Gah! This society is so auto-centric. If you don’t have a driver’s licence you’re a bloody second class citizen.
Not only can I no longer cash my paychecks at Bankwest without providing a driver’s licence, I was unable to close down my Commonwealth bank account on Friday without having one either. Oh, sure, if I had my ATM card they would have shut it down, but I handed in my ATM card about four months ago the first time I asked them to close it. They didn’t do it then apparently because there were still payments coming out of it for Greenpeace.
Now in this situation I would have though the sensible thing to do would be either send me a letter advising me of the situation, or just cut off payments to Greenpeace, and let them contact me about. But no they just let things run on until I was more than $100 overdrawn, and then sent me a nasty letter about it. You’ve got to admire their devotion to the environment, but still.
So now I’ve got to traipse in again on Monday with sufficient ID to prove that I am in fact me and not some devious criminal planning to take over the world by paying off people’s overdrafts. Sheeze!
Combine all this with the fact that under new anti-terrorism legislation you can’t send parcels overseas without photo-id and someone who doesn’t drive is well and truly screwed 🙁
OK, OK, I know the sensible thing to do would be get my licence, but why should the fact that I’m not particularly interested in driving around a big stinking chunk of metal make me unable to carry out ordinary day to day functions? And I haven’t got a licence by choice, what about people too incompetent to obtain one?! It’s f-ing ridiculous!!
Gah!!
Anyway I’ll make a more coherant (and less furious 🙂 entry tomorrow. Probably. In the meantime I thought I’d padd this out by posting the lyrics to my latest favourite song The Laws have Changed by Canadian popsters the New Pornographers – chiefly because I can’t seem to find them anywhere else online. So, here goes…
It was crime at the time but the laws, we changed ’em,
Though the hero for hire’s forever the same one,
Introducing for the first time,
Pharaoh on the microphone,
Sing1, all hail,
What will be revealed today,
When we peer to the great unknown,
From the line to the throne,
Awaking to cheers after years on the faultline,
We are shocked to be here in the face of the meantime,
Pharaoh all your methods have taught me,
Is to seperate my blood2 from bone,
And we’ll all fail,
Feel what I feel today,
When we peer to the great unknown,
From the line to the throne,
La-la-la-la la-la la-la la-la,
Form a line here3,
La-la-la-la la-la la-la la-la,
Form a line here,
Na-na-na na-nana na-na,
Form a line to the throne,
Na-na-na na-nana na-na,
Form a line to the throne,
La-la-la-la la-la la-la la-la,
Form a line here,
La-la-la-la la-la la-la la-la,
Form a line here,
Na-na-na na-nana na-na,
Form a line to the throne,
Na-na-na na-nana na-na,
Form a line to the throne,
Alone in the chain it remains to be seen how,
How well you can play when the pawn takes the queen now,
Introducing for the first time,
Pharaoh on the microphone,
Sing, all hail,
What will be revealed today,
When we peer to the great unknown,
From the line to the throne,
Sing all hail,
What will be revealed today,
When we peer to the great unknown,
From the line to the throne,
La-la-la la-la la-la-la la-la,
Form a line here,
La-la-la la-la la-la-la la-la,
Form a line here,
Na-na-na na-nana na-na,
Form a line to the throne,
Na-na-na na-nana na-na,
Form a line to the throne,
La-la-la la-la la-la-la la-la,
Form a line here,
La-la-la la-la la-la-la la-la,
Form a line here,
Na-na-na na-nana na-na,
Form a line to the throne,
Na-na-na na-nana na-na,
Form a line to the throne,
It was crime at the time but the laws have changed yeah,
It was crime at the time but the laws have changed yeah,
1: Sounds like “sing” but could well be something else.
2: Prevailing opinion is that this word is “blood”, which would match up well with “bone”. However the initial ‘b’ sound seems to be missing. Hence it could also be “love” or possibly even “life”.
3: Thanks to Mark James for pointing out this lyric change (from “From the Line”).
(In case you’re wondering, it’s apparently “a parable linking primogeniture of pharaohs and the collapse of democracy under the Bush dynasty” – so there you go 🙂
PS: When I turn on the TV in the evening I do not particularly want to watch footage of babies projectile vomiting to the sounds of Rage Against the Machine. Thank you Australia’s Funniest Home Video Show!
PPS: Don’t go searching for anything including the word “Saxon” on Google Australia at the moment. You end up with nothing but Big Brother sites.
