Atheists and swine flu

The religious like to say "There are no atheists in foxholes", despite the countless atheists who fought and died in wars, or who survived through the horrors of the fox hole to stand up afterwards and say they never backed down or sought refuge in faith. Perhaps the saying needs to be updated now that swine flu causes more panic than war. Staunchly Catholic Mexico has closed down mass in its churches for the first time in hundreds of years. "Of course", they say, "we can't go to Church with swine flu around, a single parishioner could spread to it thousands if they are packed into a Church", not noticing the monumental shift from faith to science that this statement encompasses. Father Jose Camarena is organising home visits for sick families - and his advice: "I say to them: go drink a bottle of tequila, it may not cure the flu but it'll help you forget". When push comes to shove, people are choosing scientific advice over religious practice. Perhaps the new saying should be "There is no faith during swine flu".

My last piece of business with town hall is now complete - I am now the proud owner of a Belgian drivers licence.

This one was the ordeal, first I had to get Belgian residency (which was made easier by my EU citizenship) and then I had to physically swap my Australian drivers licence for a Belgian one - if I ever want my Australian licence back I need to return the Belgian licence. Problems then arose because I am in Belgium on my UK citizenship but my drivers licence is Australian, so I had to prove that I lived in Australia for at least two years before getting my Australian licence. Academic transcripts from university served that purpose, but had to be confirmed by the Belgian police. Then the problem was that ACT drivers licences don't have an issue date, just an expiry date. I would have thought that having a valid unexpired licence was more important than the date of issue, but no, I needed an issue date. A letter for the ACT Registration Office was rejected on the grounds that it wasn't legalised, but today (on my sixth visit) I cleared up the unresolved paperwork and I have it!

I was a little mystified when she pushed a large sheet of pink paper towards me.

"What is this for?" I asked.

"That's your drivers licence".

"Really?"

She ruefully chuckled, "Yes, it would be nice to have plastic cards that fit in your wallet, but we don't have them yet in Belgium."