Antony Loewenstein was all too right when he estimated earlier in the week that the originally scheduled lecture hall would be far too small for Robert Fisk.
Every seat in the house was taken within 5 minutes of the doors opening and security had to shoo a few step-sitters out. Fortunately, Mac U was able to videolink the lecture to several other venues on campus.
Fisk gave a blazing oration at the Macquarie Theatre tonight.
Fisk shredded the myth of the eternal ‘War on Terror’ from top to bottom, commenting that Shrubya wasn’t really bright enough to pull off the war on Iraq. He also produced a videotape of Israeli forces shelling a refugee camp while an Israeli helicopter and an unmanned aerial vehicle provided target spotting, both of which the Israelis denied were in the area when the camp was shelled. Another Fisk video showed ethnic cleansing in action in Serbia, with Muslims being put on trains with an hour’s notice and a mosque destroyed by explosives.
The 1000 strong audience showed their appreciation with a standing ovation. Fisk took several questions, including one from Keysar Trad of the Islamic Friendship Association before autographing a few hundred of copies of his new book, The Great War of Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East.
A who’s who of the lefty blogosphere was in attendance. Suki, Polywise, Darp and Gail were on hand, along with organiser Antony Lowenstein and Jon Fox of 12th Harmonic and Fourth Estate Radio who was busied with sound engineering and recording for the upcoming podcast.
The podcast will be on Fourth Estate Radio as soon as Jon can run a little processing on it. The audio in the hall was less than ideal and will need a little polishing up. Check over there for webcast and chatroom times.
-weez
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[…] The Fisk Lecture will be Webcast After Fourth Estate Radio! Sunday 5pm Sydney Australia/1am Eastern U.S. Chatroom will be available for the lecture webcast. What a great night. Felt more like a rock concert atmpsphere! Read about the packed hall, and the overflow theatres bursting at the seams at MGK. Weez got some great shots. […]
Pingback by Fourth Estate Radio » Blog Archive » Interview : Robert Fisk 03.11.06 @ 1:17 am[…] What a great night. Felt more like a rock concert atmpsphere! Read about the packed hall, and the overflow theatres bursting at the seams at MGK. Weez got some great shots. After the Lecture and the book signing. Antony Loewenstein secured a few minutes with Robert Fisk back at the hotel. And I was there to capture it! Antony spent time with Robert in Lebanon whilst researching his up coming book on Isreal/Palestine. Catch the interview on this weeks Fourth Estate Radio! Saturday 10pm eastern U.S./2pm Sunday Sydney Australia […]
Pingback by Fourth Estate Radio Interview : Robert Fisk at Head-On Radio Network 03.11.06 @ 1:27 amThanks for all the hard work last night. It is people like you Weez and Antony who make great nights like last night possible!
I managed to get into the Macquarie Theatre but we were there before 6:30 … it was worth the wait.
It is said that only if you have been in the deepest valley can you know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain. Fisk has experienced both extremes and knows how to tell a story well.
There is no better exercise for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up. What Fisk is doing is helping to lift powerless people up. He is not for or against anyone – He is all about witnessing and reporting abuses of power and super empires …
Comment by Jozef Imrich 03.11.06 @ 10:30 am[…] Last night I, along with thousands of other people in Sydney, sat in a theatre at Macquarie University to listen to Dr. Robert Fisk speak. […]
Pingback by Just one more chapter » Suki Has An Opinion 03.11.06 @ 10:36 amThanks for the praise, Jozef.
Since photoflash appeared to annoy Dr Fisk, I had to shoot most of my images without flash. Got quite a lot of motion blur in them as a result of the slow shutter speed, despite setting the camera for a lower resolution and faster ‘film speed’ (800ASA).
There’s a Canon EOS 350 or 500 in my future, I think.
Comment by weez 03.11.06 @ 10:58 amIn terms of the “who’s who of the lefty blogosphere”, I have a proposal for you. This particular notion I have doesn’t particularly relate to Fisk — who seems like quite a nice gentleman by the way. It’s just that I needed some place to rest this proposal. I’ll as here and I’ll ask around, but basically I’m looking for a place to set up a registry of businesses which unfairly dismiss employees, under the freedom of Howard’s new legislation. People could feel free to post their grievancs at this registry, and alert others as to where not to work and shop.
Thanks,
Jennifer
Comment by jennifer 03.11.06 @ 11:37 amNot a bad idea, Jennifer. That’s a project that deserves its own blog- and it’s easy enough to set one up for the purpose. Will put that in the ‘futures file.’
Comment by weez 03.11.06 @ 12:13 pm[…] UPDATE: Machine Gun Keyboard has more on the Fisk event here, here and here. 0 comments […]
Pingback by Robert Fisk takes over Sydney » | Antony Loewenstein 03.13.06 @ 6:21 pmLeave a comment
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