John Linton
....and Christmas appears to have come very early based on this through rose tinted glasses article I read earlier today:
http://www.arnnet.com.au/article/318728/small_isps_benefit_under_new_telco_reforms?fp=16&fpid=1
I have great respect for the editor of the New York Times in 1897 who wrote the beautiful "Dear Virginia" editorial which still brings a tear to my eye each time I read it and wonder at the skill and sagacity of people who can write so compellingly. So I beg your forgiveness Mr Church for treating your words so unkindly but the cited article brought them immediately to mind - so with the sincerest apologies for this crude bowdlerisation:
Dear Editor,
I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no
chance of the physical separation of Telstra and therefore there will never be
competition and reasonable pricing in the Australian communications industry. "Papa
says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so. Please tell me the truth; is there ever going to be competition in telecommunications
in Australia?
Virginia Thodey.
21 The Edifice, Castle In The Air, NSW 9999"
Church's Reply:
Dear Virginia
Your little friends are wrong. They
have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe
except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not
comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be those
of Labor politicians or Telstra drones, are little. In this great universe of ours
Krudd is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the realities of telecommunications in Australia, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping
the simple process of deregulating telecommunications in Australia.
Yes, VIRGINIA, there is some outside chance of competition in the Australian
communications industry. It exists as certainly as venality, sloth, greed and monopolies exist. It exists as certainly as
Krudd's broken promises and Stephen Conroy's total stupidity andyou know how boundlessly they abound and give to your life its highest degree
of wasting money that corrupt politicians and imported Mexican carpet baggers
can rip you off for. Alas! how wonderful would be the world if there were no
such despicable people. It would be as bright as if there were no Conroys no screeching Gillards or Sell Out Garretts. There
would be no childlike tantrums on TV, no dreary political parliamentary rantings,
no phantasmagorical lies to make a mockery of this dreadful Australian
existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in the minor cost savings that
are capable of being dribbled out to us by the tiniest of communications
companies like Exetel. The eternal flood light with which venal spin spivs
fills the world would be extinguished.
Not believe in a freely competitive Australian communications market! You might
as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the Telstra meeting rooms all over the country for a
whole year to catch Telstra plotting a new anti-competitive action, but even if
they did not see one instance of illegality, what would that prove? Nobody sees Telstra's plotting, but that is no sign that there is none.
The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not,
but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or
imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.
You may tear apart the baby's rattle
and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen
world which not the strongest man,
nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart that would prevent any monopoly
exercising the powers that only monopolies have to rip the most money possible
out of end users for the provision of their services. Only patience, forbearance,
poetry, love, romance, can push aside that
curtain and the certain knowledge that eventually the Australian courts will be
presented with actual proof can give some hope of a free communications market
in Australia.
Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all
this world there is nothing else real and abiding.
No Free Australian Communications Market! Thank God! It lives in all but
Telstra's hopes and dreams, and it will live beyond the current posturing of
Stupid Stephen and Crafty Kevin's attempts to hide their previous lies. Forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten
thousand years from now, we will eventually see some vestiges of competition in
the supply of Australian communications services continue to make glad the
heart of Australian end users.