The Wrap Up

"What happens when you put good people in an evil place? Does humanity win over evil, or does evil triumph?"

This is a line from the "Stanford Prison Experiment."
It came to light when watching our police officers bully people ( five in all) at the APEC meeting. The fear in Australia restricted protesters to a mere 5,000 or so. Fear of what?

Fear of being bullied, arrested, threatened, hurt, and even shot at. It is a rare thing indeed to be shot by a police officer in Australia so to feel that you have been warned for a month before a 'friendly meeting' of 'allies' puts the doubt in your mind.

The fence, the helicopters, the water police vehicles, the Federal police, the state police, the newly acquired water cannon, the signs, the towing of private vehicles away from their usual parking areas, the declaration of people free streets, buildings ( including the Opera House) parks and beaches made, according to some Sydneysiders, the place feel like a war zone.

A 'take' from a fellow scrabble player who happened to be visiting Sydney from South Australia in a rare visit:

"You can imagine all the swat vehicles and police cars and sirens 
were all over the place, the helicopters came in and around 
there too, water police, you could have just about walked from
boat to boat there were so many of them on the water. When we were
up in Centrepoint there were swat guys up there and sniffer dogs,
but you could see that there were about 6 or 7 helicopters 
in the air at any one time, but all the fencing around the 
places they were made the whole thing look shabby. 
 A few tourists that we spoke to were very disappointed as 
they had booked to spend that weekend in Sydney and there was
not a mention by their travel agents about the long weekend so to speak." 

Another account was of being in an office building over looking the Harbour and trying to work and stay calm whilst the helicopters 'buzzed' the building and shook the windows flying around and around overhead.
The feeling of surreal, movie-like, America was the strongest description.

Another tale was from a person who 'approved' of the situation as he was working driving the politicians, the leaders wives etc around the city, in a clear run, ignoring traffic lights, forgetting that other Australians were not practising their freedom, being housed in one of the best motels in Sydney, being fed incredible meals, and paid a fortune for this job.
He said:
"Don't believe what you see in the newspapers or on the Telly".

(These five days cost the tax payer over $350mill.)

So the man being held down and punched for daring to try to cross a street, the woman photographer being bodily thrown backwards by police, the man who was grabbed and sat on by 5 burly police officers, the frustration of those middle aged brave men and women of our citizenry trying to make a point were all 'lies' being misrepresented by the media.

So came the discussion on 'how to produce a bully'. It was suggested that the report by the Stanford research team be revisited.

This is what we have become? Here?


This is the Right wing/Christian loving/individual promoting/capitalist hungry side of democracy is 'fighting ' for?

Well we want none of it.
We want OUR Australia back.
We want it NOW!

http://www.prisonexp.org/

Postscript:

We Australians are known for our "larrikanism" for our disrespect for authority but our willingness to stand up for our mates, for our thumbing the nose at nationalism, patriotic fervour and syrupy stupidity. We pride ourselves on our need to laugh in the face of control freaks and to disregard the seriousness of any situation. Even our own weak-kneed, dessicated coconut of a Prime Minister espouses these things as Australian 'Virtues'.
To understand more of what it really is like to be in a free country ( going going..soon to be gone if we are not careful) go to the following websites.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22388125-29277,00.html

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/chaser/war/


http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&sid=alVBGzSPbhv0&refer=home

http://www.smh.com.au/multimedia/2007/national/apec-protest-march/start.html