Newsworthy

Since moving here, in addition to reading the news from back home and new home, I've been reading some international news sites, mostly the BBC and guardian. And I've noticed that whenever my countries get mentioned in the various presses, it is due to some sort of interesting political event that could have implications for the rest of the world (e.g. Julia Gillard going off at Tony Abbott, plain cigarette packagaing, investigations into child abuse) or a completely bizarre goings on.

Okay, the bizarre Australian things aren't that weird (to me) because it usually pertains to people being injured or killed by some sort of *normal* Aussie thing (dingos, spiders, snakes, the desert...). This doesn't strike me as particularly strange because I accept that Australia is a great object of fascination for people who live in environments that are devoid of killer drop bears and a fairly uniform climate.

The same is of course true for Germany. When Germany makes the news, it's generally related to the major role it has in the Eurozone...but the strange things that make the international news are, in my opinion REALLY strange. Okay, the Catholic Church threatening to ban parishoners from services if they didn't pay their Church tax wasn't that unusual (for me) but it did elicit some questions from Aussie friends about whether I was paying a church tax (hahahaha, NO!). The general bizarre nature of the German language is, of course, always good for a chuckle. But perhaps one of the best things I've read about Germany in the foreign press was this piece about a guy who was found driving with a mobile office built into his car. Say what you like about the German work ethic, they don't seem to bother about proving the world wrong.

*EDIT* I'm sorry, but the car story has been superseded by the sudden knowledge that not only is BESTIALITY legal in Germany, but because the Bundestag is looking to ban it, that there is a group of people who are defending their right to have animals as partners. Well done Germany, I'd like to see how you top that for weirdness.