APEC: Rant the Second

Bad Ideas – September 3rd, 2007 by Sarah

As promised, here is my follow up to my first little spiel on APEC. I’m pleased I left it until this week really, because my irritation increases considerably as the event draws closer. This irritation is particularly prominent whenever I’m waiting for a bus and am forced to stare at posters which instruct me to be helpful and ‘plan for APEC’.

So, why is APEC so bad? I’ve encountered this question a few times lately, and on thinking about it, I suppose in theory it isn’t that bad at all. The idea of it is to bring leaders of the Asia-Pacific Region together to discuss economic growth, and to build stronger relationships with one another in a respectful, open environment. That’s not bad, right? Well, no, apart from the fact that it is basically a great opportunity for George Doubleya and his lap-dogs to exercise their dominance over less economically stable, more vulnerable nations, and to continue their path of crushing perfectly functional cultural practices only to replace them with questionable Western values. The entire world will resemble a gigantic United States in no time. But hey, the West is best, right?

Also, the way APEC has been portrayed in the media, and the way Sydney-siders are being treated in order to accommodate for this event, is simply asking for trouble. How can the general public be so excluded from such a significant event without a few people here and there being slightly annoyed about it? Erecting huge walls, the instigation of shoot to kill zones, closing down half the city, basically refusing our right to protest, an official ‘black list’. If this isn’t asking for crazy evangelical-style protesters to go nuts, I don’t know what is. And it’s a shame really, because no one listens to these people no matter how valid their arguments may be, they are written off as dangerous and a nuisance, thrown in jail, the cycle of oppression and marginalisation continues and the anger just grows.

In light of all that, it is with a heavy heart that I will be giving APEC a miss, which, as I said in my last blog on the topic, is a decision I feel I should not need to make. In a so-called free country like Australia, it is not right that we should have to consider our safety so seriously when trying to make our voices heard.

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