Australians Greens turning Red (rather yellow)!

Australian Greens prove to be a BIG joke. Not a single serious word, against the proposed new U mine in South Australia. Moreover Peter Garret champions it (he sang passionate songs against N Energy in the past)! It's economy. economy of 1st world.. When that comes Greens of 1st world will shut their mouth conveniently. I've been told bfore 10yrs :) That is coming true.

I posted the above comment (similar one) on twitter few minutes ago. I was browsing "The Australian". Got this amazing poll result. Australia wants to go nuclear! Just couple of months back, I remember a similar poll. The Australians were dead against Nuclear reactors. My supervisor is a Green. May be an year ago I told him that the opposition of Greens to Nuclear power is just bad/baseless/opportunistic. He was defending Green position with an impregnated silence. That was the mood of Australia. Now all on a sudden, Australia wants to go Nuclear! What a joke!



Its not just joke. Its the trait, that disturbs me. These people/culture/countries can change color at the glimmer of a time. All what they preach (whether it is democracy, economy, ecology, international relations) is valid for the period that "benefit" them. After that they can change color at any time - just like in Hollywood movies.

I never saw that kind of attitude in the East.

Since they cannot change color like that, they can easily be fooled. Hope Indian Greens ("the Third World Greens.. haha") will not be fooled to be instruments in the hands of "Developed World Greens" who could really use them for their benefit. Is there a consistent policy about Nuclear Energy for Greens though out the world.. I mean through out different countries in the world? I'm pretty sure there wont be. That's handy, isn't it!

Parking at ANU and Canberra Times!

Canberra Times published an article regarding Fellows Oval at ANU and the parking issue titled ANU denials on paving paradise to put up a parking lot on 14th Nov 08. (read the article here: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/general/anu-denials-on-paving-paradise-to-put-up-a-parking-lot/1360560.aspx)

I wrote a reply. But it was NOT published! I dont know, what's wrong with these Australian Newspapers. They dont seem to accommodate any difference of opinions. Its a shame. Here you can read the reply.

----------------

ANU Parking

I am a research student at ANU. Parking in ANU is a pressing need for me and many others like me. ANU authorities have the right and duty to make sure that the staff and students get adequate parking space, so that they can pursue their academic activities with ease.

The response of the ANU staff and students as described by the article - "ANU denials on paving paradise to put up a parking lot" on 14th November is not completely true. In general, people love to save the Fellows Oval but not at the cost of acute parking shortage in the campus which is going to escalate due to the proposed construction work. As the article observes, the issue of parking came to limelight when "the opponents of the proposal" started circulating mass-emails over the last week. But when students including me send mass-emails seeking opinion about the other viable alternatives to spare Fellow's Oval, it was greeted with threats to suppress the emails by the moderators of IT department, which they allowed to "the opponents" at the very first place. And interestingly there were peaceful civil disobedience from even the staff members by hitting "reply all" button to express their concern for adequate parking in ANU.

The bottom line is ANU should be able to provide adequate parking service to its students and staff. Being a research oriented university, most of the ANU students are involved in research works whose timing cannot be restricted to office hours. That makes them and the staff members who guide them to resort to odd timings which are not supported by (infrequent and insufficient) public transport system in ACT. Moreover, Canberra is spread too much along different suburbs that ANU is not always accessible by bike or foot, unless someone is exceptionally athletic in most cases. Personally, I did my Masters in Melbourne and rode my bike to University and never own a car. I tried public transport in Canberra for first 3 months and it was horrible. Canberra has to increase its population and population density (instead of spreading too much), if it has got any good chance of providing a decent public transport system. And that is going to be a long term objective.

Till then, ANU should provide adequate parking space for its students and staff with reasonable parking fees (as we got now) to all those who want this service to keep ANU a destination for quality researchers from all around the world. If that could be achieved without Fellows Oval, we all welcome that move. But Fellows Oval should not be a hindrance to make this service available to its staff and students. The ecological cost of Fellows Oval could be off-setted by creative means like planting trees in even purchased new land.