The Confused Blogger's Guide To The G20 Summit

16 November 2006

So the G20, the group of the world's twenty leading industrialised nations, is having their annual shindig summit this weekend in Melbourne. But what's happening at the summit? Who is actually attending? What will they be discussing, deciding on? It's hard to make out. All the media coverage of the event is focusing on is the heightened security in Melbourne, and the protesters.

The "heightened security threat" seems to be - can you believe it! - a media beat up. Seven news this morning made it sound like the whole Melbourne CBD is in lockdown, but a source on the ground speaking exclusively to Xander and Nico said that, apart from an extra security guard or two in front of major buildings, there's very little that's different to normal.

Meanwhile, the protesters are actually having the opposite effect from the one I hope they intended, by diverting attention from the real issues...whatever those may be. There must be few things a news producer enjoys more than fresh footage of protesters clashing with riot police. Even so, it's hard to discern what exactly the anti-G20 group are protesting against, though their
official website lists such articles as "Wanted: Big Bellies" (hang on guys, I'm on my way); "Revolutionary knitting circle: a call to action" (as practiced by Maoists in the Chinese civil war); and an "Origami coffee table toy for stopG20" (if folding bits of paper changed policy, then people with nervous tics would be running the planet).

No answers are forthcoming over at the
G20 Homepage itself either. There's a welcome from Peter Costello, accompanied by a picture of him looking creepy (the man has only three facial expressions: creepy, smirking, and the creepy smirk), and a brief explanation that the G20 is a gathering of the Finance Ministers and bank governors from the relevant nations. So while the summit promises to be a haven of debauchery and excitement, what will actually go on there?

One thing's for sure, John Howard won't be honouring the delegates with his presence. He's off to the
APEC leaders conference in Vietnam. There are embarrassing shirts which need wearing, after all. According to The Age, this year "the APEC shirt will be the ao dai, a traditional Vietnamese silk tunic - with possibly a turban." Can't wait for the glamour shots.

8 comments:

  1. Loved your thoughts on the summit - I'll be watching the news to see the media provide their required footage of protesters vs police...oh and of course to check out the dodgy clothes.

    ReplyDelete
  2. There'll be plenty of both this weekend.

    Can I add you to my links list?

    ReplyDelete
  3. A bunch of old guys will eat, drink and debate... just like always in politics.

    Um... at the risk of repeating myself, your link drop-down doesn't work on a Mac... I can't visit any of the sites. :-(

    ReplyDelete
  4. Omni - I loved your post on deleted blogs, I agreed with everything you said. A blog I've linked to since almost day one, and read regularly, disappeared with no warning lately and I felt...kind of let down.

    I'm not sure what I could do about the Mac problem, but I'll try asking blogger help...

    ReplyDelete
  5. Just how outdated is the pic of Costello on the G20 site? Where's the tinning locks, the big black eye bags. And as for that self satisfied smirk..its more like a coy boyish grin, like he's just been caught by Mum with paw in the cookie jar (or something a little naughtier, maybe?). This guy has obviously had a small artillary of touch-up artists hard at work .
    Whoa! what are we to expect next...lips!?

    ReplyDelete
  6. I'm thinking it's his official pic from when they first took government in 1996.

    A terrifying picture nevertheless (and I mean that both literally and metaphorically)

    ReplyDelete
  7. I'm glad you liked the post, Nico. :-)

    This blog

    http://www.wesoteric.com/

    has a working drop-down... why not compare his code to yours?

    Or... switch to a regular list of links?

    ReplyDelete
  8. The blogger help group couldn't help me.

    I can't see the coding for that page, I do like the way it looks though.

    I really don't want to go back to regular links, for a start I've got 34 months of archives (so far) and there's nothing more annoying than having to scroll for ages to find what you're looking for.

    So at the moment, there's no solution but when I next see a person I know who might be able to fix it, I'll ask them.

    ReplyDelete


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