Things Which Stress Amy Out

[highlyeccentric]

*4000 word essays

*this chair

*john howard

*george pell

*etc.

i mean, seriously. this place is going to hell in a handbasket and i'm learning about anglo-saxon bishops. does this make sense to any of you?

we had a very good speaker at dinner on monday, but it only serves to depress me. Someone from the econ. dept. at USYD, just wrote this book called 'How To Kill A Country', on the stupidity of the free trade agreement with the US
apparently we have the US instant access to our wheat and beef import markets, but will be waiting eighteen years for any equivalent concessions.
what's more there's this stupid thing called 'harmonisation', ie the US don't like anyone who has better public institutions than them. So we signed a deal which will allow the US to insist we dismantle our *quarantine system *pharmacuetical benefits scheme and *any schemes which require govt authorities to buy australian goods- all while they strengthen the Buy American Program.

Then we got into a long discussion about nuclear power over desert.

it just depresses me. once the idiots have a friendly senate, they can do whatever they please and there's nothing we can do about it. you think 'things like that don't happen here' and then they do... and what can you do about it?

and meanwhile i'm freewheeling here with my anglo-saxons. because at least with them i can make some kind of progress. nice little numbers on the assessment sheets which allow me to pretend i'm actually doing something or getting somewhere.

Comments

[niamh-sage.livejournal.com]

That's horribly depressing, and frightening too. Dismantle the quarantine system????? Good gods. That actually makes me feel panicky. And swear a lot. Anything we can do to protest this?

[highlyeccentric.livejournal.com]

not so far as i know. i'm sure there ARE ways, but i don't know what they are.

[sea-of-tethys.livejournal.com]

So we signed a deal which will allow the US to insist we dismantle our *quarantine system *pharmacuetical benefits scheme and *any schemes which require govt authorities to buy australian goods- all while they strengthen the Buy American Program.

They're making you get rid of pharmaceutical benefits?!

GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH.

[highlyeccentric.livejournal.com]

to the best of my knowledge it hasn't happened yet and isn't yet in progress, but the agreement was structured in such a way that they could, and america's precedent in free trade agreements indicates that's just what they plan to do.

[sea-of-tethys.livejournal.com]

But... but... that's so evil.

[highlyeccentric.livejournal.com]

it's not really their fault. our negotiators walked away from the table in the last week of proceedings because it wasn't a truly bi-lateral agreement; and Howard and co ordered them back. blame rests squarely on the twits we were dumb enough to elect.