Ariddia
26-01-2008, 17:13
(No, I'm not returning. This thread is just a one-off. Really. ;))
Today is Australia Day (http://www.australiaday.gov.au). Like every year, it seems to be an opportunity for the Australian media to mull over the meaning of "being Australian". A few extracts for general interest and for comments:
Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson said it was a time to "reflect what it means to be an Australian and for us, as Australians, it's about courage, mateship, giving others a fair go and making sure — whether by birth or immigration — if we are Australians, we're Australians first and we're Australians last".
(link (http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/challenges-ahead-pm/2008/01/25/1201157673235.html))
FANCY setting a real fire under your Australia Day barbecue this weekend? Simply strike up a conversation about the Australian identity.
Ever since Banjo Paterson and Henry Lawson went at it in print over what constituted the Australian bush legend of the 1890s — and thus set the groundwork for the most pervasive Australian myth — there has rarely been agreement about what constitutes the Australian character.
The Australian journalist and author John Douglas Pringle once referred to the endless debate about Australian identity as “that aching tooth”.
With the first halting years of this latest century behind us, when it seemed that often pointless history wars would never be resolved, might there be the hope for relief from that ache by a simple acceptance that there is no one Australian identity, but a great marvellous diversity?
Within that still-evolving diversity is the happy knowledge that alone in the world, Australians have managed to create and hold together a single nation on a single continent without spilling blood.
The recent federal election serves to remind that central to our identity is the ability to hold a national debate without serious rancour and to change governments so smoothly that in the end, there seems to be a grace to it.
Change is the one constant in Australian society — within a decade of the legend of the bush inserting itself into the Australian soul in the late 1800s, Australia’s urban population was greater than its country cousin.
Even the old “Bible of the Bush” that gave voice all those years ago to Lawson’s and Paterson’s literary squabbling, The Bulletin, was put to the sword this week, partly the victim of the growth of that bamboozling and utterly democratic modern invention, the internet.
Yet before it went, its very last edition featured a survey that sought to understand the values that underpin the Australian character in 2008.
Its findings? We are happier than we were 10 years ago, Vegemite is the quintessential Australian food, we still live in the land of the fair go (just) and we are far too close to America.
Nothing too controversial about any of that, but we’re willing to bet there would be excited disagreement on every point around the barby.
Vegemite? What about san choy bow? The fair go? How about the disparity between workers on $15 an hour and CEOs raking in million? Too close to America? Maybe, but didn’t the Yanks save us in World War II?
Yet perhaps the real question ought to be more direct. Why, 220 years after Captain Arthur Phillip led a bedraggled cargo of convicts on to the shore of what would become Australia and planted a flag to formalise the arrival, should we be so concerned about who we are?
The truths are all around us. The recent years of drought, accompanied now by great floods in the north, have reinforced the essential knowledge that Australians survive in a tough environment by personal resilience and a willingness to help each other.
(link (http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/portrait-of-a-nation/2008/01/25/1201157677545.html))
The first recorded use of the loved and loathed insult goes all the way back to 1855.
FOR a term that presents itself as a straightforward case of right and wrong, "un-Australian" is a remarkable paradox. It is, for instance, un-Australian to flout water restrictions, yet it is equally un-Australian to dob your neighbour in for illegally watering their lawn. It is un-Australian to burn the flag, yet it is un-Australian to object to someone's right to burn the flag. Confused? Join the queue.
[...] From the facile to the deadly serious, un-Australianism is all around us. You'll hear it used in politics and sport, on current affairs shows and, of course, in the pub. Current generations might believe that to be un-Australian and its attendant "ism" were coined in the conservative 1990s, when the values debate raged and the then prime minister, John Howard, spearheaded a failed attempt to get the term mateship enshrined in the constitution.
But its ancestry goes back much further. Etymologically, it began life as a literal recognition of things that were not Australian in character; the first recorded use, in 1855, described a part of the landscape similar to Britain.
The 2005 Macquarie Dictionary was the first to formalise the modern usage as "not in accordance with the characteristics said to be typical of the Australian community". The move was long overdue: prime minister Stanley Bruce in 1925 said he would get rid of un-Australian troublemakers, while Joseph Lyons used it in the 1930s to describe communists and the non-British.
[...] "There's a long history of exclusion," says Joseph Pugliese, an associate professor of cultural theory who teaches a unit on un-Australian cultural studies at Macquarie University. "If you look at Australian history, the act of designating people and groups un-Australian has been going on for more than 200 years. Indigenous people were deemed un-Australian because in our constitution they weren't given citizen status until the 1960s."
Un-Australianism is clearly in the eye of the beholder. One Nation founder Pauline Hanson claimed a mortgage on the term during her parliamentary tenure but was regularly tarred with the same brush by her detractors.
[...] But perhaps Northern Territory government minister Mark Read topped them all by labelling a group of Aborigines un-Australian when they tried to stop tourists climbing Uluru during a mourning period.
[...] Cultural commentator Hugh Mackay has argued that anything labelled un-Australian is, in fact, Australian: "Surely it's 'Australian' to do whatever Australians do. It's Australian to drink and drive, to get hopelessly into debt, lie to secure an advantage — whether political, commercial or personal — and engage in merciless and slanderous gossip. It's Australian to give vent to our xenophobia through outbreaks of racism, to reserve our nastiest prejudices for indigenous people, and to worship celebrity … It's Australian to do such things because it's human to do them."
And here's the rub for eagle-eyed folk keen to expose the un-Australians in our midst: the concept fails the exclusivity test when one realises it is equally possible, following the same parameters of censorship and exclusion, to be un-British, un-Canadian, and, of course, un-American.
[...] The owner of a T-shirt emblazoned "Un-Australian", he thinks there is potential to alter the meaning of the term — "so while it can be deployed as a weapon to hurt or exclude or censor people, this counter-movement can use it as a badge of honour which identifies a different understanding of nation".
He adds of his T-shirt that, "My wife has asked me not to wear it because I look of Middle Eastern appearance and she thinks it might put me at risk."
(link (http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/blarissa-dubeckib-why-its-australian-to-be-unaustralian/2008/01/25/1201157665918.html))
The Opera House. Indigenous heritage. The AFL grand final at the MCG. Mateship. The beach. Multiculturalism. Silverchair. The fair go. The Great Barrier Reef. The Boxing Day cricket Test match. The spirit of adventure. Surfing.
These are just some of the reasons that Australians love their homeland.
On the eve of Australia Day, we've invited you to tell us the best thing about Australia.
Read here what you said.
(link (http://www.thebulletinblog.com.au/the_best_thing_about_australia_is_.htm))
Here's a selection of things posted by readers:
* Peace is the best thing a person can hope for. And peace is what you get in this lovely country... I moved to live in Australia 12 years ago, and left my country of birth (Palestine) a counrty that is everyday news because of wars.
* The best thing that I have found with the majority of Australians is our FairDinkumMentality Society, it always rhymes with our nature happy people, where it has lots of places to enjoy with the notion of being. Young and free a land about with nature's gift of beauty and rare Advance Australia Fair.
* The good thing about being an Aussie is, were not politically motivated. We just want a man's man to run run our country for us, and not sell us out, which has been happening since the 70s. We want to work hard and have roof over our family's head. We reward ourselves with a BBQ on the weekend.
* Blue skies, fresh air, weather, friendly people, wide open roads, diverse cultures, unique animals, a delicious range of food, AFL, cricket, sport, education, freedom of speech, a great flag, terrific shopping and most importantly varying beautiful landscapes and amazing sites within every State. I am from Victoria, I have been to every state in Australia and can easily and proudly acknowledge great things in every state - why not embrace the diversity, acknowledge the beauty and ditch the rivalry.
* The best thing about Australia is that we have a casual respect for authority, and authority has a casual respect for us. If you break the law and are caught, more often than not, if you had good intentions, you will be let off with a warning. If you broke the law with the intention to hurt others, we throw the book at you. [...] Oh, and then there the beaches, the weather, cold beer, democracy and all that stuff....
* Wow. After reading through the list, I guess the best thing about Australia is... everything. After living in the US for a while, I thought we Aussies lacked patriotism. Opinion changed! I thought the best thing about Oz was the beaches, now I think it could be the people.
* Among other things, I would say it would be our unique take on the English language.
* Having lived in the UK (and the source of Australia's humble origins) for several years, there is little comparison now between the two islands. We can thank mother England for the Westminster style of governance, also sports like cricket, rugby and sailing which we have made truly our own.
* I have never read such jingoistic rubbish founded on ignorance, greed, me-me and blind stupidity. We don't tolerate the rule of law here, we have thrown it in the bin the day the parliament voted for lifetime detention by executive decree for people who have never committed a crime and the high court upheld it 4-3 under Al-Kateb. We threw all human rights in the bin when the parliament voted to build a place like Woomera for children to be tear gassed and beaten up in or when we sent innocent people to Nauru in breach of Nauru's constitution. We have no right to claim any moral high ground after the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq where over one million have been slaughtered in our names for oil. Aborigines live in 4th world conditions because whiteys won't allow them to be any different or allow them to grow and protect their own lands or apologise for our cruelty. Multiculturalism has been wiped from the vocabulary by Howard and been replaced by citizenship, a test has been devised to trap muslims and stop them being citizens and muslims are persecuted and tormented on a daily basis by all manner of rednecks and the Murdoch press.
* Best thing about Australia is... we don't have to talk about how good it is every 10 minutes. Let's keep it that way.
* The best thing about Australia is our stable system of government. The smoothness and cleanness of Novermber's election is unknown in so many countries. I absolutely reject that any form of republic would come close to the success of our present system of constitutional monarchy which inclued our own Aussie Head of State, the Governor General.
* The best thing abut Australia is its freedom and tolerance under the rule of law, made possible by our constitution and adherence to the Westminster system of government. Almost everything else -well, maybe not our glorious beaches - depends on these.
* Ok, Australia Day is looming again; time to pull out the old "best country in the world" chestnut to get us all into the spirit in the absence of any true level of intellectualism. To the initiated, there is no best thing. The question itself smacks of self adulation and cultural cringe by the uninformed. What have we got? Only larrikins, celebrities and lifestyle coaches. In that sense Australia is a blank canvas. Perhaps that IS the best thing: The opportunity as a country to grow into something worthwhile, one day at a time.
* The best thing about Australia is that we are one indissoluble federal Commonwealth under the Crown. Under the Crown we have developed into one of the greatest democracies on earth, with stability and continuity that other nations can only dream of. [...] Our Sovereign Lady Elizabeth II and Governor-General are the guardians of our system and are above party politics. God bless the Queen of Australia and her many years of service to her people.
* Mateship, fair go and multiculturalism make Australia unique in the world.
* Australia is the greatest nation on Earth because it enjoys prosperity and individual liberty, with democratic rights to determine our own destiny. Central to those freedoms is the role of The Crown, which is indispensible, and immaculately performed by The Queen, which unlike any other system of government, denies politicians access to complete power and, thus, ensures they act in an accountable manner. The ability of The Crown to protect the Australian people was demonstrated in the 1930s and 1970s to save the people from outrageous government actions; furthermore, it was The Queen who personally ensured the complete independence of Australia through her overseeing the passage of the Australia Acts in 1986 through the British and Australian state and federal parliaments. Her Majesty has always conducted herself in a dignified manner, and it is the institution whose functions she conducts that underpins Australia's past, present and future success.
* We used to not worry about public displays of patriotism and flag waving. It was good as it allowed everyone to define the nation in a way that was inclusive for them. Now the national identity is being defined in the public sphere by a small minorty - including racist youths in Cronulla and the former PM. The result has been large segments of the community have been marginalised and the full and proper reflection of our country's achievements and mistakes is stifled.
* Without a doubt the best thing about Australia is our fantastic democracy - it allows us to enjoy all those things which are so typical of this great vibrant homeland. Where else would you see such a smooth transition from a Coalition to Labor government? We can enjoy Australia day because of our democracy. The freedoms we enjoy are without equal anywhere on the planet.
Etc, etc... You can see more here (http://www.thebulletinblog.com.au/the_best_thing_about_australia_is_.htm).
Today is Australia Day (http://www.australiaday.gov.au). Like every year, it seems to be an opportunity for the Australian media to mull over the meaning of "being Australian". A few extracts for general interest and for comments:
Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson said it was a time to "reflect what it means to be an Australian and for us, as Australians, it's about courage, mateship, giving others a fair go and making sure — whether by birth or immigration — if we are Australians, we're Australians first and we're Australians last".
(link (http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/challenges-ahead-pm/2008/01/25/1201157673235.html))
FANCY setting a real fire under your Australia Day barbecue this weekend? Simply strike up a conversation about the Australian identity.
Ever since Banjo Paterson and Henry Lawson went at it in print over what constituted the Australian bush legend of the 1890s — and thus set the groundwork for the most pervasive Australian myth — there has rarely been agreement about what constitutes the Australian character.
The Australian journalist and author John Douglas Pringle once referred to the endless debate about Australian identity as “that aching tooth”.
With the first halting years of this latest century behind us, when it seemed that often pointless history wars would never be resolved, might there be the hope for relief from that ache by a simple acceptance that there is no one Australian identity, but a great marvellous diversity?
Within that still-evolving diversity is the happy knowledge that alone in the world, Australians have managed to create and hold together a single nation on a single continent without spilling blood.
The recent federal election serves to remind that central to our identity is the ability to hold a national debate without serious rancour and to change governments so smoothly that in the end, there seems to be a grace to it.
Change is the one constant in Australian society — within a decade of the legend of the bush inserting itself into the Australian soul in the late 1800s, Australia’s urban population was greater than its country cousin.
Even the old “Bible of the Bush” that gave voice all those years ago to Lawson’s and Paterson’s literary squabbling, The Bulletin, was put to the sword this week, partly the victim of the growth of that bamboozling and utterly democratic modern invention, the internet.
Yet before it went, its very last edition featured a survey that sought to understand the values that underpin the Australian character in 2008.
Its findings? We are happier than we were 10 years ago, Vegemite is the quintessential Australian food, we still live in the land of the fair go (just) and we are far too close to America.
Nothing too controversial about any of that, but we’re willing to bet there would be excited disagreement on every point around the barby.
Vegemite? What about san choy bow? The fair go? How about the disparity between workers on $15 an hour and CEOs raking in million? Too close to America? Maybe, but didn’t the Yanks save us in World War II?
Yet perhaps the real question ought to be more direct. Why, 220 years after Captain Arthur Phillip led a bedraggled cargo of convicts on to the shore of what would become Australia and planted a flag to formalise the arrival, should we be so concerned about who we are?
The truths are all around us. The recent years of drought, accompanied now by great floods in the north, have reinforced the essential knowledge that Australians survive in a tough environment by personal resilience and a willingness to help each other.
(link (http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/portrait-of-a-nation/2008/01/25/1201157677545.html))
The first recorded use of the loved and loathed insult goes all the way back to 1855.
FOR a term that presents itself as a straightforward case of right and wrong, "un-Australian" is a remarkable paradox. It is, for instance, un-Australian to flout water restrictions, yet it is equally un-Australian to dob your neighbour in for illegally watering their lawn. It is un-Australian to burn the flag, yet it is un-Australian to object to someone's right to burn the flag. Confused? Join the queue.
[...] From the facile to the deadly serious, un-Australianism is all around us. You'll hear it used in politics and sport, on current affairs shows and, of course, in the pub. Current generations might believe that to be un-Australian and its attendant "ism" were coined in the conservative 1990s, when the values debate raged and the then prime minister, John Howard, spearheaded a failed attempt to get the term mateship enshrined in the constitution.
But its ancestry goes back much further. Etymologically, it began life as a literal recognition of things that were not Australian in character; the first recorded use, in 1855, described a part of the landscape similar to Britain.
The 2005 Macquarie Dictionary was the first to formalise the modern usage as "not in accordance with the characteristics said to be typical of the Australian community". The move was long overdue: prime minister Stanley Bruce in 1925 said he would get rid of un-Australian troublemakers, while Joseph Lyons used it in the 1930s to describe communists and the non-British.
[...] "There's a long history of exclusion," says Joseph Pugliese, an associate professor of cultural theory who teaches a unit on un-Australian cultural studies at Macquarie University. "If you look at Australian history, the act of designating people and groups un-Australian has been going on for more than 200 years. Indigenous people were deemed un-Australian because in our constitution they weren't given citizen status until the 1960s."
Un-Australianism is clearly in the eye of the beholder. One Nation founder Pauline Hanson claimed a mortgage on the term during her parliamentary tenure but was regularly tarred with the same brush by her detractors.
[...] But perhaps Northern Territory government minister Mark Read topped them all by labelling a group of Aborigines un-Australian when they tried to stop tourists climbing Uluru during a mourning period.
[...] Cultural commentator Hugh Mackay has argued that anything labelled un-Australian is, in fact, Australian: "Surely it's 'Australian' to do whatever Australians do. It's Australian to drink and drive, to get hopelessly into debt, lie to secure an advantage — whether political, commercial or personal — and engage in merciless and slanderous gossip. It's Australian to give vent to our xenophobia through outbreaks of racism, to reserve our nastiest prejudices for indigenous people, and to worship celebrity … It's Australian to do such things because it's human to do them."
And here's the rub for eagle-eyed folk keen to expose the un-Australians in our midst: the concept fails the exclusivity test when one realises it is equally possible, following the same parameters of censorship and exclusion, to be un-British, un-Canadian, and, of course, un-American.
[...] The owner of a T-shirt emblazoned "Un-Australian", he thinks there is potential to alter the meaning of the term — "so while it can be deployed as a weapon to hurt or exclude or censor people, this counter-movement can use it as a badge of honour which identifies a different understanding of nation".
He adds of his T-shirt that, "My wife has asked me not to wear it because I look of Middle Eastern appearance and she thinks it might put me at risk."
(link (http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/blarissa-dubeckib-why-its-australian-to-be-unaustralian/2008/01/25/1201157665918.html))
The Opera House. Indigenous heritage. The AFL grand final at the MCG. Mateship. The beach. Multiculturalism. Silverchair. The fair go. The Great Barrier Reef. The Boxing Day cricket Test match. The spirit of adventure. Surfing.
These are just some of the reasons that Australians love their homeland.
On the eve of Australia Day, we've invited you to tell us the best thing about Australia.
Read here what you said.
(link (http://www.thebulletinblog.com.au/the_best_thing_about_australia_is_.htm))
Here's a selection of things posted by readers:
* Peace is the best thing a person can hope for. And peace is what you get in this lovely country... I moved to live in Australia 12 years ago, and left my country of birth (Palestine) a counrty that is everyday news because of wars.
* The best thing that I have found with the majority of Australians is our FairDinkumMentality Society, it always rhymes with our nature happy people, where it has lots of places to enjoy with the notion of being. Young and free a land about with nature's gift of beauty and rare Advance Australia Fair.
* The good thing about being an Aussie is, were not politically motivated. We just want a man's man to run run our country for us, and not sell us out, which has been happening since the 70s. We want to work hard and have roof over our family's head. We reward ourselves with a BBQ on the weekend.
* Blue skies, fresh air, weather, friendly people, wide open roads, diverse cultures, unique animals, a delicious range of food, AFL, cricket, sport, education, freedom of speech, a great flag, terrific shopping and most importantly varying beautiful landscapes and amazing sites within every State. I am from Victoria, I have been to every state in Australia and can easily and proudly acknowledge great things in every state - why not embrace the diversity, acknowledge the beauty and ditch the rivalry.
* The best thing about Australia is that we have a casual respect for authority, and authority has a casual respect for us. If you break the law and are caught, more often than not, if you had good intentions, you will be let off with a warning. If you broke the law with the intention to hurt others, we throw the book at you. [...] Oh, and then there the beaches, the weather, cold beer, democracy and all that stuff....
* Wow. After reading through the list, I guess the best thing about Australia is... everything. After living in the US for a while, I thought we Aussies lacked patriotism. Opinion changed! I thought the best thing about Oz was the beaches, now I think it could be the people.
* Among other things, I would say it would be our unique take on the English language.
* Having lived in the UK (and the source of Australia's humble origins) for several years, there is little comparison now between the two islands. We can thank mother England for the Westminster style of governance, also sports like cricket, rugby and sailing which we have made truly our own.
* I have never read such jingoistic rubbish founded on ignorance, greed, me-me and blind stupidity. We don't tolerate the rule of law here, we have thrown it in the bin the day the parliament voted for lifetime detention by executive decree for people who have never committed a crime and the high court upheld it 4-3 under Al-Kateb. We threw all human rights in the bin when the parliament voted to build a place like Woomera for children to be tear gassed and beaten up in or when we sent innocent people to Nauru in breach of Nauru's constitution. We have no right to claim any moral high ground after the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq where over one million have been slaughtered in our names for oil. Aborigines live in 4th world conditions because whiteys won't allow them to be any different or allow them to grow and protect their own lands or apologise for our cruelty. Multiculturalism has been wiped from the vocabulary by Howard and been replaced by citizenship, a test has been devised to trap muslims and stop them being citizens and muslims are persecuted and tormented on a daily basis by all manner of rednecks and the Murdoch press.
* Best thing about Australia is... we don't have to talk about how good it is every 10 minutes. Let's keep it that way.
* The best thing about Australia is our stable system of government. The smoothness and cleanness of Novermber's election is unknown in so many countries. I absolutely reject that any form of republic would come close to the success of our present system of constitutional monarchy which inclued our own Aussie Head of State, the Governor General.
* The best thing abut Australia is its freedom and tolerance under the rule of law, made possible by our constitution and adherence to the Westminster system of government. Almost everything else -well, maybe not our glorious beaches - depends on these.
* Ok, Australia Day is looming again; time to pull out the old "best country in the world" chestnut to get us all into the spirit in the absence of any true level of intellectualism. To the initiated, there is no best thing. The question itself smacks of self adulation and cultural cringe by the uninformed. What have we got? Only larrikins, celebrities and lifestyle coaches. In that sense Australia is a blank canvas. Perhaps that IS the best thing: The opportunity as a country to grow into something worthwhile, one day at a time.
* The best thing about Australia is that we are one indissoluble federal Commonwealth under the Crown. Under the Crown we have developed into one of the greatest democracies on earth, with stability and continuity that other nations can only dream of. [...] Our Sovereign Lady Elizabeth II and Governor-General are the guardians of our system and are above party politics. God bless the Queen of Australia and her many years of service to her people.
* Mateship, fair go and multiculturalism make Australia unique in the world.
* Australia is the greatest nation on Earth because it enjoys prosperity and individual liberty, with democratic rights to determine our own destiny. Central to those freedoms is the role of The Crown, which is indispensible, and immaculately performed by The Queen, which unlike any other system of government, denies politicians access to complete power and, thus, ensures they act in an accountable manner. The ability of The Crown to protect the Australian people was demonstrated in the 1930s and 1970s to save the people from outrageous government actions; furthermore, it was The Queen who personally ensured the complete independence of Australia through her overseeing the passage of the Australia Acts in 1986 through the British and Australian state and federal parliaments. Her Majesty has always conducted herself in a dignified manner, and it is the institution whose functions she conducts that underpins Australia's past, present and future success.
* We used to not worry about public displays of patriotism and flag waving. It was good as it allowed everyone to define the nation in a way that was inclusive for them. Now the national identity is being defined in the public sphere by a small minorty - including racist youths in Cronulla and the former PM. The result has been large segments of the community have been marginalised and the full and proper reflection of our country's achievements and mistakes is stifled.
* Without a doubt the best thing about Australia is our fantastic democracy - it allows us to enjoy all those things which are so typical of this great vibrant homeland. Where else would you see such a smooth transition from a Coalition to Labor government? We can enjoy Australia day because of our democracy. The freedoms we enjoy are without equal anywhere on the planet.
Etc, etc... You can see more here (http://www.thebulletinblog.com.au/the_best_thing_about_australia_is_.htm).