What makes an Aussie proud?
January 22nd 2009 05:53
It is getting near our national day of pride, so get out the eskies, fill them with your favourite drinks, scour the barbie, and dust off the deck chairs and bean bags. Oh, and maybe it would be prudent for those that love to imbibe too much, to have a few brand new plastic garbo bins about, with extra large bin liners, so as to catch those inevitable technicolour yawns that always seem to decorate the gardens of families and friends on our most auspicious day!
Photo credit: GNU Free Documentation License
Yes, we love our flag, even non-Aussies think our flag looks beautiful. Of course, if you are an indigenous Australian, one of the many Australian Aboriginal people, you would prefer saluting your own flag, as the National Aussie flag would only serve to remind most Aboriginals of who stole their lands and who persecuted and murdered them in their tens of thousands.... not something most Aussies like to commemorate on Australia Day, or at any other time, which may go some way to explain the continuing gulf between the European settlers (invaders) and the usually very gentle Aboriginal people.
Quite understandably so, the Aboriginal people of Australia much prefer to acknowledge their own flag, although many also acknowledge the Aussie flag as well.
I would love to show you what the Australian Aboriginal flag looks like, but, although it has been accepted as an official flag of Australia, it remains copyrighted. This is a rather annoyingly confusing situation, as we are all Australians, however, there is so much political, social and spiritual water under the bridge, I doubt that it will ever be in the public domain.
As for the title of this post, "what makes an Aussie proud", the following came via email to me today, which I think might go some way to answer that rather expansive question...enjoy...
Subject: FW: Only Aussies
ONLY AUSSIES
Being Australian is about driving in a German car to an Irish pub for A Belgian beer, then on the way home, grabbing an Indian curry or A Turkish kebab, to sit on Swedish furniture and watch American shows on a Japanese TV.
Oh and...... Only in Australia ... can a pizza get to your house faster than an ambulance.
Only in Australia ... do supermarkets make sick people walk all the way to the back of the shop to get their prescriptions while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front.
Only in Australia ... do people order double cheeseburgers, large fries and a DIET coke.
Only in Australia ... do banks leave both doors open and chain the pens to the counters.
Only in Australia ... do we leave cars worth thousands of dollars in the driveway and lock our junk and cheap lawn mower in the garage.
NOT TO MENTION...
3 Aussies die each year testing if a 9v battery works on their tongue.
58 Aussies are injured each year by using sharp knives instead of screwdrivers.
31 Aussies have died since 1996 by watering their Christmas tree while the fairy lights were plugged in.
8 Aussies had serious burns in 2000 trying on a new jumper with a lit cigarette in their mouth.
A massive 543 Aussies were admitted to Emergency in the last two years after opening bottles of beer with their teeth.
and finally.........
In 2000 eight Aussies cracked their skull whilst throwing up into the toilet.
LINK:
Text of GNU Free Documentation License
We love our Aussie flag!
Photo credit: GNU Free Documentation License
Yes, we love our flag, even non-Aussies think our flag looks beautiful. Of course, if you are an indigenous Australian, one of the many Australian Aboriginal people, you would prefer saluting your own flag, as the National Aussie flag would only serve to remind most Aboriginals of who stole their lands and who persecuted and murdered them in their tens of thousands.... not something most Aussies like to commemorate on Australia Day, or at any other time, which may go some way to explain the continuing gulf between the European settlers (invaders) and the usually very gentle Aboriginal people.
Quite understandably so, the Aboriginal people of Australia much prefer to acknowledge their own flag, although many also acknowledge the Aussie flag as well.
I would love to show you what the Australian Aboriginal flag looks like, but, although it has been accepted as an official flag of Australia, it remains copyrighted. This is a rather annoyingly confusing situation, as we are all Australians, however, there is so much political, social and spiritual water under the bridge, I doubt that it will ever be in the public domain.
As for the title of this post, "what makes an Aussie proud", the following came via email to me today, which I think might go some way to answer that rather expansive question...enjoy...
Subject: FW: Only Aussies
ONLY AUSSIES
Being Australian is about driving in a German car to an Irish pub for A Belgian beer, then on the way home, grabbing an Indian curry or A Turkish kebab, to sit on Swedish furniture and watch American shows on a Japanese TV.
Oh and...... Only in Australia ... can a pizza get to your house faster than an ambulance.
Only in Australia ... do supermarkets make sick people walk all the way to the back of the shop to get their prescriptions while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front.
Only in Australia ... do people order double cheeseburgers, large fries and a DIET coke.
Only in Australia ... do banks leave both doors open and chain the pens to the counters.
Only in Australia ... do we leave cars worth thousands of dollars in the driveway and lock our junk and cheap lawn mower in the garage.
NOT TO MENTION...
3 Aussies die each year testing if a 9v battery works on their tongue.
58 Aussies are injured each year by using sharp knives instead of screwdrivers.
31 Aussies have died since 1996 by watering their Christmas tree while the fairy lights were plugged in.
8 Aussies had serious burns in 2000 trying on a new jumper with a lit cigarette in their mouth.
A massive 543 Aussies were admitted to Emergency in the last two years after opening bottles of beer with their teeth.
and finally.........
In 2000 eight Aussies cracked their skull whilst throwing up into the toilet.
LINK:
Text of GNU Free Documentation License
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no doubts about it!! tee heee!!
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i think not
i didnt realise the Aboriginal flag was under copyright . . . i wonder who polices that?
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Only in Australia would we desecrate the humble hamburger by putting beetroot on it!!
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I love the fact that Redfern in Sydney is probably the only place where you will see a pub with three flags flying from the roof: the Aussie flag, the aboriginal flag and the rainbow flag. The pub is called Mr Mary's and that place makes me proud to be an Australian!
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i'll be at the rainbow serpent trance festival completely ignoring the fact it is australia day. nationalism does nothing for me i'm afraid.
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it is good to hear that Aussies can be understood, although some 'outback' ones even we can't understand their drawl.
Actually, all the Aussie movies used to be dubbed over, with American voices, the excuse being no one could understand them.
Things are better now.
cheers mate
fog
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yes I agree, elements in the list smack of re-cycling from an American version, although, I often visited a giant chemist/general store on the Gold Coast, that had the dispensary at the back.
However, as for the Aboriginal flag issue, yes it is copyrighted, originally in the name of the flag's designer, Harold Thomas (who is an indigenous Australian) and in fact was successfully defended in the Federal Court, after it was recognized under the Flags of Australia Act 1953 (amended).
Thomas didn't want all the kerfuffle over it, but he didn't want the government to control its use either.
He signed his copyright over the flag to the main flag makers in Australia, Carroll & Richardson.
The first public appearance of the Australian Aboriginal Flag was on National Aborigines' Day in Victoria Square, in the state capital city of Adelaide, South Australia, on 12 July 1971.
For all non-Aussies, here is a link to the flag and its history;
FLAG HISTORY LINK
cheers
fog
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Happy New year old pal!
And I too, have put the terminals of a battery on my tongue, with not deleterious results, except an odd taste and sharpy tingly sensation.
Maybe this 'half-baked' list got a detail wrong, it was probably a car battery!!
cheers
fog
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you are dead right about that too!! We Aussies adopted the hambuger from America, of course, but then did very odd things to it, according the my American friends.
However, in defense f our 'burger desecration', I say our burgers, made in the local deli, were far more nutritous than anything McMuck produces, even with the awful beetroot.
Actually, freshly cooked beetroot I really like, its the canned stuff that tastes awful.
cheers
fog
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I didn't know about that pub! I rarely visit Sydney these days, and Redfern was a different place when I use to visit friends there, I was ok, as the locals knew I was a friend, but cops and other strays didn't fare too well if found there at night especially. Actually, my brothers had a printing business there too.
cheers
fog
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hehe...I li that, "suspicious day", very apt!
I do like to feel some pride in my nation, for the good it has done, hopefully outweighing the bad, that may still be out of reach however, but, I am no flag waving zombie invading coastal beaches for a zonphobic fight.
That Cronulla hysteria just made me feel an overwhelming sense of shame, and I was furious with that sly old dog Howard for not condeming it outright.
Attacking people while hiding behind our national flag was a desecration of our flag, for whom many fought and died, including my close relatives.
anyhoo, I'll see it all pass by from my couch, as usual...hehe!
cheer
fog
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I enjoyed this blog - I'm a proud Aussie most of the time, but we have a lot to be ashamed of. I know we're not the only country in the world that started with blood though, so I guess we're like most others around the world.
I love the Aboriginal flag, don't like our flag much, hate the union jack.
And some of those Aussie things don't hold for me - I've never puked on the lawn at a BBQ, and most of the people I know who have did it behind the shed somewhere or in the chook run.
That stuff with the batteries is obviously some bloke thing, because I'd certainly never do any of that, and I'm quite sure it's blokes around the world, not just the Aussie ones. Blokes are weird creatures sometimes.
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must read up on your latest Japanese exploits, and sounds like your trip made you aware of how lucky we are in Oz in many respects...I think every Aussie realizes that, when they get back home...the green green grass of home... and space, yep, we've got a ton of it!
cheers
fog
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I like our flag, more for the family associations etc, however, as for puking, no me neither, but, I did throw up out a window once, into the hapless friend's backyard, but it wasn't Oz Day, and I was a silly teenager.
The meaning of the Aboriginal Flag is also interesting, must do a post on that some time.
cheers
fog
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you bet and yaaaaaAAAHHHOOO!!!!
It is a list, dare I suggest it, that would easily translate into just about any culture around the world, well, maybe not Tibet, at least not the actual Tibetan people, maybe their captors?
Anyway...you may have inadvertently missed my rather sarcastic, nationally self deprecating, wit..
cheers
fog
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So, how many Aussie comedians have you seen? A slightly sweeping statement? Personally, I find Hughsie a one joke wonder, and just a little irritating.
cheers
fog
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it seems all too natural. However, I did appreciate him on "The Glass House", which Wil Anderson (?) hosted, and that was quite witty, mainly because it was about current events, and Anderson's wit lent well to that.
I miss "The Mavis Bramston Show" (got to work with "Mavis" years later, so I got to thank her personally, which was nice.) and the English show "Not the Nine O'Clock News" and "Beyond the Fringe", but they may seem a bit lame these days. Comics using swear words, to effect a laugh, leave me a little cold too.
cheers
fog
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Actually, at last check, it was a flag making company, bizarre...
cheers
fog
Comment by RubySoho
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Hey fog, i also feel some pride in Australia, I certainly wasn't saying you shouldn't. It's just that unbridled, in your face, "my country right or wrong" attitude that makes me balk.
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yes me too Ruby, and once again we are taught a valuable lesson, by those mugs the other day, at Manly. What twerps! It angers me that these tools highjack a national symbol to express their own psychological inadequacies and fears.
I think the flag is fine on a building, a government car carrying a dignatory, in a parade of some sort, just not all over everything, and I loathe what extreme nationalists do, they are the ones that cause most of the trouble, because they are low brow morons for the most part.
cheers
fog
P.S. However, it is still open for debate whether we get rid of the Union Jack.....
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Judith Lucy - funny lady
John Clark - well not born here, but very funny and we claim him as one of ours
Alan Brough - funny
John Howard - funnier now that he's gone
Jimeon - again not born here, but funny
Shaun watsit from Newstopia - satirical wit, priceless
I could go on and on, but I'm tired - it's been a horrible hot day where I live north of Adelaide and I want to go to sleep.
Don't anybody ever say Australian comedians aren't funny!
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yes I remember My Names McGooley well, and dear old Gordon Chater as well, what a brilliant actor, so under-utilized too. I never will forget his famous scene, ruminations on life while eating that sloppy meat pie each week.
Mavis, yes, your mum was right, it did have a racey edge to it at times, I have dim recollections of that, often flying over my head, but I could see my elder siblings and my parents having an inexplicable guffaw.
I really loved the sung sketches, when they sat on bar stools and covered the week in ditties...
cheers
fog
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yes we have a rich vein in the comedic arts, spread all too thinly, as our entertainment industry struggles to make a buck.
I hope Adders gets a lovely cool change soon...damn hot down there!!
cheers
fog