Today’s talks failed

Associated Press report that the talks setup today to agree on a government of national unity have failed.  From where I sit, they were bound to.  The opposing groups do not like each other.  JRH (Jose Ramos-Horta) has given it until Wednesday to come up with something but says a decision will be made by the end of the month no matter what.

As Charlie Brown would say, “Good grief”.  Personally, I feel another election coming on because any other option seems bound to severely cheese off one of the opposing political groupings.

Tonight, there were security warnings but very little action … so far.  So why would there suddenly be a big increase in security incidents ?  Wouldn’t be related to the attempts to form an agreement over a new government ?  Nothing like this level of activity for 3 or 4 months.

These days, the international security forces are pretty well drilled in how to handle the gang-related violence and more importantly, how to contain it so that life goes on for the vast majority.  Setup a roadblock with an armoured personnel carrier and a couple of UN police vehicles with lots of flashing lights and send a group of heavily armed, night-vision goggles wearing troops to assert a visible presence and “Bobs your uncle”, she’s contained and not worth writing about.

I am a little perplexed why the OZ ABC have gone extremely quiet in their reporting after being very active in past events.  Don’t you just love politics ?  There’s plenty of fodder here for the likes of the OZ political cartoonists.

Get to it lads … just have a look at the way the OZ cartoon boys tear strips off Little Johnny and TinTin.