Issue No 76 | 03 November 2000 | |
Away For The GamesEnd of the OdysseyBy Peter Lewis
The guy at customs greets me with a cheery smile, proudly wearing his Olympics ID laminade around his neck - four weeks after the event. I thought I could escape the Games by going into exile, I was only home five minutes and I could see I'd been kidding myself.
I set out three months ago with a grab-bag of stated missions:
Even while away, I realised that this last goal was going to be an impossible ask. The Olympics are universal and they were everywhere. The desire for people to grab onto something of there's and feel like they have a place in the world has, if anything, been heightened rather than diminished by globalisation. Now I'm home and everyone tells me how great the Games were and I'm genuinely happy for them - tinges of regret at missing a great moment tempered by the fantastic experience of watching my home town from afar. But more on that later. As for my other goals, the results were mixed. My beloved technology was a headache almost from the start. A techno-dummie travelling around with a laptop and mobile phone, it was always going to be a big ask. Three weeks in the laptop crapped out and I was left with the mission of finding public access Internet as I made my way access in Europe. This was fraught with difficulties, even in the larger cities. There seemed to be a far lower take up of the Net than here, which can partly be explained by the fact that it is still a medium dominated by the English language and will remain so until Babel software really takes off. This low take up means that cable rollout is not such a high priority, so while the potential for connectivity is great in a continent of Europe's wealth and diversity, it is sill early days. Perhaps because of this, there is not a lot for Australia to learn from European unions' usage of the Internet. With the exception of the excellent FNV site in Holland, most sites are little more than brochures, a few with discussion boards. One of the difficulties in many European nations is the fragmented nature of the labour movement - in Italy and France there are no less than three peak bodies - making a coordinated web strategy impossible. Unfortunately, plans to get north to Scandanavia came unstuck under the weight of the high fuel prices - up to $3 per litre! With membership rates above 80 per cent, they were my best chance at inspiration. Maybe next Games ... More fascinating was the way Europe is grinding towards unification. Even over the three months I was there the debate shifted around me, culminating in the fall in the value of the Euro and the Danes decision to walk away from it. Despite these setbacks, it was interesting to note that all union bodies across the continent endorse European integration, it is the nationalist urges outside the political elites, whipped along by xenophobic media (and the Olympics?) that stand as its greatest barrier. As I discussed last week, the European model is fundamentally different to the US, premised on social partnership rather than rampant individualism. But back to the Games, Yes, they were fantastic and did Australia much credit. But they are now over - it is time to put the laminades in the glory box, stop chanting "Oi,Oi,Oi' and move on. As a long-term critic of the Olympics, I still have concerns about whether the resources and effort put into the two week mega-event were the best ten-year growth strategy going around town. Maybe the tourism that the Olympics encourages will justify those millions, but the reality is that we are still regarded internationally as an 'Old Economy' - and staging big sporting events are not necessarily going to alter that perception - it certainly didn't stop the dollar plummeting through September. For me, the best part of the Games story is that it's ended and we can get back to the real game of trying to work out how we can create a cohesive society out of the opportunities and threats that the Information Age presents. The main lesson out of Europe is that there is no one approach to dealing with this change. Europe is interesting because, apart from Britain, it is adopting an approach different from America. With a stronger sense of community and a commitment to social partnership, both between member states and within, the European model offers not just an alternative but a threat to the laissez fair orthodoxy of America. For Australia, it is not a case of choosing between the two models - Europe is as much a captive of its history and geography and as we are. Rather we need to take strength and build our own way of running our society - a way that draws on our diversity, optimism, egalitarianism and own tradition of respect for working people. If there is a positive message from the Olympics, its not that Cathy and Thorpie won gold, or that Juan Antonio said we were' the best ever'; it's that we can finally discard the cultural cringe which started with the Anglo-phile cultural set and has evolved into Big Mac munchie individualism. We've shown we can be world's best - now we just need to translate it to something other than sport.
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Interview: Withering On The Vine Cooking shows and 'Bugs fucking to Mozart' may become the staple diet on our ABC as news and current affairs face a war of attrition. Quentin Dempster gives Workers Online an insider's view of our endangered national broadcaster . US Election: Sugar Candy Politics Like in everything else, Americans like their politics sugar coated. A Nation in denial, they are happier maintaining the fantasy that the world is a fine and dandy place says Michael Gadiel. US Election: George W. Bushwhacked by Texas Truth Squad The Texas Truth Squad are a group of Texan union members travelling the US on a crusade to expose the Republican presidential nominee as a corporate rogue who in his time as Governer proved himself as an enemy of the worker. History: Federation and the Labour Movement National celebrations will mark the Centenary of Federation next year. The labour movement's opposition to Federation at the referenda held around the Australian colonies in 1899 will attract less commemoration, although the republicans of 1999 might have benefited from reflection on the causes of working class discontent one hundred years earlier says Stuart Macintyre. International: Unions Mac Their Day McDonald's - the biggest employer of young people around the world - is increasingly becoming the target of union recognition campaigns, backed by human rights groups concerned about the fast food chains practices in countries such as Indonesia, China, Russia, Canada and Germany. Satire: Wiranto�s charity album inspires genocidal maniacs everywhere Indonesia�s favourite former strongman, General Wiranto, has recently decided to record an album of love songs. Entitled To You My Indonesia, Wiranto�s album has already sold 8,000 copies and is raising money for refugees. Review: What About the Workers? A big, gruff bloke in a blue singlet, on strike or just not working, and generally being difficult. That's the trade unionist for you. Barry Cohen's new book What About the Workers? shows this image may have a bit of truth about it, but he would be telling a few good yarns while he was standing about.
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