Sharon Watson ([email protected])
Fri, 18 Dec 1998 22:48:36 +1100
> I have a quick question for those who know about this fellow Richard
>Butler (no, not the lead singer of the Psychedelic Furs; I'm referring
>to the leader of the U.N. Weapons Inspection team). I just watched his
>speech from the U.N. offices, and I was very impressed with him. He
>seems like an honest man and a straight-shooter, so to speak. Is my
>impression of him right, wrong, or a little of both?
Little of both. He's fairly much a straight shooter who retains a healthy
amount of Australian pragmatism and desire to cut through the bullshit, but
he nevertheless remains a diplomat committed to the dominant paradigm in
which we're 'goodies' and the Iraqis are 'baddies' and it's okay for the
goodies to bomb the baddies. So whilst I have more time for Richard Butler
than most of the negotiators, as far as I'm aware a condition of the UN
weapons inspection team right to the end was that any inspection would
involve US inspectors, terms the Iraqis refused. All avenues of
negotiation were therefore not explored by the team, and regardless the
Iraqis didn't bomb anyone so I find it impossible to justify the US/UK
actions. If someone has other information I'm happy to stand corrected.
>P.S. Since Australia is nicknamed "Oz", what would, therefore, be the
>"Emerald City"? Please give your nominations privately/publicly and I
>will tally the votes. I'll publish the results later.
No need for a competition. The Emerald City is Sydney - common nickname
and a reference to a David Williamson play of the same name. The reference
is to both the colour of the beautiful Sydney Harbour and to the glitter
and glamour that characterises Sydney - those of us here in Melbourne would
say all style, no substance. ;-) Sydney is where you want to be seen,
Melbourne is where you want to live. Sydney is the glamour capital,
Melbourne is the arts capital, food capital, comedy capital...
Enough about the greatest inter-city rivalry in the world :)
Sharon
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b2 on Fri Dec 18 1998 - 03:51:40 PST