Nationalism

When you walk into the Commonwealth Bank you don’t see advertisements on the walls attacking banks for paying obscene salaries to their executives. McDonalds would refuse to place banners outside its stores stating that Big Macs are rubbish and the Whopper is a superior burger. In a similar vein, News Limited, the publisher of this website, has taken the unremarkable commercial decision not to use its products as a vehicle to trash its reputation.

Heroic: A proud Aussie biscuit defiantly sticks it to the Seppos and the bloody Chinese.

The person in question is Dick Smith and the material is a 28-page magazine he has written called Dick Smith’s Magazine of Forbidden Ideas That You Won’t Read About in the Mainstream Media.

As a businessman, Smith has harnessed the concept of martyrdom – be it real or imagined – as his preferred marketing technique. He has made millions presenting himself as a nuggetty Aussie battler taking on the big guys, despite being bigger than most in Australian business.

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  • Kai says:

    08:21am | 20/08/12

    I am pretty sure that famine is not caused by overpopulation; natural disasters and bad crops can cause short term famines, long term ones are casued by ongoing disruptions to infrastructure (i.e. war). I am also pretty sure that I was taught at uni that Australia naturally tends towards monopolies… Read more »

  • DocBud says:

    03:33pm | 19/08/12

    Arthur, You should read this: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/08/ff_apocalypsenot/all/ You can then stop fretting about things that are far less of a problem than you imagine and can start living a little. If you’ve been worrying about the so-called population time-bomb for 30 years you’v got some catching up to do on those… Read more »

 

Diagnosing the pathology in the Federal Labor Government has become something of a national pastime. The commentariat, practitioners and pundits have all had a go trying to work out why an otherwise healthy government languishes so far in the polls and seems to have such difficulty engaging with the electorate.


We hear many analyses. Some blame party factionalism. Some blame the killer instinct with which KRudd was removed from the Prime Ministership. Perhaps we are not seeing the “real” Julia. Maybe the government lacks a “narrative”.

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  • James O says:

    07:06pm | 21/02/12

    If you want a quiet life never volunteer for anything,especially if it is hard work or dangerous. Julia Gillard put her hand up to be Prime Minister so she must have been a glutton for punishment considering the adverse publicity surrounding her accepting the top job. And so it is… Read more »

  • Arturo says:

    05:18pm | 21/02/12

    @ Simon, I predict there will be another 10,000 people arrive via illegal boats by the end of this year.  Not an insignificant number for a country of only 22million people, particular when you consider there is often large and/or extended families waiting to come and join them in the… Read more »

 

When UK expat and young mum Jessica Green stood up at her Australian citizenship ceremony at Sydney’s Petersham Town Hall a few weeks ago to sing the national anthem, something quite bizarre happened.

Oath, they're cute. Picture: AP

It didn’t have anything to do with her singing (although she says she hates singing). A few “suggested videos” popped up on the big screen near the new Aussie citizens when the YouTube clip playing the national anthem finished. One of which was the Nazi national anthem.

“Everyone was staring at it, like: are you serious?” Jessica laughs. “That was slightly awkward.”

Otherwise, she says, it was a really nice ceremony. People of all backgrounds, many dressed in green and gold and some draped in the Australian flag, pledged their allegiance to Australia. In ceremonies like this year-round, people who have successfully completed the mountains of paperwork and passed the test required to become a citizen take an oath of loyalty to Australia. And now a prominent Gillard Government minister has floated the idea of getting kids to take the same pledge of citizenship at school.

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  • Allan Thompson says:

    03:11pm | 10/10/12

    Way, way back in the 1930s and beyond, school children would assemble around the flagpole as the Australian ensign was raised (it was the ‘red duster’ in those days), and we recited the pledge: “We salute our flag,we love our country, we serve our king and we honour our God”… Read more »

  • Rishin says:

    10:47am | 07/02/12

    Actually, I think I was pretty clear that group recitation in and of itself can be a very compelling reason.This post is based on a real incident involving a local citizen’s child who had “both the strength of their convictions to stand firm and the poise, even when emotionally assailed,… Read more »

 

Around this time last year, a bouncer at a Brisbane nightclub was furious - he’d lost his favourite shirt.

The joint winner of the world's most despicable, hateful sign competition, along with the one that reads WE GREW HERE, YOU FLEW HERE.

As I dug through my wallet to find my driver’s licence and mentally rehearsed my usual lie (“How many have you had?” – “Just a couple”), he told me he had sifted through every drawer and looked under every seat in his Commodore.

“Oh yeah it’s always the last place you look or something,” I mumbled as I pulled out a Target gift card.

Then he dropped this little pearl: “Yeah it’s pissing me off ‘cause it’s almost Aussie Day and I won’t be able to tell ‘em ‘we grew here, you flew here’.”

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  • Laura says:

    12:29pm | 27/01/11

    Another good one is: ‘Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious’ - Oscar Wilde. Read more »

  • steve says:

    10:21am | 27/01/11

    @Huey, Yes, Ethnic and Religious groups make up a very small number of people within the Defence Force. Ive done just a little under 8 Years in the Navy and have only worked with a small number of (non white/christian) people. And I hane never had a problem with any… Read more »

 

Sitting in the Norrkoping campus of the Linkoping University, Sweden, southwest of Stockholm, I am overwhelmed with a sense of wonder that the sun has begun setting at 1 pm. It will be dark by 3.30.

Leader of Sweden Democrats Jimmie Aakesson celebrating the party's first election wins. Photo: AFP

Though a clear, sunny day, snow is forecast for this evening and there is a type of cold that would make most Australians shiver.

In the corridors here, one of the central topics of conversation amongst staff and students is the rise of the far right, anti-immigration party – the Sweden Democrats – that received 5.7 percent of the votes and gained 20 seats in Parliament. Their motto, “responsible immigration policies” for Sweden is, according to one of my colleagues here, a euphemism for limiting Muslim migrants.

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  • Lyncincerty says:

    04:02pm | 15/12/12

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  • Casey says:

    08:35pm | 24/06/11

    Sink to the levels of not accepting barbaric practises? I believe that is an oxymoron sir. We have bent over backwards and accepted/shown compassion for these Muslims, and yet they still bite the hand of the very people who let them in and gave them a place to live. Teaching… Read more »

 

Ray Martin has suffered an uncharacteristic lack of judgment - and possibly also taste - in using our most important national day to reignite debate over the Australian flag.

Not today, Ray: Martin's ANZAC assault on the flag has angered veterans.

In doing so he has damaged the republican cause, by exposing himself and the broader republican movement to accusations of opportunitism and grand-standing.

Don’t get me wrong - I don’t love our flag, for the simple reason that it’s got another country’s flag plastered all over it. As a modern and independent and multicultural nation it is a total anachronism that one-quarter of our national ensign is occupied by the Union Jack, regardless of the (generally positive) role of Britain in settling and colonising our nation.

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  • Bart Mayhers says:

    09:59am | 17/07/12

    It’s well known why aussie and kiwi flags have the union jack in them - it’s to remind the dregs down under where the games they perverted actually came from! Read more »

  • Sean says:

    08:11am | 07/04/11

    Great point you make in the article. Will be following up more with this. http://www.left-handed-scholarships.net/ Read more »

 

Much discussion has been had recently – mostly media engineered discussion to coincide with Australia Day and the launch of News Ltd’s new nationally syndicated Taste section – on the subject of Australia’s national dish.

These butchers handle the Punch's daily lamb quota

In years past dinner meant a slab of charcoaled fatty steak and three kinds of over-microwaved veg. Food was once the subject of much inattention and is now our newest obsessive interest. However, no one is sure exactly what Australia’s national dish is – or if we even have one – and there has been an awful lot of to-ing and fro-ing about it.

Traditionally lacking in a food culture to call our own that doesn’t involve a well-done steak (and with the majority of the Australian population having little knowledge of indigenous eating habits beyond the witchetty grub) generations of immigrants to our shores have introduced stir-fries, pastas, curries and many more culinary masterpieces that make up the wonderful multicultural cuisines eaten across Australia.

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  • Jenni says:

    03:00pm | 16/02/10

    Dan, kraft were not allowed to use “cheesymite” as it had already been copyrighted by another company, that’s why they held the competition for an alternative name I also vote kangaroo as our national dish, it’s bloody bonza! Read more »

  • Dave says:

    04:20pm | 15/02/10

    Meat pies gotta win!! or a good old aussie bbq, preferably with meat won in a raffle. 2 articles on these at http://www.thingsaustralianslove.com Read more »

 

Not since Australia clinched victory in the 1983 America’s Cup has the Boxing Kangaroo been up for a fight like this.

Blame Canada: The Boxing Kangaroo displayed proudly amid a sea of maple leaves. Picture: AP

It might not be Australia’s national flag, but the fighting marsupial is proving to be a rallying symbol of unity ahead of the Winter Olympics in Canada.

Only a few weeks ago, debate was raging about whether the nation’s official ensign, sporting a Union Jack in the corner, was appropriate for a modern Australia. Opinion polls at the time showed we were mostly happy with our flag. This doesn’t mean we don’t have a special place in our hearts for the kangaroo with a KO punch.

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  • stephen says:

    05:43pm | 08/02/10

    Where’s Lucy ? Read more »

  • T.Chong says:

    03:55pm | 08/02/10

    take it easy big fella, you comment on what, and how you like, I’ll do the same. I dont question anyones personally on loyalty, or any other aspect of the individual, just beause I may disagree with them, just the comment . So relax.  Knee jerk reactions like yuv posted… Read more »

 

Everyone looks at my neck and thinks I’m a red-necked Indian-bashing racist.

Not Monique! Another cross getting etched. Pic: File

The day before Australia Day, I caught the bus to work. Sitting up the back, sweltering in the heat and breathing in the sweat of the others condemned to the ride, I was tapped on the shoulder. The man behind me, breath heavy with booze, declared me a “sister of the Australian cause”. 

Confused and a little scared, I tried to ignore him. But the curious journo in me won out, and I asked him what he was talking about. Beaming and red-faced, he pointed to my neck, and THAT tattoo.

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  • CaxiaGagged says:

    03:02pm | 02/01/13

    Who knows, maybe you’ll find yourself harvesting all now new they want is usually to be happy and 100 % free. After you change these factors, it than business he up have quite possibly been met having a lot of rejection from him. If you’d like to catch them pretty… Read more »

  • advellgeoke says:

    10:21am | 21/11/12

    The result? The result is tens of thousands of dollars in lost revenues.  Mac Wheeler copywriting  by placing special scripts or by W3 validation which gives your website the Read more »

 

I am concerned at the logic that because some jerks are treating Australia Day the way Liz Taylor treated the institution of marriage that we should get rid of the celebration altogether.

Should you lose points for eating this today?

The structures of our society are no better or worse because of actions of a few.  Trend is not established by a few data points.

Global warming is not off because of a cold snap in the UK. The monarchy is no more appropriate for Australia because Will seems like a great bloke. And our flag is no more or less appropriate because some people (mis)use it.

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  • Liz says:

    08:00am | 27/01/10

    Good one.Maybe we’ve never been a tolerant nation…we seem to need tall poppies to cut down and small ones to stamp on.We’ve always had high expectations,you do that in a ‘can do’ society like ours.Let’s hope they extend to becoming a Republic soon. Read more »

  • the iconophile says:

    07:37am | 27/01/10

    Jeepers, what did you sprinkle on those zucchinis, Pete? Note to self. Sell Holmes a Court. Read more »

 

As our annual obsession with national identity reaches its peak, after weeks of debate into the meaning of red meat, high carb beverages and the quaint French phrase ‘oi, oi, oi’, here is one more idea to think about.

National pride. An Australian girl visiting Gallipoli in the Australian flag. Photo AP

On Australia Day 1999 the Coalition Government introduced the reaffirmation ceremony to mark 50 years of Australian Citizenship. It’s a pretty simple idea where natural born Australians join with those who are taking up citizenship for the first time to recite the pledge together:

“As an Australian citizen, I affirm my loyalty to Australia and its people, whose democratic beliefs I share, whose rights and liberties I respect, and whose laws I uphold and obey.”

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  • LougsBenoReog says:

    04:06pm | 15/12/12

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  • Loskey says:

    01:12pm | 04/02/10

    I think someone has a real chip on his shoulder, Everyone is a racist no matter what race you stem from. But it is far easier to call a white man a racist, Why?, because of a bad history of being racists. Just remember, ones opinion is usually a reflection… Read more »

 

As we head towards yet another Australia Day, a lot is being raised and debated about how we see ourselves as a nation, as a people, and as a part of a global community. Tensions have arisen of late regarding topics of border security and the safety of foreigners on our shores.

That Chris Franklin guy who wrote that bogan song, he's not really dead.


But perhaps, most intriguingly, as an aside to these debates, there has been a strong suggestion that the Bogan identity, which has plagued Australians for decades, is no longer being worn as a badge of honour, but rather, and rightfully, as one of shame.

Could we finally be seeing the end to our redneck wonderland? Are Australians favouring intellect over yobbism, manners over crassness, compassion over blind patriotism? When articulated in these straightforward binaries, one can only wonder - why it has taken so long?

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    07:45am | 25/07/12

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  • dave says:

    03:12pm | 27/01/10

    Tealtrack, ill sit around all day, make them pay me for doing absolutly nothing, without any need to better myself. Throw in some Goon and a few longnecks a day and i got a life. they can work and support me. give me a brand new home so that i… Read more »

 

A few days ago on this website, editor David Penberthy wrote to explain why, as he put it, “Australia Day is rubbish”. Well, not to come across all Sam Kekovich, but I reckon he’s full of it.

Australia Day: Kids love it

According to Penberthy, this annual celebration - which nicely bookends a silly season that begins with the running of the Melbourne Cup - is a shallow glorification of all that’s wrong with this country, “a half-witted contest to see how much meat you can eat and how much grog you can sink.”

As if there’s anything wrong with that.

The fact is that no free country spends its national day navel gazing. Instead, they hook on to some element of their individual creation story and use it as an excuse for a piss-up.

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  • nouriunom says:

    07:56am | 30/07/12

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    07:13pm | 23/07/12

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DAVID Penberthy is spot on with his piece on Australia Day - and I’m not saying that because I’m some boss-schmoozing suck up or because I’m protecting some fat paycheck (I’m seriously not).

Anti-racism protesters at Sydney Town Hall after the Cronulla Riots.

The day’s been bastardised by bogans and for a while now has been descending into a celebration of banal racism.

But Penbo does not go far enough when he says we need to transform the day into a celebration of belonging to this country.

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  • nathan says:

    01:04am | 05/06/10

    most people know that we do come from convicts, however thet dose not mean that every ausie is an rasisist 2 be quite frank i have a hard time spelling it , reguards nathan Read more »

  • Andrew Phillips says:

    04:14pm | 07/02/10

    Mustafa, Australian Protectionists are not a re-hash of One Nation which appeared all too willing to cave in on issues of concern to Australians once the media whipped up the hysteria and campaign of misinformation. Regarding “laws to shut these people up”-come now. This is Australia and while we do… Read more »

 

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