Well, I’m proud to be an Australian, I’m happy to fly our flag and I don’t care that the Jack is in the corner. It’s a part of our history that we can’t and shouldn’t ignore. The Jack and the Cross….. graphical depiction of where we come from and where we are going.
A very small minority refer to today as Invasion Day – well they need to get over it. It’s not as if the First Fleet invaded Sydney Cove destroying buildings and defences. Some locals were killed but descendants of those indigenous peoples are alive today and accepted as Australians. It certainly wasn’t a repeat of the Spanish in South America or the Dutch in South Africa. There isn’t a list of battles detailing an Army of thousands defending their birthright like Zulus or Incas. There was a myriad of small bands who sometimes speared whites who later retaliated.
I read this mornings Australian the negativity of the Left all bundled up in one page.
Tom Kenealy couldn’t help himself with snatches of Invasion Day, Terra Nullis (because the High Court said so) and this;
For me, Australia Day also brings up the issue of the republic. The republic is inevitable, but lies implicit in Australia Day, for the best way to celebrate the day is to achieve the fully post-colonial status of our own republic. Most of us know that, but a highly viable indirect model was rejected at referendum under the assumption another one would be along any moment. And anyhow, I’m uneasy at the idea of an Australian republic that imprisons people just for seeking asylum, seeking asylum being something I can imagine doing myself if I had been born under less kindly stars than those which fill the Australian sky.
He softens the insult with a compliment of sorts however Tom can’t see a connect between our high standards and quality of life with restricted access to our shores. Totally unfettered access is a guarantee of a downward slide and while he claims we
imprison people just for seeking asylum; I would suggest we incarcerate them for arriving unnanounced, with their papers freshly destroyed so we can’t assess their status. Whilst manning these barriers we welcome, with open arms, hundreds of thousands of documented refugees.
I would also add that the majority of those incarcerated were released after their status was ascertained and if the length of time at Baxter or elsewhere seemed drawn out it was because it takes time to do this without documentation.
I’m proud of how we have helped refugees; how we have welcomed immigrants into our society from dispossessed Europeans all the way through to threatened Nigerians.
Stuart Rintoul also gives faint praise but acknowledges the true makeup of Australians in this paragraph;
Focus groups, says Chalke, consistently show the three R’s – the push for a republic, the dream of Aboriginal reconciliation and concern about the plight of refugees – are all “somewhere down the bottom” of our thinking, with only 3per cent or 4per cent concerned about them.
Stuart, of course, presents this as an insult but I think it’s close to the truth and better refelcts a more pragmatic approach to our history and future. It’s not as if the other 96 or 97% of Australians are uncaring.
They are not.
Stuart Rintoul seeks and finds dissent –
at Dangar Research in Sydney, Liz Dangar says;
Dangar senses a malaise in the community that belies the national prosperity and the fair-go ideal. She thinks Australians are troubled by an absence of community and connection and a raft of issues including health and education, plus the lack of affordable housing and “how will the kids ever get a start?” She thinks there is great unease about Australia’s involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“On the surface we are doing very well, thank you, but underneath I don’t think people necessarily think that we are comfortable, decent and happy,” she says.
I beg to differ Liz. It’s amazing, isn’t it? It doesn’t matter how well the country is doing there is always someone ready to write a book explaining how it isn’t so…how really we are in a bad state. As well, there is always someone willing to quote these people to suit their agenda that decries our great attributes and concentrates on a few malcontents, appeasers and isolationists.
Our military abroad from the Boxer Rebellion to Afghanistan have only ever brought credit to Australia. Others of a less worldy approach or those who support outright the tennets of Fascism, Communism and Moslem fundamentalists will disagree with me but if Germany had prevailed in Europe in World War I and II then Australia would be a different place today. We had to fight in far off lands to protect Australia and her interests.
While hundreds of thousands of French and Italians surrendered during World War 1 for purely selfish reasons Australian diggers held the line in the deserts and the Western Front and contributed disproportanately to the outcomes.
We were the first of any nation in World War II to beat the Japanese in battle at Milne Bay and then young untrained and poorly equipped soldiers fought them to a standstill on the Kokoda Track marking the furtherest southward thrust of the Japanese with pools of Australian blood.
We contributed to the war against communism in Malaya, Korea and Vietnam and stemmed the flow and helped deplete the coffers of an ideology that murdered millions of their own citizens and supressed countless millions more.
While politicians procastinated or actively supported the Indonesians, eventually the Australian government ordered the ADF in and repaid a World War II debt of honour by stabalizing East Timor.
Once again we are involved in a fight for freedom with no talk of the ADF being involved in any untoward activities. Just reasonable men helping others and risking their own lives in the process.
There is a lot to be proud of and readers might like to comment and add to the list. If you wish to denigrate this great country then comment elsewhere. The Moderator believes that today, of all days, patriotism is the keyword.
Celebrating Australia Day is back in fashion, so grab your flag and start waving, writes Stuart Rintoul.
Mate, I never stopped.
UPDATE: Go on over
Larvatus Prodeo to get an idea of the Left and their reaction to Australia Day. All whinging about flags and invasions.
Click
here for the offical
Australia Day government website
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Me neither. My flag flies today and every day.
“For those who have fought for it; freedom has a taste the protected will never know”
Happy Australia Day to Kev and readers.
Well said Kev.
Well mate you should care. Christ, the Jack aint even popular in the UK – Its a left over, that is all. You can love old blue as much as like – doesnt change a bloody thing. You blokes seem to hang on to it like some sort of security blanket. Makes me sick. GET REAL, AD is a day to think about the republic and a new flag if you really care about this country. While section 48 of the constitution stays in place in this land we will remain stuck in this mediocre quagmire neither here nor there scenario. What sickens me most is that you guys are going to leave it to the young to pull us out – you have given up. Get your hands off ol snaky and face up to it. Christ your not the only bludgers to have fought battles.
Given the attitudes of those pushing for us to be a republic, I’m happy to keep things as they are now. President picked by parliament or a panel of “eminent” australians? Can’t dare let the people decide.
As for the flag, I don’t know where you live EJ, but round here all I saw yesterday were thousands of young ones proudly flying that “leftover”. You can spend the day sneering and dreaming of what you’d rather Australia would become, but for the rest of us, we’re damn proud of what it already is.
EJ,
No I shoudn’t care about changing something that is working and on what basis do you say the Jack isn’t poplular in the UK. Flags aren’t subject to Gallop polls – they just are. Australia Day may be a day to think about change for you but to the vast majority of Aussies it’s a day to celebrate what we are, were we come from and where we may be going. I certainly don’t sit down and think “what is wrong with Australia and how do I fix it” I think the place is great and how many other ways can I enjoy it. The fact that we have fought battles or not doesn’t come into the situation. It is your interpretation that the country is less because we have a history, not mine and thankfully, not that of most of us.
kev, Dave,
No problemo about oz being great place to live, raise the kids, work, but then we are the fortunate ones. Dave, yeah sure people fly the flag, but many more dont. Especially as they get older, wiser. Kev, for many the flag is not ‘just is’, means more than that. Also for UK, I work there off and on and many I talk too prefer their Rosy cross, Scotland and Wales the same. Jack has lost meaning – if it ever had it – political exercise from the start. Only in Northern Island with the troubles does Jack have meaning for select few. Same with Oz, but different sort of troubles here. More to do with where we came from – all of us, refugees of one sort or another and our relations with other countries – trading, fighting and so on.
My take is simply that there is a growing feeling of concern among ordinary ozzies that our system of Government cannot protect us or represent us in foreign affairs and trade. Eg. There are two economies here mate. One for you and me, the other for transnationals. The transnationals milk this country like there is no tomorrow, because they can. A good example is bioprospecting – no checks anywhere but billions of dollars go overseas.
This is a problem of Government establishment that is beholden to a system of don’t change anything.
Well said Dad, too many people say the flag does not represent them, but foreign people do associate the flag with all of us. Get over it and be proud of your country be it right or wrong. AND IF YOU HATE IT THAT MUCH JUST FUCK OFF. And as for invasion day, just think about your long, long gone ancestors, how many times were they invaded? How many times did they ‘invade’, its a part of history. Emphasis on ‘history’ get over it. Surely the great things we have achieved under the flag outweigh the bad, winning wars agianst tyrants, advances in medicine and science, foreign aid, tsunami aid etc etc. Sometimes I wonder about the culture of complaint and how the very people and things these ‘whingers’ advocate would just as soon trample over them to get what they want.
The new flag ‘issue’ is long dead – it was only ever used by Keating every time he needed a distraction (Keating/Flag = Hawke/public crying).
Lets face it, if we get a new one, like Canada, we’ll wind up with an advertising logo rather than a flag.
re “the flag doesn’t represent me” bit, get over it – there are 20 million or so of us, it isn’t supposed to represent YOU, it represents us.
re “the flag doesn’t represent meâ€? bit, get over it – there are 20 million or so of us, it isn’t supposed to represent YOU, it represents us.
Good point Harry
#3 Says “the Jack aint even popular in the UK” … astonishing ignorance – it couldn’t be more popular. Flown from every important building, emplazoned on sports mad faces and advertising hordings even worn affectionately as underwear.
The `Jack’ looks best however, flying from the Jackstaff of a Royal navy Warship or one of the radio arials of a `Challenger’!