Monday, January 29, 2007

Time to get all patriotic

Well, last friday was Australia Day. It's turned into more than a day off in recent memory. When I was a kid, Australia Day was a day off school, and you spent the day before maybe making a flag or concentrating a little more on Australian history.

But now it's growing. The celebration of Australians as a day of national identity. Partiotism as opposed to Nationalism, as someone recently put it. A day that we should all take a look around think 'this is a great place to be'. Naturally, it has its flip side.

The day the First Fleet landed and took what they wanted from the original inhabitants. The beginning of the end for the Aborigine and his way of life. No learning from the Aborigine by the new Europeans about how to work and live in such a place of desolation, isolation, disparate climates, and tremendous dry. The current drought brings to mind the changes that farming should have undergone 219 years ago to adapt to this place. Overpopulation began right then and there. Britain has a lot to answer for, but she has her own problems.

Not without other incidents though. A major event decided to ban people from wearing the Australian flag. Concern over Cronulla, and the 'gang colour' ethic that the flg took on for a while, led them to make the decision. Of course, it amplified the appearance of the flag. Now, if only we could get a good flag. I realise the argument of past wars for the flag, and the history, but Britain does not own Australia. Republic or not is another matter, one I'm not versed in. Remove the Union Jack, leave the Southern Cross, maybe change the colours. Avoid all confusion about our place as a toddler nation.

A good day for Andy Roddick to recover from the absolute spanking that he received from Roger Federer on thursday night at the Australian Open tennis. Roddick's first ever 6-0 grand slam set loss. I'm sure everyone thought Roddick would be closer, after all, he'd beaten Roger two weeks ago in a final. But that wasnt a grand slam, and Roger amped it up a whole lot. Federers stat in grand slam tennis is 110-4 matches won when he takes the first. That's a whole lot of go.

A day to visit friends, have a swim, lunch, and sit around in the sun and cook my european-descended skin.

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1 comment:

ellen jaye benson said...

In response to the flag melodrama - their was a great political cartoon that read - Flags don't kill people t-shirts do.