Current puzzlement

[lizbee]

I'm presently a bit bemused by the planned Occupy [insert Australian city here] movement.  Judging by the quotes in that link, it appears to have no specific goals beyond standing in solidarity with the American protests, appropriating drawing inspiration from the African and Middle Eastern movements of earlier this year, and generally taking a stand against corporate greed and power.

I'm puzzled because ... well, this is Australia.  We already have public health care, welfare, banking regulation and a mostly-functional tax system.  All of those things have vast room for improvement, but it seems to me that vague and open-ended protests are not the way to lobby for those improvements. 

Now, I'm not one to protest myself (it involves a great deal of standing and walking, and also being in a crowd, none of which are things I enjoy or am good at), so my two cents is pretty much worthless, and maybe I'm just too cynical.  But honestly, I'd rather be picketing SERCO over their treatment of refugees in detention, or better, the Immigration Department, which is rejecting refugee applications through error or malice.  (I transcribe a lot of immigration hearings.  I can't say this news came as a shock.) 

Anyway, that's just my vague puzzlement of the moment.  In other news, I'm increasingly fascinated by Sophia Mirabella.  It's not that Australia needed its own Sarah Palin, but we seem to have acquired one.

ETA: Tumblr put it better than I could.