|
Osamah Sami says he has always been at war with himself, wrestling with his Muslim faith. The 34-year-old was born to an Iraqi family in Iran while the two countries were at war, his father then fighting for Iran and his uncles for Iraq.
At seven, the oldest male in the house, he had to read verses from the Koran while the shrouded, bloodied bodies of soldiers were lowered into the ground. In 1995, when Sami was 12, his family left Iran and resettled in Australia. His father became the head cleric of Melbourne’s Shi’ite community.
|
A 5000-word essay on the parlous state of Australian TV and film.
The late Kerry Packer once quipped, ‘You only get one Alan Bond in your lifetime, and I’ve had mine.’ Packer was referring to the 1987 deal in which the Perth-based Bond bought Packer’s Nine network for $1 billion.
The wily Sydneysider clawed back an equity stake in the top-rating station upon Bond’s bankruptcy and slide into ignominy, when Bond was found guilty of committing, through other companies, Australia’s biggest corporate fraud.
|
Fifty essays and dispatches on what it means to be gay today.
On sale at Amazon and iTunes.
|