From the ABC news today: At their press conference, Mr Bush has declared it is wrong to "expect Russia to look like the United States" but pressed Mr Putin on issues like the role of an independent media." I talked about my desire to promote institutional change in parts of the world like Iraq, where there is a free press and free religion and I told him that a lot of people in our country would hope Russia would do the same thing," he said. Mr Putin replied: "We certainly would not want to have the same kind of democracy as they have in Iraq, I will tell you quite honestly". He really is on another planet, isn't he? And I love Mr Putin's tongue-in-cheek reply. Was it understood, do you reckon? No money on that one.
Because other people, unlike me, will see Bush's message as demonstrating single-minded persistence and clarity (normally a good thing, I agree). But people with such a single-minded view of how the world works often tend to not recognise irony, I have noticed. Still, you gotta love the variety in human outlook and worldview. Just don't like the other side ;-)
And I see my former employer is dragging its feet on getting Aussies - well, they're not real Aussies are they? - out of Lebanon. Because we're further away? Don't buy it for a second.
Update 1: Right at the end of the ABC news, we are told breathlessly that Alexander Downer has - presumably single-handedly - got 86 Australians out.
Finally, via the really excellent Road to Surfdom a good, long discussion on the political benefits of lying through your teeth to the country you are allegedly leading, for over ten years. And people don't give a damn, he's better than the alternative. Whoever that is. And on the radio - in fact on Radio National of all places, if you ever needed evidence that the ABC is whipped into submission, there it is - today I heard something about Howard "leading Australia to the next election". No he bloody won't. He will lead the Parliamentary Liberal Party. And that, gentle readers, is the organisation to which he dedicates his life efforts. Don't ever, ever, forget it.Over and out.
Update 2: Again at Surfdom, a very good analysis of the current state of representative democracy in Australia. Note particularly Tim's points about the ABC. Without the ABC, we are utterly stuffed and with the ABC in its current pussy-whipped state, we may as well be.
3 comments:
I'm being cynical, that's 86 potential voters plus family and friends who might be grateful enough to vote Liberal at the next election.
JahTeh - fair enough if they do, but they were being provided with a service they have a reasonable right to expect in the face of some evidence that the government took a bit longer than it should have to respond to the severity of the situation. As a former consul, I understand very well the difficulty in arranging evacuation in such a dangerous environment and my respect goes to those in the field who are doing the hard yakka. I am less impressed by the increasingly obsequious apraoch that the ABC takes towards the government. I've lived in totalitarian countries where the government completely controls all media and it's an education I can tell you. I am not suggesting that we are anywhere near that situation in Australia, but I am hypersensitive to any slide towards it. Finally and to try to be scrupulously fair, when I saw Downer on the TV a couple of hours after posting, he looked pretty wan and was not his usual obnoxious self - evidently the severity of the situation and the risk to the Aussie in Lebanon had become very apparent to him.
I watched Alex on the ABC tonight and he did look worried. Surely they would have had an idea of how many Aust/Lebanese people were in the region so why wasn't some sort of evacuation plan in place? I'm not just talking about this particular crisis but any crisis that might suddenly occur. With another tsunami hitting Java today, I could ask the same question there, isn't there some sort of plan in place?
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