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September 05, 2007
I'm in the Qantas club waiting for a flight to Canberra to attend an all day forum. This cartoon appealed to me:
Leunig
Honestly, the whole national security thing for APEC has got out of hand. Locking down the CBD of the Emerald City, 2.8 meter wire security fences, motorcades and police and politicians on about the protestors, terrorists and rocket launchers expresses the paranoia of the national security state. Presumably, businesses in the CBD just shut their offices for the week and the staff work from home.
I would have though that the protestors were more about fair trade and the plight of the region's poorest workers not terrorism, but obviously the paranoid security state can make no distinction. There has to be a fortress to keep Australian citizens away from the transnational corporations and politicians cutting deals.
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NO. The staff don't work from home. they hop off the ferry and are herded into their offices via the wire fence. There are snipers on the tops of all the buildings.
All very ugly.
There have been a trio of naval frigates sniffing around just out to sea, and defence force helicopters hovering over my beachside suburb. For the past week.
Children have friday off school, actually, everybody does, but if I don't work, I don't get paid, being as I am part of a casualised workforce.
Not impresssed.
Am considering going into town and elegantly tossing a raw egg at the motorcade. Bah.