Views on Australia

D

Duckman

Sonny, I Watched the Vault Bein' Built!
I'm just wondering what your impressions are on Australia. I have never actually thought about how Australia is viewed in it's Non-citizen eyes, that is people from overseas.
That, or share what you think Australia is like from your perspectives.

Cheers,
The Duckman
 
And if you would like to, generalize about Australians based on the conduct of our 'representative' sports people.

that is people from overseas.
Click to expand...

Which is just about everyone living in Australia without going that far back. E.g. At my high school the headmaster asked: "Hands up who has two Australian-born parents?" I looked around and eventually spotted the half-a-dozen people out of five hundred odd students. We are not all descendents of convicts see. (Although those who are do seem to be proud of it.) So one can ask many citizens for insightful commentary.

I would guess that the rest of the world has almost no interest in us, so they would describe a generic Western nation and then fall back on mostly unrepresentative stereotypes.
 
And if you would like to, generalize about Australians based on the conduct of our 'representative' sports people.
Click to expand...
Australia has sports? Wait you guys play cricket, right? I think i heard something about a cricket match in australia once.

Else i think it must be a nice place with too much poisonus snakes. I also have the impression that most or everything i have ever heard of australia is from the area around melbourn or sydney. You guys have weird accents.
 
I have to agree with the weird accents. After spending a few months holidaying in the UK , I came back to the airport and was confronted by customs people. The instant they started talking I heard a pretty whiny annoying accent. I said to myself "Ahhh home at last"... :lol: and I am sure that other accents to us sound weird

By the way Loxley, if you have heard of the poisonous snakes, you have also been introduced to other parts of Australia due to Melbourne and Sydney being dominant cities on the Australian continent.

Cheers,
The Duckman
 
duckman said:
That, or share what you think Australia is like from your perspectives.
Click to expand...

Never documented myself about Australia, so what I think about it must be idiotic ...

From my point of vue it's a wide and mostly empty country, the only big town worth mentioning being Sydney ;-). Since they have room, most of Australian people choose to live near the shores (and thus a lot of them are practicing surf :roll:). Sydney seems a pretty cool city to me, quite similar to all the big towns all over the world but with more space for everyone. Deeper in the "island" you can find some farms with, occasionaly, a pub where those living close are meeting quite often :?.

Australians are cool people, that was what I thought before reading quietfanatic's post. I realize now that they have a very mixed population, and I don't know how people are living together, with success or not.

I don't have a clue about Australia's politics ...

- Khann
 
No clue needed here.

But, yes, quietfanatic was quite right with the mix of races in Australia and as far as I know it all works pretty well considering the mix. I myself do not live near the centre of Sydney but on the outer suburbs where the mix is at it's greatest.

Cheers,
The Duckman
 
duckman said:
it all works pretty well considering the mix
Click to expand...

That's nice to ear, I'd enjoy a trip around here :)

I'm still quite curious about the politic aspects of Australia, mind to enlight me?

- Khann
 
Politic aspects ay?

It's a Constitutional Monarchy whereby, the people vote for a representative in for their chosen political group. We have close ties with England and still see the Queen as our Head of State, by she does not set laws and the like.

Well I'm going to take a stab at what you mean but the government runs on two house, the Senate (upper house) and the lower house. I'm not too sure on what each do but the government in power now has complete control of the Senate (majority of seats in the upper house) which pretty much means that any reform/law they wish to pass can and will be (see Australian Industrial Relations Thread).

There is two main groups of people who run for the power of rule over Australia. They are known as the Australian Labor Party and the Coalition (Comprises of The National Party and The Liberal Party). The Coalition is in power at the moment and looks to be changing much in the way of the economy.

Umm, I hope that that is all you needed to know because it was a broad question, but any more would be answered.

Cheers,
The Duckman
 
Australia, hm?

Good things: Mad Max, Foster's, koalas (they're Australian, right?), poisonous egg-laying mammals with duck beaks and several other examples for evolution gone terribly wrong.

Bad things: Lots of sand, armies of rabbits and way too much sun.

Neat things: Former prison colony and tribals.

Not-so-neat things: A wacky accent.

Apart from that it seems pretty ordinary.
 
I think Australia generally has a good reputation in the US.

It's warm, the girls look good, you speak English with a funny accent, you drink a lot of good beer and like pubs, you play violent sports, have kangaroos and other strange animals. Also- lots of beaches, a big desert that looks great for ATVs, you're usually on our side when we go to war. Good scuba. Good fishing, good sailing. What's not to like?

I don't think most Yanks think about the negative aspects of Australia.
 
Australia desperately attempts to be teh mini-Asia-USA. "Policing Asia" where the US polices the world.

It's kind of funny.

In a sad way.
 
I wanna go to Australia. I've never been there, but I know alot of people who has had great trips there. I've talked about going there with a friend and stay for a month or something around Feberuary. That would be totally cool.
 
Kharn, always the American basher, while blindsiding Russia's own illustrious history on hegemonic intention?

Australia is less a US policeman than a country with a split personality.

When its convenient it's part of the Asia Pacific. When it's not convenient, it's part of the Anglo-American-European (white people)'s world.
 
well I guess you are nearly right there welsh, but Australia doesn't convenient itself on whether or not it fits in with Asia or the Anglo-American-European or Western civilization, even though we have strong British and European ties.

And I'm pretty sure that Australia doesn't or doesn't attempt to "police" the Asian region because if we even as so much screw around with any other Asian nation we get left out of them ASEAN and APEC pacts which screws everything up.

Yet, I do believe that in some cases that our government follows exactly as the USA does, aka Brown Noser

Cheers,
The Duckman
 
I just learned in my Comm. Theory class that Australia is the most individualistic country other than the USA. One of my buds is from New Zealand and he says it's just like a bigger, shittier version of NZ.
 
If you were Australian we'd have your balls off for that. But thats just because we are a competitive bunch and overall dislike New Zealanders.
I had a mate who visited NZ and said that it was a shitter version of Australia. Go figure...?

Cheers,
The Duckman
 
welsh said:
When its convenient it's part of the Asia Pacific. When it's not convenient, it's part of the Anglo-American-European (white people)'s world.
Click to expand...

That's pretty much correct, though we have been gaining closer ties with out neighboring countries.

Duckman: Ever heard of the Howard Doctrine? Australia has declared that it will attempt to enforce stability throughout the region. Basically stating that we'll be like a deputy to America. Can't find any good sites on it at the moment, but if you google "Howard Doctrine" you should find something decent.
 
Thanks, Specialist, I knew that Australia wanted to try and patrol the region but didn't think that they wanted to enforce such a "Doctrine".

But I think that Howard wants to enforce this because nearly every time that Australia enters free trade talks with Asian countries, we get the arse end of the deal. So maybe this is Howard's "revenge" on those nations, and if they don't agree, we get big brother America to help, not that they would...

Cheers,
The Duckman
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top