So this boom that has rained bucks on its beneficiaries and disadvantaged the majority in myriad ways – in Perth, at least – appears to have busted. Slow handclaps for the stockbrokers and financial media seers who declared time and again with unshakeable confidence that China’s dizzy growth rate was assured for another three decades, regardless of America’s economy or the state of global markets. Add India, the other waking giant, to the mix and we had a cake that would just keep on a-risin’. Turns out, ’twas more like a souffle full of hot air that escapes with a hiss when taken out of the oven, leaving big ambition and great expectations collapsed in a cheesy heap…
I say three cheers for the bust. The boom has misshapen the Perth community quite grotesquely in all sorts of ways. Here are a few obvious examples: Continue reading Three Cheers For The Bust→
I acknowledge from the outset that I am no fan of The West Australian newspaper. This rag has peddled blatant pro-conservative propaganda in the guise of an “Editorial” for as long as I can remember. Not to mention their “feature writers” like the big-headed, self-righteous arch-conservative foghorn, Paul Murray (although, one upside of having Murray around is this crack-up of a thread from local blog The Worst Of Perth).
Indeed, the anti-ALP bias of The West Australian was so extreme in the lead-up to the recent WA state election that in a post-victory interview, outgoing Lib Matt Birney was moved to chastise the West journos for carrying on a personal vendetta against ALP ministers who had raised their ire during the Carpenter reign. Birney is not known for handing the ALP any bouquets. Hats off to him for speaking up. It is some measure of the extremity of The West’s bias that he – a political beneficiary of their propaganda – should feel moved to speak out publicly as he did. Continue reading Shame, thewest.com.au – Shame!→
We shoulda known. The intense self-focus, delusions of grandeur, messiah complex, conversation-bogarting…the bloke’s perpetually off his gourd on hooch! Well, I dunno about you, but I found that admission on Q&A inspiring. So much so I was moved to verse.
To the tune of I Love To Have A Beer With Duncan (and with due apologies to Slim Dusty):
