woowoowoo

It’s been a sad week or two for the people who want to see Burma become part of the modern world.

First, we had the story that Russia was to build a nuclear reactor in Burma. I suppose as long as there are controls, this is no worse an idea than lots of other places. It may also see the reliability of the electricity supply improve – at least for those in power, on the other hand, if you’re in an outlying town where there aren’t any important people, you probably won’t notice the difference.

Then we heard the unsurprising, but tragic news that the beautiful, regal, patient, Aung San Suu Kyi would have her detention extended another year. A tragedy that the superb, resilient, resourceful people of Burma would still not have a leader they can call their own. Even more amazing, her supporters put their lives on the line to protest in public. These are really brave people, the possibility that they will be imprisoned or even killed is very real. Could you do that?

Finally, a small sad story. These three women are walking along the main street of Nyaung Shwe, near Inle Lake. The town is high enough to get chilly in the mornings – it was about 12°C, enough to have the locals all wrapped up in gloves and beanies, but most charming was the way the women all wore woolen jackets. They also have the most beautiful, glossy long hair… many Burmese women do.

This hair is so beautiful that it is now the target of thieves. People snip the women’s hair without them knowing – in market places or on the street. It makes the thieves a fair bit of money in a country where most people barely scratch out a living. I find this the saddest bit of news, that these beautiful, smiling, open women were targeted by such an invasive and symbolically violent crime.

What a cynical, politically motivated dummy spit – gotta be some kind of a record.

Before you begin believing Sol and his mates and start to doubt the ACCC, ask yourself if you really want a company like Telstra to have undue influence over the future of broadband (and it’s pricing) in Australia. They can’t even deliver an equitable product to their current broadband customers – as a mac user with Telstra broadband cable, I can vouch for the fact that they don’t give a flying f*ck about minority user groups.

As soon as ADSL+2 is available at our exchange, I’m giving them the boot. If they want to invest their dollars overseas, let them! Someone will build a network here and then they can charge Telstra a ripe premium for the privilege of competing for our custom.

… stop listening now!

I was nearly violent towards the TV tonight as John Howard weasled his way around Kerry O’Brien’s questions on the 7:30 Report. He is finished. They’ve had their chance and they are finished … and now it sounds like they’re manipulating Telstra’s broadband campaign to their own crafty political ends – makes me sick.

I won’t deny that the libs have kept the economy in reasonable economic shape, but that is, in the end, just sums – I’m sure the ALP have got a few people that can add up too. No, people have realised that money isn’t everything, on an evening where a corporate executive is awarded a sickening $33 million dollar bonus, folk are unanimous that a few dollars a week in the wallet is not what life is all about. We need leadership interested in more than the status quo. The libs have failed miserably on that one – please stop listening now!

As a postscript to our asian holiday, we’ve been replacing just about every credit/debit card we own (don’t even ask!). So, every couple of days a new envelope arrives from one bank or another.

Each new card is accompanied by a new PIN. For security reasons (and just plain common sense!), banks don’t send these out at the same time… well they’re not supposed to, but we’ve had three new cards from the Commonwealth bank in the last fortnight which have all arrived in the same post as the PIN envelopes.

I mentioned this to the person in the call centre when I activated the first card and was told that it was most unusual! The second time, I just rolled my eyes. The third time, I was really ticked off, so I rang them to complain and was met with a brick wall. I was told the only thing I could do was issue a formal written complaint. They didn’t really want to know.

We’ve got all our new cards now, so I’ll probably forget this little episode until next time it happens in the years to come. Grrr!