Democracy?

This weekend there is a state election in Queensland which if the polls are correct will result in a landslide victory for the Liberal and National Party. Australia has compulsory voting which I've always felt is undemocratic, surely one has a democratic right to choose not to vote, you can of course simply spoil your ballot paper. Anyway, in order to avoid a fine I voted this week, I had to go the Trade and Industry Queensland offices in Santiago. These are a rather grand 11th floor suite of offices where prospective investors are invited, encouraged and no doubt sweet talked into to buying a piece of the Queensland mining boom pie. I live in the electoral constituency of Ashgrove which is actually quite important although probably not in the grand scheme of the overall result. Ashgrove is important because Campbell Newman, the former mayor and as of yet unelected Labour leader and prospective next premier is standing. I don't have a lot of interest in who really wins the election, personally I think the last people who should be entrusted with running a state or country are professional power hungry politicians but can't help thinking it would make things interesting if Labour win the election and their leader doesn't get elected. Besides, I don't really like Campbell Newman, an annoying short bloke with shifty eyes, bit like Ricky Ponting.

Last night I attended a British and Irish Late lunch. These are a group of British and Irish ex-pats who meet on a monthly basis for what I assume are networking purposes. Apparently they normally meet at lunch but for some reason met in the evening for the first time. It was actually a rather pleasant evening, we met in a restaurant and were served some interesting tapas and drank some quite good wine. As is usual with a group of ex-pats you can usually guarantees some pretty good conversation with people who generally have interesting stories and lives to discuss. It turned out that being British or Irish was not actually essential as there seemed to be a few American there as well. I am not actually sure how I got on their mailing list but will probably attend again.

This weekend a few of us in the faculty are planning a hike in the mountains on Sunday so I look forward to reporting on that particular adventure next week.

Have a good weekend
Andrew