The Lucky Country.

In the Lounge Room, I feel like telling you a joke that is possibly not just related to Australia but might be world wide and in a sence, I can relate to it for I was an Immigrant myself.

In the 50's we in Australia had an official White Australia Policy accepting migrants only from certain accepted countries. In this category, The Greeks and Italians appeared to be favoured for they had some experiance in fields that Australia was short at that time. Lougie an Italian was a Green Grocer in Italy who was looking for more fortunes in the promissed land. The Australian Government accepted his resume that he was an experianced Horticulturist for he knew all about the vegies background and what he was selling. His story was accepted and he was granted an entry visa.

Unfortunately, Lougie could not read nor write in the English language and in every attempt to get a job he was told that because he could not write nor read he can not do the job required. His relatives eventually told him that there is a certain job that he can get for nobody else seemed to accept the job. The Blacktown City council was advertising for a Dunny Man. When he did not know what that job required he was told that all he had to do is to collect the outhouse toilet pans, replace them with a fresh one and take the pans back to the council for their disposal and fill out a form how many he collected. Needless to say Lougie said,: "I can not read nor wite", so he did not get the job. He was devastated and took some time off in the local park to contempate his future. He noticed that the guy next to him on the park bench was eating an orange. The smell of it overwhelbed him for fresh oranges in Italy was not a daily occurance. He aproached the guy and asked if he had a spare orange for he never had such a fruit giving him such a pleasure. At the same time he also asked where he got it from and how much it costs. The guy told him that it came from the Italian Grocery around the corner and it cost him 3 cents. Lougie quickly picked up on this and he brought some oranges for 3 cents and sold it for 6 cents. In time he became the orange king in Australia and his empire was worth Millions. He invited some of his uncles and other relatives from Italy to visit him and took all of them out to a night of entertainment. When he got presented with the Bill, he looked at it and passed it to his uncle and said," Uncle look after this for I can not read nor write." His uncle said: "Lougie you are a Millionaire and you can not read nor write, what would you be if you could read or write". Lougie said: " I would be a Dunny Man collecting shit at the Black Town Council."