By any measure it was the longest, both in time (66 days) and distance (20,000 miles) traveled, and most expensive (USD 23,000) trip to a WDC in the history of the hobby; and that’s not counting another 9 days, 9,000 miles, and USD 4,000 spent during and afterwards!

And what did it get me? Well, if you look at the tournament results, not much: three eliminations and one three-way draw! And, unfortunately, that’s what this report is mostly about. However, in other reports and articles to come you’ll see why this trip to this WDC was one of the great traveling experiences of my life. I hope you’ll look for those in The Diplomatic Pouch, Diplomacy World, and on the WDC SHRINE site. Who knows, you may even find some in your local newspaper.

Here I’ll have a few comments on the host country, the venue (Canberra), the site (The Rydges Eagle Hawk Resort), the WDC event, the WDC Society meeting, and a few general thoughts. My recollections have been reinforced by a review of my notes, the tapes I made, the photographs I took, and all the documentation I brought home. In all, 12 hours of tapes, over 1,500 photos, and 250 pounds of documents back-up what I have to say. Remember, this is my peerispective. I’m sure others saw things, people, and events differently. Only as you read all the reports and talk to those who were there can you begin to form your own opinion as to what really transpired.

I want to note first that it has become traditional that when Edi Birsan and I visit a Diplomacy event we each take on a different role at the Con. Edi’s role is easier than mine, I think. He contributes the plaques and prizes, teaches the novices, tells everyone how great things are going in the hobby, and generally casts a benevolent blessing over the event. I, on the other hand, come in looking for what’s wrong and what needs improvement, telling the truth as I see it and holding the event up to the highest possible standard that Diplomacy demands. Not a fun job, but somebody ought to do it. Just remember, we both wear glasses. Edi’s are rose-colored and mine are amber!

So, as you read my comments keep in mind that they are, after all, the bottom tip of the iceberg; something you don’t usually get to see. J What most of you saw and what most of you got was a wonderful event! That’s what history will remember.

AUSTRALIA

If I had to describe Australia today in a word, it would be schizoid. That’s not a unique situation, but the Ozzies are not as able as some to hide their feelings so it shows more down under and they talk about it more! Boy, do they ever! You see it everywhere and in every aspect of Ozzie life. Take television as an example. The number of channels is severely limited. Some seem to show nothing but children’s’ cartoons. Others show nothing but footie matches. One showed some superb programs culled from the BBC, PBS, and local productions. It, naturally, had some of the lowest ratings in the country.

But what I found fascinating were the ads, not the normal commercial ones selling this or that but the number of public service messages trying to reach out to the jobless, homeless, those with various diseases, or those pondering suicide. The news programs were filled to over-flowing with stories of the Governor-Generals alleged misdeeds, the tossing of children overboard by boat people, etc. etc. Not until a local football icon got caught rolling in the hay with his mate’s wife did a fresh breeze of normality blow across the airwaves. Suddenly things were back to normal....

Australia and the average Australian have never had it so good and they know it. And, thank God, they have the decency to feel a bit guilty about it; especially when they look at those less fortunate than themselves. Sure, the world is full of NIMBYS, Hansons, and Le Pens; but people of goodwill will triumph in the end. Usually. Well, sometimes. So, while they ponder the deeper meaning of things, the Ozzies go about doing their normal thing, living life to the best and with a zest that is uniquely theirs! And that’s why the 2002 WDC came to Canberra.

CANBERRA

I was fortunate to visit Canberra as part of my first ground tour through NSW, Victoria, and Southern Australia. Without those two days I wouldn’t have seen much of Australia’s capital. In many ways it reminds me of other new capitals: Washington and Brasilia come to mind. It was designed to be as perfect as it could be. Unfortunately, people aren’t perfect and they don’t live in perfect cities. Still, Canberra has done a better job than most cities of its size. It may not be perfect, but it is livable and it provides a pretty good living for most of its government employee residents and those who dine at the government’s trough. The new Parliament House and other major government buildings, the War Memorial, the broad avenues and vistas are all appealing. I enjoyed my tour of the Parliament House and getting a chance to see their hybrid British-American system in action; while just a few miles away members of the Falun Gong sect were camped out across the street from the PRC embassy. (Don’t bother to go look, they’ve been removed by the government after Chinese complaints.)

I was lucky to be looking to the left as our tour bus drove down the hill toward Canberra and I saw the Rydges Eagle Hawk Resort off to the left. Then I saw the ACT boundary line pass; and I knew WDC was going to be out in the boonies. So I did my sightseeing while I could and made plans to hunker down during the WDC. Ironically our tour group stayed in one of the other Rydges properties (all owned by the same operation) in Canberra and I was looking forward to the Resort; which I assumed would be as good as the first.

THE RYDGES

I had made my reservations for six nights at the Rydges well before leaving home on the 21st of January. Later I had confirmed them and informed the Resort when they asked that I would appreciate a lift from the airport to the resort when I arrived on Wednesday around 1830. I had had some interesting experiences on my nine previous flights with Qantas around Australia: misplaced luggage, cancelled flights, etc. but this time they actually managed to get me onto an earlier flight from Sydney to Canberra. At least it was supposed to be earlier, but it actually left late, so we only got into Canberra about thirty minutes early. I called Rydges to let them know that I was at the airport and waiting for their pick-up. I was then informed that no one was available to come and get me and I would need to take a cab to the Resort. $30 later I arrived. When I asked about a ride to the airport on the following Tuesday I was told that no shuttles were available and I could take a limo to the airport for $25. And so I did. In the meantime, by the time the Con actually started I had compiled a list of some 20 things that were wrong at or with the Resort. Some were amusing. Some were not. Some were serious safety or health violations that would have gotten them cited by a health inspector. I won’t go into all of that here, or this report will run another five pages. Suffice it to say that of the 29 different hotels I stayed at in Australia the Rydges rated the worst in its category.

I do want to mention one other event that was going on at the Resort while we were there, the Cadillac Centennial Rally. The Ozzies love their cars, especially their old cars. I had run into the Antique Rolls Royce Club at Cradle Mountain in Tasmania, and they were having a ball. So were the Caddie lovers in Canberra. To be honest, I think they were having more fun than we were!

WORLD DIPCON 2002

This was Australia’s second WDC event and I will be curious to see how Don Del Grande and others who attended both compare them. From what I can gleam the Ozzies had had the event dumped in their lap after the Kiwis successful bid in Baltimore two years ago. Rob Stephenson was the original organizer of the event but he decided he wanted to play, so Ken Sproat ended up as the man in charge. All things considered, Ken did yeoman service in putting on the Con. He almost made it look easy, but that was probably because of the excellent support he got from his cohorts. I was particularly impressed by their efforts to make a video record of the event and do some interviews with the participants. If all goes well that should be an invaluable historical record, or just a bloody good laugh!

Thursday morning, the day before Good Friday (a holiday, as was Easter Monday), I went into Canberra to shop for essentials at Woolies: Whatever I saved on the cheaper wine was eaten up by the more expensive film and the expensive cab ride. Still, I was ready for the weekend. When I returned I found the foreigners, particularly the Americans, arriving. It was the same old crowd: Edi Birsan, Don Del Grande, Manus Hand, Dan Mathias, and Brian Shelden. In all, six Americans made the trek to Canberra.

It wasn’t a lot, but it was still better than the Brits and as good as the French managed; and even bettered the number of Kiwis in attendance. I got the impression that the Ozzie/Kiwi Diplomacy relationship is about on par with that of the Koreans and Japanese now hosting the World’s Cup. Still, the foreigners did make up a good third, perhaps more, of the total number of players.

Gradually the group gathered and it became very obvious that there were two groups present: the foreigners and the locals. Most of the foreigners knew each other, but not the locals; and vice-versa. This was very inconvenient. A simple thing like name tags would have eliminated the problem of knowing who was who and where they were from.

I won’t bore you with a piece by piece, dot by dot, game by game litany of my playing. Suffice is to say that, as I told Ken, my performance peaked just as the Con was ending. Three eliminations were followed by a three-way draw. Alas, although I didn’t end up at the botton of the pecking order, I did end up at the bottom of the pack of American players. C’est la guerre!

I do have a few general comments on the tournament and how it was conducted and the way the games were played.

First off, as others have already written, I did not like the way time issues were dealt with. There should have been distinct periods for negotiations, writing orders, and adjudications. In addition, the pace was too fast to allow for adequate negotiations, especially in the winter 1900 and 1901 years. The pace was also too fast to allow for the physical act of writing orders, let alone writing proper orders. I would love to know the total number of NMR's in this event. I’m sure it was a record.

Second, there was the role of the mechanical time keeping device, a.k.a. the clock, which was used. I saw the same system used in Paris at the French Diplomacy Championships, but I’m not sure whom to blame for its creation. I don’t recall it having the same impact on the play in Paris as it did in Canberra. Partially it was physical. In Paris it was located on the TD’s table, at one end of the room. It was there, but it wasn’t a dominant factor in the play. In Canberra, The Clock (at my suggestion, sacre bleu!) was placed high above the room where all could see it. What I didn’t realize at that time was that it also talked! It gave periodic time warnings and a countdown! It reminded me of some of the aviation warning systems that I’ve heard informing the pilot that the plane is about to crash! Anyway, I found it totally distracting personally. And observing the play around me I would say that it (The Clock) actually acted as an Eighth Player in the game.

Such devices should be banned in my view.

Third, I felt the event procedures and rules were too complex. It seems as if each WDC event strives to create more and more procedures and rules to cover every possible contingency that has come up in international and local play. Enough is enough.

Fourth, no individual round or game results were posted on a daily basis. This made it difficult for every player to know what was happening. Those who did know were at an advantage. Players should not have to search out this information for themselves.

Fifth, there was a problem with the results of the games, too many three-way draws. I asked the Ozzies why this kept happening and I was told that it was because they have such a small player base they are always playing the same people over and over in their games. Nobody wants to double-cross or stab or eliminate a guy who might be in his next game, so they agree to take a three-way draw, figuring nobody gets their feelings hurt and a third of a pie is better than none! Still, one would have thought with the number of good foreign players participating that they would have been able to prevent this, but that didn’t happen. So, there were way too many draws. Interestingly, the one solo win, by Rob Stephenson generated some controversy ranging from one foreigner who said that his fifth round victory was thrown to him when it was realized that if he didn’t win the tournament winner would be a Kiwi and a Frenchman would come in second; to a local who said the win hadn’t been earned. I don’t know. I didn’t see the game played. Nor apparently did a lot of others since there were only two boards going during that fifth round.

Sixth, and that brings me to the question of whether this tournament ranks as a WDC class event. Based on three factors, I must say that it does not. First, as I just discussed the number of draws indicates to me that players were not playing their best to win! That, on qualitative grounds, rules the event out of the WDC class. By the end of Round IV there were four six-way draws, five five-way draws, nine four-way draws (four of those were one center participants), and three three-way draws. Second, the tournament did have six rounds but not one of them filled seven boards; which is a quantitative standard I have always used for defining a WDC class event. Third, the event did not have forty-nine players who participated in the required four rounds. Only forty-four players played in the required four rounds.

There were eight teams in the team event that was won by the Kiwis.

The Awards Ceremony was well handled and just about everybody got something to take home. I won’t go over the results since, thanx to Ken’s superb effort, they were published and posted on the Internet within less than ten days!

The WDC Society meeting was fairly low key as Edi did his usual fine job of cajoling those present into approving, once again, the WDC Charter. It has now been approved in all three regions and is in effect. The French immediately tabled a series of proposals to amend the Charter and some were adopted, some rejected, and a few deferred for later discussion. No doubt we’ll hear more about that in Paris. Manus Hand gave a plug for the next WDC venue in Denver, Colorado next February. Denver is an interesting city and it should be a good event.

The only bid to host the 2004 WDC event came from Birmingham, site of WDC I and IV and after David Norman promised the Brits would be on their good behaviour, the bid was accepted with one vote (mine) cast for San Marino!

BON MOTS

Finally, it gives me great pleasure to mention some of my personal highlights of this event. They had nothing to do with the site or the event play, obviously. They did have very much to do with some of the wonderful people that I met and got to know in Canberra. Because of them, for me, this was a superb gathering. The people at the Rydges were exceptionally polite and helpful, if a bit slow at times. The Con staff, as I mentioned, were unfailingly polite and kind to this senile old fart! I enjoyed talking with Tristan Lee and Christian Gemballa Moura. The future of the hobby is in their good hands. Thanx to Kit for sharing his better half for some great chats! Ken Alonzo gave me some great insights on how to approach the challenge of finding Peery National Park. They worked, Ken. I’ve got the photomaps, the aerial photos, the top maps, and I know where the gold is! Andrew Geraghty was kind enough to take me for a drive about and show me the insider’s view of the ACT. And to all those who were so helpful to Esmeralda and I during our Grand Tour, we thank you.
 

  Larry Peery
(peery@ix.netcom.com)