Skyscrapers-Eureka Tower

The Eureka Tower, which looks like a giant thermometer, opened in Melbourne's Southbank area late in 2006. It is 300 metres tall, which makes it the tallest skyscraper (to the roof) in the Southern Hemisphere and the second tallest residential building in the world, after Q1 on the Gold Coast.

The Eureka tower has 91 stories, and an obeservation deck on the 88th floor, 282 metres up -about 100 metres higher than that on the SkyTower. It cost A$500,000,000 to build, and was built by the company Grocon, who were also planning to build the now extinct Grollo Tower, in Melbourne's Docklands area. Floors 11-80 are occupied by multiple apartments, with floors 81-87 occupied by just one apartment each.

An interesting fact about the tower is that it is named after the Eureka Rebellion, which occured during the gold rush in Victoria in 1854. It's gold-coloured crown represents the Gold Rush, and a red stripe at the top represents the rebellion.

Doctors' Strike... Again!

When will these strikes end? There have been more in 1 year alone than I can count. The most recent example is the Junior Doctors' Strike, taking place this week.

I'm not a unionist, but for this time I have to ask: who can blame them? The New Zealand public hospital system is in a wreck -there's no flexibility, work hours are very long, and wages are low compared to other countries. If you're a top doctor in this country, you either enter the private sector, as Wellington's top heart surgeon did last year, or you go overseas, usually across the ditch to Australia or further abroad, to the United States.

And it's this reality that sees NZ health services fall increasingly behind every year. Constantly, more and more money goes into these services, and constantly, the same results. The same socialist shoddy planning and negative results.

With a health system like ours, it's no wonder why so many people are off to Australia. At least people there have the good sense to go to the private health service for most things.

Oh yes, and Australians are paying their arms and feet for their private health care!

Kevin Says "Sorry"

So, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd did what John Howard couldn't today and, on behalf of the Australian Parliament, officially said "sorry to the "stolen generation" of Aborigines.

I'm not an advocate of collective "sorries" whether the person saying it committed the atrocity or not. But this one is an exception; Rudd is apologizing on behalf of the state, not the people as a whole.

And indeed, there was many instances of injustice and force used against Aborigines during the 20th Century. These acts, though, weren't committed by Australians at large, they were committed by the government, the leaders of whom should have been brought before the court. The only thing with an apology of any sort is that it won't actually do anything to change people's current situations. That can only be done by abolishing racist legislation and anything to do with race in a government, and by sheer personal effort.

Rudd's Victory a Step Back for Oz

Rudd's victory in Australia-purely on the grounds of appealing to the lowest common denominator-is a step back for Australia, one of the better countries in this irrational and inconsistent world. At SOLO, Hilton Holder, the Australian co-coordinator, discussed the results and what they mean for Australia.

And it ain't good.

Aussie Election '08

The Australian election is upon us, and in a matter of hours the final results will be in.

John Howard has been in for a good four terms, and if he gets in for another he will be tied for the title of longest running Australian PM. Meanwhile Kevin Rudd, who is expected to win, has only been in with Labor for 12 months. He is campaigning on the premise that he and his Labor party are new faces in Australian politics, which don't change a lot. John Howard isn't campaigning for any changes, as Australians have never been richer and, to the annoyance of our government, about 40,000 Kiwis moved there last year.

Kevin Rudd is a new face, and plans to make changes, despite what his campaign suggests. However, Australia is doing fantastically at the moment, and John Howard is more capitalist (although Rudd is probably more socially liberal). So I'm supporting Howard, but he's hardly incredible.

Osama "Funny", According to Some Pranksters

We all know this security in Sydney is all a bit ridiculous, especially with snipers(!) hidden away in some Sydney locations.

Naturally, a prank had to happen some time or another, eventually. So some Aussie comedians-one dressed up as Osama bin Laden-decided to try and breach security at the event, by sneaking in in a fake Canadian motorcade. They were busted when one of the pranksters jumped out and started running. All the pranksters involved are now eligible for jail time.

With the snipers at the event from obviously far-off locations where detail can't be seen too well, it's a surprise to find out they weren't literally shot on the spot.

Although it's obvious what the intentions of the pranksters are, perhaps they should think about their little Osama bin Laden disguise. He is a man who wants every single person who isn't a Muslim dead. He killed 3,000 people on September 11th, and changed the world for the worse. It is disgusting, and the Australian people shouldn't be pleased at all. Although free speech comes before the morality of a man's clothes, perhaps he should stop to think about whether is little prank is ethical, moral, or even funny at all.

Sydney's Berlinesque Security

To many people, normal residents and visitors to Sydney, one of the world's great cities, all the security around the APEC meeting would seem like too much, in what is usually a peaceful city. Much of Sydney's northern CBD, plus the Opera House, are off-limits. Why the fuss?

To be honest, I can't really blame the Australian authorities for having such tight security measures-to ward off a bunch of brainless protesters. But if riots did happen to break out across the ditch, it wouldn't be the first time such riots have happened. I'm sure we all know of the great nuisance caused to the WTO personnel during their visit in Seattle, in late 1999. And with all the stupid hype about these meetings caused by the Left, the Sydney authorities do have something to fear. After all, they want to make their city look good for these meetings. Most people would.

One Lefty group says "the only people talking about violence are the authorities". Even if that is true, the Left is very well known for breaking into riots within a few minutes! France, anyone?

Dingo's got our Hone-I wish!

Sorry I haven't been able to post in the last week, as I've been sick (winter, sigh).

I applaud Margaret Wilson on forcing Hone Harawira to pay back the money he was supposed to use for parliamentary service. But the truth remains that he didn't pay enough. He should be forced to pay back everything. It's true that these taxpayer-funded trips abroad for our MPs are meant to be in the name of service, but politicians are already paid $100,000 in their salary-way too much for the actual work they do. Surely, we shouldn't have to pay for holidays on top of that, even well after MPs have retired-we are still paying for Jim Bolger's holidays!

And why should Hone Harawira be overseas? He is embarrassing enough here in NZ.

If only he was eaten by a dingo.

Does Anyone Really Care About Not Ridiculing Parliament?

Once again, the MP's of New Zealand have gotten their knickers in a twist over the new bill banning media from denigrating members of parliament. Question for them: does anybody care?

Australia has had the same bill in place in their delightfully ugly looking senate for over a decade now. As usual, members of the media still denigrate and ridicule parliament members over their frequently stupid behaviour. Only occasionally does the media get prosecuted-after all, it's a useless law, not exactly like murdering or raping someone.

But more importantly, the bill is a disruption to our right to free speech, and our right to know what parliament is doing (or not doing). Freedom of unrestricted media access in parliament is vital for a free and peaceful society. The new law is only going to degrade freedom in NZ, and the outlook of the world about New Zealand.

Globalisation, Islam, and the Skyscraper

Up until only about 20 years ago, the only places in the world where you might see a proper skyscraper were America, parts of Europe and Australia. The Asian tiger economies-Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong had managed to firmly put skyscrapers on Asian ground. But now, with the accelerating pace of Globalisation, we are starting to see the affects of skyscrapers on the worlds second largest religion-Islam.

Anyone who has been reading this blog from the start will be familiar with the construction boom in Dubai. Dubai has been reaping fantastic profits from selling oil around the world. But until very recently, it was a rarity indeed to see a skyscraper anywhere in the Middle East. Combine the Middle Easts skyscraper boom with that of ever-greater China, and the speed-up construction of tall buildings in traditional centres-Chicago, New York, and more recently, London-and, you will see that the world is just at the start of a new skyscraper boom, which has the ability to overshadow that of any past construction boom.

Let me introduce me to the Abraj Al-Bait, a 485 (take a bit of time to process that number) in Mecca. Yes, Mecca:

That's only one of the supertall (400m+) towers going up in the world today. There are huge towers planned for traditional cities, like New York, where the 517 metre Freedom Tower is eventually going to go up, and Chicago, where the 600 metre Chicago Spire is going up.

Yet you will also see towers going up in totally bizarre places. There is a 500m+ tower going up in Moscow at the moment, called the Federation Tower. Istanbul is building plenty. London is starting its skyscraper boom. Jakarta is getting new supertalls, as are several cities across Asia.

Soon, we could be living in a world where supertalls are a norm in many cities. The record for new world's tallest building could be changed in a matter of months for years on end. Even Australia is considering a 1000 metre tall "Solar Tower".

So what does this mean for the world? And for the religion of Islam?

Many Arabic countries have grown incredibly rich thanks to oil. But traditionally, these nations have been hostile to the rest of the world, and very closed and secretive. But what this means is that Arabic countries-like the UAE-are opening up to a world of globalisation. A world where everyone has a choice of where to go in the world. The Sultan of the UAE has certainly made it no secret that he wants the UAE to be a world center for tourism, commerce, industry, and almost everything, it may seem.

For the rest of the world, it means that people are no longer afraid to continually keep pushing the boundries of our buildings. Cost is, seemingly, a barrier no more. People are no longer afraid to be creative. Most importantly, it means that, in this new century, we will once again be an entrepreneural world. The only difference being that the word "world" actually applies to the entire world.

Lightning Storm in Sydney

Proof that God does not like Australians.