Paul (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} fremantlebiz) wrote,@ 2008-04-20 07:26:00 |
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Australia 2020 - talkfest or 'Thinking big'
This weekend a thousand gullible individuals have been seduced by the Prime Minister Rudd into believing they are the "best and brightest" people in the nation. They have flocked to Canberra to participate in a happening designated as the Australia 2020 Summit. What shape should Australia be in 12 years time?
Anyone not invited can be reassured they didn't meet the Prime Minister's criteria. They were not amongst 'the chosen ones.' Too dumb. Democracy ground to a halt when their names appeared on the list. Yes there is a big list and you too can have a PDF copy. I think the undemocratic reality is that many of these people will push their own personal agendas irrespective of wider public opinion.
The first thing this should tell us is that the Rudd government is into profiling Australians. Not because they are intellectually superior specimens in the population, but because of their, wealth, racialist affiliation, and their susceptibility to political manipulation. Actually I suppose governments have always done this. It's nothing new. Often tame academics are used in the watching process.
I suppose what gauls me is that it has been billed as a democratic process. It smacks more of backroom cronyism - a means by which the Rudd government can explore the future political dependability of select individuals by stroking their egos with an invitation to a supposedly elitist gabfest.
The official spin is that the delegates ' altruistically paid their own way' to attend. The immediately proves that some of them were not very bright at all - that's the ones who actually did pay their own way.
Of course there will be plenty of people who didn't pay their own way. University academics, for example are always being covered to attend seminars, and I'd wager that the hundred or so Aborigines from around the nation also found some way to dip into their organisations' grant-funded coffers as well. Looking at the list in that area there's a lot of the same old names which have failed in the past to achieve very much of substance.
There was a fair sprinkling of business entrepreneurs in attendance - their intellectualism was measured by their accumulation of wealth, and I'd dare to say that few of the names I've seen on the big list are hardly noted for their social or environmental consciousness. More they are noted for their greed and manipulative strategies to further their own aspirations.
This is not say that there won't be some good ideas. There will. I liked the one put up by a lawyer yesterday that there must be severe penalties for politicians who lie, but apparently that didn't strike much of a chord with the politicians in attendance.
There were the celebrities too. Sports and film stars are always political winners. Actress Cate Blanchett and her newborn baby have been at the central focus of the political photo opportunities this weekend. Everyone likes Cate. If Heath Ledger hadn't wiped himself out with an overdose earlier this year he might have been in attendance too.
Ms Blanchett was on the main steering committee. That will look good on her CV. But if you have a look at the official website it can be seen that all members of that elite sub-list had plenty of backup help. Nothing like the under-resourced committees I've been on in the past.
The fact is that the Rudd government set the conference agenda beforehand by establishing ten streams of interest for discussion this weekend. There are background papers written by departmental experts for each of these published on the official website. So I think it unlikely there will be any real "eureka moments" from eager delegates.
Mr Rudd has indicated that whatever the outcome of this weekend, he will take his time with mulling it all over, and will not bound by anything suggested. So the excitement of many of the 1000 delegates may soon evaporate when they realise it was indeed only a talkfest.
According to the official website, thirty two people declined to accept their invitation and were immediately replaced with people further down the list.
© MMVIII Paul R. Weaver.
Click here to visit 'dogandcatwatcher', my YouTube website.
Original still photographs are stored online in a cache at my Panoramio website or my Picasa site. Most of them have a brief description and a link back to a relevant essay. Images on Panoramio can usually be enlarged several times by clicking them.
About the writer
Click here to see our backyard.
Check out each month's subject index on the Calendar Page for my "common-man" monologues about survival in 21st century Australia – plus a little history occasionally. An original essay is added most days as part of an undertaking to write at least couple of million words. Zzzzzzzz!
This weekend a thousand gullible individuals have been seduced by the Prime Minister Rudd into believing they are the "best and brightest" people in the nation. They have flocked to Canberra to participate in a happening designated as the Australia 2020 Summit. What shape should Australia be in 12 years time?
Anyone not invited can be reassured they didn't meet the Prime Minister's criteria. They were not amongst 'the chosen ones.' Too dumb. Democracy ground to a halt when their names appeared on the list. Yes there is a big list and you too can have a PDF copy. I think the undemocratic reality is that many of these people will push their own personal agendas irrespective of wider public opinion.
The first thing this should tell us is that the Rudd government is into profiling Australians. Not because they are intellectually superior specimens in the population, but because of their, wealth, racialist affiliation, and their susceptibility to political manipulation. Actually I suppose governments have always done this. It's nothing new. Often tame academics are used in the watching process.
I suppose what gauls me is that it has been billed as a democratic process. It smacks more of backroom cronyism - a means by which the Rudd government can explore the future political dependability of select individuals by stroking their egos with an invitation to a supposedly elitist gabfest.
The official spin is that the delegates ' altruistically paid their own way' to attend. The immediately proves that some of them were not very bright at all - that's the ones who actually did pay their own way.
Of course there will be plenty of people who didn't pay their own way. University academics, for example are always being covered to attend seminars, and I'd wager that the hundred or so Aborigines from around the nation also found some way to dip into their organisations' grant-funded coffers as well. Looking at the list in that area there's a lot of the same old names which have failed in the past to achieve very much of substance.
There was a fair sprinkling of business entrepreneurs in attendance - their intellectualism was measured by their accumulation of wealth, and I'd dare to say that few of the names I've seen on the big list are hardly noted for their social or environmental consciousness. More they are noted for their greed and manipulative strategies to further their own aspirations.
This is not say that there won't be some good ideas. There will. I liked the one put up by a lawyer yesterday that there must be severe penalties for politicians who lie, but apparently that didn't strike much of a chord with the politicians in attendance.
There were the celebrities too. Sports and film stars are always political winners. Actress Cate Blanchett and her newborn baby have been at the central focus of the political photo opportunities this weekend. Everyone likes Cate. If Heath Ledger hadn't wiped himself out with an overdose earlier this year he might have been in attendance too.
Ms Blanchett was on the main steering committee. That will look good on her CV. But if you have a look at the official website it can be seen that all members of that elite sub-list had plenty of backup help. Nothing like the under-resourced committees I've been on in the past.
The fact is that the Rudd government set the conference agenda beforehand by establishing ten streams of interest for discussion this weekend. There are background papers written by departmental experts for each of these published on the official website. So I think it unlikely there will be any real "eureka moments" from eager delegates.
Mr Rudd has indicated that whatever the outcome of this weekend, he will take his time with mulling it all over, and will not bound by anything suggested. So the excitement of many of the 1000 delegates may soon evaporate when they realise it was indeed only a talkfest.
According to the official website, thirty two people declined to accept their invitation and were immediately replaced with people further down the list.
© MMVIII Paul R. Weaver.
Click here to visit 'dogandcatwatcher', my YouTube website.
Original still photographs are stored online in a cache at my Panoramio website or my Picasa site. Most of them have a brief description and a link back to a relevant essay. Images on Panoramio can usually be enlarged several times by clicking them.
About the writer
Click here to see our backyard.
Check out each month's subject index on the Calendar Page for my "common-man" monologues about survival in 21st century Australia – plus a little history occasionally. An original essay is added most days as part of an undertaking to write at least couple of million words. Zzzzzzzz!
