To celebrate Australia Day on DMDC, I originally planned on having a rant about Racism in Australia. I got lazy. Australia Day has now happened. Expect a rant on racism sooner or later… but in the meantime, check out Jeremiah’s Australia Day post. He has recently started blogging again – and has been churning out lots of quality posts. Check it.
Here’s a snippet:
Here are three things that I love about Australia:
- Egalitarianism
- Unity
- Creativity
Here are three things that concern me about Australia:
- The void
- The nation within the nation
- Alcohol
Australia Day on the Central Coast in particular (I hate to say) really turns me off.
The number of Australian flags and Southern Cross stars emblazoned on cars is far higher there than it is in Sydney – while, on the surface, this may not appear to be such a bad thing…when you scratch a little deeper, it is clearly representative of very strong white Australian/bordering on racist feelings just below the surface.
Sitting round neighbourhood BBQs listening to people warning their kids about Muslims wearing their traditional clothing and how this is bordering on terrorism wears very thin.
The Central Coast is great in many ways (it has been our home for 4 years and will no doubt be for many years to come) but it is sadly lacking in multiculturalism.
We went up to the Hunter Valley for the day :)
Cheers Dave! Love your work.
Matt – I reckon you’re right about central coast, but the shire is worse!
Jeremiah – I love YOUR work ;)
I’m looking forward to your rant on racism. it’s something I feel strongly about. I am ambivalent about the Australian flag these days. I reckon since Cronulla it has become a quasi-swastika and I’m not sure I’m proud to fly it anymore. Whenever I see one being flown I’m never sure if it’s just good old fashioned. good natured patriotism, or something verging on a xenophobic, racist brand of nationalism. Yuck.
We got forwarded an email last night (I’m ashamed to say it was from someone at our church) which was a quote from Edmund Barton, the first PM, about his views on immigration at the turn of the last century. It was typical, white-Australia policy “you should assimilate and how dare you speak a language other than English” tripe. This woman was encouraging the quote to be sent to as many Australians as possible to spread the word and essentially try to resurrect Barton’s century-old views.
Someone obviously forgot to tell the First Fleeters and those who followed them about the “assimilate-and- speak-the-local-language” policy. Rather, they expected the existing population to assimilate with them!!
This country horrifies me sometimes …
hey andy
don’t hhold your breath for my rant… probably won’t be until next australia day!
you’ve done a pretty good job at ranting anyway!!
one quick point.
a friend who is a minister in ‘the shire’ speaks of teaching their young people to be counter-cultural with the tats that they get by not getting southern crosses.