Signature: new voices, new impressions.
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Tsunami damage on the east coast of Sri Lanka
Our Cover Story:
The New Normal

By jess whyte

Mamdouh Habib sold his story to Sixty Minutes instead of Signature. But Habib's story is a global one - of anti-terror legislations, new concentration camps, the normalisation of torture, and the erosion of civil and political rights, writes JESS WHYTE.

For the last three years, two Australian citizens, Mamdouh Habib and David Hicks were held without charge at Guantanamo Bay. For three years, media coverage focused on Hicks, while Habib was rarely mentioned. Perhaps this was because Hicks' father Terry appeared to epitomise the 'little Aussie battler'; perhaps it was because Habib's wife Maha wore a hijab. In an Australia in the midst of a frenzy over middle eastern asylum seekers and the Islamaphobia engendered by the war on terror, Habib's fate was relegated to an occasional page ten story.
This all changed with the announcement in January 2005 that Habib would soon be released without charge.

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Also This Month:

At Breaking Point

by Sam de Silva

On the eve of the Boxing Day tsunami, a three-year ceasefire between the Sri Lankan Government and the Tamil Tigers was close to collapse. Many believe the tsunami has temporarily prevented the resumption of war. But for how long? SAM DE SILVA reports. more

 

Bruised mangos

by Kelly Chandler

Late last year the prime minister of Vanuatu surprised the region, and his own ministers, by opening diplomatic relations with Taiwan. For a country reliant on foreign aid, thumbing its nose at the one China policy was a risky move. But in Vanuatu — where the floorboards of parliament are shiny from all the crossings — it was all in a day’s politics, writes KELLY CHANDLER from Port Vila....more

 

Art or Outcomes?

by Eve Vincent

Last December the federal government’s arts advisory and funding body, the Australia Council, announced a major re-structure. Among the shock changes came the decision to dissolve the Community Cultural Development Board (CCDB) and instead fund CCD activities across the art-form boards. Signature profiles the community arts practice of the outspoken JULIE SHIELS. more
Photo Feature:

Worth His Weight In Gold

Photos by Michael Hutchings

Wire MC  - a descendant of the Gunbayngirri nation, New South Wales - is a musician, MC, beatboxer and B-Boy from the small rural town of Bowraville.
MICHAEL HUTCHINGS shot this series in the Waterloo housing commission in Sydney. more