Translator: Joseph Geni
Reviewer: Morton Bast
So little Billy goes to school,
and he sits down and the teacher says,
"What does your father do?"
And little Billy says, "My father plays the piano
in an opium den."
So the teacher rings up the parents, and says,
"Very shocking story from little Billy today.
Just heard that he claimed that you play the piano
in an opium den."
And the father says, "I'm very sorry. Yes, it's true, I lied.
But how can I tell an eight-year-old boy
that his father is a politician?" (Laughter)
Now, as a politician myself, standing in front of you,
or indeed, meeting any stranger anywhere in the world,
when I eventually reveal the nature of my profession,
they look at me as though I'm somewhere between
a snake, a monkey and an iguana,
and through all of this, I feel, strongly,
that something is going wrong.
Four hundred years of maturing democracy,