Obiter dicta by Professor Gavin Brown AO
Oz in Oz
24 July 2000
“It’s give, give, give in this job”, confessed the stewardess to the magician as we rode the plane from Kansas City. The last time I had seen conjuring aboard an aircraft was some years ago on a flight from Seoul to Sydney. The Korean captain announced that we were one hour out from Kingsford Smith and that the crew would give a demonstration. I expected safety drill. They proceeded to produce a series of mysterious illusions with interlocking steel rings and with silken ropes which could be cut in the middle as an apparent prelude to invisible mending.
On USAir it was the passenger in the row ahead who held the cabin crew enthralled as he found individual packs of dairy creamer behind their ears and sachets of salt up their sleeves. The woman in the neighbouring seat was unmoved, ordering a standard coke and milk, while, across the aisle, someone sat quietly reading Harry Potter. Not only did one of the crew learn to palm some simple objects, she insisted on telling the wizard the secrets of her life and, on disembarkation, wished me a safe trip home to Germany. As part of the overall madness the crew covered my next-door neighbour in pillows because she was cold and they had run out of blankets.
The venture had sounded slightly improbable from the start – our North American alumni meeting in Kansas City in late July. Of course wherever SUGUNA gathers there will be a stimulating conference, but one had weather doubts and no real idea of the charms of the city.
In fact not only is there a vigorous museum of contemporary art, there is also a comprehensive museum with a particularly stunning Asian collection and European and American painting of all periods. K.C. is also the home of its own style of jazz, dominant in the 20s and 30s when the city was risqué, swinging and prosperous under the rule of Boss Pendergast, early patron of Harry S. Truman.
It was good to be able to tell our graduates once again of further comparative successes for Sydney University. I have reported continuous improvement over the years I have attended, but I warned also of concerns for the international profile of Australian universities.
In the previous week I had taken the opportunity to work on behalf of the G08 in cooperation with the Global Foundation. We met with officials from the World Bank and IMF, with our ambassador in Washington and with the incoming US ambassador to Australia. In New York, we met with our ambassador to the UN and our consul-general, Michael Baume (a soccer blue who subsequently joined his fellow Sydney graduates in Kansas City).
In all these encounters there was considerable support for the commitment of Australia’s leading research universities to international visibility and engagement, including strong interest in the Round Table on the future of South East Asia which we will co-host with Georgetown University in late November.