Sunday, March 21, 2010

...see I, I could have danced on the sun...but my world came undone..."





I have written about what as seen through my eyes is the anarchy of the post office here in Australia. I wrote about the mop I mailed across the bass straight and then on across the country. This mop was not packaged, on advice of the post office I mailed the mop, as a mop, I was told to simply address the head of the mop. The whole experience was just very pioneer, very 'whose to tell us not too'? I have come to learn that this is in part due to the fact that many post offices here, are unofficial. Many are small businesses, a subsidiary and the the 'official' offices are much more 'postmistress-y'. This fact however lends itself to the problem of pricing, which varies.
I say this all in a bit of a warning to my American friends, as I have read an article in the N.Y. Times regarding changes to come to the U.S. Postal system that emulate the Australian; no Saturday post, subsidiary shops run as small businesses.
I have also written (recently) about the charm of honor boxes that still are prevalent in Tasmania. Tasmania is my only true marker of Australia, and we are a small part. So what I am about to relate to you, might have a lot to do with Tasmania and little to do with Australia country-wide.
Zok and I walked up to the polling place yesterday to cast our votes.
We had a small bicker about I.D., Zok reminded me to get mine, and I said automatically that we did not need to show I.D. As I was speaking those words my immediate thought was "What? How can one not need I.D. to vote?".
I remembered asking at the pre-polling booth, but it didn't make sense to me and I mused about it all the way to the polls.
Not only do you NOT need I.D., the voting area is totally open so that you can eye-ball your neighbors vote if you wanted to be that sneaky.
I (as usual) put people off by asking the polling staff why they didn't ask for I.D. (I was rewarded with the usual blank look and no answer I often receive in answer to questions).
I then put Zok off, by laying out many a hypothetical scenario (for most of our walk home along the beach) where I stole votes from all over our district and cast them to the party of my choice, by organized means. The staff at the polling place did think that the computer showed that a name had voted, so that a person registered could only vote the once.
I thought that voting on a Saturday was rude. In America your employer has to let you go to vote. This is above and beyond your legal lunch time and breaks. Here, where the vote is compulsory, people have to go on a Saturday.
Somehow that just doesn't seem fair.
In America people take time to 'get out the vote', to encourage like minded folk to educate themselves and get to the polls.
Here, the vibe was more of a resigned sort of 'I hate going to the Dentist but I guess it is good for me' sort of mood.
I even had to make my own cookies, because as is the Aussie-way there was only roast beast (aka sizzle fry) for sale.


2 comments:

Monte Means said...

A line at the polls! I have seen this only once in the US, and it was at our neighborhood polling place for the 2008 election of President Obama.

For your next blog, I'll need details on the glaring absense of SANCHEZ.

Colleen said...

Sanchez only needs a few days to return.
He is never far away.