Monthly Archives: February 2023

Conversations (ABC) – Lost at Sea: Losing faith as a Navy Chaplain was broadcast on 26 April 2022. It is an interview with Collin Acton, who also featured in an article in the Saturday Paper (19 November 2022 – but it’s behind a paywall). After a fairly tempestuous relationship with his father, he joined the Navy as a 16 year old as an engineer and underwent your typical evangelical Christian-type conversion experience. He undertook divinity training (no mean feat for someone who had left school so early) and took up a position as an Anglican chaplain in the Navy. Gradually his faith withered, but that had serious implications for a ‘professional Christian’ a as chaplain is. He most enjoyed talking with people, and the fellowship of his church, but he found more and more defence personnel were traumatized by Afghanistan and the boat turn-backs. Much like the position of chaplains in schools and in an increasingly atheistic society, he is raising questions about whether the chaplaincy role can only be played by Christians.

History Extra: Wild places and Wild people: a short history of commons. The episode featured Professor Angus Winchester, the author of Common Land in Britain: A History from the Middle Ages to the Present Day. I’d only really thought about ‘the tragedy of the commons’ and the Enclosure Act during the industrial revolution, but ‘the commons’ had been contested for much longer. The Statute of Merton in 1236 that said that all the land belonged to the manor, although cottagers had rights to wood and pasture, as long as they only took what was proportionate to what they owned, and did not sell them commercially. The commons were traditionally used for recreation, musters and protests. Even with enclosure, those who had a common right were granted a portion of the newly-enclosed land. The ones who were really hung out to dry were the landless peasants. In the 1860s, there was a shift to preserve the commons for recreational access. Interesting- it challenged a lot of my preconceptions.

Emperors of Rome. Episode XXXIV Titus and the Siege of Jerusalem. Titus was born in 39CE in Rome, and his father was Vespasian. This meant that Titus grew up in contact with the imperial family, and indeed, being the same age, he studied with Brittanicus. He had a military upbringing, and served with Vespasian in Jerusalem, and when Vespasian was acclaimed as Emperor, Titus stayed behind in Jerusalem to ‘clean up’ the military action there. He undertook a 7 month siege of Jerusalem, a fortified city with huge symbolic importance for the Jews. After finally breaking the siege, he set the Temple on fire (thus attracting eternal opprobrium in Jewish histories), killing and capturing people for slavery. Then he went back to Rome. Episode XXXV A Pleasant Surprise from the Emperor Titus sees Titus take power. At first it looked as if he was going to be a bit of a playboy (like Nero) and his affair with the Judean Queen Berenice didn’t go down well. But when his father died and he took over, there was a sudden change. Although he only ruled for two years, he was generous in his building program, and took the kudos for opening the Flavian Ampitheatre (now known as the Colosseum) which his father had commenced, and for the rebuilding after the volcanoes in Pompeii and Herculanium and yet another fire in Rome in 80CE. He died of fever, and was promptly deified. Apparently his last words were “I have only one sin on my conscience” – then he died, leading to all sorts of speculation about what the sin was. Episode XXXVI The Debut of Domitian. Domitian was Titus’ brother, and he didn’t share any of his brother’s illustrious upbringing. He was a bit of a loner, and the change in the family fortunes didn’t come until he was 18. He did act as the representative of the Flavian family when Vespasian was coming back to win the civil war, and while Titus was still in Jerusalem, but he threw his weight around and wasn’t popular. In fact, Matt Smith likens Domitian to Uncle Fester and Titus to Gomez in the Addams Family. Anyway, when Titus died – and it genuinely seems that Domitian didn’t have anything to do with it- Titus took over.

Travels Through Time. I didn’t like this one much. Louis XIV, The Sun King features historian Philip Mansell who may have written a lot, and may know a lot but was far too digressive for this format. He chooses the year 1700 and all three episodes take place at Versailles. The first is on 17 November 1700, when Louis’ grandson is chosen as Philip V of Spain, thus uniting the Spanish and French, even though this means that France will become embroiled in the War of Spanish Succession, when the Hapsburgs challenged Philip’s claim. The second episode is a military review during 1700, of which there were many, where Louis would inspect his personal bodyguard. Mansell emphasizes that the French crown had both military and divine aspects. The final episode is also in 1700 when a procession of freed white French slaves takes place before Louis, who has purchased or swapped them from the Muslim Algerians. This was a largely performative act, as much of Louis’ other functions were, demonstrating his generosity – although the Protestants and people in neighbouring countries wouldn’t agree.

Take Me To Your Leader (ABC) I really enjoy Hamish Macdonald’s work, and I actually prefer him to Patricia Karvelas on RN Breakfast when he steps in. In this eight-part series, he looks at current world leaders who have been influential in the past and who are likely to be around for a while longer (that’s a brave call!) In Episode 01 Xi Jinping, he talks with three people who know/have known him in various guises: Sarah Lande from Iowa, who has known him since he visited her home in 1985 as a low-level party member on a fact-finding trip to America; Dr Feng Chongyi, Professor in China Studies at UTS who fell foul of the regime when he went on a research trip to interview Chinese figures who were interested in liberal and democratic ideas; and Sue-Lin Wong, Southeast Asia correspondent at The Economist. After Xi Jinping’s father fell from grace with the party, Xi was sent to the countryside as part of the Cultural Revolution. He worked his way back into the party, becoming Vice-President and Secretary to the Secretariat of the Party- a very influential position. (I tell myself this as I seem to be the Eternal Secretary of different organizations I’m involved with). In regard to the question of Taiwan in the future, both Dr Feng Chongyi and Sue-Lin Wong point out that China transformed Hong Kong without a single military action, largely through infiltration of civil and government organisations.

Background Briefing. Is is just my inattention, or is there less news about the protests in Iran recently? Under the Eye of Iran Part I explores the surveillance of Iranian people here in Australia. There are interviews with young women now resident in Australia, one who was happy to give her name, another who did not want to be named for fear of repercussions on her family back in Iran. It was chilling to hear of this young Iranian girl, out on a night on the tear with friends whose “F*** you” to a man who told her to behave more discreetly led to her sitting in court, facing charges that could have led to her execution. Also has an interview with Kylie Moore-Gilbert, who has spoken out since her release from prison. [Update- just in the last week (i.e. mid February) there is news of the protests beginning again]

History Hit/Gone Medieval I’ve been reading Simon Sebag Montefiore’s gigantic The World which has made me aware of how much I don’t know, about anything, really. I listened to Mongol Empire where Matt Lewis talks to Dr. Nicholas Morton, author of The Mongol Storm: Making and Breaking Empires in the Medieval Near East. The Mongols emerged out of a confederation of nomadic tribes, led by Genghis Khan, and they rode wave after wave, integrating conquered societies into their empire. There were differing responses to conquered communities: if they submitted early, they were treated more humanely. In 1220s they invaded Armenia and Georgia, in 1230 the Near East and in 1260 Syria, but they were stopped by the Mamluks. In 1241 they defeated Hungary and Poland in a fleeting raid, but they did not return as planned because they broke down in a Civil war in the 1260s. The legacy of the Mongol Empire was the increase in scientific knowledge and the growth of trade.

Full Story There was plenty in the news about the death of George Pell, and I was interested to hear David Marr’s take on it. David Marr on the Life and Legacy of George Pell doesn’t hold back at all (as you might expect) declaring right up front that “George Pell was a danger to children”. The conservative Catholic Church of George Pell was a shame machine, generating over 4000 complaints between 1980 and 2015. Pell moved easily in political circles, and was able to leverage funding and the founding of the Catholic university system. The Ellis Defence that was put forward under his leadership relied on old rules. He did apologize on behalf of the Catholic Church, but not for his own personal role. Marr suggests that, with Pell’s death, it is going to be difficult to maintain scrutiny of the Church.

You’re Dead to Me. I would hate to be the historian on this show. Ivan the Terrible features Prof Peter Frankopan from the University of Oxford and Russian-born comedian Olga Koch. Ivan used violence as a form of political control, although he wasn’t alone in that- violence was ubiquitous throughout Europe. Much of his time was spent in a power struggle with the Boyars, and he ended up dividing Russia into two.

Axios I’ve never really got into Twitter, but Elon Musk did, and he bought the company. Although that wasn’t clear during this series, which was recorded while Musk was negotiating to buy it, and then withdrawing, and then buying it again. How It Happened: Elon Musk vs. Twitter discusses Musks’ moves throughout different industries and his tolerance for risk, best exemplified by his expansion into autonomous self-driving Teslas- an experiment that uses us. The most recent episode, which dropped in January this year after a three-month hiatus, examines his first few months as CEO of Twitter, and the challenges facing his other companies.

History Hit To mark The International Holocaust Remembrance Day on 27th January, Anne Frank’s Life After Her Arrest takes up her story after leaving the Secret Annexe and up to her death. Dan Snow is joined by Bas von Benda-Beckmann, historian and co-author of After the Annex: Anne Frank, Auschwitz and Beyond, to reconstruct Anne’s life after her arrest. We don’t really know whether the family was betrayed or not: Otto Frank believed that they were, but it is possible that the police discovered them as part of a search into forged food stamps. They were sent to Westerbork prison camp in the Netherlands, where the girls worked recycling batteries. This prison allowed families to stay together, and although there were rumours about the death camps, there was an effort not to panic the prisoners. They were sent on the last train from Westerbork to Auschwitz, arriving on 6 September 1944. Up until May 1944 only 20% of the passengers survived the selection process for the gas chambers, but the demand for slave labour meant that by this time, 65% went to work as slave labour. Much of this labour was senseless. In November 1944 Anne, Margot and Peter’s mother were sent to Bergen Belsen, while Anne’s mother died at Auschwitz. At Belsen, the system was breaking down and there was no food, although parts of the camp were better than others because ‘high value’ Jewish prisoners were kept there for prisoner swaps. Mrs Van Pels was sent on to another labour camp. It is now thought that Ann died in early February 1945, not March as previously thought.

The Philosophers Zone (ABC) Conspiracy Theories, anti-Semitism and fun is a repeat of a program originally broadcast in May 2022. In it, Charles Blattberg, Professor of Political Philosophy, University of Montreal discusses his essay ‘Anti-semitism and the aesthetic’ where he argues that conspiracy theories have an aesthetic dimension. He identifies four manifestations of this aesthetic: savouring details; playing for fun; putting on shows and fantasizing. There’s lots of labels and definitions here (in a very philosophical way) but he notes that conspiracy theorists tend to underestimate incompetence, and that it is not possible to reason with a conspiracy theorist – you can only mock them. Very theoretical, but interesting. There’s a link to Blattberg’s lengthy essay on the ABC site.

Sirens are Coming (ABC) This seven part series (plus a bonus episode) is written and presented by Matthew Condon, who wrote a trilogy about organized crime in Brisbane, comprising Three Crooked Kings (2013), Jacks and Jokers (2014) and All Fall Down (2015). I’ve been meaning to read these books for a while, even though I am not a great fan of true crime, because by now they almost have the status of being history (after all, they always say that journalism is the first draft of history….)

In many ways, this podcast goes over the same territory as his trilogy, but he takes a slightly different perspective. Yes, he’s talking about crooked cops and politicians but he considers them through and from the perspective of four very brave women who worked in the sex industry over a period of about 40 years. Episode 1 The Great Survivor takes us back to Brisbane in 1958 when three bent coppers- Glen Hallahan, Terry Lewis and Tony Murphy- form ‘The Rat Pack’ which extorted sex workers for protection money – a pastime they dubbed ‘the joke’. Two of their early recruits were Dorothy Edith Knight, who fell in love with Glen Hallahan, and Shirley Brifman, who did their dirty work in Queensland’s first-ever Royal Commission into police misconduct. Episode 2 From Kickbacks to Paybacks is set in the 1970s when an enquiry is called into the goings-on at the National Hotel, a favourite watering hole for the Rat Pack.. At the enquiry, Shirley Brifman lied to protect the police while Dorothy Knight was the first person in Queensland to wear a wire in a sting operation to take down her former lover, Hallahan. Episode 3 The FallOut sees Brifman dead, supposedly of a drug overdose, after appearing on This Day Tonight and admitting that she had lied to the National Hotel Enquiry. Meanwhile, Dorothy Knight was holed up in a safe house, reaping the consequences of snitching . Episode 4 Old Dogs, New Tricks moves into the mid 70s as the sex industry expands to the Gold Coast as well, and Simone Vogel moves up from Sydney and establishes herself as a power. When she wanted out, she disappeared too. By this stage, one of the Rat Pack, Terry Lewis, had been appointed Queensland Police Commissioner. The cold case has never been solved. Episode 5 Change is Coming takes us to the 1980s, as heroin hits the streets. ‘The joke’ has now transformed itself into the “new joke”. Lewis is still Commissioner, and although Murphy had retired, he still was heavily involved in extortion. A new madam emerges, Katherine James. By this time, Four Corners screened ‘The Moonlight State’ in May 1987, leading to the appointment of the Fitzgerald Enquiry. Episode 6 The Greatest Show in Town Katherine James (a pseudonym) was fundamental to the Fitzgerald Enquiry and corrupt police and politicians fell like dominoes. In the Bonus episode – Katherine want to talk she speaks publicly for the first time. Meanwhile, although the joke is at an end, police have a new form of intimidation – entrapment, described in a Episode 7 Bonus episode. Queensland lags behind the other states in its legislation regarding sex workers, and you find yourself wondering if the Rat Pack really is in the past….

Emperors of Rome Episode XXXI Enter Vespasian. Vespasian was from equestrian ranks and his father was known as an honest tax collector (which was obviously big deal). He was born in Rome in the Sabine hills in 9CE. He went with Claudius to Britannia and was rewarded with a province in Africa. But he wasn’t particularly ambitious and ended up returning to Rome broke (which shows that he wasn’t ripping people off enough) and set up a business trading in mules. In 66CE he was sent to Judea by Nero, partially to neutralize him as a competitor, and also because there were religious issues there over monotheism and taxes. He is written about by Josephus, a Romanized Jew, who depicts him as ruthless. He declared loyalty to Otho, but once Vitellius defeated him, he made his move. Episode XXXII Vespasian as Prophesised discusses the various prophesies about him e.g. a tree, a dog dropping a human hand at his feet, his supposed healing powers, and eagles seen in the sky fighting. He entered a traumatized Rome which had undergone a series of civil wars. He recognized the authority of the Senate, was generous with the senators and the people, and began rebuilding temples. He started the Flavian amphitheatre (now Colosseum) and the Temple of Peace. He finished off Claudius’ temple, to reinforce his links with Claudius. Episode XXIII Emperor Vespasian, Becoming a God reviews his 10 year rule. He was popular, approachable and modest, with high morals. He didn’t claim the title of Father of the Country (PP), and although he did raise taxes, he spent them on culture, the arts and education. He died naturally at 69 years of age, joking on his deathbed “O dear, I’m becoming a God”. He was probably one of the 5 best emperors; he ended the civil wars; he commenced the Colosseum and started a dynasty. Not bad.

London Review of Books Dorothy Thompson was known as the ‘First Lady of American Journalism’ and also as The Woman Who Interviewed Hitler. She tried to get an interview with him for seven years, and when she finally succeeded, she had to submit her three questions in advance. She wrote him off as useless, and hinted that he was homosexual, which didn’t please the Nazis one little bit so they promptly expelled her after the Night of the Long Knives.. She was born in 1893, was university educated and worked as a freelance journalist. She was involved in the suffragette movement, and was married to the writer Sinclair Lewis. It’s hard to pigeon-hole her opinions. She saw FDR as a proto-dictator but anti-isolationist, and she was a fierce advocate for American involvement in WWII (but not necessarily boots on the ground). She wrote an essay ‘Who is a Nazi?’ where she argued that Nazism attracted people holding particular social and economic views (suggesting that ‘the Jews’ might have been Nazi under different circumstances). In fact, she was quite anti-Semitic, despite wanting America to be involved in the war. She often promulgated ideas too early, before people were ready too accept them e.g. that there should be no harsh reparations against the Germans. In the podcast, Deborah Friedell argues that it is impossible to overstate her significance as a journalist early on, but that she increasingly became viewed as a crank.

Strong Songs. Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody I’m not always familiar with the songs that Kirk Hamilton deconstructs, but everyone (even me) knows Bohemian Rhapsody – and how much he has to work with here! This is a replay of an earlier episode, but it’s really good. He is full of admiration for Freddie Mercury’s vocal skills and the judicious but lavish use of Brian May’s guitar. Really good. And who can resist watching the Live Aid concert.