Adelaide, Freaky Death Capital

In the news:

A SOUTH AUSTRALIAN teenager impaled on the front gate of Adelaide Zoo may have been left for dead by a friend, police said today.
The 18-year-old's bloody body was discovered by police on Frome Road outside the zoo's main entrance about 6.50am (CST) yesterday.

It's believed the young man, from the nearby suburb of Medindie, was climbing over the gate and fell on the metal spikes at the top. The spikes speared his groin and ruptured an artery.

Police are investigating if he was involved in breaking into an ice-cream vending machine at the zoo and was trying to escape with another person.
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"We have reports that there may have been a second person involved in the incident," said Senior Constable Colin Haigh.

Police are also investigating whether the same person left the man to die at the scene.

"That's being investigated and police are now preparing a report for the coroner," he said.

It was revealed that police gave directions to the teenager around the same location about six hours earlier.

Adelaide Zoo and surrounding streets was closed for an hour yesterday as police and forensics gathered evidence from the scene.

The zoo's director Mark Craig said the metal front gates were not designed for security and were a heritage icon.

He said the gates had been there for 122 years and the accident was the first of its type in the zoo's history.

Zoo staff and volunteers have been offered private counselling.

I go past there almost every day on the bus.

:S

Somehow It's Just Good To Be Australian

Captured?

Don't worry, our country rocks. If we can't get you out, we'll whinge. Infact, we make all of the other countries look like they are run by unthinking reactionary clods.

Hmm, perhaps that's not as far from the truth as it seems.

Economic Downturn & Defectors

Uh. Oh.
This bloke is going to make waves. Politically dissedent, Chinese consul officer Chen Yonglin. He's applied for political asylum (rejected) and is waiting on word about a protection visa. He's being hunted, in Australia, by Chinese intelligence agents.

Chen alleges that China's intelligence forces are operating in Australia and kidnapping people. He's been helping people bring democracy to China - not so smooth of a move. He's saying a lot of things, and he's a defector, trying to escape persecution of his native land.

Why we're in a bind. If we stick up for him and grant him a protection visa, and take him under our wings, we risk relations with China. China is a massive economic power, and a trade partner. Think of the issues of the Oil Crisis. People already feel the bite of prices in excess of $1.00 a litre - from personal commuters to transport companies. That price is not going to go down. Ever.
China is a massive economy. They'll soak up massive amounts of oil from the market place, pushing the costs for us even higher. China is a good customer to the oil producers of the world. If we can't get a hold of oil, because China is pissed at us for fucking with them, we're going to be starved out.

Look at the housing market. A friend of mine and his brother just invested $380,000 in a first home. What? That's insane! Yeah, but it's the norm. Prices need to crash. Badly. They will, we're stabler than we used to be, but if you're handing out a chunk of chump change that big, plus paying exhorbitant prices for oil, food, and services and products that rely on oil (uh, all of them), what's going to happen? You have to work longer. You save less. You die a pennyless old git. You have a maxed out credit card and can't get ahead. You're utterly fucked.
That's more or less what my ex girlfriend is: she can't keep hold of her money and she is burned, badly, for it. It's not her fault, she's just lacking in sense/cents. If she can't survive, an otherwise normal average joe, how well does that bode for the rest of us?

On the other hand, there are many worse off in the world than we lucky few. We can't turn them away, or detain them, as we have been doing. It makes you feel wrong in the pit of your stomach, if nothing else. If we do not grant this fellow protection and save him from probable execution, we, as a nation, should feel shamed.
Hell, if we can be so bent out of shape about Schapelle Corby getting life for being in possesion of vast amounts of weed, surely we can get bent out of shape about governments murdering people who seek aslyum here.
Can't we?