Going Down(er) On APEC

The below is an excerpt from an interview with the Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer which screened on the ABC's Lateline last night:



Below are my reactions to the interview:

"Australia will, at least for this week, be very much the centre of the world"
- We're moving the entire country geographically north? What a dumass statement to make.

"we've been able to put the climate change issue into the centre of the agenda"
- About time, and no small feat for a summit with a predominant economic focus... ah, hang-on..

"We also have put a lot of emphasis on economic restructuring and liberalisation...."
- I'm seeing a link here between economics and environment....

"Well, I think inevitably, there'll be some media focus on changes to traffic arrangements and the protesters"
- Well duh! No mention of the removal of civil rights for Sydney-siders during the summit.

"the protesters anyway will definitely get a lot of publicity as they always do in any western country. That's why they conduct protests - in order to get publicity for them."
- And I thought they did it to highlight their frustration against an injustice. So easy to dismiss protests as a marketing ploy in our consumer society.

"in the end people will recognise that this is about Australia being a really significant country and taking its rightful place in the world"
- A significant country where the government feels they have the rights to change laws and impose restrictions with no consultation to the public. And where tourists can't take photos.

"obviously some people will be inconvenienced, and I feel sorry for them, and I can understand their irritation"
- This coming from a man who is not being impacted by road-closures, security checks, police-searches and restriction zones. I doubt he truly understands the irritation being felt by the wider public.

"Well you have to have somewhere for people to sleep."
- Last I checked, every major Australian city (and most of the regional centres) has plenty of accommodation. Sorry Andrew, guess you weren't on Downer's guest list!

Dumass Downer.


Songs played while writing this entry:
"Smells Like Teen Spirit" Nirvana
"Scared" Slacker
"Closer To France" Cap Project
"SMD#3" SMD#3
"We're Not Gonna Make It" Presidents Of The United States Of America
"Come As You Are" Nirvana
"Circuit Breaker" DJ Skull
"My Planet" Simply Jeff