Posts by Joe Wylie

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  • Hard News: Modern Endeavour,

    Thank you Simon, most informative, much appreciated.

    From my limited experience of occasional visits over the past 30 years, the average Indonesian - including schoolchildren - is vastly better informed about Australia than the average Australian is about their closest neighbour.
    Appreciate your point about a community-based welfare structure - while things have no doubt moved on, I'd suggest that much of what might appear to Western eyes as low-level corruption is often simply people looking out for one another. It's a part of the world that it's hard to remain unaffected by once you've experienced the warmth and generosity of the people. They deserved better than to be saddled with the often parasitic police force that once passed for a military.

    Thanks again for a most encouraging post.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report

  • Hard News: Modern Endeavour,

    The labour laws in this part of the world are as tough as most found in western countries, and probably tougher than the US..

    That certainly looks very nice - but it seems a hell of a stretch that these laws can be effectively enforced in a huge country with no real welfare base.

    Seriously, while the Suharto/Golkar kleptocracy may have shrivelled into the People's Conscience Party (IMHE Indonesians do have a nice sense of irony), it's hard to accept that the Indonesian military - and their proxies - have entirely abandoned their old habits of intimidating factory workers.

    I'm genuinely interested to know whether there's been a real change, but not so long ago it would have been a solid bet that the laid-off employee entitled to a year's salary would have needed a high-placed contact in the police or miltary in order to enforce their claim. Then there'd be the matter of how much would be creamed off for services rendered.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report

  • Stories: Overseas Experience,

    If it helps, I had previously been having loads of sex with a Scottish bird.

    She must have been grouse.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report

  • Yellow Peril: Asian Angst: is it time to…,

    Among the limited range of reading matter at my local Chinese takeaway there's an ancient Metro with a shamelessly adulatory cover story (except the cover happens to be missing) by Warwick Roger, touting Coddington as a future ACT leader.

    In time it may well be joined by an equally tatty issue of North & South.
    That's how these things seem to work.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report

  • Random Play: Music to my ears,

    The PDC in Palmy . . .

    Not meaning to overly digress, but it seems likely that you'd also recall Father Christmas's Magic Cave, in Collinson & Cunninghame's basement.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report

  • Random Play: Music to my ears,

    I bought it on release, but I was very very young y'know

    You must have been helluva young.

    I'd just turned 29 when Never Mind the Bollocks came out.
    Brought it home, put on side two, track one, Seventeen:

    you're only 29 got a lot to learn . . .

    I'll be 59 in a couple of months.
    Still got a lot to learn, still a lazy sod.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report

  • Hard News: Actually, I've always been…,

    Selwyn Toogood once flogged Woolrests, back before they were magnetized. Perhaps he'd still be with us if they had been, by hokey.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report

  • Cracker: See More on 3,

    snotty, condescending

    Decadent and depraved has a much better ring to it.

    Don't hold back.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report

  • Hard News: An unexpectedly long post…,

    the way people talk about science shows a lot more about what they don't know than what they do.

    That's a keeper : )

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report

  • Hard News: An unexpectedly long post…,

    If hetracil fails, there's always neuticles:
    http://www.neuticles.com/index1.html

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report

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