Still Wild About Kevin

While we're still wild about Kevin:

Scene: US Embassy, Yarralumla, Canberra
Occasion: Independence Day, July 4

"The alliance was looking in good shape as US Ambassador Jeffrey Bleich appeared to pay brief tribute to American-Australian friendship. But, he said, it was a day for celebration, not speeches. And then he passed the microphone to Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd. 'Thank you Jeff', Mr Rudd began. 'Thank you for having us all at your house for such an important celebration'. He name-checked the dignitaries present, made some gags about Yogi Bear (don't ask) before getting down to brass tacks - we were here, after all, to celebrate American history. Who better to tell the folks present a little something on that topic than the man with the mike? 'When the Declaration of Independence occurred in 1776, this was in fact almost one of the lowest ebbs of the revolutionary war', the Foreign Minister elucidated. 'Success [hadn't] been achieved in 1775, the British had done very badly in Boston'. On we marched, through the Battle of Trenton and some very dark days on the Delaware River in 1775. 'Two of the 3 crossings failed. the third succeeded', he continued. The US military men holding aloft the national flags looked nervous. 'The tide of the revolutionary war was turned...', he went on, as Coalition MPs Sophie Mirabella and Wyatt Roy reversed in the direction of the hotdog stand. 'And that cry for freedom... we have heard cry loud across the world in the intervening centuries'. There was a universality about the cry of freedom which could never be suppressed, the Foreign Minister said. 'We have heard it in Tunisia. We heard it in Egypt. We hear it in Libya'. We began to hear murmurs of it in Yarralumla too." (Rudd's long speech inspires a cry for freedom, Jacqueline Maley, The Age, 6/7/11)

Needless to say, we don't hear it in Palestine or Bahrain.