-Caveat Lector- We are about to go on a Journey. All Aboard http://sites.netscape.net/gsussnzl/homepage ----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, September 10, 1999 12:03 PM Subject: HARDNEWS-VIA-AKIKO HARD NEWS 10/9/99 - Blood and Fear > > > > HARD NEWS is first broadcast in Auckland on 95bFM around 8.45am on Fridays > and replayed around 4.30pm Friday and 10am Sunday on The Culture Bunker. A > digest appears monthly in Re:Mix magazine. You can listen to 95bFM live on > the Internet. Point your web browser to http://www.95bfm.co.nz. You will > need Real Audio 3.0 to be able to listen, plus a 28.8k modem. Currently New > Zealand is 12 hours ahead of GMT. > > HARD NEWS ON THE INTERNET appears at Scoop, at http://scoop.co.nz , at > Akiko at http://nz.com (which is the home of the Hard News mailing list) > and is posted to local newsgroups. > > > GOOD DAY MEDIAPHILES S it is the genius of Paul Holmes that he somehow > contrives for you to watch his show just when the shit is hitting the fan. > And so it was on Wednesday night, that having wandered into the > living room, I found myself waiting while Holmes padded - very well, if the > truth be known - and then watching as the Prime Minister emerged from her > apparently delayed motorcade to stand in front of more cameras than she'd > ever seen before and conduct much the most serious briefing in her > political career. > And you could tell. Her speech, couched, cautious, inviting the > Indonesian government to call the UN if it couldn't manage, was very > probably the work of her departing Foreign Affairs minister. Don McKinnon. > It would have sounded better if he'd actually delivered it. > But this is Jenny Shipley's Apec. And so she ploughed into it, > taking big gulps of air between every sentence, speaking a little too > quickly, and, at one point, stumbling badly on her script. I don't know > about you, but it made me bloody nervous. > She seemed no more composed the next day. She plainly has the fear > and it's hard to escape the conclusion that, as the people of East Timor > face genocide and Indonesia looks down the barrel of a military coup, she's > very lucky she's still got McKinnon to call on. Can you imagine Max > Bradford handling this stuff? > Yet even McKinnon's trademark softly-softly approach has been > rendered farcical by events. We could insist all we wanted that Timor would > had no place on the agenda of an economic summit, but humanity dictated > otherwise. For all that we sought to spare the sensibilities of President > Habibie, he isn't coming now - and could well now be irrelevant anyway. > If nothing else, this week's events have shown how painfully narrow > is New Zealand's international dialogue. While the New Zealand government > dodged the issue, the Canadians, of all people, called and chaired a crisis > meeting in Auckland. > And why is it that the Australians seem so much more confident in > their public life? Their Prime Minister John Howard and Foreign Affairs > minister Alexander Downer, who had far more call to tread carefully than we > did, didn't. They were forthright, they were critical, they were frank. > Yet at every step New Zealand has baulked. A day after McKinnon > said it would be premature to suspend out ties with the out-of-control > Indonesian military, the Americans did just that. > It's impossible to watch a people and their places being steadily > erased by thugs without feeling that something, anything should be done. > But what? A couple of Australian newspapers actually canvassed the idea of > going to war with Indonesia, but that, frankly, is not a starter. > The one thing that shouldn't happen is for the United Nations to > abandon the fledgling democracy it helped to create. For so long as UN > people want to stay there and provide shelter for the innocent, they ought > to be there. > I often wonder if, in these situations, there is a level of > diplomacy where diplomacy is left behind - where people get shouted at and > bullied and told they will be cut off at the knees if they don't pull into > line. If that ever happens, it needs to be now. > But what do Indonesians themselves think of the bloodbath taking > place at the tip of their archipelago? From the look of Internet > newsgroups, they seem to have bought the line that what is going on in East > Timor is a civil war. That, having wilfully cut themselves off from their > adoptive nation, the crazy Timorese are killing each other. > Timor is no stranger to internal warfare. Back when the Portugese > were kicked out of Jakarta and came to stay in 1664, there were warring > tribes in Timor. But that's not, as we know, what's happening now. > The Portugese left the East Timorese with a Catholic faith in an > Islamic region and a nationhood bloodily overtaken by the Indonesians 24 > years ago. Since then the military has run Timor the way enterprising Dutch > and Portugese soldiers did back in the age of empire - as a kind of black > market canton; shipping coffee out and alcohol in, even levying taxes. > What we now call Indonesia has, for most of human history, been > that way. It could well be that way again, assuming other islands and > ethnic groups haven't taken the hint. The fourth most populous nation in > the world may be breaking up. It's possible to conceive a post-modern > future of economically independent island nations for the archipelago, but > you can't get there from here. All there is now is blood and fear. > Here at Apec, of course, they don't like to use the words "nation" > or "country". Delegates and media don't officially hail from either of > those, in Apec-speak - they're from "economies". > And what of economics? Well, I can report that aspects of this Apec > are not terribly well organised. The first Apec trade fair which has not > been supported by a host government has suffered an embarrassing collapse, > with 30 angry exhibitors demanding answers. > And earlier this week, trying to get any sense out of the hordes of > media handlers assigned to the Apec CEO Summit was all but impossible. For > some unknown reason, the whole thing is being directed from the Prime > Minister's press office, where they may or may not have their phones > switched on and may or may not feel like helping you. > Still, there were a few laughs. Having been bluntly informed by one > of the PM's press flunkies that we weren't nearly important enough to even > watch from another room at the Maritime Museum when Clinton gives a speech > to the CEOs on Sunday morning, my colleague and I asked for details of the > CEO Summit Gala dinner out at Ellerslie, to be addressed by Jiang Zemin. > There were, we were told, four press pools: one which would stand in the > foyer as delegates went past; one which would stand in the bar as delegates > went past and one which would stand on the escalator as delegates went past. > And then there was one called "writers". Oooh, that'll be us, we > said. No, you don't want that, really, we were told. You won't be able to > see anything or hear anything - the Chinese just wanted some people there > looking like they were taking notes. Welcome to the big time. > We are, of course, in the glare of the world's media as a city this > weekend. Having been watching CBNC Asia this week - thanks, Ihug Digital TV > - I can report that the Auckland War Memorial Museum looks quite > marvellous. They've been showing a shot of it every time they mention Apec, > but of course don't tell people what it actually is. I'm sure most of Asia > thinks its our Parliament buildings. > So we tart up the town, remove the new rubbish bins we've only just > bought and keep an eye out for Madeleine Albright down the shops. We will > be inconvenienced, but we hopefully won't feel too sorry for ourselves. > While the PM rushed to greet the camera on Wednesday, Holmes talked > to Neil Finn, who has written a terrace song, called 'Can You Hear Us' to > accompany the All Blacks World Cup rugby challenge. It's a good song to > sing along to, and it'll ship with a great video on the CD itself. When you > include the amazing haka ad produced for Adidas, you have to conclude that > even if we don't win the World Cup, we'll certainly have the best media. > Holmes flippantly suggested that perhaps Finn should go down and > play a few songs for disappointed Apec delegates. "If I thought playing my > guitar would do anything to help the people of East Timor," said Finn. "I'd > be out there doing it." Quite S G'bye! > > > ------------------------------- > Russell Brown's Hard News is distributed by mail and the Web as a public > service of Akiko International, New Zealand on the Web. http://nz.com/ > For help with subscribing, unsubscribing, etc, send a message with the > body "help hardnews" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Information about Akiko's web services can be obtained from our site, > or by writing to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. 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