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Vice Blog

JUDGING A PEOPLE BY ITS PARLIAMENT

Last week we saw some footage of a parliamentary session in Argentina which got awesome when rival parties the Justice Militants and the Radical Civic Union (PS: both

great

names) got in a fight over the election of a chairman someone didn't like. It was like having your regularly scheduled government-feed boredom interrupted by a good ole-fashioned country-and-western saloon brawl. One tough little guy threw a chair at another big fat guy and a second later every person in the room was hitting someone over the head with a chair. Eventually some riot cops came in and broke up the fun, but not before we'd all sighed over just how lame our MPs are by comparison. South Americans are always going on about their "passionate temperament," so it's not entirely surprising that their official gatherings would occasionally degenerate/FUNgenerate into full-blown fisticuffs. That said, there is no way you would've wanted to be caught in the midst of this Bolivian parliamentary brawl, which broke out between congressmen over plans to put four judges on trial for corruption. That guy in the green poncho looks like he means business. Asia in general and South Korea in specific used to be the champions of parliamentary rumbling (if you've ever seen the old video of Indian parliament members whipping each other with mic stands you'll know what we're talking about), but they've been turning in some lackluster performances in the past decade. The passage of some contentious media reform bills recently proved too infuriating for these Seoul politicians, with this particular parliamentary session evolving into a giant circle pit. Nice form, but a little by-the-numbers for us. But if South Korea's parliamentarians look a little lame next to their South American counterparts, then there are no words for the Australian equivalents. This is our ex-Prime Minister and now-Prime Minister bickering while the rest of the attendees fight for their lives to stay awake. The highlight is clearly when John Howard tells Kevin Rudd that he's "full of himself". OUCH.

Of course, just when you felt safe in saying that Australian MPs were the lamest of the lot, leave it to New Zealand to prove your ass massively wrong.