When Protectionism Leads to Derangement

Despite my otherwise unshakable affinity for Australians and all things Australian, our friends down under maintain one of the stupidest - and comically risible - protectionist policies. And not to leave even one scintilla of comedic potential on the table, the policy centers around...bananas.
Here is the basic jist: Aussies are a health conscious lot. They eat alot of fruit, 'cause it's good for you. Aussie banana farmers make alot of money growing and selling bananas to their countrymen. But lots of folks grow and sell bananas too, like, for instance, the Filipinos. If they were given the right to sell bananas in Australia, the Aussie farmers would make less money (and their countrymen would have more money having to spend less on bananas). So, despite the fact that everyday around the world hundreds of millions of people eat billions of bananas just like those grown in the Philippines, the Aussie banana protectionists persist in maintaining the preposterous notion that Filipino bananas are somehow unsafe. The stupidity doesn't end there. When a cyclone wipes out the banana crop in Oz, you'd think they'd let in a few foreign bananas in, at least temporarily, so that people could have bananas, any bananas, to eat. Nope. But if you think that is height of brainlessness that could prevail in the effort to insulate local banana farmers from competition, you would be, woefully, wrong. They will even call for a boycott of pretty much the only airline that can get you in, out, or around Australia for the unconscionable sin of serving a Filipino banana onboard. Protectionism can lead people to say and do some pretty dumb things.