Ignoring XML Namespaces with ElementTree

[Pete]

Is there anyway to configure ElementTree to ignore the XML namespace?
For the past couple months, I've been using minidom to parse an XML
file that is generated by a unit within my organization that can't
stick with a standard. This hasnt been a problem until recently when
the script was provided a 30MB file that once parsed, increased the
python memory footprint by 1.0GB and now I'm running into Memory
Errors. Based on Google searches and testing it looks like ElementTree
is much more efficient with memory and I'd like to switch, however I'd
like to be able to ignore the namespaces. These XML files tend to
randomly switch the namespace for no reason and ignoring these
namespaces would help the script adapt to the changes. Any help on
this would be greatly appreciated. I'm having a hard time finding the
answer.

Additionally, anyone know how ElementTree handle's XML elements that
include Unicode?