Advance australia what?
Thursday;Pilates
Friday;4km+4x100m strides
Saturday;rest
Sunday;20km
And so another Australia Day has come and gone.
The celebration of Australia Day, much like Donald Trumps hair and low-carb beer,leads me to the question, "What's the bloody point?"
Why eactly do we commemorate a day when Captain Phillip,the first fleet and a few convicts sailed into Sydney and claimed it theirs?
They probably spent the next 5 days complaining about the foreign food.
It wasn't a 'discovery'.
It wasn't a settlement.The Aborigines were already here.
The occassion doesn't mark some sort of civil war or wrangling of a continent from the clutches of the empire.
It commemorates white settlement in Sydney (it didn't even happen in Western Australia until 41 years later)..and...that's about it.
Really,could this day BE anymore divisive?
The lead up to Australia Day is always a great time to raise issues of National identity,and this time debate was stirred up by the organisers of The Big Day Out (music festival), suggesting that perhaps people shouldn't take along Australian flags because..well..it just seems that after last years Cronulla riots,there may be some shreds of evidence that Nationalism,regardless of which nation we refer to,can at times be..a little ugly.
Fortunately,many reasonable and open minded citizens wrote to papers and phoned into talk back radio to debunk these hysterical myths by stating that the flag was ours to wave,and if anyone didn't like it ,well,they could just piss off back to where they came from and why are we letting all these foreigners in anyway,what with their smelly foods,their penchant for living in ghetto's and strapping bombs to their children's backs.
Phew. Glad we got that sorted,mate.
But still,I'm no party pooper.
We had a great day over at Aegis and Mellpolini's house.
Sitting in the inflatable paddle pool with 'made in china' stamped on the bottom,sucking down a few Tuborgs and nibbling on sushi.
Oi!
Friday;4km+4x100m strides
Saturday;rest
Sunday;20km
And so another Australia Day has come and gone.
The celebration of Australia Day, much like Donald Trumps hair and low-carb beer,leads me to the question, "What's the bloody point?"
Why eactly do we commemorate a day when Captain Phillip,the first fleet and a few convicts sailed into Sydney and claimed it theirs?
They probably spent the next 5 days complaining about the foreign food.
It wasn't a 'discovery'.
It wasn't a settlement.The Aborigines were already here.
The occassion doesn't mark some sort of civil war or wrangling of a continent from the clutches of the empire.
It commemorates white settlement in Sydney (it didn't even happen in Western Australia until 41 years later)..and...that's about it.
Really,could this day BE anymore divisive?
The lead up to Australia Day is always a great time to raise issues of National identity,and this time debate was stirred up by the organisers of The Big Day Out (music festival), suggesting that perhaps people shouldn't take along Australian flags because..well..it just seems that after last years Cronulla riots,there may be some shreds of evidence that Nationalism,regardless of which nation we refer to,can at times be..a little ugly.
Fortunately,many reasonable and open minded citizens wrote to papers and phoned into talk back radio to debunk these hysterical myths by stating that the flag was ours to wave,and if anyone didn't like it ,well,they could just piss off back to where they came from and why are we letting all these foreigners in anyway,what with their smelly foods,their penchant for living in ghetto's and strapping bombs to their children's backs.
Phew. Glad we got that sorted,mate.
But still,I'm no party pooper.
We had a great day over at Aegis and Mellpolini's house.
Sitting in the inflatable paddle pool with 'made in china' stamped on the bottom,sucking down a few Tuborgs and nibbling on sushi.
Oi!
posted by Wanda Ring at 3:47 PM
4 Comments:
Never look a gift holiday in the mouth, I always say... to very confused looks.
Hope you enjoyed yourself!
dan the buttman
By the way....I have 2 emails waiting for you.
That is, if they didn't get lost somewhere upon the information highway...
dan the buttman
Actually didn't the Portugese "discover" WA in 1600 and something?? Dirk Hartog and all that? Wrote it off as being too inhospitable for sensitive white folk and told all the other explorers to leave it alone. I've seen some pretty nifty rock art in the Pilbara which may (or may not) commemorate a meeting with the Spanish/Portugese. The date's about right - but of course it could just be commemorating a corroboree or something!
Well written article.
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