Australia’s construction workforce, but 4.4% of the entire Australian workforce.

Migrant engineers are significantly more likely than Australian-born engineers to be unemployed or underemployed – working at a more junior level than their skills and experience warrant.

Women face extra barriers

Women skilled in the trades needed face special barriers. This might be expected from an industry in which (in New South Wales at least) around half the employers have a workforce that is nearly all male and one-third employ no women at all.

Our survey of 70 Australian subcontractors found they saw significant safety, productivity and cost risks in employing migrants and refugees and groups including disengaged youth, people with a disability, ex-offenders, women and Indigenous workers.

In many cases, these perceived risks did not align with actual risks.

Our online survey of 79 refugees and migrants who had sought work in construction found that the less experience a refugee or migrant had working in construction overseas, the more likely it was they would secure a full-time job.

Education can hurt foreign jobseekers

Education counted against them as well. High school, undergraduate and masters educated migrants and refugees were more successful in securing full-time permanent work then those with doctorates and technical education.

Employers were often unwilling to recognise their qualifications and experience.

Our in-depth interviews with 16 skilled female migrants who had sought
work in the NSW construction industry found their initial hopes of finding work easily and quickly turned to frustration and an acknowledgement that their qualifications and experience were not as transferable as they had thought.

Shortlists can exclude many people.
Indypendenz/Shutterstock

Most described struggling to get shortlisted for an interview, even when they felt their skills and experience closely matched those needed.

Many complained that the formal, online, and impersonal nature of the initial shortlisting process automatically excluded them from securing interviews.

In the rare events they did secure face-to-face interviews, many
complained many employers used the so-called STAR method (“situation, task, action, and result”) that required them to tell stories about situations they hadn’t been in.

All found their interviews very stressful, impersonal and intimidating.

You shouldn’t need a relative to get a job

Among the challenges facing female migrants with the skills needed by the construction industry were sexism, racism and traditional cultural expectations about their role in society.

Many felt frustrated, abandoned and under-valued after arriving in Australia. This was despite being willing to accept jobs well below their expectations, previous roles, experience and qualifications.

Those fortunate to have family and friends in the construction industry relied heavily on them to find their first jobs. However, these jobs tended to be low level, with limited career opportunities and exposure to exploitation by unscrupulous employers, labour hire companies and job agencies.

Treating foreign-born construction industry workers as well as we treat Australian-born workers, and tackling the special barriers that apply to foreign-born women, ought to be an easy way to boost our construction workforce.

We have identified some of the things holding the industry back. The next step is to examine why.

This research was conducted with refugee and migrant support agencies including Metro Assist and Scarf Illawarra. Läs mer…

Melbourne-based Tony Yap is a leading figure in Australian interpretations of the abstract Japanese dance form of butoh and what he calls “trance dance”. In butoh and trance, movers consider the body as a porous receptacle for spirits and forces from outside of it, and which comes to move it.

Yap founded the Melaka Art & Performance Festival (MAPfest), staged in the Malaysian city of Melaka, in 2008, and this year’s festival ran from August 26 to September 1. Departing from butoh itself, many of the performances involved different levels of introspection and trance, where the focus and concentration of the performers was so intense that they barely seemed aware of their surroundings.

There were also works of what one might call “postmodern classicism”, which draw on ritual and traditional dances from Indonesia and surrounds, reworked within an abstract contemporary framing.

Adam Forbes’s butoh influenced solo.
Photo by and courtesy of Cheah Shelley.

MAPfest features work from experienced masters like Yap, and developing artists – among the more than 50 participants, the youngest artist in this year’s program was just 13 years old. There is a non-hierarchical approach to programming, and pieces are staged for the other performers as a residency designed to showcase work at five locations across Melaka.

Cultural exchange

Traders have moved between Melaka and China since the 15th century, and Yap’s Chinese ancestors have been in Melaka for over three generations.

Melaka has a long history as a site of trade and cultural exchange. The Islamic Sultanate was colonised by Portugal in 1511. Portuguese rule was followed by Holland, Britain and Japan. In 1963, the state of Malaysia was founded. Today, the city is home to ethnic Malays and Chinese, Indian and Eurasian communities.

The city’s relationship to MAPfest hasn’t always been smooth. At one festival, Yap tells me, a dancer embraced the statue of St Francis Xavier situated beside the Portuguese Church of Saint Paul. This led to restrictions on access.

Today, MAPfest’s participants deploy an almost guerilla approach to staging. I have not been involved in a production which seemed so risky, so negotiated in the moment right now, since my student days.

The locations of advertised performances shifted hourly; performers danced under garlands dripping flames; outdoor venues often had dubious surfaces to dance on, presenting hidden dangers. Following updates posted on Messenger, I scuttled from venue to venue, and up winding, nearly condemned staircases, held in place by improvised chains.

Just finding the performance could be an adventure.

Kiki Ando in the temple forecourt, village ruins.
Photo by and courtesy of Lorris Nguan.

Beyond the pretty UNESCO-protected homes of old Melaka lie decaying, overgrown areas, dotted with ruinous 20th century structures. These buildings, open to the elements from above and to the sides, rest amid fields of weeds (which performer Leslie Azzis burrowed beneath), and a temple soon to be bulldozed (home to Kiki Ando’s constantly evolving critique of consumerism).

Some of the most open-ended, improvised pieces were performed here, such as Adam Forbes’ mesmerising portrayal of an almost fluid body. Moving from behind a hanging piece of damaged roofing, he curled and slid across a vine-tangled white wall, dropping to his knees, shoulders rising and falling unevenly, before slowly crossing a plank to approach the audience.

Lee Kien Fei (left) & Tony Yap, Trance ‘Animalising’ workshop and improvisation in the ruins of St Paul’s Church.
Photo by and courtesy of Lorris Nguan.

Even more unexpected was when the multiracial party of artists gathered on a platform below the 16th century Church of Saint Paul to conduct one of three “animalising trance” workshops.

A tropical downpour forced us to seek cover in the remains of the ruined church up the hill. Hardier members moved onto the drenched, uneven stone pavings. Soft splashings in the puddles added an atmosphere of wonder.

As Yap told me later, this was typical of Melaka, where a problem leads to something unplanned and magical.

Destruction of the ego

The closing performance, the large scale, ecstatic improvisation Eulogy For the Living, was presided over by Javan trance master Agus Riyanto. Riyanto set up an altar at the rear of an indoor skate park, adorned with incense and offerings. He paced around the dancers, cracking a whip to bring on, and then dispel, trance.

Yap likened Eulogy For the Living to the involuntary, therapeutic dance of southern Italy known as tarantism, to the convulsive, almost hypnotised postures 19th century physicians witnessed in their hysterical patients, and to Antonin Artaud’s 1931 essay comparing theatre to the plague.

Artaud wrote that both theatre and the plague take “images [of] latent […] disorder and suddenly carries them to the point of the most extreme gestures” so there is a “destruction” of the ego.

Eulogy For the Living: Hysterics, Plague & Tarantism.
Photo by and courtesy of Teo Swee An.

Yap instructed male participants to wear black dresses, further evoking the mad rituals performed by acolytes of theatre’s sex-changing patron, Dionysus.

The choreography was by turns bouncy and vibrating (tarantism), extreme and violent (hysterical or plague-like), collective and infectious, as well as blending lyricism with mourning and gender ambiguity (Dionysian).

The performance cycled through eight or so states, plateauing before energy rose again. An otherworldly din of drone and electronic noise music sustained these choreographic cycles.

Resolving the performance, Riyanto flicked water from garlands onto the dancers. Many trancers required further ministrations from him to expel resistant visiting forces.

I was seated to one side in Muslim robes I had purchased nearby. Smoke from the incense burned my eyes, almost forcing me to exit, as the dancers groaned and meditated before me. Eulogy For the Living provided an epic, immersive conclusion to a week of performance.

If a city characterised by cross-racial couplings and sometimes fraught multicultural exchanges can be translated into a festival, then this year’s MAPfest ably rose to the challenge. Läs mer…

One month after a US court ruled Google had illegally maintained its monopoly on internet search, the tech giant will this week face the start of yet another important antitrust case.

This new case is focused on Google’s online advertising business, which last year brought in more than US$200 billion. The US Department of Justice, along with 17 states, claims Google’s parent company, Alphabet, has monopolised multiple digital advertising technology products by neutralising or eliminating its competitors. The department says this “has caused great harm to online publishers and advertisers and American consumers.”

Google has denied this claim. In a statement published when the lawsuit was filed late last year, it said:

No one is forced to use our advertising technologies – they choose to use them because they’re effective.

Over the past decade, the European Union has successfully proved in a number of cases that digital platforms including Google have acted anticompetitively. This case further shows the US is also more willing to take on Google and other tech giants. And depending on what happens over the course of the trial, it could have enormous ramifications for big tech – and, by extension, the entire internet.

What is this case about?

Because the trial begins today, many aspects of the case are not yet known.

However, from court documents that have already been made public, we know the US Department of Justice is accusing Google of creating an anticompetitive monopoly over the online advertising markets. It says the tech giant has done this through long-running practices such as acquiring competitors and forcing website publishers to adopt Google’s tools.

These practices have led to the full vertical integration of Google in the online advertising industry. Google has effectively been acting as “buyer, seller, and auctioneer of digital display advertising.”

Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter says this has had – and continues to have – the effect of:

driving out rivals, diminishing competition, inflating advertising costs, reducing revenues for news publishers and content creators, snuffing out innovation, and harming the exchange of information and ideas in the public sphere.

The Department of Justice’s success will depend on proving its claims about the nature of online advertising markets and Google’s significant power over them.

The most difficult part for prosecutors will be persuading the court that Google has monopolised these markets by unlawfully excluding its rivals from competition.

The US is finally catching up to the EU

Historically, the European Union has been a leader when it comes to taking up the legal fight against big tech.

More than 20 years ago, the European Commission successfully prosecuted Microsoft for violating competition law. This was followed by other successful anticompetition law cases. For example, in 2017, the commission fined Google more than €2.4 billion for abusing its dominant position as a search engine.

The US now appears to be finally catching up with what has been happening on the other side of the Atlantic. Last month the US District Court ruled Google had an illegal monopoly on online search.

This marked the first time US prosecutors had successfully launched an anticompetition case against a digital platform such as Google. However, the case is not yet over: Google is currently planning an appeal.

But these two cases against Google are not the only ones US authorities are pursuing against big tech.

Recently, the US Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission have brought other lawsuits against Apple, Amazon and Meta.

A number of big tech companies are facing lawsuits in the US.
Ascannio/Shutterstock

An extremely important development

The “ad tech” case against Google and other cases against big digital platforms are extremely important for the future development of US antitrust law in the digital economy.

They will determine whether competitiveness will be restored in the digital markets or whether the monopolisation will continue to flourish. Either way, this will have significant implications for innovation, technological development and prices.

If this new case against Google is ultimately successful, it will make digital advertising markets more competitive. Google will have to change its long-running advertising business. In turn, this will mean the way in which advertisements are bought, sold and placed on the internet will also be overhauled.

More broadly, however, a win for prosecutors may make big tech companies such as Google think more seriously about respecting competition. Läs mer…

“Where,” Vee wonders, “in God’s name did all that anger come from? And more to the point, where the fuck has it all gone?”

Catherine Wheel is a book for women – angry women, sad women, women who refuse to be broken – who keep going despite, and changed by, the men who wage war in their lives.

Journalist Liz Evans’ debut novel is about Kate and her ex-husband’s ex (and mistress), Vee (or Valerie). Kate is still reeling from the unravelling of her and Max’s marriage. She is determined to find out why Max left her for Vee, among the myriads of women with whom he had affairs.

Review: Catherine Wheel – Liz Evans (Ultimo)

“If I could find out what Valerie had gained,” she reasons, “I would better understand my loss.” Kate has tracked down Vee in Bridgewell, and moves there to teach yoga and work in the library. She slowly integrates herself into Vee’s life, even babysitting Vee and Max’s daughter, Iona, an experience she likens to “walking on the tips of swords”.

Kate carefully curates a friendship with Vee, keeping Vee ignorant of her past. She is wound “as tight as a drum … perfectly tensioned, precisely tuned, ready to spring”. As Kate drinks from Vee’s wine glass, matching her lips to the lipstick stain exactly, you wonder how far Kate will go in her unrelenting obsession to understand the attraction Vee holds.

Catherine Wheel is a compelling, if not groundbreaking psychological thriller, with a beautiful cadence.

Liz Evans’ debut novel is a compelling psychological thriller.
Sophie L. Reid

Women connected by men

The novel is deliberate and carefully crafted. Kate and Vee’s alternating points of view illuminate how they look at and think about each other. The comparisons highlight their insecurities: both women see the best of each other and the worst of themselves.

Kate’s story reads as a confessional, directed to Max, as she struggles to make sense of why he left her for Vee. “If I met her at a party,” Kate muses, “or in a supermarket queue, what would I notice? What would I think? What would strike me?” She continues:

I struggle with this, I really do, because what I am most struck by, continually, is her lack of definition. Is that what attracted you?

Her voice is intimate and familiar, referencing their old life together – a backstory that unfurls and deepens throughout the novel. To Kate, Max is still hers and they still share something intimate, even if he broke her and moved on. Valerie is almost an in-joke within their relationship.

But the entry of the charmingly boyish, badly dressed artist, Tom, brings something new to the narrative. In Tom, Vee finds a potential new love to prise her away from her on-again, off-again relationship with Max. Kate, seeing the opportunity to inflict pain on Vee, starts her own relationship with Tom.

Where Vee sees the chance for romance, Kate sees another Max – a womaniser, with little regard for women. But even she has little idea of the depths of Tom’s disregard for women.

The plot may sound like a lot to get your head around. But the book is really about Kate and Vee, and the damage done to them – and changes to their lives – because of men. These women are woven together, inexplicably, painfully, by the men in their lives.

Critiquing toxic masculinity

The novel stalls towards the middle, as Kate edges her way into Vee’s life. The process is naturally mundane and repetitive, revolving around love interests, jobs and motherhood. While Evans is methodological in building suspense and establishing the plot, it seems to rush into the climax and ending. I wanted a little more time to sit in the wake of the consequences.

But the impact of Catherine Wheel isn’t in the pacing – it’s in Evans’ emotional critique of toxic masculinity. Tom and Max, Max and Tom: two three-letter-named men who collect and leave a trail of so-called “hysterical” and “monstrous” women in their wake. Singularly, Max is an obsession for Kate to pursue. But together, Max and Tom represent a pattern of coercive control, gaslighting, abuse and internalised misogyny; a wheel, as it were, that needs to be broken.

The emotion of Evans’ writing feels real: the anger comes with great tiredness and the fight against the abuse the women experience is draining. The novel’s emotions resonate beyond the page; they linger. Evans’ observations often threaten to hit a little too close to home. Her portraits of the modern woman, demure and masked through her romantic experiences, left me wincing with recognition:

She’s not good with anger. They didn’t do anger in her family […] So now, she deals with upsets and injuries by remaining calm, keeping her distance, or complying to the point of self-erasure.

This book of fractured souls and tentative female trust can be confronting, even jarring. Catherine Wheel is a natural evolution of the genre of #Metoo fiction. It’s not about violence done to women’s bodies by men – or not solely about that – but about women’s minds and lives, and their self image. Läs mer…

Australian media has entered a new phase in its painful transformation, yet so far it has been poorly reported and is only vaguely understood.

The evidence is everywhere. It’s in the poor commercial performance of all TV broadcasters, summed up in Bill Shorten’s recent claim on the ABC’s Q+A that free-to-air TV is in “diabolical trouble”.

It’s in Rupert Murdoch’s airy speculation that newspapers might only be around for another 15 years. It’s in the Reuters 2024 Digital News Report warning of growing news avoidance among the young.

It’s also in Meta’s withdrawal from funding media under the Australian government’s News Media Bargaining Code. Or the continuing job cuts across the media and the changing balance of power between media companies and tech platforms.

Even at public broadcasters such as the ABC, audiences are fragmenting and declining. There is an air of alarm in the morale-boosting efforts of its loquacious new chair, Kim Williams.

The fact the media itself has done a poor job joining all these dots is unlikely to surprise anyone familiar with US writer Upton Sinclair’s famous line that it’s hard to get someone to understand something when their salary depends on their not understanding it.

But the significance of the changes to the news media in Australia reach far beyond the vested interests of media moguls and journalists.

Williams correctly identified what’s at stake in the Sir John Monash Oration last week, when he warned of the implications of declining trust in media for social cohesion and the health of democracy.

He said “the very institutions of our society are losing the public’s trust, in large part because there is no longer a broad consensus about the facts”.

Today we are launching a new series on the future of Australian media, to better explain the powerful forces buffeting our media and how they will ultimately reshape society.

In our first piece, journalism academics Matthew Ricketson and Andrew Dodd examine the ways in which power has shifted from media barons to tech bros.

Ricketson and Dodd hold no illusions about the ruthless and hypocritical way traditional media owners wielded power, but they argue the tech bros are even worse because they don’t claim any fourth estate role: “If anything, they seem to hold journalism with tongs as far from their face as possible.”

In the coming days we’ll cover the commercial business models for radio and TV, rural and regional media, the future of printed newspapers, regulation of social media, and more. Läs mer…

Timor-Leste has had much to celebrate recently. August 30 marked 25 years since the Popular Consultation – or “The Referendum”, as many call it – when more than 98% of the population braced themselves against brutal repression to vote for their freedom.

Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, recently visited. This was a bigger deal than one might think: he’s a hero in Timorese eyes because of his international advocacy for their self-determination when he was prime minister of Portugal. He spoke to the parliament, praising the people’s “enormous courage and relentless determination”.

This week, an even bigger hero visits the island: Pope Francis. This occasion is of profound cultural and religious significance for one the most predominantly Catholic countries in the world. More than 97% of the population is Catholic.

History of Catholic activism

Churches in Dili, mostly in Portuguese style, are immaculately kept. Graveyards are revered and often attended by family members who have lights installed around their plots.

Yet surprisingly, this Catholic convergence is only recent. When the Portuguese left in 1975, estimates suggest only 20–30% of the country was Catholic.

During the Indonesian occupation, this number changed drastically. For some, this was because of the role the church played as a “shield of the oppressed”. Timorese beliefs of ancestor worship and animism also cohabited with Catholicism.

Pope Francis is visiting Dili.
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During the years of occupation and the resistance, the Catholic church often advocated for Timorese protections when others turned a blind eye or remained complicit.

Catholic priests and nuns sought to protect human rights against military abuses. Atrocities were repeatedly denounced by the Apostolic Administrators of Dili.

Only staunch international support groups, such as East Timor Action Network or the Campaign for an Independent East Timor, mainly active in Australia, undertook a similarly powerful advocacy role.

Pope John Paul II briefly visited the territory in October 1989, which drew significant attention to the plight of the East Timorese under Indonesian occupation.

In his homily, made directly for the people, he said “you are the salt of the earth” (referring to how the East Timorese extract salt on the coastal plains) and “the light of the world”.

Later on, he affirmed that:

respect for the rights which render life more human must be firmly ensured: the rights of individuals and the rights of families.

This was a rare, radical claim for such a conservative pontiff.

City at a standstill

None of this has been forgotten by the East Timorese.

The mood is festive. Each successive second street lamp on Dili’s main roads has placards or images of the Pope, with alternating posts adorned with lights of stars or hearts.

While independence celebrations saw much of the colours of Timor-Leste’s flag across the city, the pope’s visit has much Catholic iconography, including the sale of many T-shirts.

The city will literally stop for this event. We’ve been told to stock up on water and food in preparation.

Pope Francis’ visit to Timor-Leste has drummed up excitement and merchandise.
Author provided, Author provided (no reuse)

Alongside Timor-Leste, Francis is visiting Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Singapore. The visits were originally planned for 2020 but postponed due to the COVID pandemic.

The government has allocated US$12 million (about A$18 million) for the visit. But there have been other costs too.

Some residents on “illegal” settlements have had their homes demolished for the site of Francis’ mass, with hundreds of thousands expected to attend.

Read more:
With pope’s visit, Timor-Leste must shine a light on its democratic ideals – not intolerance for dissent

‘One of the biggest events since independence’

The visit is a spiritual, cultural, and diplomatic mission all at once.

Spiritually, the visit promises “blessings and hopes” for a nation whose development remains precarious. It also offers a sense of unity via a promise of justice in faith.

Culturally, the papal visit will reinforce nation-building through the country’s strong Catholic identity, which remains one of the few predominant shared core values.

Diplomatically, Francis is paying respects to first cardinals of Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste and Singapore – all key allies.

The pope’s visit also has geopolitical implications.

It is symbolic of peace and an endorsement for ongoing reconciliation with Indonesia. Indonesian Muslim leaders have helped plan the event, which they see as crucial for promoting “shared understanding”.

The other close neighbour, Australia, also views the visit as an “important moment”, with Australia’s ambassador to Timor-Leste, Caitlin Wilson, calling it “one of the biggest events held in the country since its restoration of independence in 2002”.

East Timorese academic Mica Barreto Soares says the visit is a “privilege for a country like Timor” because:

all eyes of the international community will zoom in on a now independent Timor, so it is not just religious but political.

But perhaps the greatest hope is the international and internal political solidarity that may come with the visit.

Domestic political impact

Politics on the island remains fraught, partly because of historical legacies and generational shifts in leadership.

Independence hero and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão, leader of the National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction (CNRT), remains highly revered but holds tight reins on power and is ageing.

So-called “Generation ‘75”, figures from the independence era, dominate the island’s leadership with little representation from younger generations. This is despite the fact around 75% of the country are under 30.

The minority FRETLIN party has reduced in voter popularity and is excluded from executive power, highlighting ongoing feuds and some shifts in internal political dynamics.

The government has been criticised for centralising power and marginalising other political voices. It’s also been accused of prioritising politically motivated large-scale infrastructure projects unaligned with people’s needs.

Most dangerous of all, it’s relying on the depletion of oil reserves. This is a fiscal cliff looming ever closer as Timor-Leste continues to draw down on its sovereign wealth fund (or Petroleum Fund), projected to be exhausted within the decade.

According to the World Bank, non-oil-related revenue stood at merely 14% of gross domestic product. Meanwhile, government spending was among some of the highest globally at 87% in 2023.

Francis is known for his advocacy of social justice and the poor. His visit to Timor-Leste could highlight these issues, pushing the country to focus on human development indicators and social services. These remain inadequately addressed, creating inequality that fuels political tensions. Läs mer…