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June 18, 2007
Jenny Stewart, an associate professor of public policy in The Centre for Research in Public Sector Management (CRPSM) at the University of Canberra, often writes an op-ed in in the Canberra Times. In today's op-ed she highlights why the city state of Canberra is different from the other capital cities. She says:
Canberra is different, not so much because it was created artificially, but because it has a divided soul. On the one hand it is a creature of the federal government, a place of commanding vistas and national monuments, a company town that rises and falls on the tides of the federal government's spending priorities. On the other, it is a city much like any other, a place of workplaces, shops and clubs, a city in which people live, work, grow old and die.
I concur. I work in the world of the former and live in the world of the latter. We have a schizoid Canberra, or rather two the existence two Canberras. A good proportion of the workforce have their heads in "Canberra" (the source of national policy and practice) rather than Canberra, the actual city in which we live.
Gary Sauer-Thompson, model Kingston shops, Canberra, 2007
Canberra is a more a country town than a city, but one with an alternate or oppositional edge to the culture of federal government and bureaucracy.
Stewart is concerned with the implications of the anomaly a city-state whose most interested and able citizens--15,000 ACT government public servants and the academics-- who do live and breathe the life of the city but who are cut off from directly shaping its political life.
My photographic concerns are with exploring the actual city in which we live from the perspective of a nomad.
Gary Sauer-Thompson, Kingston shopwindow, Canberra, 2007
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Very interesting idea, the two canberras.
I like canberra actually. I wish now I had gone to the art skool there instead of sydney, I might have learned something useful!
I visit there when I can. I have friends there, mainly academic /art skooly types so i visit them. There always seems to be some event or get together happening, I think it seems less alienating than Sydney.
Last time I was dragged off to a protest about education funding. Between courses of dinner,as a matter of fact.
It was about 4C, yet there were masses of folks there and I was astonished.
I hope to get to the Nat Mus of Australia and see if I can spot the "Sorry" that Johnny Howard was so offended by.