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Thursday, September 5, 2013

We live in a grittier part of the city


I cannot believe Tony Abbott will be Prime Minister 
(AP Photo/dpa, Susanne Petersohn)
I started my training in my Community Orientation for Expatriates course. My fellow students are – as expected - almost all young women with small children.
There is one Chinese guy who doesn’t speak much English so we had some trouble communicating.
Of course they all live in Carmel – where 99% of expatriates end up – and which was voted by Money magazine in 2012 as the ‘best place to live in America’.
We live in a grittier part of the city which suits us just fine. 
I have refrained from commenting on the Australian Federal election - which happens on Saturday - because I find the concept of Tony Abbott being Prime Minister so execrable that it makes my teeth curl.
He is – I regret to say – the leader of a party which reflects some of the worst attributes of the Republican party in the USA.
He is famous for saying ‘Climate change is crap’ – and will scrap the current government’s carbon tax as soon as he gets into office  - and replace it with not much of anything useful for the planet. 
He is also famous for using his position corruptly – when Health Minister in a previous government – to prevent the introduction into Australia of RU486. He did this for religious reasons – the worst possible reasons for doing anything.
He said – when talking about immigration  ‘Jesus knew that there was a place for everything and it’s not necessarily everyone’s place to come to Australia.’
Anyone who says they know what Jesus knew  - or indeed has him talk to them as happens often with American politicians - is either a charlatan or barking mad. 
There is an intelligent alternative in the Liberal Party and that is Malcolm Turnbull. He actually believes in climate change – and would do something about it – which is why he is not leader of his party. I would be quite happy for Malcolm to be Prime Minister – I could even vote for him.
Well……..maybe.....

8 comments:

  1. Tony Abbott. The one thing that might keep me the hell out of Australia. I can't even...

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  2. I love polar bears and your picture is cool, quite a pose.

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  3. Wanderlust: Neither can I

    esb: I regret to say I stole it without attribution - I forgot where it came from.

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  4. If only we had Elmer Fudd running here, to hunt Abbotts.

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  5. Sandy: I miss Julia calling him Mr Rabbit.

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  6. And Malcolm is (or was) a republican, but not in the American sense...

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  7. Annie: He still is - but will not get to use this part of his repertoire during the next two terms of government.

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  8. Surely one term will be more than plenty?

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