From

From: White, Jamie D (WHITE)
Sent: Thursday, October 14, 2004 9:30 PM
To: White, Jamie D (WHITE)
Subject: FW: Election report from the socialist suburb

Aussie word of the day: Naturestrip

Cleveland translation: Tree lawn

For the rest of you: the narrow tract of land between the sidewalk and the road, often used to plant grass, trees or shrubs.

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Greetings from Brunswick ("Brunnie"), bastion of Aussie socialism. (No wonder we felt so comfortable here!) We didn't fully realize the extent to which our suburb has that distinction until the federal elections this past Saturday. The "Liberal" party of John Howard (Bush crony) stayed in power with no help at all from any of OUR neighbors. While there seems to be widespread dissatisfaction with Australia's involvement in Iraq, economic issues seem to have carried the day in the end.

The election was fascinating to observe. The girls' school serves as a polling place. We were able to join in with a group of parents raising money for the school by selling felafels and sausages to the hungry voting masses. And masses there were! There were LONG lines outside the school all morning. Not only is voting compulsory here (with a $50 fine to those who opt out), but there are apparently fewer polling places per capita. About 4,000 voters come to the school between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. Interestingly, since voting is compulsory, the rules are much more lax about where one may vote -- anywhere in one's home state. Each polling place has a complete, gigantic list of all registered voters in the state. Voters walk up to the table where the roll is, state their names, and are asked, "Have you voted yet today?" They answer, "No," are handed their ballots, and off they go to vote (in curtainless, cardboard "booths" that look like they were picked up off the shelves at Office Max) . No ID check, no signature -- nothing!! Clearly, this is a nation without the U.S.'s long, proud tradition of voting fraud.

Another interesting aspect of Aussie politics is that voters don't just indicate their #1 choices for each office -- they rank all of the candidates in order. (There are sometimes forty or more candidates running for a single seat, so this is no small task, although there is a way to vote the equivalent of a straight party ticket.) Then, when the votes are tallied, if one's first-choice candidate doesn't get many votes, that candidate is eliminated and the vote goes to one's second-choice candidate, and so on, until all candidates but one have been eliminated. The virtue of this system is that voting for a third- (or fortieth-) party candidate is not wasting your vote. There's a good bit of deal-making that goes on prior to the election, as the two major parties try to cajole the minor parties into having their voters "direct their preferences" (i.e. their #2 votes) to them. The upshot of all of this is that the smaller parties really do seem to have some influence over the major parties' platforms. Okay, enough politics...

At the end of September, we had a lovely trip to Sydney and vicinity. It's about a ten-hour drive from Melbourne. We entertained ourselves on the way with CDs of Aussie folksongs and kids' stories about gum trees and water dragons (lizards). We're pleased to report that we can now sing along with all the verses of "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport , " "Give Me a Home among the Gum Trees," and "Redback [spider] on the Toilet Seat." We broke up the trip on the way up, staying in Gundagai (home of the iconic "Dog on the Tucker Box" statue -- a reference to yet another classic folksong). The next day, we stopped for lunch in the shadow of the World's Largest Merino. (Picture a three-storey-high concrete ram with Aussie flag proudly waving by the entrance between its legs.)

Sydney was a wonderful place to play tourist. The harbour areas are lined with scenic walkways and crisscrossed by a pedestrian bridge and a monorail. We loved the aquarium, which has all-Australian freshwater and marine fauna. Highlights for the girls were the two touch pools full of sea urchins, sea stars, etc., and the shark tank that visitors walk through in a tunnel, with sharks above, beside, and underneath. Highlights for Laura -- this part's for you, Mart -- were the Australian lungfish and the archerfish (which shoot insect prey out of the air with a jet of water).

We also visited the Sydney Powerhouse Museum (where Joanne Thurston-Griswold's sister works part-time when not on maternity leave). There, among other things, we watched a lace-making demonstration. Sara (May) got to "have a go" at it and was immediately smitten. Now, Laura's searching high and low to track down a children's lace-making kit rumored to exist somewhere in New South Wales.

Our final day in Sydney, a gorgeous, unseasonably warm day, we toured the Opera House and took a ferry to a nearby beach. (We opted NOT to do the guided walk across the top of the Harbour Bridge -- maybe next time!) The beach was called Manly Beach, and the lifeguards wore little Speedos with _Manly_ written on the bum -- really. We hadn't brought swimsuits, but we had fun wading in the surf -- until a big wave took Joanna out. We ended up stripping her down beachside, drying her off with a sock, and dressing her in her rainjacket and long pants for the return ferry ride.

The following day, we headed west from Sydney an hour or so to the Blue Mountains, where we rendezvoused with Joanne's sister and her two daughters (Mara, almost 3, and Olivia, born the day we arrived in Australia). They took us to a spectacular overlook (reminiscent of a shallow Grand Canyon covered with gum trees), accompanied us on a short bushwalk, picnicked with us at a playground, then pointed us towards some more scenic overlooks and bushwalks, before they headed back home for "a sleep." We had a lovely stay with them that night and especially enjoyed learning about their rainwater tank and solar panels.

Now, the girls are back at school, and Jamie's back playing with his blue beam. Sara (May) continues to love school. This term, her class is doing a unit on fantasies -- not a genre she'd shown much interest in previously. Now, she can't get enough of witches, spells, and mythical creatures. One day, after her teacher had read to them the witches' spell from _Macbeth_, she came home talking about how she really liked "that part about the toilet trouble!" Joanna continues to be in transition. She seems to have gotten off on a good foot with her new teacher, but she still spends a lot of time outside of school hours blowing off steam. We hope that she'll settle in fully soon, for all of our sakes.

Well, time to call it a night. Thanks for all the news of home. We miss you all and think of you often!

Love,

Laura, Jamie, Sara (May) and Joanna

For a few pictures and past news: http://faculty.juniata.edu/whitej/Australia.htm