A man wanted in connection with [G20] violence was arrested in Sydney last night by APEC Investigation Squad detectives. Akin Sari, 29, is the subject of two outstanding warrants after failing to appear in Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on 16 charges, including riot and affray, unlawful assembly, reckless conduct, criminal damage and theft. The Melbourne court has previously heard allegations Sari violently attacked and smashed the windows of a police brawler van outside the G20 venue. Mr Scipione said Sari had been on the police exclusion list and his arrest was “significant”. “This serves as a warning to anyone on that list, we are serious about your inclusion on that list because at the end of the day you are on there because we anticipate you will cause trouble,” Mr Scipione said.
Anti-APEC protests in Sydney today were largely peaceful, but Prime Minister John Howard late today scolded protesters for failing to see the positive social and economical benefits of APEC. In his closing address to the APEC business summit, Mr Howard said: “I’ve said on many occasions over the last week, that those who demonstrate at a gathering such as APEC, in the name of relieving world poverty, just pause for a moment and understand the contribution that economic growth makes to the relief of world poverty.”
Earlier, a man had been charged with assaulting police by squirting tomato sauce, about 200 demonstrators were yelled at by police when they surrounded cars near Hyde Park and members of The Chaser TV comedy team were detained but quickly released after another APEC stunt. The protester arrest followed a clash between supporters of US President George W Bush and No-To-APEC demonstrators in Hyde Park. About a dozen members of Aussies 4 ANZUS walked their pro-Bush banner through 500 protesters at the No-to-APEC rally, where they were quickly met by jeers and flying tomato sauce. Police swarmed and riot squad officers arrested a man who witnesses said had squirted tomato sauce at the pro-Bush banner. The 37-year-old Queensland man was later charged with assaulting police, who were allegedly squirted with the sauce.
Later, there were minor scuffles when a protest involving around 50 bare-bottomed activists spilled onto Sydney streets, stalling an APEC motorcade…
The Australian Legend looked at nationalism and the Australian character and sought to trace the development of what Ward called the “national mystique”. Dictionaries define “character” as the traits and qualities that distinguish individual nature and “identity” as the state of having unique identifying characteristics. The “national character” and the “national identity”, then, are much the same thing.
Ward wrote that national character was a people’s idea of itself. Although this was often romanticised or exaggerated, it connected with reality in that it sprang from people’s experiences and coloured their ideas of how they ought to behave. According to the myth, Ward said, the “typical Australian” was “a practical man, rough and ready in his manners and quick to decry any appearance of affectation in others. He is a great improviser, ever willing ‘to have a go’ at anything, but … content with a task done in a way that is ‘near enough’. Though capable of great exertion in an emergency, he normally feels no impulse to work hard without good cause. He swears hard and consistently, gambles heavily and often, and drinks deeply on occasion …
“He is a ‘hard case’, sceptical about the value of religion and of intellectual and cultural pursuits generally. He believes that Jack is not only as good as his master but … probably a good deal better … He is a fiercely independent person who hates officiousness and authority … Yet he is very hospitable and … will stick to his mates through thick and thin, even if he thinks they may be in the wrong.”
