Yeah. So. APEC was shit. It was so shit, in fact, that I don't care that there's probably as many blog entries on the net right now about APEC as there are crappy Mac vs PC ad parodies on YouTube.
I am glad I didn't end up going into town for the protests. I mean, there were snipers on the roofs. Fucking snipers. Men with long-range weaponry, with scopes and shit, highly trained in the art of killing people. People with better guns and better skills than Lee Harvey Oswald probably. Not that Lee Harvey Oswald ever tried out his skills.... or did he? Point is, I don't care who they're trained by or what uniform they're wearing. I'm not comfortable walking around in range of a SR98. The military don't seem to like private school turned lefty pinko scum like me. Best not to tempt them.Oh yeah and it cost a lot. And no one really seemed to want it. Well, no one that wasn't in it. Like all of Sydney who had their week fucking re-arranged for a big bourgeoisie wankfest. Or even business owners who had to dish out extra time to employees on the Friday or just suffer lost business. And then there were proles like me who ended up working anyway, and only at time & a half. I've said it numerous times since last week, but that means that everyone else at work that got a bludgey day-off, while I only got half a day's extra pay.
Shit, I always have to work on public holidays that mean something to me, but nothing to the people who get the day off. Like the time I was rostered on for 10 hours at the call centre on May Day. May Day being significant for commemorating the struggle for the 8 hour working day, for which a few people actually died. Fucking rainbows and lollipops and baby birds chirping all round.
I did like that the guy who was behind painting "No War" on the Opera House organised for a
mass mooning of the convoys. People always bitch about direct action being too violent and disruptive. The same people who wouldn't notice these things unless Channell asiNine news reported about the violence of protesters. Well this guy seems to know how to bring attention to a cause without violence. Still not good enough for people though. Showing your arse may not hurt anyone or any property, but it's "indecent" and "crude". Trespassing into the Opera House is also not on, graffiti is bad because it changes the appearance of property you don't own but have to pay for and look at, and nowadays you'd probably be taken out by a sniper before getting up there.The best non-violent protest of all was of course The Chaser's expedition into the Red Zone. They didn't even intend to get that far. Never underestimate the lacodaisical ignorance of police. If you're not coloured, wearing Adidas or driving a Nissan Skyliner, of course they don't care. The cops at Burwood station seem to pay more attention to detail to me and my boyfriend passing through on invalid tickets than they do to a convoy that looks important enough. But again, despite being harmless, cut short by the pranksters themselves and a lot better than real terrorists getting that far in, people reckon they should go to gaol. For what? Who's ever gone to gaol for doing what the police sanction? If a cop tells you it's okay, aren't you supposed to follow without question? I think they were just being good citizens.
Most of all, APEC sucks because it's about, as apecsec.org.sg puts it, promoting "liberal trade & economic policies" while invoking oppressive police powers and new "anti-terrorism" practices, and collecting together some of the most un-liberal world leaders when it comes to social policies and personal issues... like gay marriage, the war on drugs, immigration, y'know, stuff to do with the daily life of us little people. A bit unbalanced isn't it?
Okay I'm spent. Dear diary, see you in another 6 months. Love, spider.
WTF? --->
Chaser Team Charged - Sydney Morning Herald, September 6, 2007
Wiki...wiki... wikipedia entry on APEC
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