Happy Saturday! If the only news you heard, read or talked about this week was that big debate in the country where “they’re eating cats” (false news), then you’re not to blame. Trump, however, only has himself to blame.
Here is some of the good stuff you probably missed – one of which might make you want to get into your car and drive for hours to try a Chinese-fried banquet. Bon appétit!
1. Do DVOs actually protect women and their children?
The 48 hours after a person is granted a domestic violence order against their abuser is a precarious and potentially fatal window of time. For Tara Costigan, a DVO did not protect her from immediate harm. It escalated her situation. The day after she took one out against her ex-partner, he “went to Bunnings, bought an axe and drove to Tara’s home” to kill her.
Maria Costigan – Tara’s aunt and “mother figure” – says DVOs are “just a piece of paper”. But some experts say orders can be “really powerful”.
How long will it take to read: Seven minutes.
Further reading: What happens to the children of domestic and family violence victims? Kathryn Joy shares their story and trauma 30 years after their father killed their mother.
2. The man who fell from a plane – and the brother who retraced his journey
In 2001, Esther Addley was a young feature writer at the Guardian, commissioned by her editor to follow a story about a death in a plane’s stowaway. The result was: The man who fell to earth. Muhammad Ayaz, a 21-year-old Pakistani who tried to escape to the UK for a better life for himself and his family. More than 20 years on and his brother finds Addley, and asks her to take him to where his brother fell.
I will never forget: Once Khalil Ullah (the younger brother of Muhammad Ayaz) could read English as an adult, he found the original G2 article. It was carefully wrapped in a plastic sheet, printed off the internet decades ago. “I read it every month, every year, and just imagined my brother.”
How long will it take to read: Eight minutes.
3. Australia’s best-loved Chinese eateries
There are now four local Chinese restaurants in the town I grew up in. Back in the day, my family and friends were lucky enough to have just one to get our fix of reliably fried spring rolls and delicious sweet and sour pork.
In this travelling review, Moree locals vouch for their town’s Chinese restaurant, hand on heart. But for the writers making the journey, it is the stories from the families behind the best regional eateries, that are the most tasteful and rewarding.
Notable quote: “People go travelling to China and they order the sweet and sour pork … They come back and tell us they don’t really like it. They just like the Bo Wa’s one.” – Whitney Lai
How long will it take to read: Four minutes.
4. What if a kidney is the most valuable possession a person owns?
Yonus had three choices. He could either live out his days in a refugee “death camp”, be deported back to the country he fled – or “sell his kidney, make a lot of money and save a life in the process”. The latter was his best option.
It is believed that about 10% of organs used for transplantation come from illegal global trading. As the brutal war in Sudan goes largely unreported in mainstream media, “selling a kidney is becoming a currency of last resort for people seeking refuge”.
The price you pay: “For a kidney, the price paid to the seller can be anywhere between $5,000 and $20,000.” Yonus was promised $10,000.
How long will it take to read: Ten minutes.
5. The first gay-themed classical ballet
“Australia is a very progressive country,” says US-based Briton Christopher Wheeldon, one of the world’s leading dance-makers. Perhaps that is why he has chosen Melbourne to stage his new gay ballet Oscar, inspired by the 1997 film Wilde.
The “rise and fall” of the Irish poet, and “his great love affairs” are the centrepieces of this tender same-sex pas de deux. Even Wheeldon, who is gay, blushes “coming from another generation, where we would never have seen that in ballet”.
Can I have this dance? It is extremely refreshing to read that “big Aussie straight blokes were saying it was beautiful to put themselves in their queer friends’ shoes”.
How long will it take to read: Four minutes.
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