Being colonised for the second time? (Sophie)
It’s funny how sometimes commentators refer to Australia as a colony of the United States. Usually we as individuals, attempt to proclaim our independence…while at the exact same time our government continues its hand shakes and takes us further away from what it means to be “Australian” as we know it.
I guess it’s world of contradictions though; because have we ever truly been “Australian?” Perhaps in the colonial days we developed a ‘unique’ identity but over time, two World Wars and Globalisation it would seem that identity is no longer in such great existence as we once thought it was.
More recently one has to even question if uniqueness ever existed in the first place? Is the concept of being an “Australian” merely propoganda that helped us survive the varied times of uncertainty? After all, many other countries include “mateship” “sport” “humour” and “beer drinking” as part of their national identity…and I’ve met many larrikan Americans and Englishmen in my time (as short as it’s been so far).
I guess like every individual searches for a reason to their existence…..every country searches for an understanding of their place in the world, and a national identity can help a country and its people feel comfortable in their place. Because though, in the relative scheme of things, we’re one giant big island with a population 1/14th that of the USA….i.e meaningless on a world scale – our unique identity helps us deal with that harsh reality. On a national scale, we just have that modern day undeniable human need to be famous excpet we’re D-grade on the scale, so we try to claim whatever 15 minutes we can get.
Sometimes it seems like one thing after the other.
Yes, we’re still a monarchy despite none of us knowing the worlds to God Save the Queen, but since the first McDonalds came here back in the 1970s our culture has been one to make various attempts of emulation of American ideals and sometimes I worry about the effect this is having on our living standards.
Industrial relation reforms are a whole other story but on a side note, OECD reports have found that those developed countries with socialist-based democratic governments; with a strong focus on employment retraining and high levels of public welfare, in fact experience no greater (even at times less)unemployment than those countries with harsh welfare schemes aimed at giving the stick and not the carrot.
Most recently I have begun to question Melbourne University’s change from an “Australian” style degree system…to one based on the American system. Will the quality of education we come out with under this new American system really be better than as it is currently? Or is adding an extra year onto our degrees simply a money-grabbing scheme to help deal with the year upon year of reduced federal government funding?
I question our ‘unique identity’ but the optomist in me still believes that overall we ARE different. Our history is like that of no other. Our combination of past governments provided a system based on a “Fair go” …based on providing opportunities and protecting the weak and poor. It was focussed around those classic Labor values that people are inherently good, and if given the right circumstances will ultimately do the right thing. More conservative theory on the other hand take a slightly cynical view: that societies need strict supervision to prevent abuse. Overall though, the balance of these two-party ideals greated a country that was undoubtedly one of the the best in the world to live in.
Over the last 10 years a lack of vision has seen things change…and now the only vision we see is guided by outside enterprise, and jaded with the sight of the dollar.
A viewpoint was raised at the Political Interest Society meeting yesterday: American culture is different. Americans send their children to the public school down the road for primary and high school. They save all their money for college and hence, can afford to pay the fees. Here we save every penny to send our kids to the local private school for primary and high school so they can GET an education and go to somewhere like Melbourne for university (college). How can we afford both ways – a primary, high school and university all of which require high levels of payment?
And to add to this: American Universities make up millions of their revenue from private donations. We don’t have that same mind-set. We have always believed it is the responsibility of the government to fund higher education to a large extent.
Oh how things change. http://www.unimelb.edu.au/giving/students
These advertisements are being put up as we speak aroudn the university.
I guess my final question is: What do we want? Who do we want to become? Who do we want our nation to become – Us or Them?
My fellow Australians,
The incidents of unAustralian behaviour over the past year was enough to make me choke on my chicken McNugget. And it was all down to one thing, not enough ‘new-cular’ weapons.
For example, Australian models holidaying in Asia would get in a less trouble if they carried a couple of semi-automatic firearms in their handbags.
A speech by George W. Bush could have prevented the rednecks perpetrating violence on our beaches. It’s dang hard to bash someone with a pathetic excuse for coherent English.
And we might not have lost The Ashes if our cricketers picked up caramel Frapuccinos from Starbucks instead of cell phones. Why on Earth did they dispatch lurid text messages to English tramps when plenty of college dorm girls would gladly get jiggy wid it?
Yet as mishaps spread across the land like the term “fo-shizzle” through youth popular culture, what were we doing about it? Jack. It’s time to remind ourselves of what lies at the core of our national identity: Jay Leno and a Chevrolet SUV that drinks gas by the gallon.
Being Australian doesn’t mean you have to call the opposition captain a mofo even if he is. Or smother everything in ketchup ‘till it resembles an outpatient in a casualty ward at a $20,000 a night public hospital. Or pull on a G-string that’s 4 sizes too small. I’d prefer you didn’t. And you don’t have to spend every Friday night smoking cigaweed ‘till your best friend looks like Tyra Banks or one of those Hooters girls, hurl in the cab, then trip over a drunken hobo before passing out on the stoop of your apartment block.
In fact, to be as Australian as I am, don your sweater – mine says, “Ima bust a cap in yo’ ass” – grab yourself a soda, put on Grey’s Anatomy, invite everyone over – if you can’t pronounce their name, just call them “dude” – and celebrate living in the best freakin’ country on Earth – God Bless Australia. So don’t be unAustralian. Serve fried chicken on the fourth of July.
You know it makes sense, I’m Sam Kekovich.
PXW
Lol PXW but I must say that I’m disappointed at your college girls comment. I hope that they would have enough dignity not to get ‘jiggy wid’ Shane just for the sake of it!
“Industrial relation reforms are a whole other story but on a side note, OECD reports have found that those developed countries with socialist-based democratic governments; with a strong focus on employment retraining and high levels of public welfare, in fact experience no greater (even at times less)unemployment than those countries with harsh welfare schemes aimed at giving the stick and not the carrot.”
This doesn’t give any infomation on how much those people work for and for how much. Australia is in one of it’s lowest unemployment rates for a long time, but it doesn’t take much to be counted as employed. There are more and more people who are on part-time and casual jobs than there ever was, and over the last ten years average wages have remained almost the same despite a growing economy. Unemployment rates also say absolutely nothing about what workers need to spend to live for other services such as education, health and food.
Unemployment rates on their own are not really a great figure. Claiming that workers are better off just on employment rates is decieving and not really telling the truth.
On a different note – I’m not really one to go trying to be ‘Australian’. Rather just someone who’s going to treat other people like they would like to be, (without being used), and not just thinking about exactly what would be better for only me.
The fact that our country is so much smaller than America is so much better for us. We are still more easily be able to get more decent jobs,(Australia is behind the times of America), with less competition. Becoming famous here is so much easier with more public access TV and radio. If you are a band you are less likely to get lost in the crowd. Per person we are still able to get into good universities easier and there really arn’t any ‘bad’ ones.
Well said Rick. I like your thinking concerning the ‘how to treat other people’ comment. Keep up the sharp work!
“Per person we are still able to get into good universities easier and there really arn’t any ‘bad’ ones.”
You obviously haven’t ventured far enough into suburbia to encounter (name of other uni cruelly suppressed by the Editor…) 🙂
PXW
Initially, the Growing Esteem changes to the university made me angry – but my opinion is more mixed now.
Despite getting a relatively good ENTER and getting into Australia’s top university on a scholarship, my Dad has often said that Arts degrees (or in fact, any undergraduate degrees) really don’t mean that much anymore, that only with Honours or post-graduate work does a degree really become something. It is a worrying thought, especially for someone who is currently slogging it out to get one of these degrees.
Maybe a move towards American-style education would not be such a bad thing.