A Harvard student spills the beans on that speech - John Howard bored, fizzled and embarrassed

In last Thursday's issue of The Harvard Independent Student one Australian gave an undergraduate

view of John Howard's university speech and his meeting with the 'great leader'.

 

Here are some highlights.

 

"It was to the collective antipodean chagrin that John Howard, recently voted out of government in Australia, was repeatedly referred to as "Prime Minister" on his recent visit to the Kennedy School of Government's IOP forum. Perhaps I am mistaken, but "Prime Minister" is not to my knowledge an honorific title that once acquired is taken to the grave."

 

"When I implied that the Australian tertiary education system was held together by chewing gum and fee paying foreign students Mr. Howard stuttered:"Yes, well there's been a flood of Chinese students taking advantage of the opportunities presenting themselves." Such is the delicacy of the man. He might as well have alluded to the "Yellow Peril" without actually addressing my point."

 

"The Howards wanted to know what we all planned to do. Around we went, finance, law, and charity featuring prominently. When I said I wanted to be a journalist Mr. Howard grimaced a little, like a man discovering spoilage in an otherwise preserved bottle of red. He exlaimed, "A journo! What do you want to spend your time writing about people like me for?"
What indeed. Fortunately, before I could explain myself an anemic looking aid came in and suggested we leave. The talk was beginning."

 

"John Howard doesn't speak from text. He freestyles with the convincing invective of a stuttering schoolboy debater. It has a charm, it must be conceded, but it is not the silky polish of Bill Clinton or the merciless sophistry of Tony Blaire. He misuses words, jumbles them and draws on an outdated vocabulary.

Howard appears to be at pains to prove things that are self-evident. He has the conservative, unimaginative, "we know what we know" way of talking which must have made him very convincing in suburban litigation. Good fences make good neighbors."

 

"The speech gave little insight into Sino-Australian or American-Australian relations and, but for some irksome factual errors, succeeded in boring the majority of those in attendance. At one stage, Mr. Howard referred to Australia as a "Western European nation" in the Asian Pacific region. Cringe. It was full of classic Howard half-tautologies that meant nothing, yet were exasperatingly inefficient: "I've learned over the years from my time in politics that the substance of what you do is more important than the symbolism; but also symbolism can mean a great deal and can say a lot about relations between society's and nations."