Good morning – have you voted for your favourite bird today? It’s that time of the year – Guardian Australia’s Bird of the Year time – and the brolga, albatross and black swan are already out …
There’s a lot else going on too, of course. Here are some stories that caught my eye on the Guardian this week. Settle in with a cup of tea and a biscuit while you weigh up your avian allegiances.
(And later, if you find yourself craving a change of pace, Alexis Petridis has ranked the 20 greatest Detroit techno tracks.)
1. ‘Regardless of the result on 14 October, the bag of grievances is open now’
The voice debate has raised “the awareness and consciousness of Indigenous affairs”, Anthony Albanese told Guardian Australia this week.
“It has certainly put us in front of the Australian people,” our Indigenous affairs editor, Lorena Allam, writes in a sharp look at how the whole thing’s playing out.
“At times it has felt like being a punching bag, belted about by unrelated resentments: about welcomes to country, about perceived special treatment of Aboriginal people, with nasty stereotypes disguised as jokes about ‘violent black men’, with outrage over an allegation that ‘racist tactics’ were being used in the debate, followed with far less outrage at the presence of actual racists in the debate.
“It has been a long fight, the blows landing hardest on First Nations people.”
How long will it take to read: under two-and-a-half minutes.
Don’t forget: “The choice, in case this point is still being lost in the noise, is to vote yes or no to the proposition to recognise Indigenous people in the constitution via a voice to parliament.”
2. Is the world’s most powerful green politician doomed to fail?
Well, is he? This one goes straight in the box of “Questions I Didn’t Know I Desperately Needed Answered Until I Saw That Headline”.
Teasing copy aside, Philip Oltermann’s deep dive into the rise and possible fall of Robert Harbeck is very interesting.
Why should I care about Germany’s vice-chancellor? Reasonable point. But you can’t deny that the question of how to bring people over to green politics – and why, even amid gestures outside, governments globally are stepping away from it – is pressing. To put it mildly.
Also, before Harbeck entered politics he was a poetry translator and novelist. More poets in power, I say.
How long will it take to read: 14 minutes. Make another coffee.
3. The ‘paradise inhabited by devils’ (AKA the best city, AKA Naples)
This one goes out to my brother-in-law, Giovanni. If certain cities epitomise certain eras (think Berlin in the 20s, London in the 60s), Tobias Jones writes that the time of Naples – “full of fascination and risk” – is now. With a vast array of examples of its current cultural clout, he teases out the compelling draw of Italy’s southern city: its underdog history, its football, its fertile cliches, its “nagging sense of imminent doom” (see: proximity to volcano), its music, literature and films.
“What applies to Naples applies to the universe,” one travel writer – not Neapolitan – tells him.
It’s such an incredible setting for the great human drama because it’s all there, in the music, the street art, in the terrible truths about the place.
How long will it take to read: three or four minutes.
Further watching: Paolo Sorrentino’s incredibly beautiful ode to his own youth in the city, The Hand of God.
4. England’s insane kings: a case study
Has all the referendum talk above got you thinking about our bizarre system of government? The extremely weird fact that we, in Australia, are still ruled by a king? How weird kings are generally? Boy does David Mitchell have the surprisingly-James-Bond-heavy book extract for you.
Interpreter of maladies: This whole piece – taken from his wider history of the island’s monarchs – appears to be an excuse for Mitchell to tell the story of how William the Conqueror’s bowels exploded. Also, that Napoleon had piles.
How long will it take to read: two-and-a-bit minutes.
5. Salute your real queen
It’s Joan Collins. Her interview with Simon Hattenstone is a treat. For example:
SH: “Have you met many fools in your life?”
JC: “I’ve married too many of them!”
And: “Who was the best kisser of all the actors you’ve worked with?”
JC: “Paul Newman.”
“You have to eat life or life will eat you,” the 90-year-old, “blessed with the happy gene”, tells him. Noted.
How long will it take to read: about 10 minutes.
So long, and thanks for all the fish/don’t forget to write: australia.newsletters@theguardian.com
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