It all happened last week - in a flash.
To my American audience, let me frame this for you: the president is getting a lot of bad press and lots of people tell him to step down. He decides he's had enough and calls a special meeting at which time the political party he belongs to says "yeah - we want you out" and basically throw him out in favor of somebody else. Well.. .it's a BIT more complicated than that, but you get the drift.
In the morning Julia Gillard was Prime Minister. That night she was "ousted" (she called one of "those meetings") and the next morning Kevin Rudd was sworn in.
Wild, eh?
Part of what makes this interesting is that just a couple of years ago it was Kevin who was ousted in favor of Julia. Done exactly the same way and with exactly that speed.
Lordy.
I hate this and love it all at the same time. I liked Julia - OK, maybe I'm in the minority, but I really liked her. Can't say I liked the way she came to power initially (ousting Kevin), but I think she's actually been pretty good. And I hate the turn of events that has brought her down (and will always believe most of it was her gender - she was the first female PM here).
But... I love the fact that Australians are able to make a change like this happen without having months and months of impeachment hearings, tying up the representatives forever and so on. It was ugly, but it's over. Done and dusted.
And, if you can find it online (it's available at the moment), go listen to Julia's speech, acknowledging her defeat. It's one of the best, most moving political speeches I've ever heard. Made me damned proud of her.
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And here's a bit you probably haven't heard of.
McDonalds has come here to the hills where I live and gotten a piece of land, planning to build a restaurant. The locals here are upset. Most of us seem to be opposed to having a "Maccas" here. It really doesn't fit in well with the surrounds. This is an area of tiny family-owned businesses (mostly) - which are open for certain hours of the day and then close down. Drive down the main drag thru the villages here late at night and everything is closed. I like that. It seems to me to be civilised, nice.
A 24/7 Maccas just doesn't fit. It just doesn't.
Over the last several months there've been many protests and legal challenges to allowing a Maccas here. Even the local council ruled against the commercial giant, but was overturned by a "higher power" known as "VCAT" (I won't try to explain this now... too complicated... ).
Y'day I drove past the site where the Maccas will be. There are buildings already there which will be torn down - and many members of the community were there protesting again, as they have many times over these past months.
It's futile. Maccas will win.
And it's sad. We really don't need Maccas here - it will be a blight on the community.
I wish the higher-ups at Maccas had a soul. I wish they understood, and wish that for once they'd just gracefully disappear. They could have. That multi-gazillion dollar corporation would surely survive without establishing a foothold in Tecoma, where they are sooooo not wanted.
But no - the buildings are being demolished - the restaurant will be built. The locals will continue to protest and over time will finally give up in the face of massive global commercialization.
It's heart-breaking.
The full story is here, on the "BurgerOff" website (and don't you just love the name of the website?)
And I'll make this statement. I like McDonalds. I really do. I don't eat there a lot, but once every few months I really want a Big Mac or just a cheeseburger and fries. And I indulge. I will continue to - but it won't be at THIS store. No. I'm way to damned pissed off.
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