Mercurius’ bio is here.
Yesterday in broad daylight, on her way home from the shops, my wife found her usual path blocked by a confused, agitated and heavily armed young man. He would not let her pass, and kept repeating at regular intervals that he was “new to the area” and “not sure” what he might do.
To avoid a confrontation, my wife was forced to take a three-block detour to find a way home that didn’t cross paths with the fellow, or any other of the roving armed gangs with which he was clearly in company.
Upsetting? Certainly. Unnerving? Undoubtedly. Legal? You bet.
Welcome to Sydney, brought to you by the APEC security force. They are protecting us from young women walking home with shopping bags.
A bit of background: One month ago, we moved to Darling Harbour in the heart of Sydney. Three weeks later, a 3-metre metal security fence and concrete blocks were erected near our front door. We have that effect on people.
We had the wisdom and foresight to move next door to what appears to be one of the police staging-posts for APEC, here at the Exhibition Centre. As a result, local residents and tourists have lately been treated to scenes that wouldn’t be out of place in Cold War Berlin: swarms of armed police mustering for drills, covered buses shipping who-knows-what in and out.
Yes, yes, I know. We should stop weeping into our chardonnay and all that. I get it. We moved here in full knowledge that city life can be crowded and at times scary. And I’m willing to take my lumps.
But really, is any of this supposed to make us feel safer? Do I feel more secure knowing that there are scores of heavily-armed men just outside my building, who have all spent hours in briefings being told: “Terrorists! There are terrorists! Watch out for the terrorists! Anyone you see could be a terrorist!”
Should I refrain from sudden movements as I cross the street? What would they make of me whipping out my mobile phone? Swinging my briefcase by my arm? With a sufficiently-armed and sufficiently-scared police force nearby, could one false move make me another friendly fire statistic?
The helicopters have been hovering here for days. The SWAT teams have been darting back and forth across the Harbour Bridge exactly like tourists with automatic weapons do. The Hornets started their fly-bys yesterday. For gun nuts and other assorted yamps, this is a wet-dream. For the rest of us, it’s just frightening.
As a comparison, I was in Sydney for that other big event that has been a terrorist target for decades – The Olympics.
The Olympic security operation protected thousands more people, for far longer than the APEC crew, and they did so with far less threatening behaviour and disruption upon the lives of civilians peaceably going about their business. There was none of this wild-eyed, grim-faced histrionics from people who see women with shopping bags as a threat.
Of course that was before 2001.
So if there’s one thing that seeing APEC up close has taught me, it is this: The world did not change on 9/11. We did. And not for the better.
Oh ho, so that’s who Mercurius is. Seems like a likely lad. A fellow adland veteran too. Yeah, give him the keys to the LP liquor cabinent.
And if Bush does pull out of APEC, some local Kabuki security impresarios are gonna look even more like right nanas aren’t they?
If ASIO wasn’t casting a beady eye over this site, I could limn out here how for around two grand and a week’s worth of human hours online you could utterly disrupt the Sydney CBD during APEC with no risk to life or limb but with maximum red faces for the authourities. There would be some economic damage however for those that don’t deserve it.
Really though, these APEC summits are basically the geo-political version of a photo-op for the next series of Global Idol Survivour. Nothing the participants or protestors will do or say that will really change anything.
As the “Yes, Prime Minister” episode “Diplomatic Incident” points out, you need an agenda-neutral occasion like a State funeral to really have genuinely off-the-record and expection-free Heads of Goverment tete a tete. I reckon Atropos’ shears are starting to hover over QE2’s thread. Now that’d be a major major state funeral that would bring all the global players together for discreet chats around London, a city designed for discreet chats.
What was the original point again? Oh yes, welcome to larva rodeo Mercurius.
It does seem to me that holding such an event in the middle of Sydney is supposedly seen as a benefit to Sydney… and a nice place to have the event for the attendees… however once you get all the security and fences in place – intimidate the local citizenry and generally piss people off, that any benefits from holding it in Sydney are quickly lost – the attendees can’t enjoy the city from inside the cage and the exclusion zone leaves such a bad taste in the mouth of the local populace that any kudos to the ruling political party will be counteracted by the backlash of the locals that you may as well not do it. Who wants to live in a police state? Take the meeting somewhere else please!
Thanks for reminding me of why I left Sydney and went bush.
Waddaya gonna do? We are but mere backdrops for the vanity of those who rule us, has that ever changed? They will do what they want to do. Me? I’ll be home drinking a nice cuppa.
The APEC festival is going to be a huge disaster for John Howard electorally.
He fondly thought he could cap his historical legacy with a hug from the Village Idiot, with drinkies afterwards at Kirribilli Castle, and everyone would swoon with admiration at the Man of Steel and his important friends.
Au contraire, little lying rodent.
Sydneysiders will hate you for locking down their city and showing us the true face of the american imperialist hegemony, with jet fighters patrolling the skies and armed guards and water cannon ready to use against any uppity citizens exercising their democratic rights to protest against the APEC Occupation.
And the rest of us will be very relaxed and comfortable about what a right prat you have made of yourself, just in time for polling day.
And why is this circus being held in the middle of Sydney? Is it because the PM and his wife don’t want to travel to get there each day or is it the prelude to the transfer of the nation’s capital from the sheep paddock to tinsel town?
I suspect its more about have the silly shirts group photo being taken on the steps of the Opera House.
Poor Mercurius.
Darling, you have to learn that what happens west of the bridge is of no relevance to anyone and if you scare so easily perhaps hiding under the bed seems a suitable solution to your quandary.
You know what gets me… what is the Capital City of Australia? Yes, I know the Sydneysiders think its Sydney and the Melbournians think its Melbourne and noone else particularly gives a damn. But its CANBERRA people…. take your summits and security nightmares to the nations capital – otherwise whats the point of canberra?
Jumping Jesus on a pogo-stick. We don’t want em.
Can’t they do it in Dubbo? They could all go to the zoo and have their pictures taken with lemurs or something.
David,
I was checking out the official govt APEC sites and noticed they had an explanation about why Canberra could not host APEC – it hasn’t got enough hotel rooms.
I don’t buy it. Maybe somebody has the time to crunch the numbers?
Sydney is about to experience a security lock-down of epic proportions, which seems mainly intended to safeguard the hides of one or two particularly repulsive persons.
Surely it would have been better to stage this Leaders junket in one of Australia’s already most secure locations? Why could not this costly and inconvenient exercise be staged in one of the nation’s better known jails? Long Bay for instance, or even Goulburn. For a fraction of what will turn out to be a billion dollar Sydney extravaganza, the prison inmates could have been temporarily rehoused, and their less recalcitrant numbers given jobs as waiters or valets to care for the visitors. And as for the mandatory fancy dress, what could have been more appropriate for this entirely unnecessary gathering than fashionable grey striped prison garb with arrows?
Uncannily reminiscent of Bush’s Middle East policy.
“I was checking out the official govt APEC sites and noticed they had an explanation about why Canberra could not host APEC – it hasn’t got enough hotel rooms. I don’t buy it. Maybe somebody has the time to crunch the numbers?”
No, its true gandhi, Canberra is very short of convention-size hotels. We don’t even have enough office buildings to house Howard’s massive expansion of the federal public service, let alone enough housing for all our new canberrans.
They should have taken the whole frolic offshore onto somewhere like Hamilton Island.
If I remember correctly it wasn’t so much the lack of hotel rooms, but the lack of 5 star rating hotels in Canberra (there’s only one). I for one am glad its in Sydney instead of Canberra
Fortunately they’ll only be allowed to use the water cannon next Wednesday and Sunday before 10am and after 4pm. I’ve scheduled my riot for Friday if anyone’s free.
You’re quite right, Chris, not enough 5-star hotels or rooms for the travelling caravan. If Dubbo had them, I’d go with Jobby’s idea. Then they wouldn’t have to transport koalas and echidnas and stuff from Taronga to Garden Island so that Hyacinth’s friends could have photo-ops with them.
As for Mercurius, I really can’t see why they couldn’t have housed the police within the compound they have fenced off for the event. But don’t carry any kind of bag when you walk on the streets, don’t look around you, and especially don’t jay-walk.
Sydney produced the guy that created this mess, sorry but I think it is very fitting you have to put up with his mucho crap.
Charles,
The electorate most affected by this mess, is a solid Labor electorate (Sydney, held by Tanya Plibersek).
T.Rex.
Macropod has given us the phrase that we will use for all future confabs: “…a security lock-down of APEC proportions”.
Also, as an ex-Dubbo boy, I would vote for Dubbo as the place for all future confabs. Dignitaries being photographed on the Les Ford Bridge, at the Mee Lee Wah cafe, the Orana shopping mall (which serves without a doubt the worst ‘latte’ in living history), the list is endless.
Pine Gap. Perfect place. Rows of tents. Barbie three times a day. Photo op in a pair of red undies holding a woomera.
Oh, and great communications.
Wouldn’t surprise me if George didn’t show. It could only add further to the ignominy of Howard’s last hurrah. Can’t remember where I heard it, could’ve been Bernie, neighbour and ’source’ on all things of went-worth, but for a little bloke, Howard apparently chucks immense bloody wobblies when he doesn’t get ‘his way’.
I think a no-show by George could really help to drive home the point about Howard and his ‘mates’.
People from marginal electorates don’t commute to the CBD? The transport hassles won’t have a knock-on effect?
Speaking of Bush at APEC, here is his Briefing to the US Press.
Of course they will, but the people who _live_ in the electorate are easily the _most_ affected. Most also _work_ in the electorate. Being a former resident, I know only too well what a complete disruption this would be if I was still living there.
Bush says he’s coming and is looking forward to talking to Kev. But Howard is still the man of steel!
Sure, but it can’t be popular in Sydney generally?
No, of course not, it’s massively unpopular and the newspapers have been delighting with announcing some new fresh outrage to citizens’ convenience each day!
“But Howard is still the man of steel!”
Oh yes Brian, his muscular credentials are still in tact.
He has flexed further.
According to ‘that’ Crikey report, he is now firmly established as ….
“Man of Steal”…. as well.
http://www.crikey.com.au/Politics/20070829-Stuart-Highway-robbery-.html
Why the need for 5-star hotels? All those pampered world leaders should get a dinkum Aussie holiday experience and be stashed in the local caravan park, complete with backed up toilets and drunken hoons smashing bottles and doing burnouts at 3am while they’re trying to get some sleep!
Perhaps for the convenience of Sydneysiders, the Man of Steel could adjourn APEC to his Fortress of Solitude.
(I believe he will be spending quite a lot of time there in the nearish future.)
“People from marginal electorates don’t commute to the CBD? The transport hassles won’t have a knock-on effect?”
Went to the Rocks for dinner last night.
The barriers are up but we moved about freely .
I guess the crunch will be when they start or if they impose control over pedestrian access to the area around Circular Quay.
Last night the area was quiet , the only vehicles allowed through were taxis, there were very few drunks along George Street , the public toliets are still open and the homeless are sitting outside the Ship Inn and usual.
This is a big improvement on the normal conditions in this part of the city and hopefully they will leave the area permanently pedestrianised in future.Once the trains are letting people off at the Quat station the area would be a triumph for public transport access only.
Saw on another blog some weeks ago where some wit suggested the youth of Australia leave brown paper bags all over Sydney during APEC and run the coppers off their feet.
Lo and behold, last night somebody left a brown paper bag with a bottle of glue outside some building somewhere and two blocks of the city were shut down while brown paper bag containing bottle of glue was removed
And no doubt causing inconvenience and irritation to a few thousand Sydneysiders who don’t deserved to be inconvenienced just because some young smart*rse decides that he wants to be a nuisance to the cops.
Of course we can all have a chortle at the inconvenience caused to those people. Their feelings don’t count, do they?
I would have thought it was APEC causing irritation and inconvenience to a few million Sydneysiders courtesy of JWH’s ego, his hope he might get some reflected glory from Mad King George that just might get him over the line electorally, etc., etc., And of course Howard’s fervent hope that APEC demonstrations will be violent so he can get electoral advantage out of it. Which is a hell of a lot more disgusting than some foolish kid with an empty large brown paper bag.
No, Paul. Howard may be causing irritation and inconvenience to the people of Sydney by having the APEC meeting in Sydney. That in no way justifies some “foolish kid” adding to their irritation and inconvenience. It is not an issue of one is worse than the other and that therefore excuses the other. If you genuinely believe that one is wrong and condemn it, as you do, you must be prepared to condemn the other.
You seem to come at this from the point of view that since Howard has unjustifiably disrupted the lives of the people of Sydney it is OK for other people to further disrupt their lives, which is simply a inconsiderate way of thinking of them as pawns in some little game from which you get pleasure. They deserve more respect than you are prepared to give them.
I still think it’d be hilarious if they erected all the barricades and gazetted the exclusion zones and no one showed up to protest. That would really send a message to the pompous “leaders” who are indulging themselves with what appears to be increasingly shaping up as a contentless and “aspirational” waste of time.
Unfortunately, the dynamics of protest are often as ritualistic and predictable as the machinations of “leaders”.
What I wouldn’t give for some imaginative anarchist action instead of a few warped souls thinking they’re subcommandante Marcos with a balaclava and a dose of violent nihilism.
Greg and Mark,
Maybe the kid with the paper bag was the anarchist, who, Greg, wouldn’t be making his inconvenient protest if APEC weren’t here.
And if nobody turned up? Like a scene out of some British plague movie. Yes, it would puncture the self-importance of JWH for one, sitting at his APEC round table like some kind of coat-twitching Mordred, trying to explain that Oz doesn’t really care about who governs them, or the world, we only vote because we have to, and we don’t bother about anywhere else because we’re the best country in the world. He might then go into some detail as to how he’s been trying to change the latter over the past 11 years, but it looks like most of us have woken up to him, so George, maybe you better go get on the turps with Kevin because he might be running the place in a few months. But before you do, please tell everybody I’m the greatest leader in the Western World. No, tell them I’m God, and they should obey me.
Paul that is just pure self-indulgence on your part. The “kid”, and you have no evidence it is a kid, is an arseh*le, not an anarchist. Thousands of people will be protesting during the APEC meeting, Most of them will do so peacefully, and that is not only their right but an affirmation of our democracy , no matter how much Howard may have (or may not have) degraded it. However what you applaud and what you defend is the “right” of some peurile cretin to go beyond dissent to disrupt the lives of thousands of people whose lives have already been disrupted. You condemn Howard for treating them with contempt but then you applaud the cretins who treat them with contempt. There is word for that, hypocrisy, and you are a hypocrite. No doubt a smug self-satisfied one, but that is the nature of the hypocrite.
Mark, before you write to warn/criticise me about this post read Paul’s post on the earlier thread with its pious claims of good intentions and its categorical assurances about absolutely peaceful protests being planned and tell me what word other than hypocrite describes a person who makes those claims on that post and then posts here approving, as he has, an act that clearly is designed to cause disruption and distress to large numbers of people who do not need or deserve that imposition upon them.
Mark,
What would be ideal is if a journalist could get one of those “waving to noone” photos. Rear quarter photo showing them waving to a full city block completely empty of people (excepting a the odd security person and a small flock of journo’s), with the “great wall of sydney” in the distance…
Here’s how it’s done -
via Digby
Greg,
I think you better lighten up. I get into blogging for fun as well as the pleasure of debate. I’m not contradicting myself if I “chortle” at a practical joke by some-one, no matter how inconvenient it might have been to the general public. I leave the name-calling to the professional pollies.
On a previous thread I think my assurances were that the APEC demo. would be non-violent. The Stop Bush Coalition repeated those assurances on TV this morning. I’m naive enough to believe them.
OH GET OVER YOURSELVES YOU ARE ALL DRAMA QUEENS…..it’s our police not the janajweed militia you utter twits.
Stupid “personal accounts” like this again make the the Left look paranoid, primitive and like it sports a tinge of foreign-organisation. This tinge is evident in the rather weird, doesnt-quite-ring-true description of a security guard or a policeman.
If it was neither of those people wandering down the street why didnt your silly little wife call the police? Was she threatened? She should call the police. Maybe she felt “displaced” or “disrupted” by APEC??? Go home and get over yourself numbskull, and stop wasting police time.
Most people in Australia I bet would rather hang out with a copper any day than with some unhinged and paranoid leftie with truther conspiracies on their lips and deeply violent but utterly vague notions of “resistance” in their so-called minds. The only resistance that idiots like this can understand is when a sensible idea tries and fails to penetrate the block of wood that is their head.
The ugly left is anti-war? what a joke. A mere ONE MILLION people died in the Soviet war in Afghanisitan – hey but that’s old news. OK, China today vetoes any UN action on genocide in Darfur bcause of OIL trade – but hey 200K DEAD and no STOP JINTAO PROTEST…not one. In Russia, Putin is possibly behind the assassination of dissenters and journos with NUCLEAR materials (again, where are the protests?). China has 100,000 cases of rioting against the government last year, plus it sports mobile execution vans .. shall we go on?
BUT YOU PEOPLE ARE DEAF….You are purely anti-American full-stop and you want us to be paranoid just like you. But we’re not. We’re just really getting tired of you and your conspiracy rubbish.
Get over it and remember who you are, who we all are here – Australian – we dont fear police, because they are us. We dont fear our army because they are us. We dont need your imported “fear of police” crap that other countries have.
We dont have to be politicised here like you to have a political view. We like each other in this country remember?, we trust each other, remember? Your sort of agitprop propogates the hate that tears other countries apart.
But it is admittedly super hard for me to trust a “wife” who gets worried by a uniformed Australian. She is obviously having “issues” with her tin-foil hat and needs to get a grip on perspective. She definitely needs a cup of tea and a long lie down.
There is no reason to import narrow (anti-global) hatreds or (Im a victim of the system) fear that your wife promotes or spread weird personal accounts of the new Newtown disease- APEC Hardship Syndrome. It’s doesnt wash here in Australia so go and get vaccinated you morons.
Read carefully, all it is this week, you poor dear people, is APEC, THATS ALL. You, on the other hand, look like being hysterical twits for your whole lives.
One more thing, from feedback I have heard in other cities, many australians think sydneysiders believe the world revolves around them and they should stop whingeing. That’ll be the day.
Huh?
It’s not like Mercurius’s wife gashed you with a broken BOTTLE, poured petrol on you, set you ALIGHT, and then pushed you down a flight of stairs. So why don’t you have a nice cup of STFU?
Thx for the post Mercurius. The comparison between the Olympics and this exercise is telling. Gee the Olympics was fun!!