A Town Like Alice Revisited

Ages ago I wrote a post about A Town Like Alice. To my surprise, when I read the novel I discovered that it's not about Alice Springs, as I'd always imagined it would be. Instead, it turned out to be about a character who aspires to create a town as good as Alice Springs - and eventually succeeds in doing so. How sadly ironic that aspiration seems, when you read this beautifully written but dreadful article. The phrase in it that most disgusts me, I think, is the one describing the approach the police are taking to the shocking problems in the town: "Crisis management through image burnishing and press release, the modern way."