Episode description

🤑 CHIP IN TO OUR PATREON https://www.patreon.com/ARationalFear
📨 SUBSCRIBE TO OUR EMAIL LIST: http://www.arationalfear.com/

This week's podcast takes you flash points for disaster around the world; India, London, and Clive Palmer's office.

Indian authorities are clamping down on criticism against Prime Minister Modi, banning critical hashtags and throwing people in jail who tweet against the PM's response to COVID19.

So at only a small personal risk to himself, Anuvab Pal unleashes his thoughts on Modi this week's podcast rather than broadcast them on twitter.

Also UK Journalist and host of Course Correction podcast, Nelufar Heydat, uploads her concerns about a new NHS COVID Vaccination Passport App, that will divide the UK into the jabs and jab-nots.

And Dom Knight from satirical comedy outfit The Chaser, brings to light one of Clive Palmer's more recent failings. A proposal for a coal mine less than 10km from the Great Barrier Reef has been rejected by the state government.

We also discuss how A Rational Fear can get some of that $19686 per minute in fossil fuel subsidies. (Spoiler: We can't, please join our Patreon ) — oh and God pops by.

🤑 CHIP IN TO OUR PATREON https://www.patreon.com/ARationalFear
📨 SUBSCRIBE TO OUR EMAIL LIST: http://www.arationalfear.com/

Unknown Speaker  0:00  
Rational fear contains naughty words like bricks, camera, and gum, and section body, or rational fear recommended listening by immature audience.

Dan Ilic  0:13  
George Christensen shocking announcement that he's leaving politics is eclipsed by the shocking revelation. He's only 42 years old. And in Canada pledges to cut its carbon emissions by 40% before 2030, which is huge if Trudeau and Victorian Government has introduced a new tax on electric vehicles. Tonight we'll teach you how to convert your Tesla to a Model T Ford. It's the 30th of April 2021. And now milkshake brings all the boys to the yard of their own volition. This is a rational fear irrational

Welcome to irrational fear. I'm your host the ADHD enabled dickhead Dan Ilic. This is the podcast that takes the toughest topics and breaks them open like a pink lunchbox filled with USB sticks. Joining us on the podcast tonight he's been writing and performing satire for so long it's too late to change to something more lucrative like fossil fuel extraction from the chaser it's dumb night. Yes, preferably a fossil myself now

Dom Knight  1:17  
but I did try to change careers but I failed. So hello.

Dan Ilic  1:21  
And this is an Afghanistan born British journalist who speaks English Farsi, Hindi and dari. But this is her first time speaking Australian from Doha debaters course correction podcast. It's nella Hidayat.

Unknown Speaker  1:34  
Hello.

Dan Ilic  1:37  
That was a very honourable attempt. And finally his half torso, half legs, but all heart It's Louis Alba.

Lewis Hobba  1:46  
That's right. It's a very strange heart that is really leg shaped at the bottom.

Dan Ilic  1:52  
Coming up a little later on the grind and event pal joins us from Kolkata to shed light on whether Prime Minister Modi is the best Indian Prime Minister of all time, or the greatest Indian Prime Minister of all time. But first a message from our sponsor.

God  2:06  
Hi, I'm God, also known as Yahweh, the Lord Jehovah. And in some circles, Jenny, you may remember me for being the father of Jesus, the guy who was murdered by the mob when the local authorities claimed his safety was the responsibility of the seats. Now I just want to clear a few things up. Your Prime Minister Scott Morrison claimed that I came to him in a vision. And I said quote, Scott, you've got to run for Prime Minister. Well, that's not how I remember it. I remember hearing to him and saying Scott, you've got the runs. And if you don't make it home, you'll have to stop it and the dean McDonald's. I'm glad we could clear that up on the record. And remember, folks love one another. Although I understand that's more of an inner city a dinner party cafe. Greene's thing to do. Oh and buy my book is big, and it's a best seller.

Dan Ilic  3:12  
All right, this week's first fear Clive Palmer's proposal a bit of cold nine near the Great Barrier Reef has been dealt with a blow saying the project is not suitable. The problem is not suitable is Clive Palmer's whole brand dinosaurs on a golf course not suitable replica of a titanic the never sailed not suitable spending $60 million on a spoiler campaign to steal votes from labour not suitable paying people who work in his nickel refinery, not suitable dome in a world where coal is king, aka Queensland. How did Clive Palmer lose out to the environment on this one?

Dom Knight  3:47  
Well, it's a funny thing. I mean, I gave his holiday for the central Queensland mine came because few years ago Clive read about a Danny he read about all the years of objections. He read about the terrible environmental disaster or the ruining of the groundwater. And he just went home with Tim Tams. I've got an idea for a minute and this is where we are today. I was confused because, look, one thing that Queenslanders do not do is object to mines. You know Queensland has approved coal mines, like they're rejecting coming motorists from New South Wales. I love the coal as though with King Wally Lewis or a ship condo at surface like this is their thing. But then I remembered that Clive Palmer ran in the last election he spent was a $40 million or something I think even though $6 million 0.6% of the vote. This is in Queensland, so they've just Labour's just gone not know Clive, we hate you. You're the one man. Look, if Twiggy first proposes a coal mine Gina Rinehart Daryl summers could prefer Richard PC to get it up but Clive is the one guy who is saying no do not because they don't like Carl that is don't like Clive

Dan Ilic  4:52  
urich and Clive is the liability for his own coal mine.

Dom Knight  4:57  
I think so. net niloufar If you know Clive Palmer he's he's kind of like the Australian prototype for Donald Trump. except he's actually a billionaire. He was there for about three years. He turned up in a Rolls Royce. And then eventually we got rid of him big time. Yeah, billionaires in politics, it turns out don't mix. So well.

Nelufar Hedayat  5:15  
No, it's shocking, because the wide and varied history of the UK has proven not to be not true. I mean, look at today's news, right. So today, we've had calls for Boris Johnson, our Prime Minister to be investigated because he didn't like the former Prime Minister's Theresa Mays wallpaper. He's accused of like spending 1000s and 1000s of pounds doing up number 10 with donor money. And you know what, one of the things that I really find true in the UK is we use the word crony to mean corrupt because we just we don't seem to be able to say corrupt. So there's accusations of cronyism, but this sort of idea of like billionaires coming in, it's I mean, I'm gonna say you got that from us. I'm just gonna say

Lewis Hobba  6:00  
the fact that Boris Johnson is gone, you know what I mean, at number 10. And the first thing that I really need to put on this whole place is my personal taste. The idea that his arrogance extends so far that he can go look at this hair. Now imagine the decision I'll make on this wall.

Nelufar Hedayat  6:18  
No one's gonna say that Teresa Mays like got the eye on the interior design world, right. But at the same time, he's absolutely shameless. And because he's been baseer, because I'm sure this feller is and kind of walking up with a Rolls Royce or driving up whatever the Rolls Royce, he gets away with it. There's something about politics in a developed world where if you have a personality, people are like, Oh, he's just like us. He's just like us. It doesn't matter if his ancestors are Turkish royalty, or whatever he must be. And it's that sort of gaudiness with which they kind of approach politics that that that means that they can get away with it. it's astounding.

Dom Knight  6:53  
I love the Boris Johnson story and I love that the Prime Minister the UK during one of the world's worst pandemics has come out. Well, we better decorate for we can do anything else.

Nelufar Hedayat  7:03  
When did you make that decision? Like when 2000 people were dead 20,000 people it's astounding to know that this is something that you know he had time for as well as having a baby. Also, he's

Lewis Hobba  7:12  
such a he's such a like giant teenager that you like, how expensive is it just to buy a Reservoir Dogs poster that you're playing?

Unknown Speaker  7:24  
The first order of business is to tear down these fluid delays and then put up some racing cars.

Dom Knight  7:32  
I love I'm sure Boris and Clive were going everywhere. But I mean, Clive. Yep, see, right. Clive is so ridiculously flamboyant. But at the same time, he is a serious coal miner. He does all this kind of stuff. And this this proposal, the central Queensland mine was an absolute doozy guys. I mean, I had a look at it. And you know how Adani was 160 kilometres from the coast. This is 10 Yeah, 10 kilometres from the barrier. It is on the coastal floodplain, it's an open pit mine. So whenever it rains, the water just gonna wash straight onto the roof. It's extraordinary.

Dan Ilic  8:05  
And I love how I love how the government said no at a state level. But then the central Queensland coal company spokesperson said, I think there's still a pathway forward to get this going.

Nelufar Hedayat  8:18  
Around the world, like here in the United Kingdom, like Australia has quite a reputation of being a vanguard of being at the forefront of like climate action. And like, you know, banning plastic bags and working on all this stuff. And that's kind of Yeah, we don't know there's a billionaire coal man wandering around trying to absolutely decimate the barrier reef like why are we hearing about this? This is insane.

Lewis Hobba  8:40  
Our current prime minister now will just say walked into parliament holding a lump of coal yelling that it wouldn't hurt people like people, these people are

Unknown Speaker  8:51  
holding stuff. I mean, snowballs, climate change.

Dom Knight  8:56  
We found out this week that he likes touching people to heal them in kind of a Christian way. So the two things he likes touching are people who don't want him to in coal. That's what we're dealing with at the moment,

Unknown Speaker  9:06  
are rational fear.

Unknown Speaker  9:08  
By believing someone in social media has its virtues and values, to connect people in ways

Unknown Speaker  9:15  
those weapons can also be used by anyone a rational fear.

Dan Ilic  9:21  
That brings us to the second fear of the week, Australia's biggest doll Blodgett is receiving $19,686 a minute in welfare and that's the fossil fuel industry. Yeah, if you think $19,686 a minute is a lot of money. Well, it is. It's it's kind of more than the Australian government spends on the army. That's more than the Australian government spends on the Air Force. It works out to be about $10 billion a year we could have. We could have 10 more ABCs for that kind of money or at least one ABC that pays Louis Well yeah, finally,

Unknown Speaker  9:52  
someone plays I

Dan Ilic  9:55  
mean, this is this is great like wasn't one of the biggest plays in the local industry, Exxon Mobil They make $30 billion a year over four years and yet they pay zero tax. So fear mongers let me ask you this, how can we this podcast get some of that? $19,686 a minute?

Nelufar Hedayat  10:12  
Well, we can definitely start off by holding these lumps of coal you said.

Unknown Speaker  10:18  
Now,

Dan Ilic  10:19  
maybe I'm gonna put some recruit oil on my face and turn up in oil face, that'll probably get some sweet sweet dollars. Yeah, do we, if

Lewis Hobba  10:27  
we just start digging, like if we just go in the backyard? And like, I reckon they might be called a gang and just like, get like get the dog in there, the dog can mine. How small does the dig have to be before we start getting some of those subsidies?

Nelufar Hedayat  10:38  
Well, the closer to the barrier reef, the more likely we are to actually

Dom Knight  10:44  
just hit out on that we'll just head out on the roof, go out there on a surfboard and just start literally drilling into coral. And money will fall from the sky.

Dan Ilic  10:54  
Now this is actually a generous kind of kind of calculation from the Australia Institute, this $10 billion figure, the IMF did a calculation a few years back that put the cost of health care and the cost of the environment as factors with inside that subsidy. And the number is way bigger. It's like 29 billion US dollars a year in subsidies. It's just mind boggling now. Now you're outside of Australia. On your podcast cause correction. This week, you speak with former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gilad about her time in office and her attempts to bring the emissions trading scheme to Australia. What did you learn about Australia's climate politics? Speaking with her,

Nelufar Hedayat  11:33  
actually, that you guys are no better than any one of us, which is quite nice. Actually. Like I said, I mean, around the world, Australia does have a somewhat forward thinking view of climate action. And I don't know where this comes from, because it's blatantly a lie.

Unknown Speaker  11:48  
Yes, yes. Yeah. Great.

Dan Ilic  11:52  
It's so surprising that you say that because like ever since 1997, the Kyoto Protocol, we have been absolute, malignant assholes when it comes to the international negotiations,

Dom Knight  12:03  
your highest per capita emissions.

Unknown Speaker  12:05  
I mean, Whatsapp group.

Nelufar Hedayat  12:09  
Europe, well, we're not Europeans anymore. Oh, got that. Wow, that just gonna pop that control for later. Now. When we spoke to the Prime Minister, she was very, I think, you know, having lost the election because of her vote because of her carbon tax. It just felt like she had experienced what it's like to be at the forefront of change in that it's awful. Many of the people I've interviewed in my life Malala Yousafzai, Twin Peaks, astronauts, politicians, all types of folks have always kind of had this veneer of like, I'm a Changemaker thing is gonna be great. But on course correction, Judy Gilad just lays it out. And she's a woman. Let's say that let's put that out there. She's a woman so people are less likely to trust her when she says things. So we got into it. We really got into the to the nub of the issue. And yeah, it's a bit disheartening to think that a the messaging is all absolutely shambolic when it comes to climate change, and be that we're gullible enough to fall for it, because we want to believe in the good news, right.

Dan Ilic  13:13  
One of the things you said one of the things you said in that episode, which is really interesting was Julia kind of put the case that maybe the ETS was a hard thing to do. And even though it got torn down, it was still a worthy thing to do. Because it makes whatever comes next. Yeah. And the

Nelufar Hedayat  13:30  
person, she's a good leader, when it came to the climate bill, when it comes to ETS, she absolutely did all the right things, and she knew she was going to get banned for it. I can name I know, I can't, I can't name a single leader in the world except obviously the benevolent the good and the great Narendra Modi, who would do something along those lines of putting the nation putting something that's idealistic above herself.

Dom Knight  13:53  
You say that, but have you heard what our prime minister said this week in joe biden's Climate Summit, because this is impressive. This is impressive thinking it's creative. And I'm very proud of him, he managed to talk about the great carbon emissions that we have the moment all the reductions that we've made, he managed to exclude both the emissions on our exports and on our imports. So Australia's climate emissions look great if you don't count the stuff we dig out of the ground, or the ones that are you know, burnt, making things that what we import, which is every single thing that we have, it's like going to the pub and saying, Well, if you don't include all the BS that I drank, important in my body and the export of vomit at the end of the night, I'm actually sober to drive home.

Dan Ilic  14:41  
No, that's it like if you don't understand that's, like

Unknown Speaker  14:46  
none of the trick.

Dan Ilic  14:47  
None of this is true. None of this is tricky. None of this is hard. It's like it's fake accounting. One of my favourite things that was said though, was by your prime minister now. Boris Johnson, I think get a message for the whole world. When he was talking let me play a bit of that it's vital for all of us to show that this is not all about some expensive politically correct green active bunny hugging or however you want to put it I'm not even with bunny hugging you know what I'm driving at? You know what he's driving at? He's no he's it's not about Bernie hacking.

Nelufar Hedayat  15:24  
reputation of these United Kingdom's is what he's driving out funny hugging Mother of God I really just flattened by that. I mean that man represents my life. Like he is the person that we thought was best fit.

Unknown Speaker  15:43  
This is a rational view.

Dan Ilic  15:46  
This week's third fear international travellers in the UK will be asked to show their COVID vaccination test status with the NHS smartphone app. It's the same app that people book their NHS tests on. For me, it's it's problematic as the NHS app is only available for people in the UK, if they want. If they want international people to use it. They should use an app that everybody else uses like Tinder or something, you know, you got the Vax swipe right away, you go off to your baggage collection. Now what other problems do you see with this NHS passport?

Nelufar Hedayat  16:15  
So first of all, Michael Gove, he's kind of looking after this sort of thing. And we've got Mr. Wahby, who's in charge of the vaccination effort and trying to sort all of this stuff out, they have not come together in a consensus or a unified voice. So we literally don't know what's going on. In fact, the Guardian Today reported that the cop COVID passports that we thought were essential for going into pubs, just for quick payments of mates, or to restaurants is now being annexed and moved away into a different app into a certificate. And then there's going to be a passport, that means that you can go to some European countries, but only if you're wearing a yellow hat and holding a song. Here's my thing with all of this is COVID has shown us like just it's just been an absolute eye opener in terms of the haves and the have nots and how we have in the global north chosen to divide society. It was obviously a big raucous around the world a couple of weeks ago, when it's been proven that most of the vaccine 80% of the vaccines in the world have gone to the global north. And that's why you end up with situations that may or may not be happening in India right now.

Dan Ilic  17:15  
Finally, finally, the term global South makes sense for Australia. It's like yeah, we're now in the global south. We're not getting any vaccine.

Unknown Speaker  17:24  
Welcome to that. Not so, good club.

Nelufar Hedayat  17:26  
One of the main things that I'm concerned about is this holiday home loophole. Right. So if you have a holiday home, you can like bypass all the queues, all the lines, forget the bureaucracy that has to come with this thing not to mention that I could probably just pick up a piece of paper, stick a sticker on it and call it a passport myself. Like there is no thoughts, no foresight, no nothing going into this and it's going to create an absolute storm of it. When it comes to student holiday time

Dom Knight  17:55  
versus dad's been using that as a reason versus dead Ben jaunting off to Spain or something to his holiday house. Yeah,

Nelufar Hedayat  18:01  
it's a Stanley I can't remember his name he Hanley Stanley Stanley is a legend. Not Not Not a good legend. So much of it going on in the UK. But But you know, we have a different lexicon for it in the global north in Europe. We don't call it corruption. We don't call it misplacement of public funds. We don't call it ineptitude. Within the public service. We say it's a Bumble. We say, mommy huggers, we say that it's it's all gonna be all right on the you know, on the night and all this kind of chat. So so I don't what I what I'm really terrified of is that we're going to stumble into another situation where people are going to pay the price for government ever. And that's what's happening here with this

Dan Ilic  18:46  
pen. And mostly it's those people who still have got a Nokia 3310 because you know, the app doesn't work on that. Yeah,

Nelufar Hedayat  18:53  
I know. I you know, I think your Tinder Tinder thing is good shout out. And if Michael Gove cabinet ministers listening right now, I would like you to think about this as a sensible option because your NHS app is actual shite.

Lewis Hobba  19:05  
So you're asking for Michael Gove to get on Tinder. Is that what you're officially putting on the record?

Unknown Speaker  19:11  
He'll do well,

Dan Ilic  19:12  
on next we speak with an event pal from India. But before we get to him, the ABC sports reporter Jared code has a podcast and I was a guest on it. And I promised to run an ad for that show.

Lewis Hobba  19:21  
Speaking of cronyism, that's

Unknown Speaker  19:25  
incredible.

Lewis Hobba  19:29  
This is staggering. No one

Dan Ilic  19:33  
here it is.

Unknown Speaker  19:34  
Hello, Norman here. This is an ad for the get Jerry on podcast, a podcast and interviews comedians, where they come up with fun and silly ways to try and convince Jerry Seinfeld to come on. Unlike me, Jerry can't be bored so it's not going to happen. But it's fun to listen to these idiots try. Whether it's standing in a park with a sign begging a quarantine Daniel suas to go on the pod or pointless Billboard at a Sydney train station. This pod is doing all it can to get Gerry's attention. And I can tell you they are so far off, Jerry is more likely to take a call from me at this stage. So subscribe to the get Jerry on pod now, someone Seinfeld's agent finally responds, asking how many listeners they have, they won't have to lie like they have to all the others. Now back to our rational fear of feeling Gary would have if he knew this podcast existed.

Dan Ilic  20:29  
Now, you may have heard things that go into shit in India, but I'm not talking about the arrival of the British. That was some time ago, India's COVID cases are climbing fast. And they've hit a new global record with over 350,000 new cases per day this week with official numbers saying that around 2000 people a day are dying. But the real numbers are probably much worse. Joining us to agree with the official numbers or face arrest by Prime Minister Modi is the great and EVAP How can I innovate? What's

Anuvab Pal  20:56  
it like where you are? Everything's perfectly fine. Nothing wrong at all. Just a tranquil tranquil day in India. Some people are saying that they watched a new release in the theatres just before we had the lockdown. And that release was King Kong Vs. Godzilla. And a lot of us could identify with what happened to the cities in and, and looking at those cities. People were saying, Yeah, this is a perfectly reasonable place to live. And that's how we're living right now. So So basically, we're in a Hollywood movie set, and it's everything else you hear is an exaggeration. It's made up. Just give me one second, I'm just going to turn down the surveillance camera. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Now we can have a conversation. Yeah, we're all gonna die.

Lewis Hobba  21:56  
so considerate of Modi to give you a volume button on camera. And that's really,

Anuvab Pal  22:01  
it. You know, it's one of those things, we stopped our exports from China. So a lot of our technology isn't working, right. So as I'm just getting past that loophole by being able to turn this down, I can just tell you how bad things were just one quick example, which is, I mean, I leave the news for all the grim, morbid stuff, a petty criminal, a thief in the Central State of Madhya Pradesh, who was an expert thief, he was very good at stealing small things like car hubcaps. Lots of random steel equipment, like he was an expert, decoyed he stole a large shipment of vaccines. And he returned it with a note in Hindi saying, I'm sorry, I didn't know. These were vaccines. So even petty criminals are stepping up to do the job for the Government of India. We're in a condition where basically, I'm turning to my high school group to see if we can help each other and I hate my I read the day before I was telling my wife how the whole a bunch of third treat, you know, scumbag bastard. Now we see each other's lives. So rule is, I guess never dis your high school friends. Because even if you hate them, they'll come through when the government doesn't.

Dom Knight  23:17  
I would like to thank Anna Bob's classmates signing up to the Patreon.

Unknown Speaker  23:20  
Yeah.

Dan Ilic  23:23  
I mean, that would be great. I know. There's a big audience in India and a vibe. So please tweet about this. Now lections are still happening in the in the state of West Bengal with around 17,000 cases per day. Still, how does one responsibly campaign to get elected there?

Anuvab Pal  23:40  
Yeah. So I'm in the city where there's elections today, in central Calcutta. It's one of the phases where Calcutta is the capital of Western goal. Yeah, elections are going on. Now. I was curious to know what why an individual would come out and attend an election rally. In the middle of this right. We're in the middle of 40 degrees heat, and you are a very poor Indian person working on a farm. If you go to listen to an election rally, you're going to lose a day's work. So why would you why who in their right mind would go and listen to political speeches in the middle of this. And then I found out in true Indian fashion, there's bribery involved. So you know, one of the age old things were very good at cricket and bribery. So what they give you is they give you 500 rupees and a packet of biryani, if you go and attend these speeches, and to be honest, I would go for 500 rupees and a packet of brownie and it doesn't even matter which side you're listening to really,

Dan Ilic  24:38  
what is 500 rupees worth in in dollars. How

Anuvab Pal  24:42  
do you get a Coca Cola and I don't know a sandwich of some kind. But the point is, that's how you get crowds you know, and it's something we comedians should learn from. When you know we play to empty houses at the end of COVID you know, some biryani and because you're looking at these pack crowds and the media is like What the hell? Why the hell would you do this? that problem? I have no answer for I mean, you'd have to ask. Or once again, the cameras back on again are fantastic Prime Minister Modi. Every scholarly answer philosophical Hansen, Prime Minister Modi. I could do that in 3434 languages if you'd like.

Dan Ilic  25:22  
I'm speaking of the hat, the very handsome and the render birdie at Facebook has banned the hashtag resign Modi. Why, why? Why can they? Why can they prevent Narendra Modi from having hurt feelings but not prevent genocide in Myanmar?

Anuvab Pal  25:34  
You know, one of the things that Prime Minister Modi has understood about history is that if you constantly Forget it, then you can repeat it. And to everyone, it's new, you know, that's the thing. So, if you hadn't had the Nuremberg trials, then if you ever had something like Nazi Germany, again, people be like, Whoa, what is this? This is amazing. What is this? You know, so But if you don't, if you don't have regret, shame, if you don't ever say I'm sorry, you can keep going. You can keep doing stuff. And there's a new narrative that's, that's coming out from the government, which basically says, forget the past. Let's all worked together, forget the past. Now, the past was about six minutes. So that's a really good way to think about forget the guys lying here, this is dead. Forget

Dan Ilic  26:25  
about the future now that that word help us. And speaking of the past this week, Australia is closing its borders to India. Now the rate of infection per capita in India is because it is so huge, the rate of infection is about the same as Italy and the United States and the UK about 200 per million. It's almost it's almost like there's something different between the people of India and the people of the UK and USA, but I can't put my finger on it. And in fact, do you have any idea why Australia is trading India so

Anuvab Pal  26:55  
differently? It's an age old thing. It's an age old thing. It's been going on for 1000s of years. The Americans are in denial of it. And you know, all know what I'm talking about. It's the big word. It's cricket. Basically, you know what happened? I mean, some show some people that five people that follow cricket in the world, probably know that the Indian cricket team beat everyone in Australia, if they get away, they might do it again. So why not just ban everyone? Other people are saying racism, I don't think it's racism. I really think that's what it is. They just don't want these 11 people to get there again.

Dan Ilic  27:32  
I think I've got a picture of two cricketers flying internally in India. This is them on a domestic flight, David Warner, and Kane Williamson on a flight internally in India. It's like the only people who have got these guys or four people on the podcast. They're dressed head to toe in hazmat kind of suits. They don't even real hazmat suits. They're like dust certs that painters wear and they've got masks on. And that's about it. Like it's not even not even a real, not even a real kind of hazmat suit.

Dom Knight  28:01  
Well, the news have just come through this evening that, in fact, to Australian cricketers have found a way through the blockade or you've got to do you've just got to fly to Doha, do the tests in Doha and then come back from there and oh, and also be white and rich?

Unknown Speaker  28:18  
was very, very well.

Dom Knight  28:19  
I don't know who it is. They haven't been identified, but I suspect that Steve Smith and Dave wanted just sandpapering through the rules.

Lewis Hobba  28:26  
Yeah, the other the other only other alternative is if you get cast in the new Thor film,

Unknown Speaker  28:32  
as well.

Dan Ilic  28:33  
Yeah, at this point, there are so many Hemsworth they could create their own cricket team. I think there is a thing that is 11 and Swiss brothers,

Unknown Speaker  28:40  
then I might watch cricket. I mean,

Nelufar Hedayat  28:44  
we should look into this Australia.

Anuvab Pal  28:48  
I did see somewhere that your prime minister said he wasn't going to give a special claim to Australian cricketers to go back. And, and I think that there's good reason for it. Because, given some of your leading players spend so much time in India, a couple of them are in Bollywood films. They've done their own romantic comedies here. I just recently saw your former captain in a chewing tobacco commercial, I think they'll have a harder time proving their Australian credentials.

Dom Knight  29:14  
I think if you'd seen one of Brett lays a Bollywood movies as I have, you would close the borders permanently. No restraints ever again.

Anuvab Pal  29:22  
Now there you go. Tom probably knows more about Bollywood that I do. I was three minutes of that film. And then I did not watch cricket for six months. So I don't know if you've sat through it. You're a better Indian person than I am. So.

Dom Knight  29:34  
Well, one question I have for you on a verb is about these numbers. And we mentioned that the rate of infection is looks on paper like the West but I talked to my wife is Indian. And she said, Look, no one believes the numbers. Both because they can't possibly catch everyone because there's slums. Things are doing really badly there. But also, people just think the government is changing the numbers. Is that the sense you get on the ground there?

Anuvab Pal  29:58  
Yeah, I mean, look, there's small discrepancy. sees the just the tiny factor of 100 is the lie. So saying one, basically, numbers 100. So if you can work out what that equation is, from the lie to the actual, you'll be fine. And this goes back to an old indian thing that we have. And maybe it has something to do with being in a third world country, maybe something to do with a complex about not being rich enough as a country that people always say, you know, never, never, like, accept blame for anything. Because, you know, we have this phrase in India, where the where the prepositions are messed up, and the phrases it will come on you. It can be inappropriately translated in the West. But what they really mean is, and I don't mean to intrude on anyone's private life here, but what they really mean is, you will be blamed for it all. So you know, if say, India is reporting a million deaths, everyone be like, Oh, my God, look at India million deaths, India. And it's, it's, they teach us this in high school as well, just if you've done something wrong, don't admit it. Otherwise, it's just going to come on.

Dom Knight  31:06  
He said, Prime Minister, Scott Morrison Indian.

Anuvab Pal  31:11  
This The thing with the COVID COVID thing. And we did this at the last wave as well. Basically, if you don't admit, it's going on, it's not happening. And we solve Indian family conflicts that way as well. If we suppress it long enough, one or the other party will die after really resolve the problem, but what's happening is now India has a lot of good data scientists and the want to tell the world the facts, right. They want to you know, they have we have brilliant scientists, we have brilliant civic society, people who studied abroad who want to give people the reality. And what the government is saying is that these are made up numbers to make India look bad. So that's the new thing that's going on. Because it's not a pandemic. It's a fashion show, and you cannot look bad.

Dan Ilic  31:52  
I want to thank you for joining us on irrational fear. And I hope you don't get arrested because of this podcast. Like so many of your country, people have been arrested for tweeting things about Modi on Twitter. So thanks. Thanks so much for joining us on irrational fear.

Anuvab Pal  32:06  
It's my pleasure by the way My name is not about Paul, this never happened. But I wish you guys wherever you are. Good luck.

Dan Ilic  32:15  
That's it for the show tonight. big thank you to Dom night nella had died and Louis harbour and an EVAP How do you guys got anything to plug? Don't you wanna plug anything?

Dom Knight  32:23  
I'm doing absolutely nothing other than this has been wonderful.

Dan Ilic  32:27  
What would you like to plug

Nelufar Hedayat  32:29  
in podcasts out right now across all reputable podcasts? Sure. Which is Spotify, Apple podcasts and Stitcher and all of that. Please listen. It's really good. I'm in it could

Dan Ilic  32:37  
cause correction. It is very good. All check it in the show notes. Louis, you want to plug anything?

Lewis Hobba  32:41  
Oh, you know what, actually, yeah, for the first time in the history of this podcast. I actually have launched a new podcast in the last few weeks. Yeah, it's called simply the jest. It's from our radio show that we do on Triple J. It is though, like most insane stories, that Triple J listers which might not mean much to you know that. They're basically like a bunch of beautiful, psychotic wild grumps. Every week, we give them a topic and anyone in the country can call in and tell their story very quickly. And we hear about 20 and then we pick our favourite one and it is Darius

Dan Ilic  33:18  
Lewis and I have shows coming up in Vega and Newcastle. Stay tuned for that. And we've also got a show coming up in Chippendale sometimes, which just got moved this week, which is fantastic. big thank you to rode mics, the birther Foundation, our wonderful Patreon supporters, Jacob brown on the tepanyaki timeline. The incredible Rupert Degas for his incredible God voice over at the stone at the start of the show. Until next week, there's always something to be scared of. Goodnight

A Rational Fear on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ARationalFear

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If Patreon isn't your thing, and Apple Subscriptions are too Appley — chip in with A-Cast here: https://plus.acast.com/s/a-rational-fear-1.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.