Ask Josem about visiting/living in Australia

[NicksDad1970]

Josem, Thanks for the thread.

I see you started it a long time ago so I don't know if you've traveled to other places since you started it.

I visited Darwin for a month some time ago. Have you been there? If not I'd like to pass on how much I loved that place. I can't compare it to Sydney or anywhere else since Darwin is the only place I've visited. But for me it had everything. A casino, friendly people, horse track, and some nice ponds.

I am curious about all the snakes in Australia. Are they all poisonous and friggin everywhere?

[Josem]

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Josem, Thanks for the thread.

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No probs... hopefully it is of some value to people.

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I see you started it a long time ago so I don't know if you've traveled to other places since you started it.

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Not significantly... although I now live in a country town in north-eastern Victoria.

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I visited Darwin for a month some time ago. Have you been there? If not I'd like to pass on how much I loved that place. I can't compare it to Sydney or anywhere else since Darwin is the only place I've visited. But for me it had everything. A casino, friendly people, horse track, and some nice ponds.

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Sounds good to me... I'll look forward to visiting up there one day.

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I am curious about all the snakes in Australia. Are they all poisonous and friggin everywhere?

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Some are poisonous. I assume some are not.

I now live in a country town, and, with work, spend a fair amount of time in some rather rural areas. I certainly haven't seen a snake since moving down here six months ago, and can't ever recall seeing a snake in the wild in my entire life.

In Newcastle, on some rocks I saw some tiny, non-poisonous lizards, but that's abotu the extent of it.


Of course, if you spend time out of the cities bushwalking and stuff, I'm certain you'll come across them, but I assume it'll be no more or less frequent than if you did similar stuff in the continental US. In addition, I assume they're more common the further north you go.

[BigPoppa]

I just checked online, it's colder here in Berlin (16 degrees) in the middle of our Summer than it is there in Melbourne (17 degrees) in the middle of your Winter.

[censored].

[Josem]

assuming that you checked that just when you posted, i just wanted to point out that it was 12.48am in Melbourne when you looked at that.

[WhoIam]

Is there still a lot of popular support for the war? That struck me as odd when I was there last year. Not interested in getting into a political discussion, especially with you.

[Josem]

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Is there still a lot of popular support for the war?

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Depends exactly how you phrase the question, and what you're asking. Withdrawal vs supporting the war vs other options can drastically switch the answers.


I suspect that most Australians would broadly have a very soft* prefererence for withdrawing/downscaling/etc from Iraq. I don't think this has moved significantly since your visit. Of course, there are a smaller group of people on either side who are strongly in favour of continuing a Coalition presence (such as me) and those who are strongly in favour of withdrawal.

I also suspect that the more you talk about the detail of Australian involvement the more supportive Australians would be of "staying the course."

The vast majority of Australians serving in the region are on ships as part of the UN interdiction force, or as part of the embassy security detail, and in other relatively "popular" activities.

The troops on the ground, contrary to how they're popularly perceived, are doing things like providing security to people building schools and hospitals. That's not an overly contentious activity [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

The current Australian Opposition Leader, Kevin Rudd (who is currently enjoying a huge lead in publicly published polls) is publicly advocating for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq - but when you nut down to the detail, most Australian service personnel would stay; and those that did leave won't leave for some time in some sort of amorphous "negotiated and delayed" withdrawal.

It was raised in Federal Parliament this week, where the Opposition Defence spokesman seemed to suggest that Australia should have a proportionate drawdown relative to the forthcoming US reduction - a clearly rediculous proposition when you consider the context of the Australian forces, their make up (there's an obvious "critical mass" required - 70% of a force does not give you 70% of the capability) and the fact that Australian forces did not increase in number during the current "surge."

It's also worth noting that as yet, there haven't been any Australian combat fatalities in Iraq. Public opinion may change if that situation changes.

*Soft in the sense that they don't feel strongly either way, and that their views are movable. While there's a fair amount of discussion of the topic in the media, I don't feel that it is moving large chunks of votes



edit: edited paragraph 5 to clarify my meaning

[WhoIam]

The committee has approved your dissertation. Congratulations Dr Josem.

[108]

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Serious question: since you call ketchup "tomato sauce," what do you call tomato sauce (stuff you put on spaghetti or a pizza)?

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We call that 'tomato paste'. Like the ingredients you add to make pasta sauce.

[goodgrief]

This begs the question -- what then do you call tomato paste?


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Serious question: since you call ketchup "tomato sauce," what do you call tomato sauce (stuff you put on spaghetti or a pizza)?

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We call that 'tomato paste'. Like the ingredients you add to make pasta sauce.

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[Josem]

There are two different items for sale: tomato sauce and ketchup.


tomato sauce is similar to ketchup, except it has less "spice"

tomato sauce is also massively more popular in australia than ketchup (although you can typically find a couple of lines of ketchup available at a supermarket)