dreamer_easy | (no subject)

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australia

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Howard suggests quiz on cricket as part of a test of citizens' knowledge of the Australian way of life. I'll pack my bags, then. Harrangeman takes the piss.

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Geez I don't know enough about cricket or football , Howard is such an idiot and what the hell does knowing about cricket have to do with getting in the country *yee gods* and lets face it not everyone follows sport in other countries anyway.

Well, I'm sunk then. Dom't even know which way to hold the bloody bat...

Kate, you might enjoy this

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/04/08/DDG27BCFLG1.DTL

(Must learn basic HTML soon)

Hint: don't hold it by the wing. Bloody thing can curl round and bite you.

With really nasty consequenses. I don't feel like getting some strange disease right now.

This whole 'quiz' concept...bah. It's going to end up like it was some years ago, when they discovered that the test to get medical qualifications from abroad recognised was so difficult most local doctors couldn't do it.

What's better - a test that half the population can't pass, or one that's so laughably simple that anyone can?

Any test we have is likely to be one or t'other...

Still - nice to see that Greeks are considered model integrants. Wasn't the case when Greek immigration started, but better late than never.

ha ! I KNEW it would come down to sport !
Australian values !

How inane is that? Does that mean they'll deport people who don't follow cricket? I tell you, it doesn't look good for people who want to bring their grandparents over who may be too old to learn a new language and never heard of cricket... I get it now.

It's not just rabble-rousing* - they want to make it harder for older people to move to Australia because of the aging population!

*Our politicians couldn't be that shallow, could they?

It's teh new version of the Tampa incident. Stir up xenophobia ('cause we can't do interest rates any more) to get re-elected.

To be fair, the cricket thing is probably just a silly remark grabbed by the media as a handy headline. But you've put your finger on the point of the whole business, of course; xenophobia is what's won elections for Howard again and again, and in the absence of boat people he's got to stick it to the immigrants. Since all Labor does is weakly copy him, it will probably work. *groans and holds head*

Well, without some sort of distraction like the Tampa, people might take notice of the speakers long enough to notice they're sans habille. One can only hope. Putting money on the lack of gullibility of the voting public is fraught with peril.

Well I better go pack my bags and move to Japan..

I'll be joining you. Cricket's the one without bases, right?

i think it's a kind of insect. Orthopteran. Prone to nematamorph infestation.

Occasionally acts as guardian to small wooden boys?

Random trivia: In the original book, the cricket lasts about three paragraphs before the kid gets tired of his nagging and squishes him.

Actually, we might need to look for someone else to become a citizen of - japan is harder to get citizenship of that what they're proposing for Australia...

Hmmm. Everyone seems to like Canada...

but Canada is COOOLLD! maybe we could just country-hop.

Ha! Someone's been watching too many WWII movies, the kind where American soldiers proved they weren't German spies by their knowledge of baseball.

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