An LP reader writes about their day at the office:
The sound of helicopters is ubiquitous this week in central Sydney – not just in the city, but they can be heard – and seen - from kilometres around. Their drone is regularly punctuated by sirens.
Descending into the canyons of the CBD on my way to work, the din of the copters gets worse. Uniformed police are everywhere – in Phillip Street outside the law courts, standing at the front and back entrances of hotels and of course, beside the fence. It begins to spit with rain on a grey day, adding to the Blade Runner atmosphere.
Like most people who work in CBD skyscrapers, we’ve been warned for weeks about what to expect for APEC. We’re to wear our ID cards prominently, not use the stairs between floors and watch for unknown people trying to get into the building. When it comes to it, there doesn’t seem to be any extra security at the front door. Once inside, the helicopter roar can still be heard and at one point a supersonic plane jets past low overhead, sending people running nervously to the windows.
At lunchtime I decide to go and see the fence for myself. It’s easy to walk around - the main streets have only a quarter the usual number of people on them. When I get to the fence, the streets become almost deserted.
The fence is very new and shiny-looking and I wonder what they’re going to do with it when APEC is over – is there a market in used security fences or will the police keep it, for future “emergencies”? There must be kilometres of the thing.
I’ve heard stories about people being asked to show the police their photos and being told to delete them. Apocryphal stories maybe, but I keep my tiny camera in my pocket and try and use it unobtrusively. I spot other office workers on George Street with cameras. I stand on the corner of Bridge and Pitt Streets and immediately notice a police officer appearing to supervise an anxious-looking middle aged man in deleting photos from his large camera. I quickly take a photo of them. 
I see some people who look to me like working class retirees who’ve come into the city to look at the fence. They take a photo of it (the police officer’s too busy with the other man to notice) and look very grim. It all feels very grim, with the din of the helicopters, the police every way you look, that outrageous fence.
I walk down to Circular Quay, past the Marriott with its line of police out front. The Quay is almost deserted. Unlucky the few tourists who unwittingly came to Sydney this week. Two helicopters sit still in the sky above the harbour, droning on. A jetski zips round the water in the exclusion zone below the Opera House – police checking for terrorists or bombs or both.
Rossini’s is closed! I bet the waitstaff didn’t have provision for any enforced-holiday pay in their AWAs (if they even have AWAs – I wouldn’t be surprised if they’ve been laid off for the week and will be rehired next week, that’s how it works in the café business.) Young Alfred’s in Customs House, which on weekdays is usually bursting at the seams, has hardly anyone in it. The usually bustling streets are empty.
But then at rush-hour, the streets are more jammed than usual, as traffic is forced into routes it wouldn’t normally take, due to closures.
As I go past the two police guarding the back door of the Sheraton in Castlereagh St, blocks away from Circular Quay, I’m glad to be getting out of the city. It’s a nasty, paranoid world that’s they’ve constructed in there. The more I think about that fence, the angrier I get. Who are these “leaders” who need such barriers? What kind of “freedom” is it that places snipers on the roof above where I walk in my lunch hour?
I don’t know what challenges to the personal safety of the 21 leaders are, although I can guess there may be a few. Until I know what they actually were, I couldn’t hazard a guess as to whether all the security precautions are necessary.
I heard there’s 5km of fence.
Not taking the stairs between floors sounds a bit ridiculous. If we’re not wasting precious energy on running elevators with one person, the violent protesters have won!
The security is over the top. The lurker has a good point about the notion of freedom when there are snipers everywhere. The paranoia disturbing and an example of how security has turned into expression of irrational fears.
And when this happens, you know things are bad.
And as I mentioned in a previous post, even the Chaser Boys have been caught up in this mess.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/09/06/2025817.htm?section=justin
The snipers & others are there to protect freedom, not to take it away.
The leaders who require protecting include some who run some despotic regimes. For example: The leader of Vietnam, a brutal viscious communist state.
The government of this leader has serious form with human rights violations, the full extent of which would cause most people to want to commit deadly violence were they to know.
Many Australian citizens are refugees from the treatment dished out to its own people by this vile regime.
Understandably this leader is at risk from those who would wish to get square for what has been done in the name of his regime.
Then there are the leaders of several free nations. As anyone who has been awake since the 11th of September 2001 will know, free nations and the leaders are subject to arbitrary deadly attack from committed zealotic types.
Personally, the security arrangements make me feel like a little boy again.
I wish I was there to soak up the butch atmosphere and to hear the helicopters.
Nothing like the sound of freedom throbbing overhead
Apparently they were training their guns on pedestrians on the harbour bridge!
But I agree with SATP. I don’t think the security is irrational - what a target this would be for terrorists.
I love how pictures are fences are so dangerous that they must be deleted immediately, for fear that - i don’t know - someone will bomb a fence or something. I would be intrigued to know what laws pictures of fences break.
Steve, you seem kind of confused mate. First you say it’s about protecting freedoms, and then cite the various regimes requiring said protection. Then you say it’s about free nations and attacks. Seems kinda weird to be both protecting freedom, and protecting regimes, don’t you think?
Personally, I wouldn’t drag freedom into this at all: they’re ostensibly protecting world leaders. In reality they’re doing a lot of of SFA. And you think that’s bad? You need to talk to my doctor friend who is furious that her patients requiring semi-urgent heart surgery are getting sent all over the country (or just waiting, waiting) so the beds/equipment can be reserved in case there’s a world leader with a similar problem during APEC. Empty beds and wards everywhere.
Oh come on, you really don’t think the terrorist threat would be high?
Even????
Their whole point in being there was to get caught up so that they could get a bit of footage for their show.
Though I do like their pantomime horse gag- a dig at both equine flu and APEC security.
Spotto the deliberate contradiction!
There’s no contradiction.
The snipers are protecting their freedom to run despotic regimes.
Frankly I’m glad the security precuations. It would be a buggar of gigantic proportions if (say) some Chechens had a ahot at Putin while he was wandering around the Opera House, or whatever.
Even the Chaser boys! Because they staged a fake motorcade and got through a check point!
This shows the disturbing potential for security still to be easily cracked.
Imagine the media response if a pedestrian accidentally got shot by one of these snipers.
Spiros - agreed.
The Opera House is one of the wonders of the 20th century. Even Melburnians admire it.
Of course a much-heralded meeting like this, in such an exposed site, is a prime terrorist target.
And the voters’ response: goodbye Howard and his gang and hopefully Iemma and his too.
And that’s one of the problems, SATP. The snipers, many of the SAS, motorcycle cops, those cops on the jetskis, ASIO etc are still little boys who’ve never grown up and are still living a comic book reality. That’s why they are so dangerous.
The photos in the post should be enough to sicken any decent Australian.
I suppose they should have done nothing and just let the CBD get demolished by the ferals.
Is that what you want?
For those so unhappy with the security measures - what do you think would have been the appropriate level of security measures? One unarmed policeman per world leader?
I think if “many” members of the SAS lived in a “comic book reality” they’d be dead by now.
What, as a percentage figure David? What is high? Is high 10%? 50%? 1%?
No, I don’t think it’s high. But moreoever, you’re barking up the wrong tree.
If you knew anything about terrorism you would know that front-end measures are the least successful way of stopping it. Back-end intelligence is what’s actually effective. That, and not invading other countries.
By associating the security theatre of APEC with terrorism, you’re conflating two totally unrelated things: Denying people to take photographs of a chainlink fence on a street they would be able to take photos any other day of the week, three kilometre radius, shutting train stations, etc. = Stopping terrorism.
These things are not connected. Banning pictures is not going to stop terrorism, especially when you can’t ban all of them. A bigger fence isn’t going to stop more terrorism than a smaller fence (not going to stop any, but you get the picture). So on and so forth.
The fact people so willingly buy into this patently false narrative is quite disturbing to me.
I also love it how anyone who protest anything is a “feral”, and that harmless hippies are also “ferals”.
God, if black people were protesting and politicians started calling them “monkeys” there would be an absolute outrage, yet somehow marginalising and stigmatising protesters is a-okay in the eyes of both the media and politicians. Did they learn nothing from the Iraq protests?
In 1999 I traveled through Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
Some things happened on that trip that confused me at the time. Remeber this was before September 11.
* Soldiers armed with machine guns guarded the hotel we stayed at.
* Driving past the Pakistani parliament and Australian embassy our taxi driver told us we should not take photos or we’ll get in trouble with the police.
At the time I didn’t know that terrorists use photographs as part of their planning so I thought the rule about not taking them was some stupid, ignorant third world thing. Spending all my life in Australia I had never even seen a real life machine gun before and didn’t understand why they were there at all.
In 2007 I can see these things happening in my home town.
Question: If a country becomes more like Pakistan, are things improving or getting worse ?
The SMH has a good story here about police activities in Sydney this week.
Everyone in sydney’s scared at the moment, jumpy. Helicopters every seven minutes – I never thought this would affect me so much, but it’s really playing on my nerves. Weird things are randomly wrapped in police tape, like garbage bins or parking spots, and police are congregating in strange places like outside the Hilton in their bike shorts. People are really reluctant to be on the train, too. If there’s a loud noise on the platform, or if the platform gets crowded, people start to get jumpy. Some poor woman suicided in front of the train I was on the other day and we were delayed for about half an hour and people on the train were getting angry and freaked out and conducting loud conversations about possible terrorist attacks and laying into the Federal Government (whereas usually they would get pissed off and start rabbiting on about how shit the trains were and how it was Iemma’s fault). Talk about a climate of fear.
It’s making me really angry now, though – who do they think they are? I don’t mind the fence so much, or the declared area, but the constant helicopters and the fear on public transport and the police swaggering around like they run the place and pictures of snipers showing up in the papers, and this demonising of the protesters who I’m sure are just like any other set of protesters, kind of earnest and with maybe one or two batshit insane people, but for crying our loud they’re not going to attack pedestrians for wearing Nike symbols. If there was a specific, declared threat, we would surely have been informed, so why all the melodrama? If there is a specific and declared threat and we haven’t been informed, then that’s even worse.
With or without the security? Whatever the case, I’d call 1% extremely high.
Granted - but front-end measures can only further enhance it. For something like this, we need pretty much everything. The fact is that massive amounts of security in a confined area will reduce the risk of an attack.
Seriously that is lame reasoning. You can put a 100% stop to pretty much nothing in the world, but does that mean you don’t act the reduce the risk? Photos could potentially be linked to a terror threat. The fewer the better.
Seriously tone the certitude of your rhetoric, it’s making you look very foolish.
Sydney Peoples Alternative to APEC
Rally & Festival Friday September 7, 11am-2pm
Hyde Park North
Performances, speakers, information stalls. No marching to or from the peaceful rally / festival
Men from U.N.C.L.E; Ken Stewart (Urban Guerillas); Bolivarian Band; Korean drummers; Solidarity Choir, Lina Cabaero.
Speakers: Elmer Labog (KMU Philippines); Prof. Jane Kelsey (NZ); Dr Michael McKinley (ANU); Abigail Jabines (Greenpeace Asia Pacific); Peter Jennings (Union Aid Abroad - APHEDA); Matt Howard (Iraq Veterans Against the War - USA).
MC: Dr Patricia Ranald (Australian Fair Trade & Investment Network)
Many thousands of people in Sydney do not welcome the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in our city. Their alternative view will be expressed at a colourful festival to be held on Friday, September 7 in Hyde Park North from 11am to 2pm. The official APEC is treating Sydney citizens as suspects and evicting them from beautiful parts of their city.
The official APEC is here to push nuclear power, free trade with all its privatisations and deregulation, and to assert that big business can run the world better than democratic citizens. That’s also why APEC promotes repression in our region. That’s why we are protesting and projecting an alternative people’s agenda. All People for Environment and Community, a wide coalition of community groups who have come together to organise the Peoples Alternative Festival, is creating a venue for the views of every Sydney citizen who puts the rights of people and the environment before the interests of corporations.Music, performance, speakers, and information and food stalls will combine to offer an inclusive peaceful people’s vision for the future, in stark contrastwith the secretive, repressive big business agenda of the 21 APEC leaders behind their concrete barricades. Our Festival will promote the people’s alternative of fair trade, real action on global warming, genuine development to alleviate poverty, opposition to war,and respect for the labour rights and human rights of all the peoples of our vast Asia Pacific region.
The Peoples Alternative Festival will promote the values of peace, security and harmony, and the use of diplomacy and dialogue to replace force as a means of resolving conflicts.
One bloke made my entire APEC week this morning. As he couldn’t throw his banana peel in a bin covered by black plastic and police tape, he took out a key, tore a hole in the black plastic, and dropped the peel into the torn hole.
I salute you, nameless rebel of rubbish!
I’m in Sydney and I feel extremely safe thanks to the strong security presence. Yeah people are freaking when they see bags lying around on trains, but that’s quite rational. My brother got asked where he was going by simply stepping out his *front door*. But he didn’t feel that was a problem. Actually he felt like he was living in the safest street in Australia.
Just clarifying: I don’t support the demonising of protestors, and I have no doubt some of the rational fear of terrorist attack is because illegitimately used to crack down on protestors.
swio, I had the same experience when I travelled through Spain in 1978.
Question: If a country becomes more like Spain, are things improving or getting worse ?
I’m in the middle of the CBD, quay end, and I know exactly what arleeshar is saying. The mood is pretty pissed off, and nobody is buying this ‘leader of the free world’ shit that I’ve heard so many times on the ABC, as if we’re supposed to be proud to have a war criminal in our midst.
There are so many police around, maybe it would be a good time to rob a bank somewhere out in the suburbs if you were so inclined.
Fair enough David,
then please explain to me how banning pictures of the fences is making us all safer. Or even how a three kilometre radius, rather than a one kilometre radius makes us safer.
This is what I mean by a false narrative: these things aren’t connected to safety, except in the most tangential way.
I loved watching The Man from U.N.C.L.E. when I was a kid - it was a great show.
GregM, if they’re getting like Spain in 1978, then isn’t it pretty obvious that things are not improving?
From my high-rise downtown office block this afternoon, my colleagues and I watched incredulously as a Black Hawk helicopter, twice within the space of an hour, thundered past between the buildings just below our line of sight (on the 29th floor).
Pointing at us from the side of the open window of the chopper was a very large machine gun, manned by a gunner in combat fatigues. We felt like extras in a white collar version of Apocalypse Now.
A frightened colleague mentioned a report in the paper this morning about how staff in the neighbouring AMP building had been warned to stay away from the windows. We all scurried back to our desks.
Outside, the sinister presence in the the sparse, caged streets is almost palpable. An eerie silence is puncuated by the sounds of sirens and choppers. Armed police lock pedestrians behind the barricades for 20 minutes on end, while long presidential convoys pass by.
“Over the top,” is the almost universal description of the security precautions in an exercise which has provided the most vivid demonstration yet of how close we are to becoming a police state.
Those who accuse me of hyperbole would do well to read Phillip Roth’s novel, ‘The Plot Against America’ (about the emergence of an imagined fascist state in the US under the Nazi-sympathising aviator Charles Lindbergh). Totalitarianism creeps up on you. And we are nearly there.
The leaders who require protecting include some who run some despotic regimes. For example: The leader of Vietnam, a brutal viscious communist state.
Are you serious, Steve? You think some disgruntled emigre is going to put a cap in his ass or something? What rot.
The ridiculous thing is that when APEC was held last year in Vietnam, security was far laxer than in Sydney. There was none of these ridiculous fences.
Spain in ‘78, eh. OK.
If we have to have the Guardia Civil and the beating of uni students, can we at least have the rent protection, the stupidly low cost of living and the cheap, cheap wine?
They use Wagner. The boys love it. It scares the hell out of the geeks.
So far as I know, we have NEVER been at a high level terrorist alert in Australia.
I knmow this because Phillip Ruddocfk keeps on telling us this.
So far the only APEC demonstration I know about has been non-violent. My excessively suspicious mind tells me this is a JWH created security scare dreamed up to get him some traction in an election he’s doomed to lose. Iemma had no cfhoice but to go along with it othertise he would have been accused of supporting “terrorists” and “violent protestors.
Mad King George came early with the specific intention of giving JWH’s electoral chances a boost. Its probably had the opposite effect. He couldn’t do it duringt APEC, as one of APEC’s guiding principles is that you DON”T intefere in member nation’s domestic politics. Anybody think Vietnam, China, Burma, Malaysia (who aren’t too happy about the “climate change” agenda) mightn’t be feeling a little bit spooked?
Down and Out of Sai Gon - please describe exactly how the lovely Vietnamese Government would have dealt with the ferals who regularly conduct violent actions at these sort of events. Were there any protests at that APEC?? Why not?? I understand the Vietnamese Government is a paragon of virtue when it comes to the matter of human rights.
Ah, yes, with Ratty, grossly obese, head shaven, lurking in the depths of Kirribilli House, body parts of various Liberal Party Wets hanging from hooks tied to the camelia bushes.
“The horror! The horror!”
And Rudd is Willard, braving the voyage across Sydney harbour in a tinnie to cut down a ranting, incoherent Ratty with a machete.
Please describe exactly how the lovely Vietnamese Government would have dealt with the ferals who regularly conduct violent actions at these sort of events.
Beat them with their batons and their watercannons - just like the NSW police. I don’t really see how the fences are necessary in either case.
Were there any protests at that APEC??
No. For some reason, Bush is actually popular in the country. (Probably the only country in the world, come to that.) But then the US ended up as a home for a lot of refugees in the 70s and 80s, so Bush is a symbol of sort for their relatives.
I understand the Vietnamese Government is a paragon of virtue when it comes to the matter of human rights.
Really? Then you are extremely misinformed.
“Dolly don’t surf.”
Never get off the boat, Chief Katz. Never get off the boat.
Meanwhile the Chaser have taken the Mickey out of the whole thing - the police are going to be furious and the ratings for the Chaser next week should go sky high.
Wonder if ch 7 can buy the chasers by next week and make a motza out of the advertising.
Alister, I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Spain in 1978. Franco was dead and freedom was breaking out everywhere. And yes, Liam, there was the stupidly low cost of living and the cheap, cheap wine. The beer was pretty awful though. Not their thing I suppose.
Ah, memories.
A good thing if they are Paul. Aren’t issues like their human rights records and their failure to address climate change the very issues that you will be protesting against? It seems from your post that you have an ally in that arch-subversive George Bush. Who’d have thought?
I don’t think the Burmese would be too spooked. They don’t get a guernsey at APEC and they are too incorrigble to give a rat’s about what sentimental lefties like you and your mate George W think of them.
Those who accuse me of hyperbole would do well to read Phillip Roth’s novel, ‘The Plot Against America’ (about the emergence of an imagined fascist state in the US under the Nazi-sympathising aviator Charles Lindbergh).
I read that a few weeks ago. Excellent book and good analogy.
Ahh, but they do run the place. They aren’t supposed to, you are — but they do. I feel for you guys. I really do. I am not sure where you guys are headed, but I know that we “Yanks” find ourselves here. I hope you all can take action to avoid the same for yourselves.
Take care.
Yeah 9/11 really did change everything eh … it emboldened our governments to think there’s practically nothing that can’t be justified in the name of ‘national security’ - which they seem to equate with their own personal security, strangely enough.
Even the object of the exercise is deliberately blurred by the government. Howard says it’s all because of the violent protestors. Others say it’s to protect the
politiciansworld leaders. Another version says it’s to prevent terrorism.I think they’re doing it just because they can. I mean there can’t be too many things more ego-stroking than knowing you deserve $300 million worth of military protection.
If people actually thought the terrorism issue through, they would realise that this would be a perfect time for terrorists to commit an atrocity in Australia … on some soft target well away from the Sydney CBD.
What a pack of whingers.
And apparently you’re all terrified too? Sorry I should have typed “terrified” since you guys love putting those little fingers in the air when you mention scary words.
Dear oh dear, it doesn’t take much to set you mob off does it? Watching the left get its knickers in a knot is top viewing lol…
Liam at 3.10 pm
I’m old enough to remember an explosion in a rubbish bin outside a Sydney hotel (where Commonwealth leaders were gathering) - was it 1978? A garbage worker died, not a policeperson or soldier; not a Prime Minister.
I applaud those who had the foresight to cover the bins. And by the way, have the authorities found those stolen rocket launchers yet?
The certitude held by some bystanders, that “there’s not really any danger of a terrorist attack”, really beggars belief.
Were the Bali nightclub/restaurant outrages too far away, for you to pay attention?
I hope President Hu Jintao wasn’t offended by the lack of an OTT security response in Perth.
I was surprised to see the Governor General greet Bush at the airport wearing a military uniform. I thought he had retired from the army.
Just as well that Peter Hollingsworth resigned from the job. If not he might have turned up in Archbishop’s mufti; mitre, crozier and all.
Bet the Cops are loving it.
They get to be the real Stasi, if only for a week: Looking into people’s notebooks, deleting photos, checking ID’s, ordering people about, sighting-up unsuspecting civilians in the sniper-scope. Might even get the opportunity to practise that choke-hold on a few longhairs too.
Ah, the joys of working at Checkpoint Charlie.
If Howard reckons this is winning him votes, he’s in for a shock.
Because they could potentially be used for a terrorists analysis eg. of where police check points are or whatever. It’s just a lot simpler to say ‘no photos’.
Sorry but that’s a very silly question. Obviously the farther you can keep people away the greater the leeway to enact a response before the intruders get anywhere really crucial. The whole Chaser thing showed this: they penetrated through a couple of checkpoints, but security still had time to freak out and stop them.
Seriously, it really isn’t all that scary. It’s not the start of 1984-world, it is a short-term and one-off minor sacrifice of civil liberties during a time when a terrorist could plunge the world into chaos. I do think there is a lot of whinge going on. People are a bit put out for a few days and they start drawing comparisons with Vietnam!
It’s actually the resident right but dream on!
Yeah, we’re just two steps away from a brutal police state….nobs !!!!
Ambigulous:
Two policemen and one garbageman were killed. The bomb was outside the Hilton Hotel in George Street. A plaque naming the dead stood on a plinth on the footpath for years. Post the Hilton renovations it is embedded in the wall on the south end of the Hilton’s George Street frontage.
At the time the Hilton was the venue for a regional CHOGM meeting.
‘terrorist analysis’?! Come on, dude. You think someone walking past couldn’t say, “yup, there’s a checkpoint”, you think the information isn’t readily available on innumerable government websites already?
It’s not rocket science, it’s not even analysis.
Re fences: So, by your reasoning, a five kilometre radius would be even safer? Or a ten kilometre radius safer still?? Do you the problem with this kind of thinking?
Also, it begs the question, why don’t they do what they usually do and have the goddamned thing on an island resort, where nature does all the work, instead of inconveniencing a city of six million at the costs of god knows how many hundred of millions of dollars.
Who’s saying it is the start of a 1984 world? Certainly not me. People seem so keen to engage in this either/or thing. Just because something isn’t the end of liberty as we know it, does not mean it’s a good or a right thing.
Just because it’s only shit, doesn’t make it okay, and doesn’t make it okay to put up with.
That said, the reason why people are comparing it to Vietnam is because declarations of temporary inconvenience for the greater good are a regular part of the history of countries with less than fabulous democracy.
hmmm, number of trolls is making me wonder if this hasn’t been linked to from Blair et al. I would check, but can’t really deal with the nausea that entails.
“I hope President Hu Jintao wasn’t offended by the lack of an OTT security response in Perth.”
What? He didn’t make it to Northbridge?
A link by you to just ONE government website which reveals security information to the public (and terrorists) will be sufficient.
PatrickG @ 2.51pm
Actually that last sentence tells the rest of us all we need to know about your credentials PatrickG, no need to hold yourself up as more of a security expert then prattle on about how all the sensitive security information will be posted on “numerous” govt websites for ease of terrorist access.
Do your parents know you are using the computer?
Nicely written, Mr. Denmore.
Any of your co-workers take cell phone vids for YouTube and posterity? Be surprised if this degree of inter high-rise Hovver and Awe will be highlghted on MSM, especially this up-close and personal.
Ambigulous, all this kind of thing does is make the garbage collectors’ work messier, not safer.
I can;t work out if David’s joking or not:
“Yeah people are freaking when they see bags lying around on trains, but that’s quite rational.”
‘Cause that’s possibly the least rational thing I’ve read in this thread.
d
Were he young and aboriginal Geoff, I think something could have been arranged.
Come on, re-read this thread - refer to references to the impending “police state” and Apocalypse Now.
Far out. Terrorist operations require very fine detail - something in the photo could be critical in a way that isn’t immediately noticable. Why do you think both terrorists and government spies sometimes often use photos?
Yes it would make it safer. No I don’t have a problem with that kind of factual reasoning. However, on top of that, we need to reason in terms of security’s trade off with civil rights and efficiency. But don’t change the subject, this was not what you were arguing. You repeatedly, and with rhetorical force, stated that the APEC precautions didn’t improve security at all. Clearly, this is wrong.
This is a once in a lifetime chance to show off our city to all the world. I think the benefits easily outweigh the costs.
Come on, re-read this thread - refer to references to the impending “police state” and Apocalypse Now. (I didn’t say it came from you.)
Yeah… so what? Do you think that APEC is all a big Reichstag fire-like trick to take away civil liberties in order to develop a police state? No of course not. It is a compromise in a very limited area for a very limited and pre-defined time.
I meant simply that people are becoming concerned and alerting authorities when bags are left unoccupied. This is clearly rational, and Sydney stations have been notoriously lax about this until now.
Whoops my comment @ 6:11 remove first paragraph - not meant to be there!
And isn’t it attractive? Tourists will be flocking from everywhere to see it. So beautiful. So safe. So secure. So very warm and welcoming.
“Hmmm, Sydney looks nice dear”
“I was thinking of Guantanamo, but you’re right. Looks like a real hoot. Let’s go.”
David - I thought that the Olympics was a “once in a lifetime chance to show our city off to the world”? These once in a lifetim opportunities seem to be coming around pretty often lately. It’s a pity that the “rest of the world” this week is twenty-odd politicians who will be spending most of their time in meetings. I don’t see how having this meeting in Sydney is serving the “greater good” more than having it, for example, on Fraser Island?
Oh yeah, just 20 of the most powerful people in the world. Connections and personal impressions really do have a big impact. The indirect trickle on effect of this kind of thing would be massive. Never mind the fact that just Bush brings along more than 600 people - many of whom will be hanging around in the US public service for decades. Hardly 20 pollies.
Steve says
“Two policemen and one garbageman were killed. The bomb was outside the Hilton Hotel in George Street. A plaque naming the dead stood on a plinth on the footpath for years. Post the Hilton renovations it is embedded in the wall on the south end of the Hilton’s George Street frontage.
At the time the Hilton was the venue for a regional CHOGM meeting.”
So who was behind that event then?
Terrorists?
Or maybe ASIO and other security services that were struggling to justify their powers and budget?
Seems amazing that even today no-one has been found guilty of that crime eh.
Those with the most to lose from a lack of further ‘terrorist’ sagas are the police and security services, all trained up and no asses to bust?
That’s true David, but do you really think that downtown Sydney is the only place in Australia to make a good impact?
I’m pretty sure that a lot of the support staff at APEC won’t be real impressed with the way that Howard has shut down a major city to host this meeting. It doesn’t exactly scream common sense.
Sydney is the capital for business. This is what’s going to have the biggest impression on them. Not even considering the fact that Sydney cannot be disputed as our most marketable city to foreigners.
Yes I do think they will be impressed with the tight security. It’s really not as bizarre as we are all thinking - we just aren’t used to it. Remember this kind of thing happens all the time in New York or Washington.
David - I take it that you live in Sydney then.
Really, I don’t buy this argument that APEC had to be held in Sydney because it’s the capital of business etc. APEC isn’t normally held in major cities for all the problems that have been outlined so far.
They don’t throw up fences in New York or Washington by the way, it isn’t considered democratic.
I agree with both Mick and David.
Not at this level it doesn’t. You get just as many ‘world leaders’ congregating regularly at the United States headquarters in mid-town Manhattan, without the city being cordoned off and commuters having to scramble through cages to get to work.
Anyone who has traveled knows that the level of security here at APEC in Sydney is completely over the top and has been engineered by Howard and his cronies to heighten a sense of fear in the general population. This is fascism, pure and simple.
The politicians love it because a fearful population is a docile one; the police and the security apparatus love it because they get to play with all their new toys and live out their fantasy of running the place and, of course, an hysterical, tabloid media loves it because fear and loathing sells newspapers.
Vested interests all.
As an aside, I’ve been in Washington DC outside the White House, taking pictures without anyone hassling me. I’ve walked down Downing St in London as a tourist and I’ve circled the Emperor’s Palace in Tokyo completely ignored.
People used to joke “the terrorists have won!” after any minor restriction - but the level of fear in Sydney is higher than ever, and I don’t make that joke anymore.
This transcript of an Australian Science Festival panel about fear seems relevant in the parts where they’re talking about terrorism.
Anyway, I don’t think Washington is the best guide for how to deal with terrorism, really. And I don’t think this APEC meeting will have that many benefits for Australia - have any of the previous meetings achieved anything much? Is there any reason to believe this one will be different?
It should been held at a tropical resort like Port Douglas or Uluru. Hard for protesters to get. Less interruption in peoples life.
And as nobody else has said it yet: Free the Chaser 11!