What Australian newspapers say on Friday, April 10, 2009

AAP General News (Australia)
04-10-2009
What Australian newspapers say on Friday, April 10, 2009

SYDNEY, April 10 AAP - The Sydney Morning Herald says in its editorial today as governments
scramble to "do something" about the financial crisis, there is no denying the call for
new rules on corporate responsibility, accountability and transparency.

But blunt issues of governance are not enough. We are all in this together, and how
we respond to these realities will have a profound effect on how we emerge from this period.

Do we surrender to despair? Should we turn inward and view our neighbour as a competitor
for the things we hold dear?

The Easter story goes to the heart of these deeper, moral questions, the newspaper says.

"In its broadest sense, Easter precludes despair because it holds that there is another
force at work in human affairs that is independent of our failings, our limited possibilities
and our sense of the inevitable.

That force is a God who so loves humanity He took human form in the person of Jesus
of Nazareth so He might suffer death for humanity's salvation.

"This is why the faith built on the Easter story is primarily a celebration of hope
- the confident hope in the power of Providence acting in this world (and beyond it) according
to its own rules - in our best interests."

Sydney's The Daily Telegraph says teenager Jamie Cook, was killed early on Thursday
just two hours into the annual Easter driving blitz when the Corolla he was a passenger
in struck a tree.

Cook made the fatal error of joining some mates in a stolen car. He is emblematic of
so many high-spirited young people who lose their lives in pointless accidents.

Reckless driving and so-called "joyriding" are killers. To avoid the misery being suffered
by Jamie Cook's family and friends, avoid the mindless behaviour that causes it, the newspaper
says.

Many reckless drivers are old enough to know better but still travel at dangerous speeds.

"Even with double demerit points, some people never learn."

Melbourne's Herald Sun says Victorian have supported three-year-old Thomas Warren,
who is fighting a rare cancer, and dangerously ill children like him since the Herald
and Weekly Times, publishers of the Herald Sun, established the Royal Children's Hospital
Good Friday appeal in 1931.

The cancer makes it too painful for Thomas to move from his bed, the newspaper says,
"but his game grin in the face of adversity has endeared him to everyone he has met at
the RCH.

"People have already given generously to the Victorian Bushfire Appeal and can be counted
on to do their best for the children being cared for by the RCH."

Melbourne's The Age says Easter has shaped the culture all Australians share, and believers
in Christianity and others can share the idea of hope celebrated in the festival of resurrection.

The year 2009 is one in which hope is needed, following Victoria's devastating bushfires.

Living in hope is not the same as expecting everything to be remade just as it was
before. The fire-devastated hillsides at Kinglake will turn green again, but Kinglake
and the other towns that are rebuilt are unlikely to be restored as they were before the
fires, the newspaper says.

"The qualities that made places like Kinglake and Marysville so appealing were also
qualities that made them highly vulnerable to fire.

"To live in hope that these communities can be renewed is also to be tough-minded enough
to accept that the new life must be a changed life. And that kind of toughness overcomes
bleakness any time."

AAP jrd/rs

KEYWORD: EDITORIALS

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