Cathy in Wonderland

No, I didn't eat glowing mushrooms, take drugs or even get drunk as a skunk, so wonderland doesn't mean the "realm of illusions caused by the inebriated state of the subject", I'm referring to the mother of all wonderlands, the amazing Oz and difference between Australia and Finland.

My reality looks like this

First difference to be commented on is laundry. Most of the Australians we have met have had some very peculiar ways to do laundry, like using cold water and only using quick programs. What the heck people, don't you have any imagination? Yes, we used the quick, water and energy saving program that only took 15 minutes, BUT when I took the clothes out of the machine, some of them were still dry. Yeah, right, I should think that is obvious. What about cold water then? Well, laundry powder doesn't even dissolve in cold water so no wonder the clothes are still full of stains when you hang them to dry.

I totally understand that people want to save water, especially if they rely on rain water, but still I feel like there's a time and a place for saving and this is not it. I want my clothes clean and neat. And there is no way I will save water when it comes to washing dishes, you can't really wash plates and cutlery in a greasy, dirty water unless you want to contract cholera.

And fruits and veggies then? Well, most of the fruits consumed in Finland are imported because the climate is too cold for growing anything except apples and the occasional plum. Potatoes, carrots and other root vegetables and such are grown but many kinds of vegetables are imported because domestic production can't meet the demand or because it's cheaper to import them or because of several reasons I have no idea about. In Australia almost everything is Australian grown. Fruits, vegetables, meat, dairy, everything is Australian (or at least that's what they want us to believe). The prices are just absurd and I can't remember when was the last time I saw ripe tomatoes. The quality of the products is.. well we can't really say "quality" in this context.

It made us think how is it possible that a country like Finland that relies heavily on imports can still offer the consumers better products at a cheaper price that Australia, where everything is domestically produced. OK, the salaries in Oz are better than in Finland but somehow I get the feeling that a good percentage of the local products are picked and packed and probably also delivered by backpacker slaves.

The serfs on the field

Our conclusion is that people are not very innovative here. No worries attitude has gone one step too far, work is done in an inefficient and expensive way. Apparently the government doesn't subsidize agriculture like there are in European union, so the farmer's salary depends purely on the sales. Or whatever, I have no idea, I just feel something must be amiss here.

The third and last thing I keep wondering is the flexibility regarding work. That seems to be inherent in Australians. Most of the Australians we know (we don't know that many Australians, so please notice that the sample size does not allow reliable  generalizations of the Australian labor market to be made) have tried many different occupations and done jobs that don't have anything in common with each other. It is acceptable to change your mind and want to do something else. People are not interested in your educational background, they are interested in whether or not you can do the job. A teacher can decide to become a chef and a chef can decide to start a firm that has nothing to do with food. Try this in Finland and you'll find a lot of obstacles on the way. "You don't have the education, you need a certificate for that". On the other hand sometimes I feel the lack of efficiency is mainly due to people who do things they don't know how to do. But that's life. A coin has two sides. Whoever finds the golden middle way will most likely receive a Nobel prize for it.