Radio Australia Today Editorial
Archive for January, 2009
Free Trade and APEC
29 January 2009
I’ve always been a bit suspicious of the concept of free trade.
Free trade has been espoused by so many politicans as the answer to the world’s ills for so long that it just seemed too good to be true. It’s been labelled a cure for unemployment; a way to ensure growth across the world; a help for developing nations. You could almost hear them say it’ll stop schoolyard bullying/tooth decay/marital problems/people wearing pink shirts.
Yes, too good to be true, I thought. After all, the Great Depression spread out from the U.S. to infect the rest of the world because (partially) of the trade links between nations and the resultant interdependence of one country on another. After all, if Country A relies on Country B as a market for its products, but then Country B goes down and no longer has the wealth to go buying imported goods, then Country A will suffer. Right?
Even in today’s recession, the virus has spread from the U.S. It started with the Fannie and Freddie subprime debacle and slowed growth and demand and shook the whole world’s financial system. “Bloodbath’ is the word used by one of our financial analysts to describe what has happened in some parts of the finance market.
So then, how could the freeing up of trade possibly help things, you might think that by dropping trade barriers and tariffs you would be (a) increasing the interdependence of nations on each other and (b) making nations more vulnerable to global ills.
Wait a minute. Yesterday we spoke with Mark Johnson, the Chair of APEC’s Business Advisory Council, the group that is recommending ways to implement free trade across the world. He says that free trade is a good thing.
His logic goes like this. If there were no trade barriers, all countries would be free to trade with each other. Governments would not be giving financial preference to certain countries or protecting their own inefficient producers. Producing nations would have more options. They, in theory, would be able to offer their goods to the entire world. Papua New Guineans could sell their fabulous coffee to anyone. Fiji sugar would have a much wider market.
Mark Johnson says this ability to diversify your customers means greater protection in times of crisis. If the Solomon Islands sells its copra to fifteen countries, and four of those countries cancel contracts because of slowing growth, then the Solomons will continue to have markets for its goods.
Makes sense. On paper.
When true free trade comes in there will also be greater competition for each product. Fiji may find itself up against many more sugar producers from across the world, and the tyranny of distance and higher shipping costs may mean that trade may never be free. A competitor from South America may charge more for their sugar, but have a smaller shipping costs.
Freedom is great in theory with diversification and all that. But the reality may be just a little more complicated.
– Phil
Jelena Dokic ends her Australian Open run
28 January 2009
And what a run it’s been.
Jelena Dokic has charged through this year’s Australian Open tennis tournament against all expectations, wininng through to the fourth round, where she met another woman on fire, Russsian Dinara Safina.
Dokic did pretty well though. One set all, and a tight final set, and Dokic was a real chance to become the first Australian woman to play an Australian Open semi final for many many years.
In the end it didn’t happen. She wanted it. The crowd, aware of the 25 year old’s tortuous family and personal history, wanted it. Even her opponent Safina, according to the papers this morning, wanted her to do well.
I was watching as the last point was won by Safina. The incredibly partisan crowd did not erupt in applause when Safina won what was a fine match. Their eyes and hearts were with the loser who, after shaking hands with Safina and the umpire, left the court, head down and on the edge of tears.
The crowd’s reaction was understandable. They wanted a fairytale. They wanted another 1983 America’s Cup. They wanted another Pat Cash US Open win. They wanted to go home smiling. But the impression we got watching the telecast at home was of a crowd that was ungracious.
Much more gracious was the winner. Safina, in a post match interview, won the crowd over with her honesty and her understanding of how the crowd supported her opponent. The partisan crowd applauded her comments.
And that, my friends, made for a lovely ending to one wild ride of a night.
As for Dokic, she will be a force. She has been through so much in her 25 years, that she would have to be one strong person with a big tennis future. Watch her space.
– Phil
Leo Sayer becomes one of us
27 January 2009
I remember Leo Sayer from his extraordinary, slightly kooky songs from the 1970s, like You Make Me Feel Like Dancing and The Show Must Go On. He probably only dressed in a clown suit once, for the music video for one of the songs, but this is the Leo Sayer that is etched in my mind. Clown suit and a gargantuan of hair.
Leo Sayer moved to these fair shores four years ago, settling in Sydney. Hell, even Wikipedia describes him as an “English-born Australian singer-songwriter”.
Yesterday he made it official by becoming an Australian citizen. He did it in style too, travelling to Canberra to share the moment with 60 others and the governor-general in the national capital. He was photographed with his arm around the prime minister Kevin Rudd (who just happened to be on hand) giving the big thumbs up to cameras. He was dressed in a typical Leo Sayeresque shirt of multi-coloured circles and yes, that same unruly hair.
Afterwards he pumped his fist into the air, proclaiming that his new citizenship was better than having a number one record.
Of course that would be minus the fame, the screaming hordes and the money that accompanies such a chart success.
You can understand his feeling of achievement though. It’s the culmination of a long journey for our Leo. He says he first wanted to be an Australian back in 1974 after a tour of Australia. He tells of finally making the decision to emigrate five years ago, and then stood in the queue at Australia House one cold London morning. He had to wait for hours, but he says it was worth it.
I think I did it easier by just getting born in Sydney.
Welcome to the horde Leo. And thanks mum.
– Phil
Australia Day. The case to move it.
26 January 2009
Mick Dodson was named Australian of the Year this morning, the eighth indigenous Australian to be so named.
Mick is an affable chap. Charming, smart, outgoing. But if you didn’t know him, you might think he was being a trifle precious when he said, on being interviewed about the honour, that Australia Day is a day that holds anything but honour for him and other aborigines.
You see Australia Day commemorates the day that the First Fleet landed in Sydney in 1788 and colonised this country. Aborigines, the owners up till then, were pushed off their lands without treaty or consultation. They were forced to be part of the British legal system, so when they fought back, they were dealt with in a summary way. Our history books document massacres of clans in retaliation for the spearing of cows. It was the start of a social ill that exists in many places today.
No, it could well be argued that the 26th of January is not a day that aborigines enshrine.
Mick Dodson, in saying that it should be moved was simply stating the fact that the current date haunts aborigines. He says he is proud to be made Australian of the year, and that he loves this country. But he wants a debate. He wants Australians to discuss the implications of this date on the aboriginal people. He wants their concerns to be talked about. If the Australian people decide that the date should stay where it is, then that would be fine for him, so long as there was that discussion.
Australia, young and feisty as it is, is still a remarkably conservative country. Most constitutional referenda are voted down by the public. Talk of a flag change is about as divisive as any other issue, and a republic looks years away, even though the Queen has suggested it probably will happen, the PM is a republican and the Leader of Opposition once headed the Republican movement.
A poll taken this morning on a commercial television channel found 83% of Australians wants Australia Day to stay where it is. The PM says not only that a change is not on the agenda, but that it will not change. Pretty definitive.
Mick Dodson’s always been about giving aboriginal people a voice, and aboriginal issues public notice.
He might just have to be happy with that for some time to come.
– Phil
Heath Ledger gets the nomination.
23 January 2009
The news here in Australia this morning has been domminated by Heath Ledger officially getting the Oscar nomination for his role as the Joker in the Dark Knight film.
Ever since the movie came out last year, a single word has been accompanying every comment made about his performance, and that world is Oscar.
And rightly so. Heath Ledger, who is in relatively few scenes in the movie, steals the whole show. Take the scene where he walks unarmed into a meeting of mobsters and manages through a powerful speech to put the fear of death into them. And us. His lizard-like flicking tongue, darting eyes and apparently carelessly applied makeup all presenting a grotesque image that is as frightening as his delivery.
Fast forward to the scene where the Joker has to walk towards the camera in the middle of a Gotham City street as a building explodes in the background. The building is a hospital and the Joker is still wearing the nurse’s uniform that he wore to get through security. What does Heath Ledger do? He doesn’t just walk to the camera like most other actors. He skips. Like a little girl in a nurse’s costume, playing doctors, he skips. At once, he shows the Joker’s madness, inability to care and humour.
This morning we played a grab of his Joker on air with its raspy, American, gangsterish voice. Then we played an excerpt from an interview with Ledger. The two voices could not have been more different. the real Ledger sounds so young, so cafe culture, so unformed. In that single juxtaposition we heard how good an actor he was, tranforming his voice box so as to be unrecognisable. Think about it. Nicole Kidman’s voice you will always know no matter what role she plays. Even Ledger’s magnificent predecessor as the Joker, Jack Nicholson, always has a bit of Jack in his voice no matter what role he plays. Ledger was different. He subsumed himself. He became his character and left nothing of himself to do it.
If Heath Ledger wins the Oscar, many will feel that it was a good decision. I know I will.
– Phil
