Identity
It was the moment I considered cooking tofu for Australia Day that I began to wonder if I wasn’t as Australian as I perhaps should be.It shouldn’t have been a surprise, frankly. I’ve been displaying “un-Australian” tendencies for some time.
I don’t like the beach, for one. I think footy’s dull and I find cricket a bore. My parents never owned a barbecue, or went camping. I didn’t even own a pair of thongs until I was 25.
My saving grace is I enjoy beer and meat pies, often at the same time. This, we are told, is what it means to be Australian. Beer, pies, cricket, footy, barbies and thongs. Straya!
We’ve got a lot to be confident about being Australian. Leaving aside, for a second, all the issues each of us may think are sending this country to hell in a handbasket, (such as this, this and this) the list of what we can be proud of is pretty long.
Most of us would think we could pin point what those things are. We talk about mate-ship, mythologise our sporty outdoorsyness, perhaps mention multi-culturalism, our startling natural wonders, and our stable banking system.
But none of that really adds up to a national identity we can dress up in. There are so many ways we represent ourselves to the world that the annual cringe-fest that is our entry in the national dress segment of Miss Universe is by no means the most crucial. But it does serve as an annual reminder we’ve got no real idea who we are.
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Economist says:
walkeuppls ... .what the ...?. The very definition of culture is a way of life of a group of people that have similar behaviours, beliefs, values, and symbols… so they are comparable. By your rationale there are 7 billion cultures in the world, because we’re all so different. My sanity… Read more »
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Mouse says:
reneel, God forbid!! LOL I have heard that they can now do some pretty amazing stuff with gladwrap and body paint…... hahahaha the mind boggles!! LOL :oD Read more »
You don’t often hear people challenging someone’s claim to be Italian. Or Swedish, or American. Generally you accept what they say even if they don’t have an accent, or a funny surname, or blond hair.
Aboriginality, on the other hand, apparently remains a contested field.
The Federal Court last week decided that high-profile and controversial columnist Andrew Bolt had breached the Racial Discrimination Act in his columns ‘It’s so hip to be black’, and ‘White fellas in the black’, which questioned why nine prominent ‘fair-skinned Aborigines’ identified as Aboriginal.
Continue reading "The politics of race go beyond black and white" »
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Nicholas Steel says:
It’s odd that the progressive community are quick to accuse all and sundry of racism. However they are silent on the 40 million deaths from malaria that have occured due to the environmental movement banning the use of DDT as an insecticide in the early 1970’s. If you examine census… Read more »
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PG says:
“They think people who have been sideswiped by colonisation, sent into a tailspin of poverty, ill health and despair, people who suffer appalling health outcomes, shorter lifespans and intergenerational unemployment, are somehow better off than they are” I agree with the point you are making here, however if you have… Read more »
A funny thing – actually, make that a frilly thing – happened on the way to the feminist revolution.
Just as women started to get a better deal at home, at school and in the boardroom, our girl children have been hijacked by a foe more flouncy than any which has come before.
It is the colour pink and it is being worn – probably in frothing tutu form – by a micro-Cinderella near you.
Continue reading "That old pink stereotype just won’t fade to black" »
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Squeeze the Middle says:
Markus. I think we’re agreeing with each other. My original post was to point out that the extremes that things like that Oath are being taken is probably contributing to the dilemma that Emma Jane is struggling with. Surprising ommissions from the characteristics of ‘economic control’ and ‘using economic abuse’… Read more »
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iMitchy says:
malohi, you are wrong. There is no reason to question why one likes something. Just let them enjoy it without feeling like they have been unknowingly victimised by an oppressionistic secret society. eg. I only wear black clothes. Black jeans, black shirt, black underwear and socks, black belt, black sunglasses… Read more »
Last week while much of eastern Australia struggled with visibility I had a moment of surprising clarity.
Having ceded control of my diary years ago to my assistant Sav, nowadays I have about three hours visibility in my life. I know what I am doing up till about 10.30am but after midday it starts to get foggy.
And yet for three weeks I was completely aware that I would be in Cairns on Friday, September 25. Even more amazingly I was thinking about what to wear.
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DJG says:
Well done! Bastards. Have a thought for us long suffering Saints fans. Read more »
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Badger says:
If only the Saints had been more accurate with their kicks, the result would have been a lot different !! We will never know will we, well next year then. Read more »
130 million.
That’s how many credit card details Miami resident Albert Gonzalez is alleged to have stolen by hacking into US companies over recent years.
Gonzales hasn’t been the only one busy stealing financial credentials from legitimate businesses who have collated data from our online and offline transactions, others have targeted home computers using malicious software (malware) or tricked them out of us via phishing or fraudulent websites.
Continue reading "When it comes to web safety, we’re going nowhere fast" »
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Brendan Read says:
Alastair, you are absoloutly right with your comments. How many mistakes must we make to get it right. If only more people listened to your thinking. Lets hope that the Gov cybercrime inqiry were listening! I am currenly completing my Masters of Information Technology at QUT in Brisbane. One of… Read more »
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Brian Iselin says:
Excellent, and timely, article Alastair. Your words of caution are sadly something lacking in the space of those bringing life into ever more personal networing sites and more applications that proliferate indidivual information. The amazing part of this is the naivety we see in those users who keep a vastly… Read more »
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