sydney is just silly

next week, sydney is shutting down. yes, in another example of govt not knowing how to deal with certain situations, they enact marital law.

towards the end of next week, many companies in sydney are closing. roads are being closed. people are being told to stay away from the city. they’ve even set up a public holiday on friday. why? because sydney is hosting apec – the asia pacific economic cooperation. apec consists of 21 ‘member economies’ (see below for list). this is the conference where u always see pix of politicians in the ‘traditional dress’ of the hosting country.

on the special apec sydney website, you can find out about the havoc this will cause. my fav is why they’re closing schools & areas:

The Australian Government is responsible for the security of visiting foreign dignitaries and the NSW Police Force is primarily responsible for protecting them. Careful planning is necessary to ensure safe and secure APEC meetings for everyone and importantly the general public. As well, Australia is obliged to extend to dignitaries a similar level of diplomatic courtesy that is extended to Australian Government Ministers and officials when they represent Australia overseas.

yes, b/c every other city shuts down to extend diplomatic courtesy. could u imagine if nyc shut down every time something was at the UN?

here’s the best though – dress up george in a range of scary aussie clothes

participating countries
Australia; Brunei Darussalam; Canada; Chile; People’s Republic of China; Hong Kong, China; Indonesia; Japan; Republic of Korea; Malaysia; Mexico; New Zealand; Papua New Guinea; Peru; The Republic of the Philippines; The Russian Federation; Singapore; Chinese Taipei; Thailand; United States of America; Viet Nam.