The following has been obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. It was found mildewed and mouldering in the in tray of Jo Tripodi. Careful restoration at the State Library of NSW revealed its inflammatory content. The original restorer met a grizzly death – allegedly pecked to death by ibis in Hyde Park. His assistant has been in a coma since falling off the back of a Rhythm Boat Harbour Cruise.

The Government has been at great pains to keep this document secret.

Is it true?  Apart from the style, the lack of cliché, and the actual interest it engenders, it could be something dreamt up by Dan Brown. We will never know the identity of this bold explorer. But if even only some of what he describes is real, it is compelling reading for any resident of what once known as the Premier State.   

 

 

 

Oh people of Sydney. I have journeyed far and wide along the Great Silk Road. I have been blown by fair winds and foul to distant corners of the Earth. There I have discovered all manner of marvels but it is this which will cause your mouth to droop in slack jawed wonder;   Other cities rule themselves without recourse to discourse with corrupt and vile bodies. 

I know it is hard to believe, but in many cities and conurbations the wide world over, men and women gather, take council and make decisions for the greater good.

Yea, scarce can you credit it but no brigand nor ne’er-do-well is present as decisions regarding the public weal are taken. 

Here they may decide upon a road to be built and no money changes hands betwixt the People’s Representative and those who wouldst build said road.

There a set of dwellings is to be constructed to house  the peasantry and in considering the plan, the welfare and comfort of the peasants is paramount. Not the welfare and comfort of those who wouldst build the dwelling. 

I know this sounds most foreign and strange but I assure you  this is so and those who live in this manner marvel at us.  They suggest that is not necessary for the government to lie abed with footpads and poltroons. They have government which is not interested in its own power and position. It rules for the good of the citizenry. 

Did I not say your eyes would start forth from your head, and you would scarce believe what I have seen?

I hesitate to bring you such news from abroad.  As I describe such ways of living I must forsooth bring my own credibility into question, yet it is not for my sake that my quill pauses. Rather , I fear that I will raise the hopes of the good people of Sydney too high.

If I suggest that I have seen transport systems which move millions of people throughout cities, arriving and departing actually on time and with but a single ticket required,  to what despair will that give rise when next you ponder the whereabouts of the 5.32 to Liverpool?

If I say I have seen rickshaws, tuktuks and taxis compete in lively and joyful bustle for the privelege of carrying you hence, how downcast will you be when next you ponder the whereabouts of the cab you booked a half hour before?

If I say that I have seen cities where decisions are made and kept, where projects are begun and finished, where rulers rule spending not their time a-plotting in dark parlours and Chow Meanieres, then I fear that I begin to reach the limits of your belief and that I may as well be describing cities run by faeries and elves for that all you will credit my report.

Yet it is so, and if you undertook a journey to almost any other city than our own, you would find they function.

Where is our Hercules who will divert a river and cleanse the stables of Macquarie St of the ordure, filth and stench that has sullied it so deep.?

 

Here the manuscript ends.  Over a blurred signature, there is a poignant stain; a tear? A drop of blood.? Was our correspondent weeping for his city? Was he disturbed and might he have written more? You may question his observations – it does seem impossible that men and women could rule themselves in the manner he describes. Perhaps his intent is satirical, perhaps it is the ravings of a lunatic. The writer’s courage however is stark and must bring us all pause