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Wednesday, January 04, 2006

Embarrassed to be Australian?

Over here there's an article about how the Waverley city council is defending their banning of the Australian flag over one of their buildings.

When I first heard that they were banning the Aussie flag so that they don't offend anyone who's not Australian, I couldn't believe it! What kind of fracking dumbarses are in positions of 'power' in that council!

It's really simple. Anyone in Australia who is offended by the flying of the Australian flag should not be in Australia. If these foreigners don't want Australians flying their own flag, then they can take a flying leap back to their own fracking country.

I do not believe there is any other country in the world that bans the flying of their own flag so as not to offend visitors. I was also told by my mate Dan about how the Greeks in Melbourne went on a rampage during their National Greek Day and then were outraged that the Australian police dared to accuse them of breaking the law, 'cause back in Greece their antics weren't against the law.

I'm really saddened by the fact that Australia is losing its national identity. In an attempt to appease those who immigrate to Australia, Australians are being forced to give up who they are, all in an attempt to follow the politically correct bullshit of not wanting to offend others.

I'm so sick of it.

Posted on 1/04/2006 10:26:00 PM


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12 Comments:

Blogger Chancelucky said...

Being from far away, I'm a little confused. I take it the pavillion at Bondi Beach has some historical significance to Aboriginal Australians. What's its exact significance.

the relationship of the US to its indigenous peoples is somewhat unique. Certain laws don't apply on "sovereign" tribal lands at least in theory because they're not technically part of the United States.

I guess I'd have to know more about Bondi beach to understand what's been going on. About all I know about Aboriginal politics comes from the movie Rabbit Proof Fence :}. I suppose even worse, much of what I know about the Maoris in modern times comes from Crash Palace and Whale Rider. It's the reason I don't blame non-Americans for thinking that Westerns explain our history.

1/05/2006 12:57:00 PM  
Blogger Alan Howard said...

The controversy has nothing to do with Aboriginals, other than one person offering to buy a flagpole so that the Australian AND Aboriginal flag can be hoisted.

The Pavilion is only significant because it's old, and that's what they mean by 'heritage listed'.

1/05/2006 01:16:00 PM  
Blogger Chancelucky said...

thanks for the clarification. Makes the incident even stranger.

by the way I said Crash Palace and meant Once Were Warriors. Crash Palace was a good movie, the first New Zealand made movie to make it to the US I think, but it had nothing to do with Maoris.

1/05/2006 02:53:00 PM  
Blogger Alan Howard said...

Once Were Warriors was intense! That was my first 'education' of New Zealand, and I'm happy that I haven't encountered anything like it. It was funny though. My friends in Canberra, before I came over, were telling me to stay away from the pubs. Hehehe

1/05/2006 02:55:00 PM  
Blogger Chancelucky said...

fwiw, I think the thing Australians have to be embarrassed about are Paul Hogan movies after Crocodile Dundee.

I mean there are other minor issues. My cousin actually lives in Melbourne. She's told me that she often doesn't get treated well when her husband's out of earshot, simply because she's Asian.

1/05/2006 02:59:00 PM  
Blogger Alan Howard said...

Yes, racism is still an issue in Australia. I don't know how it's going to change. Maybe only time.

It's a very complex issue, made even more complex by immigrants who fail to respect the Australian laws, and demand to be treated differently because of their race. The 'racism card' is used by many of them to justify special favouritism, which annoys the hell outta most Australians.

The recent 'race riots' around Sydney were a good example of this, where minorities 'went to war' against Australians, and Australians 'retaliated' in defence of their country and way of life.

A complex issue with no easy answer.

1/05/2006 03:02:00 PM  
Blogger Chancelucky said...

Fascinating. I need to go back and look at the US versions of stories about the Sydney riots. What I remember is they emphasize the "hostile to immigrants" end of theings rather than any refusal to "assimilate."

iirc, the riots were with Moslems living in Sydney.

1/05/2006 08:07:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

And here I thought the "racism card" was strictly an American malady. :(

1/06/2006 09:10:00 AM  
Blogger Alan Howard said...

Here's more information about the riots:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Cronulla_race_riots

1/06/2006 10:02:00 AM  
Blogger Chancelucky said...

thanks for the link, though it's almost even more confusing. It looks like the root incident was a group of Lebanese immigrants playing soccer on the beach and being told to stop by members of the beach patrol. The article doesn't make why playing soccer on the beach was a problem of any kind. In the US it's pretty customary to play games on any open spot of beach unless there's dangerous surf or too many people present trying to do something else.

Playing soccer hardly sounds like an expression of ethnic unwillingness to be "Australian". The soccer players then confronted the beach patrol guys.

News of the incident gets out and 5,000 people show up to "take back the beach" including members of neo-nazi groups.

the Wikipedia version is pretty much what I recall from the US articles. I'm not seeing a failure to assimilate in the root incident. It certainly isn't the sort of incident had it involved European/Australians that would have started a riot of any kind against all people who looked vaguely like the guys who didn't listen to the beach patrol.

There must be some facts missing from the Wikipedia account or I'm just being dense.

1/06/2006 11:19:00 AM  
Blogger Alan Howard said...

This might explain more for you

http://dailytelegraph.news.com.au/story/0,20281,17469247-5001022,00.html

1/06/2006 11:26:00 AM  
Blogger Chancelucky said...

Thanks Alan,
that explains it a bit better. Interesting how an omission or two can change a story drastically. The Wikipedia article feels very different.

1/07/2006 05:58:00 AM  

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