Election Countdown

So the polls open in Australia in just a few hours. I voted nearly two weeks ago, and the rest of the country is finally catching up! One of my favourite bits of the campaign has been the cartoon strip appearing in Crikey under the title First Dog on the Moon. Today's cartoon is a classic, which is why I posted it here today.

To be honest, I feel kind of nervous about waiting for the result to come through. My overwhelming desire to see the removal of the Howard government means that the rumours of a late swing to the government give me flash backs to the Tampa election. Not that I am a big fan of the Labor party, but personally I would prefer to see them in government in Australia.

A lot of my election coverage has come from reading the Sydney Morning Herald, News Limited and Crikey, so I am not sure if I have an accurate reading of the situation in Australia. But I think the editorial in Crikey this morning summed up what is at stake:

"We see it like this:

A vote to return the Government is a vote for maximum risk. The risk of more-of-the-same policies when policy flourish is badly needed. The risk of a bitter leadership bunfight within a year or less as senior ministers attempt to get even with John Howard for inflicting on them the unnecessary pain of the past few months. The increasing risk of overweening moments from ministers like Abbott, Downer, Ruddock and Minchin (and Howard) on their last laps. And the risk of more hubris-infected decisions as the culture wars are fought to their denouement by an ideologically-driven government heading towards its 14th year under the same tired leadership.

A vote for Labor is a vote for least risk. Economic policy will be cautious, industrial relations policy will be benign, foreign policy will be prudent and social change will be incremental but interesting. This will be a pragmatic government setting out to establish the platform for 14 years in power, not the other way round. The biggest risk in electing a Rudd government is that they don't unveil some flair and foresight."

Happy voting! And don't forget to vote Green in the Senate!

Latest election video

Following the election results from over here is pretty easy with lots of online coverage, and in searching for who is offering what, I just came across this video on the News website in Australia. It seems on election night, the programmers at Channel 10 decided to exhibit a sense of humour, and rather than screen the election, they are making their prediction by showing The Empire Strikes Back...

Election day is upon us

The phony election campaign in Australia started 12 months ago. The official election campaign started nearly six weeks ago. And it almost finally over. No more predictions, just reflecting on the results.

I feel a bit torn. Part of me has missed following the campaign, the ebb and flow of the politics, the intrigue and the mediocrity. That said, I certainly have not missed the political party ads on TV. I have been exposed to quite a few of them just on websites such as the Sydney Morning Herald. The ones being run by the Liberal Party in the last 24 hours are really appalling - hence my joy at missing the rest. (That said, I just surfed on to the SMH site, and the ads running now are from the Labor Party and just as bad...)

But for some brevity, I thought I would post this video of Bob Brown, leader of the Greens, being interviewed by Rove McManus. I don't think it needs any introduction...

I love my bike

You can't live in Amsterdam without your bike. OK, that might be a bit of exaggeration, since the public transport really is pretty good, but having a bike is what this city is all about. It is the pathway to liberation - no waiting for trams, you can stay out late at night without having to worry about getting an expensive taxi home (and the taxis here are really expensive) , and nothing beats riding through town when the weather is nice just taking in this city.

But what inspored this nostlagic little reflection? My amazing new Dutch fact for the day - one in 20 bikes - a total of 760,000 - were stolen in the Netherlands last year, says national statistics office CBS. In the cities the theft rate was double that. Interestingly, only 30% of bike owners reported the theft to the police. I think that is because with so many bikes stolen, you have fat chance of ever seeing yours returned (and aside from the fact that many of them look the same...) The other factoid in this story was that young people are most likely to have their bikes stolen. Got any theories on that one? Young people are more careless? Young people hang out in dodgier parts of town? Young people get drunk more often and just forget where they left their bikes, and instead assume they were stolen? You may laugh, but I have personally witnessed an example of each of these theories!

Anyway, am off to the pool to have a swim, so will leave with today's photo - a shot taken in the Olympic stadium at the end of the marathon. Only 100m to go... (and not a moment too soon!)

On the run...

Right now I am trying to escape the office to head in to town for dinner with some friends at Green Planet, a marvellous little organic vegetarian restaurant in the heart of Amsterdam. It is tiny, so you need to ring to book, and it was one of those moments last night when I rang and a friendly Australian voice answered the phone - you can recognise that accent anywhere!

Anyway, today's photo is from the recent Amsterdam Marathon. In a strange kind of way, this was my first marathon. I have run a marathon six times before, but each time has been in the Ironman after swimming 3.8km and cycling 180km, so this was definitely a new experience to start the marathon not already tired...

Overall, it did not quite go to plan, but I still finished with a new personal best time of 3:04:29. The course is beautiful in Amsterdam, very scenic, and with the start and finish in the 1928 Olympic Stadium. There were great crowds along much of the course which also made it a fun atmosphere. As you can see from the photo, I decided to wear one of my Australian team jerseys for the event. This was entirely functional - I wanted a jersey with pockets to carry my energy gels needed in the race, but the unexpected bonus was that I got lots of extra cheers along the course from random Aussie spectators, and Dutch people who just like Australians!

That said, the last 15km or so was pretty tough. It always is in a marathon, but I probably started a bit fast, and also managed to strain my hamstring during the race. am still having some treatment for that three weeks later, and have not really been able to start running again, which is a bit of a drag...

But it was fun, great to finish, and I am very happy to have finally done this great race in my "home"town. Back to the training track soon...

Meanwhile, back in the Netherlands...

You may be surprised to hear, but I was not washed away by the 10 metre high waves that battered the Netherlands last week. Nor have I been abducted by aliens. In fact, there are no really good excuses for the neglect of my blog. The fact that my computer utterly died did not help, and the fact that I have got a bit addicted to Facebook in the meantime (yes, me and half the planet it seems - I am definitely not an early adopter!!) have both contributed, but it has more to do with that thing - once you drop a habit, it is hard to get started again.

Anyway, I am going to ease my way back in to it today with a couple of short news items from the Netherlands.

The first is that I have discovered a new sport. Korfbal is a ball game similar to netball in which men and women play alongside each other - a team consists of four men and four women. Korfbal was invented by Dutch schoolteacher Nico Broekhuysen, who adapted a game he saw
in Sweden in 1902 - replacing the hoop with a basket (korf).

Anyway, the Netherlands took the world korfbal title for the seventh time on Saturday, beating Belgium in the final 23-10. The competition is held every four years. Of the eight world korfbal title fights to date, the Netherlands and Belgium have met in every final. Belgium won once, in 1991.

The second is courtesy of Dutch News, which reports that "the latest issue of weekly magazine
HP/DeTijd explores what it identifies as a shift to the right among gay men in the Netherlands.
Homosexuals, apparently, have had enough of the too tolerant left not doing enough to combat gay-bashing by immigrant youth. Research this summer shows that gay men are far more likely to vote for the free-market Liberals VVD [who are also outspoken on immigration issues SR] - 21.5% as opposed to 15% in the population at large. And support for left-of-centre parties as a whole has fallen among the gay population from 65% in 1998 to 41% this year."

The report does not carry sample size or other such information to really be able to analyse this story in any depth, but it is an interesting insight in to a broader social debate and attitude in the Netherlands right now. Actually, this is not a debate confined to the Netherlands, and it is not really a new phenomenon - fear of different people, or foreigners, has a much longer history. I think for me it is always just a surprise here in the Netherlands. It certainly challenges that international stereotype of a tolerant society. But that is another whole posting...