Fascinating, but scary
Like so many others, I found the unravelling of the Trump presidency compelling viewing. From the craziness of the campaigning through the awfulness of the post-election events and on to the siege-like security of the inauguration, it had the fascination of some dystopian-future movie, with the marauding gangs of Mad Max, leaders manipulating the populace à la Hunger Games, and more than a few reminiscences of Orwell’s Ministry of Truth and community hate sessions. But this wasn’t fiction. It was all too real.
Soccer, the world game
No matter where you are in the world, whether on a football field in Jesmond or rugby oval in Kenya, the sense of euphoria projected from a win is astonishingly similar.
Recognise the multicultural in all of us
Harmony Day celebrates the new and old faces of modern multicultural Australia and recognises our highs and lows.
Mother-tongue Mass a multicultural marvel
A sea of dark hair and warm, youthful smiles greet everyone walking into Mass at the iconic Christ the King Church in Mayfield West. Words are projected on screens, ensuring parishioners enthusiastically engage with Fr Thoai Ngoc Nguyen, often referred to as Fr Peter.
Keeping the faiths
The strong spirit of interfaith support flows through Newcastle like the Hunter River itself. As a bustling international port, the city has a natural advantage. Multiculturalism developed without fuss and the religions of those many cultures flourish amid the dominant Catholic and Protestant strains.
Discussion: Harmony Day
On the eve of Harmony Day, Aurora visited San Clemente High School in Mayfield. San Clemente is one of the most culturally diverse schools in the Hunter region and students there were keen to share their perspective on the day and reflections on cultural diversity.
Keeping on
The sun peaked through the clouds to shine on an assembly of Dominican nuns gathered at the Calvary Mt Carmel Retirement home in Maitland recently, to celebrate Mary Clare Innes’s 100th birthday.
Douse burnout blues
Most of us looked forward to putting 2020 to bed on New Year’s Eve, celebrating the end of one of the most globally challenging years in living history, and hoping for better times to come in 2021. Unsurprisingly, it turns out that COVID-19 didn’t take this as a hard deadline.
Learning to live together
Newcastle’s university is a microcosm of the city’s broader cultural diversity and at its hub is the multifaith chaplaincy, which has a greater variety of backgrounds than any other campus in Australia.
Talking the talk is second nature
Arriving at school in Australia and not understanding English is a learning difference, not a learning difficulty.
Listen for the diversity
After completing a Bachelor of Arts (Psychology) at the University of Newcastle in 1992 and then postgraduate studies in Communications and Media at the University of Technology, Sydney, in 1995, Helen Kapalos continued on to an impressive career in broadcast journalism.
