2001 - A Race Odyssey.

I have very little faith in the Australian Community at large after yesterday's result at the polls. For those of you who chose to watch The Others last night, which is where I was meant to be, for those of you who chose to watch Twins and The Rugrats Movie instead of the Election coverage, and for those of you who haven't really don't give a toss, John Howard is back in. I'm 16, I can't vote.  I'm usually not interested in Australian Politics all that much because, quite frankly, it's boring as Hell. There are few erectable Nazi Parties, in fact, all we have is this. The Australian Communists are a joke, the Democrats can't keep the bastards honest, and comparing the two major parties is like spotting the differences between two Dalmatians. A friend was telling me that last election, there was a party called the Save something-or-other Creek Party. They based a a political party, on saving a creek. 2 months after the election it'd be like.

   The Australian Political Scene really is quite poor. To set the record straight, up until a week ago, if I had to vote, I certainly wouldn't have put any of the Major parties first, but as to who I would award my preferences to, the Coalition and Labour were equally pathetic. Neither party was complete, and as sick to death as I was of the Liberal Party, Labour offered me nothing. They essentially copied 90% of the policies the Liberals had in context to the issues that mattered to me. Namely, troops in Afghanistan, and Asylum seekers. Other things weren't as big. I'm not a fan of private education, but there's no need to pour money into the Public Schools if it's going to be wasted on Physics and Chemistry. We'd be better of abolishing them. Honestly. The economy wasn't really a big draw card for me. It's pretty obvious that (for the most part) the rich are better off under the GST, and the poor are worse off. The very rich, those who can afford accountants to evade tax - which is perfectly legal. however immoral - are worse off under the GST, because they are evading less tax, and paying more when they buy stuff. Although the GST was pretty rotten. My model for a GST would've been something a long the lines of 10% tax on everything. Included in the advertised price, as well as the shelf price. Decrease Income tax on average by say, 8%, so as to relieve those of low incomes, and heavily tax those earning six figure salaries. That way you'd have - about - 2% net profit as the government, which could go to fund things like... oh, election campaigns, and knitting conventions. Oo.. and Fascism, that's always fun.

Point being, the reason I don't really care that much about our leader's economic policies is because our market is controlled off shore anyway. I mean, there are very few competitive Australian Companies left in many areas of the market. It's hard to find a good Australian Political Party, for example, and our Terrorism wing is an absolute joke. The Australian economy is like that annoying kid who follows you around at a party, or something. Look, the fact remains that we base essentially all of our economic projections on the United States and other countries, we never make decisions for ourselves. Economic policy, as far as I'm concerned is not going to largely effect financial status of our government, as long as they don't waste money on phone cards and private jets.. . .. wait.. they do that..

The sad fact is, 2001 was indeed, a Race odyssey. Australia is, as much as it pains me to say it, a genuinely racist nation. An uncompassionate, racist nation. We have some of the highest living standards in the world. Regardless of how much we complain about it, our Medical System is not in Dire Straights.. The Public Health system is not as bad as people say it is. Waiting lists are, as I write this, the shortest they have been in a long while, somewhere in the order of 10 years methinks. We have so many liberties and freedoms, we have a 'stable' government, we live in a wonderful society... so many things we take for granted. Can you blame someone for wanting to live in this wondrous country? There are so many brilliant things about being an Australian. I'm not saying we allow anyone in the world to come and live in Australia. We've got to screen out War Criminals and .. .. oh wait, the late Conrad Kalais died in Melbourne didn't he? Maybe we don't have to screen out war criminals.

But I digress.. A good leader leads the people, a popular leader is lead by the people. John Howard is not a great leader. He is not showing us what to do, he is not a role model. If anything, he is not standing up for what is right, but in fact bending to the will of the country, or maybe he's a racist... which is worse? So what's my oh so brilliant idea on immigration?

First of all, we can't palm off illegal immigrants on pacific islands, and then reimburse them for their troubles. It's pathetic. These people are not commodities to be bought and sold. You cannot pay a country to take your 'undesirables' away. The fact remains they come from countries where they don't have the freedoms we do. Where they don't have things like democracy, things like freedom of speech, things like television, the internet and Jesus.  Now it's not Culturally Stupid for me to say those thing. Oh wow, our society is so great because we have blah blah blah.. .. Obviously the people coming out here want to be here, otherwise why the hell would they be here.. well, they must at least want to be here more than where they're coming from, and more than half the other countries they passed through on the way here. And if they want to come out here so badly that they're willing to risk life and limb to get here, they should be allowed to stay.

Now, the first thing we need to assess is the applicants access to the proper means and paths of normal immigration. Do they have access to the various international posts where one can apply for Visas? You'll find the majority of illegal immigrants do not. So it is unfair to call the majority of them 'queue jumpers'.  But even so, it's important to weed out those who genuinely think they have a greater right than someone who has done the right thing to be in this country. I feel like a 10 year old kid handing out memberships to a stupid club... Australian Citizenship, something which is incredibly important to me, is an incredibly cool club to belong to, but even so... is it our right to decide who can come to this country? And if so, everyone has conflicting views... so which one of us decides?.. .. 

Such a delicate issue.

I'm still asking myself all those questions, but let's be fucking serious here. Let's think about this for a second. Most of us haven't done shit all to deserve living in this country. Seriously, most of us have done little to nothing to make this country a better place to live in. We trash its parks and wildlife, we waste its water, we .. .. we harp on about how great it is to be Australian, but dammit, when was the last time we did something to make this country the best place to live in on earth? I'd like to challenge you all, don't leave it up to other people to make this the best country in the world. Make it what it should be. Friendly, easy going, a land of dreams, where you can achieve anything... .. We're here in this wonderful country, we've done nothing to deserve it - really. So let's either share this great country with the world, and I don't mean tourism... or work hard at letting everyone around the world knowing its the best damn country in the world.

Seriously, we have all the freedoms of a Western Country, and none of the terrorism... We can be loud, obnoxious, stupid, racist, bigoted, chauvinistic, ... whatever we want, and nobody gives a toss because it's Australia.. Countries like America and Britain are the kind of countries that get fucked over because they're loud mouthed and powerful. Australia is a piece of piss internationally... . but anyway.. back to the election.. 

The major parties offered me no real option as far as where my vote would go. I would probably have voted the Democrats first on the green bit of paper, and the only thing sitting in my way of putting them first on the senate ballot was the wonderful Help End Marijuana Prohibition Party... .. Cleverly, the expansion of the anagram H.E.M.P... Check it out.. Help End Marijuana Prohibition.. .. HEMP.. Anyway would've got my vote in the Senate, purely because they were the only party who used an anagram.. it has nothing to do with my drug dependency.

As much as I don't like Labour, at least they're not Liberal.. as much as I hate Al Gore, he's no George W. Bush..

I'm annoyed because, well, Howard's here for another 3 years, and he's only there because of circumstance and stupidity.. As Einstein said "Only two things are infinite.. the universe, and human stupidity.. and I am unsure about the first one".. it's so true. The only solace I gain from this is knowing that Howard won't go another round. On a final note. A friend of mine, George, came up with a pretty good idea for how to elect a new Prime Minister. Now as we all know, democracy just doesn't work.. So George's method is as follows. We get all the candidates, and weigh their testicles. The man with the heaviest balls wins. Now, in the case of a female entrant in the race. We're Australian, so we can't allow equality. That'd be Un-Australian.. Equality, what's that? .. we'd give them a chance, and... we'd weigh their husbands balls, and minus 50 grams.  Ahh Australia...

+Hing--->Out

I Wish The Olympics Were Still On...