Harry Heidelberg is a Webdiary columnist.

“Day by day and almost minute by minute the past was brought up to date. In this way every prediction made by the Party could be shown by documentary evidence to have been correct; nor was any item of news, or any expression of opinion, which conflicted with the needs of the moment, ever allowed to remain on record. All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and reinscribed exactly as often as was necessary.” 1984 George Orwell

We feel numb because the unimaginable horror story has become reality. When you don’t know whether to laugh, cry or throw a brick through the window, you become numb. Eventually the emotion will out. It was always objectionable but somehow understandable when other parts of the world succumbed to the netherland of the big lie. We’d read about Fascism and Communism but we’d never experienced it directly and we knew we never would. It was there all along: our moral superiority. Bad things don’t happen in our sunny English speaking world.

The Americans have always been overt in expressing their moral superiority. They were an exceptional society founded under God. The British had centuries of tradition, continuity and relative stability. The Australians knew it so deeply in their hearts, that there wasn’t even a need to crow about it. Why crow about givens? We know we’re a decent people and we invented the “fair go”. We’d never engage in grand conspiracies. We had no need to and it was never really our style anyway.

The D-Day commemorations in Normandy this weekend will be a reminder of our shared history. The bonds of the member countries of the English speaking world are incomparable and apparently unshakable. When does it become unhealthy though? When do the bonds become shackles? All the signs are there for anyone who cares to glance for longer than a nanosecond. One sign could be that two of our “sisters”; Canada and New Zealand are at odds with us. There wasn’t a lot of ambiguity about D-Day though.

Now we seem mired in ambiguity and the worst part of all is that our leaders are burying us in the stuff. So what is our mire made of? Bullshit. In the ultimate nightmare scenario, 1984 and Animal Farm have merged to become the compendium we call 2004.

Some might say that there’s a cloud over D-Day. A commemoration is about remembering. There’s no cloud over that day. It was the beginning of the end of terror in Europe. This continent stands today as the European Union. The world has never seen nations come together like this. A bold enterprise affecting the daily lives of 450 million people.

Creating a new Europe has been a long and difficult road and we’re only part way along it. The pathfinders of the new united Europe were dismissed last year by the Americans as being “Old Europe”.

At the conclusion of World War II, the POW conventions in Geneva were drafted. The UN was formed and these days it is all treated as frankly blah. There was a reason for it though. Countries like ours were at the forefront of these endeavours. We had a clear vision founded on core beliefs that had served us well.

One of our own, Doc Evatt, was elected Secretary General of the United Nations in 1948. Imagine how he would have felt to be the leader of the UN when the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was passed? This was Australia walking tall. Not in a brash or ungainly way but in a stubborn attempt to find the right way ahead.

We’ve lost our way and it’s possible to find inspiration in our past in order to set ourselves right again. We do have a duty to set ourselves right again because our leaders will not do it for us. When our leaders start to sound like “Squealer” in Orwell’s Animal Farm, the time has come to take our country back.

Squealer said, “Do not imagine, comrades, that leadership is a pleasure. On the contrary, it is a deep and heavy responsibility. No one believes more firmly than Comrade Napoleon that all animals are equal. He would be only too happy to let you make your decisions for yourselves. But sometimes you might make the wrong decisions, comrades, and then where should we be?”

The words we hear from our leaders are a daily diet of lies, spin and hypocrisy. You know it is unravelling when they start contradicting themselves on the same day.

We’re not dumb farmyard animals and we’re not going to be taken for a ride, we’re not going to be patronised.

We are living in dangerous times and its becoming harder to breathe. Many of us don’t like the media but right now we need them more than ever. Truth is our only source of oxygen. We still need the media to help us find it. No one else will help us.

Societies based on lies and led by individuals with no moral compass will inevitably collapse. History tells us this and there is no better weekend than this one to remember that.

Lest we forget.

About 2 weeks ago I had a dream where JOHN HOWARD was the central figure. I remember waking up and thinking �how bizarre�.

I’ve never had a dream before where a public figure is involved. Usually it is friends, family, work colleagues, or I guess what you would call ‘composite’ characters, but never a public figure.

The Howard dream wasn�t significant except that he was bloody in my head while I was sleeping. I AM NOT SO SURE I LIKE THAT!

As far as I can remember, the substance of the dream was that I was fighting with him verbally. It wasn�t about politics and for the life of me, I can�t remember now exactly what it was about. It was endless rounds of him telling me what to do and me refusing.

Anyway, I hope him or anyone else like him never reappears in my sleeping hours. I really don�t want to start dreaming about politics.

The dream I had an hour or two ago was more bizarre. It had in it terrorism, ethics and politics. This is now the SECOND time in a couple of weeks with public affairs in a dream. I was one of the good guys (what a surprise). It started with me being the leader of a mission in counter terrorism. There were terrorists on board a plane and my mission became to blow them up. All the planning was going along fine and I was happy with what we were doing.

Then part way through I started worrying. I said, “This bomb is going to pierce the fuselage� yes it will kill the terrorists but��it will also bring the whole bloody plane down.”

To my HORROR, they all looked at me as if I was some kind of na�ve child. It was said that I needed to think about “the message we are sending”. So in the end I was being sent on a suicide mission where either the terrorists would blow up the plane or I would blow it up. Somehow it was “sending the right message” if I did it.

I don�t normally have nightmares but I think this qualifies.

Then there was this extraordinary chase. I was running all around the world but they kept reappearing. It wasn�t like I was under arrest or something, more like, “Well the flight is about to depart, do you have everything ready or not?”. Then somehow I would escape from them to another city and they would reappear again. London, Zurich. Prague and Berlin…

In between times I kept ending up at an Australian beach place which was a composite of Terrigal, Byron Bay and Pt Lookout (Stradbroke Island). I�d be with friends at a WONDERFUL outdoor area behind a house and we�d be having a great lunch etc etc. The phone would ring, and the doorbell, and I�d keep saying JUST IGNORE IT.

Then they would catch up with me and I�d be back in Europe again, pretending to be getting ready for the flight, even though I was determined that I would NEVER take that flight.

I�m not sure what the message is but the initial premise for the whole thing is interesting. There is a plan I agree with it but I am duped. The plan makes no moral or ethical sense. Then I run from it but somehow there is no proper resolution. The dream ends with me still running. As long as I don�t board the flight I am OK? Who knows.

I can say one thing – I do NOT appreciate having public affairs now in my dreams! I suppose it is a reflection of the state of the world. Perhaps I�m not the only person for whom the public sphere is suddenly interfering with my private sphere.

I don�t like these things to be in my subconscious. It’s scary.

Harry Heidelberg is a Webdiary columnist.

About 2 weeks ago I had a dream where JOHN HOWARD was the central figure. I remember waking up and thinking �how bizarre�.

I’ve never had a dream before where a public figure is involved. Usually it is friends, family, work colleagues, or I guess what you would call ‘composite’ characters, but never a public figure.

The Howard dream wasn�t significant except that he was bloody in my head while I was sleeping. I AM NOT SO SURE I LIKE THAT!

As far as I can remember, the substance of the dream was that I was fighting with him verbally. It wasn�t about politics and for the life of me, I can�t remember now exactly what it was about. It was endless rounds of him telling me what to do and me refusing.

Anyway, I hope him or anyone else like him never reappears in my sleeping hours. I really don�t want to start dreaming about politics.

The dream I had an hour or two ago was more bizarre. It had in it terrorism, ethics and politics. This is now the SECOND time in a couple of weeks with public affairs in a dream. I was one of the good guys (what a surprise). It started with me being the leader of a mission in counter terrorism. There were terrorists on board a plane and my mission became to blow them up. All the planning was going along fine and I was happy with what we were doing.

Then part way through I started worrying. I said, “This bomb is going to pierce the fuselage� yes it will kill the terrorists but��it will also bring the whole bloody plane down.”

To my HORROR, they all looked at me as if I was some kind of na�ve child. It was said that I needed to think about “the message we are sending”. So in the end I was being sent on a suicide mission where either the terrorists would blow up the plane or I would blow it up. Somehow it was “sending the right message” if I did it.

I don�t normally have nightmares but I think this qualifies.

Then there was this extraordinary chase. I was running all around the world but they kept reappearing. It wasn�t like I was under arrest or something, more like, “Well the flight is about to depart, do you have everything ready or not?”. Then somehow I would escape from them to another city and they would reappear again. London, Zurich. Prague and Berlin…

In between times I kept ending up at an Australian beach place which was a composite of Terrigal, Byron Bay and Pt Lookout (Stradbroke Island). I�d be with friends at a WONDERFUL outdoor area behind a house and we�d be having a great lunch etc etc. The phone would ring, and the doorbell, and I�d keep saying JUST IGNORE IT.

Then they would catch up with me and I�d be back in Europe again, pretending to be getting ready for the flight, even though I was determined that I would NEVER take that flight.

I�m not sure what the message is but the initial premise for the whole thing is interesting. There is a plan I agree with it but I am duped. The plan makes no moral or ethical sense. Then I run from it but somehow there is no proper resolution. The dream ends with me still running. As long as I don�t board the flight I am OK? Who knows.

I can say one thing – I do NOT appreciate having public affairs now in my dreams! I suppose it is a reflection of the state of the world. Perhaps I�m not the only person for whom the public sphere is suddenly interfering with my private sphere.

I don�t like these things to be in my subconscious. It’s scary.

Harry Heidelberg is a Webdiary columnist.

Air Force One is a powerful symbol of the 228 year old institution of the American presidency, a symbol of a power that is literally projected around the globe. Nowhere is the technological, political and ideological prowess of the United States better encapsulated.

The nuclear launch codes are carried in ‘the football’ on Air Force One. Air Force One delivers the American President, and whenever this enormous aircraft touches down or takes off a powerful statement is made. We know how John Howard reacted to the power of Air Force One when it arrived in Canberra last year. It can leave you spellbound.

I was on the tarmac at Sydney airport in 1996 when President Clinton arrived.

As one who loves to travel, I find great meaning in arriving and departing from a place. These moments are particularly poignant when they involve immediate family or close friends, but Air Force One is all about power, not love. And just as Air Force One can deliver power, it also takes it away.

The most tragic case of Air Force One removing power was in 1963, when it carried the corpse of John F. Kennedy from Dallas back to Washington. On board was Lyndon Johnson, who was sworn into office at 30,000 feet. Jacqueline Kennedy was in the background. Her pink dress was covered in her husband’s blood. Her husband was in the rear compartment in a coffin.

The Nixon presidency was another American tragedy. Everyone has seen the image of Nixon boarding Marine One bound for the base to board Air Force One. He had brought great shame to the American presidency and Air Force One would take him home. As the aircraft made its long transcontinental journey back to California, he and those on board heard President Ford being sworn into office.

As the aircraft passed over a town I once lived, it ceased to be Air Force One. Air traffic control at Kansas City Center changed the aircraft designation to that of a regular Air Force flight. It was no longer Air Force One; it no longer carried the American President. The power had been transferred.

I once fantasised about being in Washington to see President Dean inaugurated. That will never happen now. My more mundane fantasy now is closer to reality. My dream is of the day when President Bush passes over Kansas City Center on his way to Crawford, Texas. The radio will crackle “This is Kansas City Center; your designation changes from Air Force One to regular flight 6294 past this point”. The subtext: “You are now a nobody”.

It will bring closure to another American tragedy – the George W. Bush presidency. Almost ironically, it will also be a symbol of America’s strength – the peaceful transition of power.

This man, who is probably not the legitimate President of the United States, will return to where he belongs. Home on the range, back in Crawford, Texas.

Then, perhaps, the rest of us can hold out some very small hope of a better world. I’d rather a small hope than none at all. My dreams are now more modest, but I hold onto them nevertheless.

Webdiary columnist Harry Heidelberg returns for 2004 with a report on the anti-war protests in Switzerland. He believed Bush and supported the war (Yes, it really is about getting the weapons). Now he’s anti-war (Bush and Howard the living dead as our democracies awaken) and proud to protest.

Yesterday I was sitting in my apartment in the middle of the Swiss capital, Bern and heard the noise of protest outside my window. I live on the main street of the old town so whenever something big is happening (which is surprisingly often); I hear about it. I rushed to my front window and was shocked to see thousands marching down my street and police in full riot gear.

I’d remembered the last people who were in this apartment had cautioned me to close the windows should there be a riot. They’d said the tear gas gets really unpleasant when it is floating around the dining room. I laughed at this seemingly unlikely idea. It is actually practical advice though if you live on Kramgasse in Bern. (For Harry’s new Switzerland blog, with photos of the protests, go to kramgasse.)

Bern has a reputation as being one of the most beautiful and smallest capitals in Europe. Beneath the calm exterior of this old town of UNESCO World Cultural Heritage significance issues bubble away and often manifest themselves in street protests. There is even a display at the main railway station indicating logistics of upcoming “demos/manifestations”.

In Switzerland, even protest is well organised and encouraged! There is a big anarchists group in this town known to create lots of trouble. They took over a school in the 1980’s and still hold it. They often ruin demonstrations of others. I was afraid this would happen yesterday when I saw unprecedented numbers of riot police. Each policeman was fully decked out and was carrying a large rifle, poised to fire. The rifles looked quite weird so I am not sure if they contained gas canisters or rubber bullets. I never found out because the protest took on an extraordinary character.

I grabbed my digital camera and started taking pictures of the protesters. At one point I got into an argument with a French-speaking Swiss. He was telling me to stop taking pictures. I can’t speak French so I started yelling back at him in broken German. In the end he started speaking to me in English. It turns out he thought I was a cop. I happen to dress like and have the manner of a cop (unfortunately). I said, “Hey I LOVE what you are doing, that is why I am taking pictures”. He was delighted and shook my hand. Switzerland is the land of the hand shake and constant greeting rituals. Any excuse to do it!

At that point I decided to join the protest.

I was originally for the war in Iraq so it was a big step for me to take. It was exhilarating, liberating and empowering. The pretext for the war has turned out to be false so I am now unambiguously against it.

It’s a pity that I only realised after the fact but at least I’m not clinging onto the lies anymore. I was one of those people who believed the leaders of some of the top liberal democracies in the world when they told us there was a clear and present danger. I’ll never believe them again.

Yesterday’s protest in Bern couldn’t have been more eclectic. There were people from all walks of Swiss life, with all kinds of agendas. The thing we have in common is that we are not happy with the way the world is being run by the Angloshere. Here in Switzerland, public opinion against the war was near to 100% and I have never heard a Swiss politician utter a word in favour of it. In that sense there is no division in Swiss society on such topics. There is only unanimanity.

I was impressed by the variety in the protest and the good natured feel it had. People enjoy protests. In the German part of Switzerland they call them “demos”.

So we marched around and around the old town and ended up in a square called Weisenhausplatz. I was concerned that the square wasnt going to be big enough to accomodate the crowds. Announcements were being made in German, French and English for people please move to the back of the square because the whole town was being jammed up with protesters tailing back from the square. In the end, most of us could fit in and the music started.

The first performace was from an AMERICAN. This had special significance for me because I’m a friend of America and worry sometimes about “anti-Americanism”. The performance showed that the link between protest against the current US administration and and anti-American feeling more generally is one that should be treated with care. The song was original, in English and VERY funny. There is a tradition in Switzerland of using cutting, biting satire in protest. Sometimes it is far more effective than unrefined anger. I thought it was very clever to kick off with an American singing about his President in a very Swiss style. A powerful message. The concert continued into the night.

I’ve often thought the word “solidarity” is done to death in continental Europe. Yesterday, I felt it and loved it.

Democracy is so precious. The sanctity of the individual citizen in a democracy expressing themselves is a beautiful thing. War is not.

Harry Heidelberg is a Webdiary columnist.

Something big has happened. I agree completely with Alan Ramsey Another patsy? Dream on, PM today. Of course Latham is not the patsy, and he’s not the loose cannon either. He’s a big gun – and I think his shots will be well considered.

The dynamics have changed. Everything has changed. I would NOT be rubbing my hands with glee if I was the Coalition. This is a terrible result for them. The first sign was Latham’s first speech as Opposition Leader. He can cut through.

He’s not pandering to the constituency John Howard covets so much, because Latham IS that constituency. He can’t be much more authentic than that.

There’s a lot of things to love about this Opposition Leader:

1. Of course $65,000 in a metro area is not a high income. Try buying a half million dollar house on that salary. This is reality. Taxes are too high at too low a level

2. Of course education is under-funded.

3. Of course the vision thing is missing.

4. Of course he’s the next generation.

5. Of course his language is superb – the plain speaking aspect, not the excesses.

6. Of course he has heartfelt passion.

7. Of course market capitalism is the system and governments are obliged to make it work properly with competition policy, strong trade practices laws etc.

8. Part of authenticity is that you are allowed to be human and change your mind. This is not a gaffe in a stylized fight, it is being NORMAL. People can understand this. Remember how Kernot complained about the style of politics? Well this isn’t what she had in mind, but it will change the game. You see, that is just it – the game has become boring, and so it needs to be changed. Latham will do that. We call it a game, but the stakes are pretty high.

9. Of course there is a lunatic cab driver element. I’ve had more than one altercation with a Sydney cabbie. Some of them are stark raving mad. Sydney CAN be a rough town and anyone who thinks cab drivers are all cute as buttons and harmless as teddy bears needs to get out and about more often. I once had one run over my foot in Woollahra. Another one stopped in the middle of the Harbour Bridge and asked me to get out for no apparent reason. I’ve been told off because they couldn’t change ten dollars! Any candidate who has had experience in these areas has seen something of real life in Sydney. It’s the same as he realised as a teenager that there was no public transport to the ALP branch meeting so he had to walk 40 minutes. He wouldn’t have had the money for a cab back then. Later in life he figured that walking is safer anyway.

Blah, blah, blah – out with the old and in with the new! And he’s not a baby boomer!

I don’t know what the outcome will be – what I do know is that everything has changed and Labor made the right choice.

Have you ever noticed how the longer John Howard is in office the “better” he becomes at this sort of pained sincerity look? And that feigned indignant look?

Labor’s decision is great for Australia because everyone has to get REAL again.

Fragmented atmosphere, by Webdiary artist Martin Davies. www.daviesart.com

I was about to fire off a protest message to you! I was about to say that I am not reading or contributing to Webdiary for a week. Big time hissy fit thing. I wanted to take this direct action because you were publishing Chomsky again after a welcome hiatus. Then something funny happened.

I read Chomsky.

I feel chastened by Chomsky. Ouch. I am not prepared to get into the same political bed, but I am intrigued.

Oh, and I am not a late bloomer as suggested by your Webdiary artist in Waking up to strange bedfellows: a dirty capitalist’s lament. I just like to keep an open mind – there is a difference. I am NOT converting to Chomsky – I am merely intrigued. Maybe intrigued is not the right word. “Concerned” might be a better one.

As you well know, I am an Ameriphile. There is not even such a word for rare birds like that. I suspect Bob Carr is one, but I’d rather not identify with him right now (see In bed with developers, Carr tops Toaster with harbour as theme park). Francophiles and Anglophiles abound, but us Ameriphiles are quite rare.

So I become concerned when I find myself agreeing with some of Chomsky’s assertions. I become concerned that America is “losing its way”. I put this in quotes because that phrase was once used quite a bit in America. I haven’t heard it used in recent times, but I am sure the phrase is embedded in the minds of the average American. The American public have a better radar for detecting this uncomfortable “we’re losing our way” thing than they are credited for.

America has lost its way at many points in history and has often corrected itself. There are now 290 million people calling themselves US Citizens. My view is that the momentum is such that the current administration will be eliminated at the next election. Only a tiny percentage will kick out George Bush because of the reasons Chomsky cites. The reasons will be many but in the end, George Bush will be flown back to Crawford, Texas, never to return to the White House but for the rare state dinner where former presidents are invited.

It is not going to work for him to play the national security thing over and over. That plays large in the wider world, but it is not the only thing we should consider. The average American won’t get caught up in the philosophical underpinnings of the current foreign policy. What will they do? They will simply look at the overall picture, conclude it is not working out and replace the President and his administration with a viable alternative. That alternative will be Howard Dean.

The reasons why George Bush is “not working” are myriad. Chomsky says that the dominance presents dilemmas, and that is true. Only a zealot could say things are gong “well”. Clearly they are not. People are not buying the rationale that “the world is a better place without Saddam”. That is simply not good enough, and it is an absurd slap in the face to those who supported the war in “good faith”. When I say good faith, I mean that they thought the basis for it was really there.

Of bloody course it is better that Saddam has gone. What about the cost though? A lot of voters in America will be counting this. How many billions does Bush want this week? How many lives does he need to spend this month? These questions are gnawing into the psyche in America.

George Bush Snr visited Australia before he left office. He watched fireworks from Kiribilli with the relatively new Prime Minister Keating. In 1991 it was inconceivable that one day Howard would preside over a veritable era from Kiribilli and that one day the son George Bush would visit as President. History doesn’t always turn out as you expect.

Soon George W Bush will visit Australia, and like his father he will be a single term president. They both presided over wars in Iraq, lack lustre economies and lasted one term. George W Bush will be toasted at the inevitable state dinner in Canberra just as his father was. In just over a year’s time, his political death warrant will be signed by the American people.

The first Clinton campaign focused on the economy. Campaigners were reminded of the main issue in clear terms: “It’s the economy, stupid”. Recall that in 1992, no one gave a damn anymore that George Bush Snr had defeated Saddam and kicked him out of Kuwait. They were just angry, tired of him and wanted him out.

There will be some similarity in 2004.

The powerful people in the current administration may have some of the designs for the world as feared by Chomsky. Maybe they really do have an idea to track every vehicle in every foreign country.

That’s all well and good but what if you live in Kansas City, and you are pissed off about your underhanded school? What if you see a link between a “train wreck” of a budget and declining services all around you?

Howard Dean likes to remind people that they have the power.

They do. They are about to exercise it and no amount of campaign money will change their minds in the numbers required. It is a year away but it is clear. Last time the Democratic Party Candidate won the popular vote. He will again, but this time it will result in a Democratic President: Howard Dean.

I am going to Washington for President Dean’s inauguration and will be happy to be the Webdiary correspondent for the happy day. Mr Heidelberg Goes to Washington.

PS: I just checked deanforamerica What was on the front page? Today he was in Council Bluffs, Iowa talking about prescription drugs today. PEOPLE CARE ABOUT THIS SHIT AND THEY WANT TO BE BLOODY WELL HEARD. They do NOT want some grand design against the bloody world – they want to be able to afford their medicine in the richest country in history. I know Council Bluffs quite well. It is the butt of jokes for people living in Omaha, as it is on the wrong side of the tracks just over the state line.

It is all well and good to be the butt of jokes, but Iowa is important in the primaries. These people will be heard. Some of the states will be the battleground. The average person in these kinds of places are salt of the earth. They just want a fair go. And don’t dare paint these people as ordinates. Iowa and Illinois are FAR from that. These people are going to be heard. Do the maths. 80 million people live within a days drive of Kansas City and they are NOT all Republican.

Look at the psychology of Dean’s web site. Do you see fancy flash ammunitions and such like? No. Does it look slick and corporate? NO. He has the money and resources to do anything like that but he makes it look ordinary because he is smart. He is the next president and as an Ameriphile I am hanging out for his inauguration.

I will stand in the background on a frigid January day in Washington and smile. The new era will begin. Europe, and the world will like this guy and as one who likes America I care about that

And what about the way Dean goes into COMBAT? (See The power is in your hands – contribute!) He doesn’t placate people – he has views and fights for them. That part is also different, a plain talking thing. He almost seems to go out of his way to disagree with people in audiences that come to see him. I LOVE THAT. It is so EXACTLY the opposite of what we know as normal American politics, which becomes so superficially civil that it becomes meaningless.

*

Affordable Prescription Drugs

October 14, 2003

COUNCIL BLUFFS: Speaking last night at a town meeting here, Democratic presidential candidate Governor Howard Dean, M.D., announced his plan to lower prescription drug costs in the United States. “Today U.S. citizens spend approximately $200 billion on prescription drugs, twice as much as just five years ago. Government programs and large healthcare providers negotiate deep discounts on prescription drug prices, and Canadian citizens pay far less for prescription drugs than U.S. citizens. Yet senior citizens and other Americans who have no health insurance coverage pay the highest prices for prescription drugs,” Governor Dean said.

Bob Carr infuriates me to such a degree that I am writing this prior to morning coffee, after tossing and turning all night. Bob Carr was certainly NOT in my political bed this morning when I woke up.

I think he is quite sinister. Let’s ask the question: exactly who is Bob Carr in bed with? I think his bedmates don’t change often. They are always developers.

Cast your mind back to the dying days of the Unsworth Government. Back in the late 1980s, the bookish and at that point almost boyish Environment Minister was Bob Carr. He had one last task before his government was defeated by the Greiner landslide. He approved the development at Circular Quay that infamously became known as the toaster.

Bob Carr loves to flash his environmental credentials by making National Parks at the back of whoop whoop. What about the bloody built environment in Sydney? He doesn’t care about that.

His dream is to make all the foreshores a continuous strip of over priced cafes topped with similarly overpriced apartments. Just wait and see. Those working port areas will become Circular Quay east writ large. It will be truly hideous.

Maybe there will be some mock references to that old thing called “shipping” in the apartment designs or commercial facilities. Like maybe there will be a pub called “The Wharfie” where they sell Americana type food with Australian names. You know, like the Stevedores Burger with upsized Wharfie Fries. It will be truly awful.

Interspersed around the foreshore will the the ubiquitous Sydney cafes. Here they will borrow heavily from Italy. Why, there may even be a whole Italian flavour in a big section of water front. Why not even build an apartment and shopping place modelled after Porto Fino in Italy? The only thing that will be genuinely Italian will be the multinational Milan-based coffee company supplying the endless mountains of beans needed for all this nonsense.

We will end up living in a Disney-like town. There will be references to things that once were, but somehow none of it will be real. A total fantasy land imagined by Bob Walt Disney-Carr.

You will sit at the remodelled Luna Park which would be by then a collection of South American style theme bars, looking at yet another yacht go by. As you stroke your greying beard you will say:

“See that expensive yacht going by – it looks good, but I remember when giant ships would come past here. I remember when this was a working port.

“Ships would come from around the world and unload their cargo. See over there, near that aging block of flats and tired old cafe, that is where once hundreds of people worked. You know, Governor Phillip said it was the finest harbour in the world. For more than two centuries it was a great trading port.

“Then early in the 21st century we had a Premier called Walt Disney-Carr. He decided to kill the port and send coals and ships to Newcastle, which would then come back to Sydney by road.

“See all those old flats? He approved them. Those windswept barbecue areas between the flats that no one goes to – he also approved them. At the time some people thought it was an advance, but we really lost part of our heritage when he did that.

The reality is every night Bob Walt Disney-Carr gets into bed and wakes up with developers. For him there is no confusion, because this is where he feels most comfortable.

Are there no limits to the numbers of flats and waterside cafes in Sydney?

Bob Carr loves to walk, but this nightmare foreshore he envisages is a place he’ll never go. He will stick to the natural walks along the coast by Maroubra, while the rest of us will stroll along poorly constructed fake heritage wharfs, cafes on one side and marinas on the other. Most of the time we will stroll in the shadow of blocks of flats. Oh sorry, I mean luxury apartments complete with high tech security and European appliances.

So many granite benchtops and Miele ovens.

The mind boggles. I’m going to buy some shares in Miele today. Small European ovens have a great future in the small flats of Sydney. I might also buy shares in Illy coffee, a company whose future in Sydney seems assured.

The new cargo cult, courtesy of Walt Disney-Carr.

Please excuse me, I have to rush off to work and earn a living in Switzerland. As I enjoy my morning coffee in a real setting, I’ll also muse about whether Sydney will be worth going back to one day. Maybe I’d rather stay somewhere authentic that cares about its heritage.

See Your say for more reader opinion of Carr ending Sydney’s proud history as a working port.

Harry is an executive at a US multinational company and is based in Switzerland. He writes a regular column for Webdiary.

Late bloomer. Image by Webdiary artist Martin Davies. www.daviesart.com

My bed is starting to get crowded with strange bedfellows.

The other morning I woke up next to Carmen Lawrence, half asleep, half awake as she whispered sweet nothings about education in my ear. Later in the day I realised that Carmen’s sweet nothings were actually fundamental truths totally aligned with my values.

Seldom does one hear such things upon awakening. I realised that getting into bed with Carmen was more my cup of tea than I had previously expected. I kicked bias out the window, focused on common sense and the reality of Carmen’s position. It just seemed so right.

I’m starting to feel a bit groggy, but I’m sure I found Mark Latham in my bed only three days later. It’s all such a blur. He was singing a gentle lullaby about competition and the reform fatigue that has set in. He wants to wake up and get about reforming again. He was talking about making markets work with sensible regulation. He wanted to enable competition where it had never been seen.

In the end I had to ask him to stop. It was like he was reading my mind and playing it back so I have to think it was a dream. How else could I explain his presence in my political bed around the same time as Carmen? It was getting so busy I wasn’t sure who was in and who was out anymore.

Today I woke up next to Robert Coombs from the Maritime Union of Australia. This is beyond twilight zone. Despite the fact that he was there uninvited he was quite matter of fact about it all. He was unhappy that Labor Premier Bob Carr wants to kill Sydney Harbour as a working port.

I agreed with everything he said. I don’t want to turn it over to Sydney mega-developer Meriton. I don’t want working ports Mertonised. I like the heritage aspect – that from day one Sydney Harbour was a working port and the city’s commercial lifeline to the world. Bustling ports are things that maritime workers and dirty capitalists like me really like.

In the end they all seemed to be in bed with me at once. Carmen, Mark and Robert. Education, sensible regulation to enable markets to work properly, and working ports. All things that appealed to me. My bedfellows have been unexpected this week, but I can’t say I was disappointed and somehow all the right buttons were pressed.

It was against this backdrop, Margo that I read you describing me in the Sun Herald as a corporate high flyer and a true blue Liberal.

I didn’t need to be pinched and I don’t appreciate you waking me up. Thanks a lot. Let me live in my dream world where strange bedfellows become welcome friends.

At the time of Telecard I kicked Peter Reith out of my political bed, but I never thought things would turn to such a degree that the MUA would be on the pillow beside me.

It is not just a dream and I’m not making this up. I couldn’t agree more with EXACTLY what these three individuals are saying, and I am not too proud to say so. To me politics is not a religion, it is about making things work in the way that I think makes sense.

Life at the pragmatic centre is hardly boring. It is a very challenging place to be. It is an open place, a marketplace where good ideas are appreciated. Laurence, Latham and Coombs had good ideas this past week, so good that I don’t want to make a single knit picky point about any of it except to thank them for their contributions to our wonderful public life.

Tonight I will get into bed with some trepidation. Who wants to be the next political bedfellow of a confused Liberal?

Image by Webdiary artist Martin Davies. www.daviesart.com

This is getting scary. I agree with Carmen Lawrence!

As she writes in A fair go education system: the advantages for all of us, education is the passport to equality. If we want justice for all, we have to educate all. Equally.

It really does seem that core Australian values are egalitarianism and the so-called “fair-go”. This sounds a lot like social justice to me, and if we are to live up to our Australian “creed” then we need to satisfy ourselves that we are not designing systems that magnify inequality.

This is not about punishing excellence. It is about raising the target for ALL.

We excel on a global basis at sport but we don’t say our broad-based sporting programs punish excellence. Not for a second. Excellence is encouraged at every turn and opportunity begs for excellence at every second turn.

Perhaps elitist schools based on religion should go back to their creed. I seem to remember something in the Bible that went along these lines: “Whatsoever you do to the least of your brothers, that you do unto me”. This is a very clear instruction that everyone, no matter what their circumstances, needs to be raised up by their fellow human being.

That’s raised up, not pushed down. Earlier religious figures, at least in the Catholic Church, realised that in geographies where they were discriminated against (eg early Australia) one of the most powerful ways to overcome sectarian disadvantage was by a focus on EDUCATION. Catholics then systematically set about to educate their young.

Paul Keating left a Marist Brothers school at 15 but he could certainly read and write. Some of these poorer schools did exceptionally well.

This is 2003 however, and we’re a secular state. At least I hope we are. We should be proud of that fact. We don’t need to resort to a religious creed to find our collective feeling. The secular spiritual roots of Australia (now there is a potential contradiction in terms) are most certainly toward egalitarianism. It goes much further than convicts and 1788.

It is why the Prime Minister sits in the front seat with his driver. It is why he wanted “mateship” in a preamble to the Constitution.

My fear is that these empty gestures will become the last remaining symbols of our shared belief in egalitarianism. Yes, we pull together in disasters. We put out fires together. We have much to be proud of. When times are good though, do we look out for each other?

Beyond the heroics and the undoubted strength of the national character, there needs to be a daily dedication to the original creed. Do we live it or do we just say it?

It’s time to decide. We are at the cross roads and now we can decide whether the original creed was crap or whether we should stick with it.

We were more civilised than our colonial masters because we were ultimately better at finding ways to “tame the savage beast of man”. We need to hold onto our roots. The good parts that said beneath our distinctive accent was a deep enlightenment that we had found a better way. We had turned our backs on class and the Old World. The Aborigines were excluded, but if you were white you would be judged in our new society not on who your father was, what your religion was or what school you went to. It became more about what you did. A kind of enlightened egalitarian meritocracy. Really. That is what it was (or is).

Advance Australia Fair.

This spirit is still there and the people who can nurture it will be the heroes of generations to come. Our society is human and as flawed as any other, but if we can energise those special original feelings we can become something even more special. We just need to turn our backs on despair and become what we always were.

In his own way, Slim Dusty reminded us of that last week. We can’t meet our impossible creed, but let’s shoot for it again.

One hundred years ago, Australia was one of the richest, most socially progressive societies on the planet. Let’s not stuff it up 100 years later.

PS: I might add that any decent rational economist not appealing to sentiment as I often do would tell you that high quality education delivered to the broadest range of citizens is a feature of successful economies. Tie it in with Knowledge Nation. We will fall behind if we don’t focus on it. There is a VERY practical need to raise the educational bar.

And another thought. The PM talks about “practical reconciliation” – we should consider “practical egalitarianism”, something beyond using the word mate a lot and sitting in the front seat.