TrevG wrote:2nd Reef wrote:still here wrote:Have you all forgotten ....
AUSTRALIA INSTIGATED APEC !! .... (in fact it was the governing Labour party ... so put that in your pipe and smoke it ) .
Sydneysiders are so up themselves they don't want to be inconvevienced . They'd prefer to foist it on anyone else .
Real considerate !!
Canberra is a dump and I'm sorry to break it to you but some things are about "impression" .
It is simply naiive to think Rudd et al would do it any different .
A last point of irony is that for protesters this Apec thing is a complete blessing !!
I was inconvenienced yesterday and probably will be tomorrow , but I'm happy for an extra public holiday and I hope everyone gets there point across peacefully .
PS . I may still change my tune
Bob Hawke started it.
It was in Canberra.
The US wasn't invited.
It was a forum for creating ties through business. Had nothing to do with security or military might.
APEC has become a very different thing these days.
This last line is the thing. Without the rentacrowd (same faces at the front of every protest, whichever state it happens in) there would be a lot less need for all the $$$ spent on security.
Only natural though, that security assumes a higher profile given the mess the world is in today. And you can blame that on the over the top fanatics from every religion!!
No mate, the last line isn't 'the thing'.
Perhaps I should've elaborated, but when I said security, I didn't mean security against protestors. I meant national security, which is counter to APEC's original intention.
Putting aside the arguments of globalisation, the purpose of APEC has been changed. It's original intention altered. So yes, Hawkey and Labour started it....but with a different vision.
Anyway about globalisation....still dont know where I fully stand on it but was thinking this morning. One of the results of globalisation is that the jobs of unskilled people get replaced by software or by cheaper labour markets in other countries. Therefore people in developed countries (i.e us) have to keep developing our skill range and making sure we are educated enough to be useful.
But if the government keeps raising HECs who are going to be the ones getting the required education? (I started studying again this year. In ten years HECS has nearly doubled).
Say goodbye to egalitarianism. Open the door and say hello to a burgeoning, simmering underclass.
Doesn't affect you?
Lets see how stable our society is in 20 years. Lets see how the IT industry handles it when the majority of work is done offshore. Many folk go to the IT industry cos you dont need tertiary study and lotsa skills are learnt on the job. However, is there an industry that is any more prone to mobility than IT? None that I can think of. Most IT workers I know work from a city office and have contracts to work on remote locations. Not hard for that office to skip the country and still work remotely. And there is a rising Indian middle-class that have the skills and will work for a lot less than you.
If he is going to welcome globalisation, well good on him. Do it. But make sure we've got our house in order here before we open the doors.
Murrum....are you out there??
Now that's cricket !
