The key to a thriving democracy is good fencing.

Sydney- beautiful one day,fenced the next!

Bridge Street






Circular Quay- this is where White Australia was founded...Pretty isn't it?








apec in sydney

Tags: apec, sydney fence
Current Location: Sydney
Current Music: The Clash

I went down to the Opera House bar for a drink with friends last night, and on the way I ran into a fence. Pictures Below.














There were a couple of bored police around, but we had no trouble taking these photos. (Thanks to Charlotte for taking the first two.)

apec in sydney

Tags: apec, apec fence, sydney

Police have been visiting workplaces in Macquarie Street Sydney hoping to use their balconys for surveillance purposes. On Friday, police visited several businesses in Sydney's Macquarie Street asking if they could use their windows and balconys to take pictures of protesters. At one workplace the workers refused to allow it.

Alan Ramsay in todays ( Saturday) Sydney Morning Herald.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/two-dead-men-walking-come-to-town/2007/08/31/1188067365982.html

Tags: apec
Current Location: Sydney

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Tags: apec
Current Location: Sydney
Current Mood: cranky

In the grand tradition of the Berlin Wall and the Irish peace walls, Sydney will have its very own wall from September. Yes, Sydney now joins the great cities of the world, including Jerusalem and Belfast as a walled city.

And why are we getting this accessory, the one that all the modern cities have in this age of the war on terror? It is in honour of George W Bush’s visit to our fair town for APEC.
The purpose of the wall is to divide the Sydney populace from the delegates to APEC. The organizers are naturally afraid of demonstrators, completely ignoring the fact that the right to protest is one of the central tenets of a democratic society.

The wall will encircle the Sydney Opera House, a monument that was bought and paid for by the tax payers of this city, part of the botanical gardens, a public facility, and a part of the harbour foreshore. Citizens who work in these areas and those visiting these or surrounding areas will be subject to spot ID checks and body searches…just like they are in any peaceful democracy..I mean that doesn’t sound like fascism at all..does it?

Now if I sound resentful of this idiocy, I am…I hope APEC is a peaceful meeting, I hope the delegates have a good time and perhaps they will do something about this war on terror business..and maybe bring the war in Iraq to an end…( I’m not very hopeful) all these would be good things.

I hope that the ghost of Bennelong, the Aborigine who lived where the Opera House is located, will push John Howard and George Bush into Sydney Harbour.

Anyway, I hope to visit the city on the Thursday before APEC starts. I will try and get a photo of the wall to memorialize the day that Sydney became a victim of the War on Terror. Because folks, that is what is happening, our democratic rights are being trampled on and the terrorists have already won!

Visit all the details of Sydney’s very own wall at http://www.apec2007.org/.
News article about Sydney’s wall

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/fivekilometre-fence-to-lock-up-cbd/2007/08/16/1186857639127.html

Great walls of the world

Jerusalem’s separation wall http://www.americantaskforce.org/the_wall.htm
Belfast’s peace wall http://www.citynoise.org/article/48
The Berlin wall http://www.dailysoft.com/berlinwall/

Tags: apec, sydney's wall
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