Buildings of the City

“Never mind back in the Philippines they wouldn’t have jobs at all.”

Yeah they work for us. We pay the huge wage of $400 US to $1000 US a month for them to work offshore. But they work 6 months straight and then get 8 weeks off and no pay.

We have been known to hire the odd Bangladeshi in Singapore for $6 Sing a day when we need some labourers in port. They need 100% supervision at all times or they wander off and go to sleep or start pilfering your gear.

They still use that bamboo scaffolding these days Kramer, I saw heaps of it in 2005.

Awesome site btw. But how tall is the American-Australian War Memorial monument? I don’t know its proper name, and I know it’s not a habitable building, but it’s still pretty tall. And the Parliament House flagpole? Maybe I didn’t click through the site for long enough to find those two.

And as for the height restrictions in Canberra – I think it’s a good idea, but it would be cool if we had a Q1/Burj Dubai-stylee building that soared to hundreds of metres, dwarfing everything below it, built right in the middle of Civic. It would solve all our accommodation problems, it would look awesome, be a symbol of the city, and make everything else look tiny. Has this type of thing been done in any city of the world?

You should see the scaffolding they use. Scary…

I was in India 20 years ago, and I have yet to see dodgier and scarier scaffolding anywhere. Timber and ropes would be an overstatement – it was like string, sticks and branches lashed together up several storys.

We have it good here with WorkChoices…

…and I’m certain there was a full and frank disclosure of working conditions, pay and entitlements given to the workers so they could make an informed decision about their employment too, Ralph.

Something tells me they wouldn’t travel thousands of kilometres for work if they weren’t motivated for it.

If it’s so great they wouldn’t need to force them to stay, would they?

What, the bit in the book where the import labourers from the Philippines, pay them $4 a day and take away their passports so they can’t leave until it’s finished?

Never mind back in the Philippines they wouldn’t have jobs at all.

Doesnt suprise me -so much money there.. but its just the engineering and desire to attract tourists impresses me.

I’ve just wasted hours of time at that interesting site. Thanks.