Peter A Clarke

Michael Bachelard is a nice enough scribe.  I knew him when we both worked in Canberra in the mid nineties, him as the ACT Politics main man for the Canberra Times and me as the long (or it felt like that) suffering Chief of Staff for the Deputy Chief Minister.   For his sins he covered ACT local government politics. He specialised in “analysis” pieces on who was who in the ACT zoo.  He tried earnestly to make  that sandpit sound interesting and relevant.  He sometimes succeeded in that difficult task.  At the time ACT politics had moved out of its feral beginnings and was just mildly  eccentric. Michael, like most journos in Canberra, was in thrall with the new broom approach of opposition leader and later Chief Minister Kate Carnell. Like Keating before her in the federal sphere she was the toast of the press until she finally crashed and burned over the financing of Bruce Stadium.  For a long time her charisma and networking had the local press lauding her,  hinting at her ability to turn water into wine and, most importantly, ignoring her often glaring weaknesses.  She deserved to crash well before then but that is another story for another time. 

Back to Michael.  Like his earlier coverage of Kate I believe he has acquired a major case of Stockholm syndrome with Bill Shorten.  The coverage in the most recent Weekend Australian under the heading Right on target to boot out Labor veterans is at best a nauseating pap piece. At worst, and more accurately, it is a partisan piece which is an inappropriate use of the press to advance one person over another in a factional brawl.  Bachelard has left the stands and is down on the field as a runner. 

After quotes like “Shorten, 38, is a star. Even his sworn enemies concede the Australian Workers Union secretary has talent and will make a contribution in Canberra.” its time Bachelard told News Limited to keep that weeks salary and submit a invoice to Bill. 

How is Bill a star?  Crunching numbers is hardly a star quality.  What has he actually done?  Who are these sworn enemies and what did they actually say.  Lots of assertions and not many facts.  It is lazy sloppy journalism and typical of the hagiography that Bachelard engages in when he goes starry eyed over a political operator.  No doubt Bill can be charming.  But when Bachelard went from short pants at the Canberra Times to wearing big peoples clothes at the Australian one would have thought he would have sort of looked beyond the cliches and political hackery which are Bills strong suits. 

It is worth reading (or listening to) the most recent Background Briefing and get an idea of some of the real problems with the ALP, one of which is loading up the front bench with union hacks and political operators.  Not that it is a new problem.  Kim Beazley Snr once famously declared:

When I joined the Labor Party as a boy, the branches were filled with the cream of the working class.  When I leave it, it has been replaced by the dregs of the middle class.

(The Dictionary of Australian Quotations, Mandarin, 1992).

It is even truer now.  And Bill ain’t in the cream category, unless it is linked to the word “puff.”

This day in 1945 773 British Avro Lancaster bombers dropped 2,500 tons of bombs onto Dresden’s city centre.  It left 135,000 dead and the capital of Saxony, nicknamed the Florence on the Elbe, a smoking ruin.  In a war full of excesses in the name of strategic or tactical advantage, the shelling of Monte Casino, the bombing of Cleves to mention but a few, the bombing of Dresden stands out. The critisism of Harris was so strong that he moved to South Africa after the war.

I think Harris got a bad wrap.  World War II, like World War I and the wars of the preceding half centures were total wars between the people.  It wasn’t a war involving small armies marching till they met each other, engaged in a day or two long battle and then maneuvered again until one side sought an armistace.  Sherman’s march to the sea during the US Civil War was aimted at breaking the South’s economy and will to fight . As his army marched through Georgia he burnt plantations and did whatever he could to “make Georgia howl.” It worked.  In the later stages of 1864 and 1865 desertions in the Confederate armies were endemic as soldiers rushed back to their homes.  What Harris did was a logical next step from what had been done before and he did it with the knowledge and blessing of his political masters. 

International jurisprudence has sought to make total war a thing of the past.  There has been enough lip service but no real test.  We haven’t had a war involving major powers on either side and big enough stakes to see whether they will exercise restraint when the chips are down.  Wars are about winning and to win you need to fight and to fight you need to kill.  If attacking your opponents cities and cowing their populace is what is required then that will probably happen. 

Interestingly city bombing didn’t work on morale in World War II as expected.  If anything it strengthened resolve until the overall war situation got really bad and then it pushed morale into free fall.  What it did do well was  dislocating industry and soak up huge resources in anti aircraft defences. 

Lleyton Hewitt’s claim of invasion of privacy is no more.  Down at the Downing Centre local court Hewitt settled and the invasion of privacy case is no more.

That doesn’t mean there is no good reason for a test case.  It is just a matter of time.

That Australia does not have a right to privacy is an inexplicable gap in our law.  Who would have thought Lleyton Hewitt would want to remedy this situation.  The Sydney Morning Herald reports a fascinating test case in the Dowing Centre Local Court.  Even if he wins in a claim for invasion of privacy it sets no precedent if that is where matters end.  But if it goes on appeal and works its way to the Supreme Court then we might be seeing new law.  That is a long way off and there has been way too many false dawns in this area of law. 

And about time this issue was properly tested. The High Court skirted the issue in ABC v Lenah Meats but decided that wasn’t the case.  Its time for a common law right to privacy.  The legislature has been hopeless in protecting what most of the rest of the world regards as a fairly basic right.  At the moment any claim of invasion of privacy is prosecuted as a mixed trespass and nuisance claim. 

 C’mon!

All of the adulation in the press about Wee willy Shorten taking on a seat and ultimately leadership of the Parliamentary wing of the ALP is nauseating.  The guy is connected and gets plenty of coverage but what has he actually done?  What does he believe in?  The  Daily Flute had an opening salvo against him last Friday.  And fair enough. 

I had dealings with Shorten at Monash and found him to be a less than impressive machine operator straight out of central casting.  Said all the things right wing wannabees said and pulled all the undergrad tricks in the eternal but ultimately unproductive factional fights Uni labor politics is famous for.  But the thing is that Bill, of Xavier heritage and blue blood tradition, believed in a lot of not very much but power.  His soundings in the press has been a lift from US management books.  At least his MBA has been put to goodish use.  He markets himself as a Tony Blair/Bill Clinton for Australia, the new brand of social democrat who will outmaneuvre the conservatives by being friends of the middle class while keeping a foot in the working class camp. 

An empty suit who knows how to hustle the contacts. 

It was always a treat to catch the Munsters.  As I was growing up it was classic Saturday morning fare.  It was just great slapstick non message comedy.  Not as good as the Three stooges but great fun. 

So it is sad to read that Grandpa Munster has died at age 82. 

Vale Al Lewis.  From a better era in television. 

Nothing like 3 hours in a plane from Zagreb to Paris, 8 hours in Paris, another 12 hours from Paris to Singapore and another 6 hours from Singapore to home to make yesterday a total blur.  I sorta remember getting home and then it was time for a fall down, get up, fall down, have a shower, fall down and get up in the wee hours today.

So back in the saddle in chambers and ready to contribute to the legal world of Melbourne.

Cheers all and keep watching the blog.

Yet again the god of travel acts as he promised.  The flight left right on time, which I guess isnt that big a deal for Praguers.  Being sandwiched between Germany and Austria has given it some germanic qualities.  Pulled in at 8.20pm and here I am a little before 10pm tapping away in an internet cafe across from Bonbons.

Despite my demands Zagreb hasnt mended its evil ways.  It is still a flea bitten, plague blighted heap of unreconstructed neo realist rubble of uncertain provenance.  To combat the evilness that lies within I came well prepared; sacred Armani aftershave courtesy of those humanitarians at Duty Free and in the absence of incense I have settled on a packet of Vuegeros Cuban cigars, again with the comfort and support of the Duty Free.  I have been chanting Druidish incantations (or maybe it is just my drunken ramblings to the voices).  Anyway so far so good.  But Bonbon is full to the gills and I know of no other place for asylum.  There is an upside.  In my directionless wanderings I have beheld, and approved of, the Croatian womens penchant for wearing skin tight jeans and knee length boots.  They are seriously cute into the bargain.  Like Poles with a bit of an edge.  Sweeeeet.

Anyhow the hunt continues for a sanctuary. 

Flying out tomorrow on a little after midday.  Hope the cigars last till then.  Will keep puffing till then.

A fairly desultory sort of day.  And very enjoyable in its own way.  I didn’t do much of note beyond buying one or two presenty things and a bottle of booze.  Had my final Czech meal at my favourite local restaurant and had my final perv at the girls at the hostel, this time some seriously gorgeous South American girls who were booking in as I was checking out. Always the way.  Then it was down to drinking coffee and just hanging out. 

I board in about 40 minutes and with luck will be touching down in Zagreb at about 8pm local time . Then I tackle the BEAST.  First, set up HQ at the Central Hotel.  Second, drink heavily till I board that flight tomorrow at 12.20pm for Australia via Paris and Singapore.  Its going to be tough but I ain’g going to let Zagreb bring me down. I’ll probably spend a fair amount of tonight at Bonbon, the only decent place of refuge in that godforsaken place. 

A few parting thoughts about Prague.  It has been a terrific city to visit and spend some time in.  I spent a total of 9 days here and enjoyed myself.  I am museumed and sited out and could probably have spent a few days less and still enjoyed the experience just as much.  That said it is nice to get to know a city to the point where I don’t need to use a map and at the same time don’t get lost.  It is cheap, clean and very diverse.  It has something for all tastes and tends to take an easygoing approach to most things.  Praguers are so used to tourists that they tend to indifference.  The service is polite and reasonably efficient but not particularly warm.  Then again I could say much the same about Vienna.  That stands in contrast to the usual treatment throughout Croatia.  That tends to be a generalisation, both ways, but overall reasonably accurate.  The Czech Republic, like Poland, is easy on the pocket.  If you want to make it really cheap that is not hard to do. 

 Things I would bring from Prague to Melbourne:

1. The beer.  Czech beer is head and shoulders over all the others.  Austrian beer isn’t bad and some Polish beer is very good, especially Zywiecz, but there is something about Czech pilsener.  Very tasty and cheap.  Turkish beer is pretty ordinary.  Stick to Raki in Turkey, if you like getting knocked off your stool that is.
2. The women. Czech women range from cute to seriously out of this world gorgeous.  Many are tallish, thin and have that drop dead gorgeous slavonic ovel face, wide set eyes and lusterous long blond hair.  Even rugged up in winter coats they look seriously sexy.  The only thing better than Czech women are Polish women.  In Poland they constitute serious eye candy.  I was gobsmacked how stunning they were.  The Australian/Polish girls will need a serious amount of plastic surgery to catch up.  It was quite an eye opener. A pleasant one.
3. The open all hours approach to eating and drinking establishments.  The restauarants serve from the minute the doors open till they close.  The notion of a set lunch or breakfast is not the norm. There are breakfast menus but it is more a nod to tourist tastes.  The food is fantastic.  Most shops are open till 8pm on most nights. 
4. The beer
5. The women.

Things I would leave in Prague

1. Museum attendants. I have ranted long and loud on the subject so no more needs be said.
2.  The beggars.  The beggars, of which there are more than a few, have a protocol.  They place themselves in a kneeling position, lean forward and rest their forearms on the pavement and place a bowl before them or in their cupped outstretched hands.  I initially thought they were praying to Mecca.  This is unacceptable in Australia because that is the well known Barrister position we take up waiting for briefs.  If beggars took up that practice in Oz how would you know the beggars from the barristers?  I guess the beggars would be better dressed.
3. The ticket inspectors.  I have banged on enough about this.
4. The Czech girls boyfriends, of which there seems to be many.  They are on them like white on rice.
5. Some of the creepy crawly types who hang around Prague square in the early morning hours.  Not dangerous just serious pains, touting for this and that and general pimping. It is the same in most big cities with a high tourist population, including Vienna, but I guess I noticed them more in Prague.

 Time to board.  I am definitely coming back but probably at a more clement time.

Last night was a bit quiet which was probably for the best.  The hostel bar was closed for the night so the supply of really cheap beer dried up.  Of course that didn’t stop me imbibing over a very nice dinner of pork knuckle, white cabbage and potato pancake.  Back to a decent restaurant. 

Most of the day was a general wander through the shops and back streets.  Nothing too heavy and covering old ground mostly.  Thats cool.  Always something new to see.  I thought I’d give the movies one last chance and up came a winner, of sorts.  Fun with Dick and Jane was pretty good.  Brilliant compared to the dross I have been seeing of late.  A comedy with Jim Carey and Tea Leoni.   Apparently based on a George Segal (one of my all time favourite light comedy actors) film from the seventies.  It was light, frothy, hilarious in parts and generally pretty good.  As always Alec Baldwin puts in a top performance even if it was a two dimensional role.  He wears his middle age well.  In a way he is better now than 10 years ago.  Tea Leoni used to be one of the best, not to mention seriously gorgeous, female comedy actors. Her performance here was a bit ordinary and she isn’t as cute (harsh but that’s the way of the world in this day and age).  Then again trying to strut your stuff next to Carey is hard yards.  He chews through the scenery at supersonic speed. 

On another wander through the Australian press I see that our Nic Kidman is to be a UN Ambassador for Peace.  Another argument to send the UN to the bottom of the East River.  She has been remarkably consistent in starring in absolute turkeys, (Bewitched, The Interpreter, Stepford Wives to name but a few) and when she comes up from under the blanket of PR cover she comes across as, what is the technical term, dumb.  Vacuous at least.  Sure she has presence but that is about it.  Then again the same can be said for the UN these days.