OT : Australian intervention in Solomon Islands

[Q]

Now this made the way to the news even here in Europe. And it was mentioned that some people see a danger of Australian "colonialism" in the region.

Again my best wishes to you and the people of the Solomon Islands for a more peaceful future.

[deccan]

Yeah, there are both police and troops. Also, I think my house got buzzed by a very low-flying Ozzie chopper yesterday. That's probably because we have a fairly big compound with lots of cargo containers and heavy equipment and high fencing completely surrounding the perimetre. I think they wanted to make sure that we weren't some kind of militant base. Heh.

[deccan]

Heh. I had a personal run-in with the Ozzie intervention this afternoon (Saturday). Five Australian troops (they were definitely soldiers, not police, were in army fatigues, carrying big assault rifles) pulled up at my front gate in a pickup. Only two of them got out of the car though, and since I was in the yard at the time, they talked to me.

It seems that they've noticed that we had fresh gravel strewn over our compound (because we have heavy machinery moving in and out all the time and they tear up the earth) and were interested in buying some gravel. They said it was for fixing up the potholes in the roads here. So I sent them to our sister company from which we get our gravel.

Still, with our high fencing, and the fact that our front gate is actually a side gate into a rather narrow lane (we keep the real front gate permanently closed for security reasons), the only way they could have known the ground inside our compound is covered with gravel was yesterday's chopper.

So maybe their real reason for visiting was to scope us out on thr ground?

[deccan]

Alexander Downer is in town. I heard that he will be meeting with members of the Ozzie expat community today.

[Baron Grazic]

The Australian press is now having a field day.
I'm not sure if any of their stories are true but we are getting reports such as :-
"A SI resident whose car that was stolen by militants months ago has woken up this morning to find that they returned it. He wishes to thank the Australian troops for scaring the thief into returning his car".

Also there is also a lot of talk about the corruption in the SI police force, with a video showing a number of policy officers beating up a suspect in the jail.

Keep us updated Deccan.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

who's alaxander d-whosit?

[Baron Grazic]

The Honorable Alexander Downer MP. Title: Minister for Foreign Affairs. Party: Liberal Party of Australia

I didn't think many people would know who Alexander Downer was.

I asked the question before who knew the Australian Prime Minister's name, and no-one replied.

[ August 01, 2003, 05:50: Message edited by: Baron Grazic ]

[deccan]

Originally posted by Baron Grazic:
[QB]
I'm not sure if any of their stories are true but we are getting reports such as :-
"A SI resident whose car that was stolen by militants months ago has woken up this morning to find that they returned it. He wishes to thank the Australian troops for scaring the thief into returning his car".
[QB]

That was in the local newspaper as well but it said the source was someone speaking anonymously. I don't personally know anyone who's had that happen. Just yesterday, I had my (Ozzie) lawyer call me up and say, "Hey, I heard someone's trying to return some vehicles to you guys." and I was like "Duh, like I wish."

I do know that certain high-placed people in the civil service are under investigation for corruption. Serves 'em right too.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

i remember hearing about somebody who might be the australlian prime mininster with a first name 'John'.

heh. i have trouble keeping track of the major canadian politician's.

[TerranC]

Originally posted by narf poit chez BOOM:
i remember hearing about somebody who might be the australlian prime mininster with a first name 'John'.

His Last name starts with the letter H.

P.S.: What I just said goes 2 ways...