big country

Just a small spit before we start: if Alexander Downer claims that Australia is a global player, how come we get gazumped on contracts? And by the Canucks of all people - we usually cooperate very closely with them overseas.

Rather than responding to JahTeh in comments, can I put a couple of things here:

• Australia's overseas missions are required to have emergency evacuation plans appropriate to factors such as the level of risk, ease of exit, number of Australians in the country and so on. But in a situation such we are facing in Lebanon, the plans are only as good as the means to implement them. Despite the spit above - which is simply meant to show up more misleading arrogance from the government, 'cos I loathe them so much - for whatever reason the agreement to charter the ship fell through, the airport has been bombed and land routes are too dangerous, there's not much else that can be done easily. I was for a couple of years stationed in a country not too far from Lebanon, and our escape plans were based on the assumption that the first means of exit, the airport, would be out of action early on in any battle.
• In relation to the ongoing 'battle' to keep blogging, nice one JT. The first time I was going to give it away, I was admitted to Adrian's blogroll which was a big boost. The second time, Gerry just said "keep going". This time, you hang some guilt trip on me :-) What's a bloke to do? I'll tell you. Just keep going.

I haven't done the full rounds of the blogs yet and so not much else to pass some superfluous comment on, apart from this: when is the world going to get serious about the pack of thugs who have been running Burma since either 1962, 1988 or 1990, depending on how finely you slice your definition of exactly who is running - more accuruately ruining - the place.

So we stop here.