You're reminded you live in Australia when...

[Notuern]

Our mismanagement of the welfare system is near legendary.

My friend who for reasons you dont need to know about live under a secret identity(Shitload of troubles getting jobs as he needs to apply with his real name that he cant legally use without permits.), so he lives on welfare.. and he gets 400SEK(60 AU$) a month for food.
His mother and her other son and daughter get 1200SEK(178AU$) a month to get by buying everything from toilet paper to food.. and we pay the highest taxes in the world(Sweden.)!

 

[ParsonsMatt]

Yeh man this happened to Nic (Bekanor). He was on the dole for a while and then decided to hit up university and get a degree. When he did this, centrelink not only cut off his dole payments, but they didn't inform him of this. He checked his account balance one day and it was nearly dry, and he called them to see why, and they then said "well we can't give you the dole anymore because you're a full time student".

The irony of that situation never ceases to amaze me and I tell that story to anyone who asks about centrelink. I've had to deal with them a lot of the last few years (university student with youth allowance, changing addresses a lot, etc) and they seem to fuck up even the easiest tasks. I do everything right by them and they fuck me over, and my friends do the wrong thing like not informing them when they are 'at home' for the holidays, ie, not paying rent, so they scam more money off centrelink, and what they do goes un-challenged and un-noticed.

OH MY GOD!!!

If there's ONE group of people that deserve government aid, its full time university students! That's god damn ridiculous!

I am infuriated.

 

[Deus.exe]

It's an observation of a plain as day phenomenon, not veiled racism.

This obervation can be made in ANY western city not just in Australia.

Why are there so many asians at Universites? Because they study their arses off. The asian guys at my high school were never seen at parties, never seen at Westfield and were never seen at the beach because their parents made them study all the freakin' time. It's not healthy by any means but it's the reason why a lot of the places at uni are taken up by asian kids.

 

[Harry Hughes]

When I say "Lebanese community" I think you guys know what I'm talking about. Not guys like Dylan, but those dickheads that go around starting fights for no reason etc etc and go on about "Lebanese pride" and all that bullshit.
Honestly, if you like a country more so than Australia, just go live there instead, don't come to our country, make it worse for us by not fitting in and causing shit among everyone else that just wants to be peaceful.

I am 1/4 Spanish, 1/4 Filipino (from my mum) and 1/2 Anglo-Aussie (from my dad)
Do you hear me going on about "Spanish pride" or "Filipino" pride?
Fuck no, I'd much rather live here than the Philippines.
I'm an Aussie citizen, no matter what my skin color says (which is somewhat olive-ish/tanned looking and leads people to believe I'm Southern European, or Latin American sometimes).
Lebanon is a comparatively crap country compared to Australia.
I don't understand this mentality of why you would be living in a better country and believe it to be 'superior' to your 'homeland' which is much worse off.
And I'm willing to bank, unlike a lot of people of Lebanese descent, Dylan doesn't take Australia for granted and actually respects his fellow citizens.

Again, despite my racial background, I'm a fucking Aussie, full stop. I speak English and Australian living is the only way of life I know.
Yes, Australia has it's failings and what not, but I'm sure glad I don't live in buttfuckistan either.

One thing that really shits me, people come here, can't speak English, and expect us to be able to understand them.
I once had some guy come up to me and start talking in Italian. And many times, in other languages from other people too.
I'm not gonna go to Italy and expect people there to understand English, so why the fuck would someone come to Australia and expect me to understand their language?
Fucking hell.

 

[HeadCrusher]

It's an English speaking country that's rapidly developing a largely Asian inner-city population. It is quite humorous when you cannot understand 1/3 people and they in turn cannot understand you in the country's native tongue.

No offence but it's called "Globalisation" and happens all around the globe.

Edit: Wow five or so new posts while I was writing my short reply...

 

[Harry Hughes]

This obervation can be made in ANY western city not just in Australia.

Why are there so many asians at Universites? Because they study their arses off. The asian guys at my high school were never seen at parties, never seen at Westfield and were never seen at the beach because their parents made them study all the freakin' time. It's not healthy by any means but it's the reason why a lot of the places at uni are taken up by asian kids.

I'm 1/4 Filipino and I was ALWAYS at parties in year 11 and year 12

 

[Ermz]

That's what the british though (and probably still do) about the Australian accent. Language is an evolving thing. I grew up on the central coast an I could hardly understand some of the (White) country types from Narrabri, Tammworth and elsewhere that came to our place from time to time (my mum owns a horse stud).

No, no I don't mean accents. I mean they literally don't speak the English language whatsoever.

@Headcrusher: This place is one of the worst examples of globalization anywhere. Lots of ghetto-esque suburbs with concentrations of single types of ethnic groups that tend to lead to hostility, violence and race riots.

Once again, many of these people literally do not speak english and there is no incentive for them to assimilate into mainstream society.

I come from the Balkans. I didn't speak a word of English when I first came here. I found it was important to rectify that.

 

[bogchop]

What, because Anglo-Australians are the only real Australians? What kind of racist bullshit is that?

Had this discussion with a friend - define 'real' Australians, or let alone what it means to be Australian. It came down to the fact that this country is a cluster-fuck of cultural filth, a petrie dish of bottomless tards (Don't look at me BRO) and those that demand you giv' 'em a dol-luh (so they can buy cheap, shitty beer to get in touch with the spirits -- not and not the alcoholic kind). There is no clear definition here, just cliches and references to more cultural incest. Koala bears? Stoned maggots. Steve Irwin? Unlucky. Shrimp on the barbie -- who the fuck even does that.

As for the universities, a fair bit of the time, you don't even know if they're going to respond in English or Engrish. Your first instinct is to speak like a half-tarded dimwit, in fear of repeating yourself again. If your FOB radar is off, you're a filthy racist -- you lose either way. Fair call on that also, as universities nowadays are not educational institutions -- they're businesses. Governments talk of skill shortages, yet our educational system is designed to spin dollars, not professional trades and/or skills. One of my own lecturers freely and willingly admitted to me that the university was gearing itself up as 'the university of choice' for internationals. Heaven fucking forbid that they actually partake in group assignments without utilising the copy/paste functions that a computer can offer. I take consolation in the fact that they pay 5-10x as much as I do for the sacred parchment you receive after carrying them through 3 years of useless tripe. On a complete side note, why the fuck are they here taking our jobs, then sheltering their children from assimilation and acquisition of native tongue? How is this good for the economy?

How many of you know that once upon a time, the government PAID for you to go to university? Your parents now pay for YOU if you're lucky enough, else the government helps to provide the youth of Australia with assisted debt: otherwise known as HELP. 'Irony' got up and packed its bags from the Oxford dictionary to make way for 'Sodomy'.

A plague on your children, that is all.

 

[Ermz]

Hey Bog, nice to see you on here.

 

[Harry Hughes]

Having had mates who have been bashed by these ethnic gangs, I can strongly back up what Ermz is saying.
The high school I went too, no joke, a large portion of the Lebanese kids are to Australian society as to what Black African American "gansta' are to American society.
Despite my background of Filipino and Spanish on mother's side, I never fit in with the Filipino group of kids at school (they were always generally nice kids though), and thus hung out with my mates that were into metal and as you can guess were almost all totally Anglo-Australian or at least completely white Caucasion of some kind. (There was VERY FEW metal fans at my high school too, so we were often seen as weird people)
I shit you not, we were bullied for being what we were, people that were just going about our business as Australian citizens. To many of them, many of us Australians are "scum" (very ironic too considering how many of these Lebanese descendant kids were actually born here and not Lebanon).
They go around with fake accents to accentuate their 'Lebanese' values.

I remember this quite well, because I'm only 21 and high school was not long ago, and shit has only gotten worse since then.

I don't care if you're black, white, east Asian, or whatever the fuck your skin color may be as long as when you come here, you assimilate into society.
I may not be white in the traditional sense, but I'm accepted as a real Australian because I fit into the proper standard of Australian society.
It's when cunts don't fucking assimilate that I have a major problem with them.

I'd like to think I'm kidding when I say literally over 90 per cent of the Lebanese kids at my school were absolute fucking idiotic cunts, but I'm not and because of this I find it hard to not judge people of Lebanese origin rather quickly, because my experience with them was not pleasant.
Again, no offense meant to Dylan, and I'm honestly sure he can understand where I'm coming from too.

I had a friend at school who had his head rammed into a computer monitor and then severely choked in class because he was Australian. He was never the kind of guy to provoke people and was just minding his own business.
If someone can explain to me how that makes sense and how that's fair, then fuck, I rest my case.
Until then, this is a topic I'm passionate about and a topic that always bring to the forefront part of my anger for some aspects of where Australian society is headed and how it's going down the drain.

 

[HeadCrusher]

@Headcrusher: This place is one of the worst examples of globalization anywhere. Lots of ghetto-esque suburbs with concentrations of single types of ethnic groups that tend to lead to hostility, violence and race riots.

Once again, many of these people literally do not speak english and there is no incentive for them to assimilate into mainstream society.

I come from the Balkans. I didn't speak a word of English when I first came here. I found it was important to rectify that.

Again, same situation all around the world. I think the thing about the language has to do with the educational background.

I'm actually considering studying this kinda shit next fall. Haven't made up my mind yet though.

 

[Ermz]

People frequently misconstrue viewpoints like Harry's as racist (especially over here) but it really is just being realistic. There are only so many times you can see these patterns and ignore them in the hopes of living in some circle jerking leftie pipe dream. Once again, I wasn't born here and I'm not anglo-saxon. I'm as ethnic as anybody else, but I have made moves to assimilate into society somewhat, even though I resent this country to its dirty, rotten fucking core.

What Harry said about certain ethnic groups inciting race related violence is completely consistent with my own experiences. I still see these people doing the same juvenile high school gang crap on Lygon St all the time. It's a pool of cultural mediocrity over here.

 

[Bekanor]

Had this discussion with a friend - define 'real' Australians, or let alone what it means to be Australian. It came down to the fact that this country is a cluster-fuck of cultural filth, a petrie dish of bottomless tards (Don't look at me BRO) and those that demand you giv' 'em a dol-luh (so they can buy cheap, shitty beer to get in touch with the spirits -- not and not the alcoholic kind). There is no clear definition here, just cliches and references to more cultural incest. Koala bears? Stoned maggots. Steve Irwin? Unlucky. Shrimp on the barbie -- who the fuck even does that.

As for the universities, a fair bit of the time, you don't even know if they're going to respond in English or Engrish. Your first instinct is to speak like a half-tarded dimwit, in fear of repeating yourself again. If your FOB radar is off, you're a filthy racist -- you lose either way. Fair call on that also, as universities nowadays are not educational institutions -- they're businesses. Governments talk of skill shortages, yet our educational system is designed to spin dollars, not professional trades and/or skills. One of my own lecturers freely and willingly admitted to me that the university was gearing itself up as 'the university of choice' for internationals. Heaven fucking forbid that they actually partake in group assignments without utilising the copy/paste functions that a computer can offer. I take consolation in the fact that they pay 5-10x as much as I do for the sacred parchment you receive after carrying them through 3 years of useless tripe. On a complete side note, why the fuck are they here taking our jobs, then sheltering their children from assimilation and acquisition of native tongue? How is this good for the economy?

How many of you know that once upon a time, the government PAID for you to go to university? Your parents now pay for YOU if you're lucky enough, else the government helps to provide the youth of Australia with assisted debt: otherwise known as HELP. 'Irony' got up and packed its bags from the Oxford dictionary to make way for 'Sodomy'.

A plague on your children, that is all.

International students give me the shits. I've lost count of the amount of times I've had to completely rewrite another student's contributions to group work because they made absolutely no sense. Yet the Universities don't give a shit how many students who read and write English at a University level get shafted as long as the international kids keep fronting the cash.

I've had lecturers who I flat out could not understand at all, so I just never bothered showing up to their lectures. Lucky for me I only had those lecturers for basic HTML/XML/XSL and piss weak media studies courses and they put all the powerpoints up on blackboard.

 

[Harry Hughes]

Again, same situation all around the world. I think the thing about the language has to do with the educational background.

I'm actually considering studying this kinda shit next fall. Haven't made up my mind yet though.

You can say "same situation" as many times as you want, but it's always the differences, no matter how big or small, that are the most shocking and disturbing.
Whether it's necessarily any worse or better where you live, I don't know, but the same situation?
Definitely not.

 

[Deus.exe]

Again, same situation all around the world. I think the thing about the language has to do with the educational background.

I agree 100%

There are the exact same problems in every major city. It's only that australians complain about it as it was endagering austrailian "culture" of "our way of life".

Take Berlin for example. There are suburbs like Kreuzberg and Neukölln where population is mostly Turkish (The one of the largest minorities in Germany. Like the "Lebs" in Australia). In these suburbs very few of the inhabitants can speak German. This is not only linked to poor education but also that when one is very little impitus to learn a new lanugage (in this case a much harder one) when you are surrounded by people that can speak your native tongue. This gets passen on to their kids and so on an so fourth. Every german knows that these areas are "problem zones" but they don't feel threatened or spout off racist comments like many "Aussies".

I'm half English and half Indonesian (Balinese to be exact) but I call myself an Australian as I was born and raised there, but I can only shake my head at some of the attitues of my fellow country men. Though I don't mean the ones on this board, you're all OK with me even if we don't agree on everything all the time.

 

[Ermz]

I think the Australian 'way of life' is defined by some of these 'minorities'. I can't speak for everyone, but in my case that's definitely not what I'm defending. I have no allegiances to a purist anglo country. I would just like the other ethnic groups to assimilate into mainstream society as I have. I want to interact with people on the same level and not worry about whether they're going to try to stab me just because I'm white. Take a trip through Footscray at night and see how tolerant you come out on the other end

 

[Harry Hughes]

Funny thing about the Lebanese community here, is that I've yet to meet one that cannot speak English.
However, very few of those I've known didn't have that ridiculous "Fully sick, hectic Lebo" accent that they put on.
Some Aussies here might remember the show on SBS, called Pizza.
I used to fucking love that show, but in retrospect, it's less funny now that a lot of the things portrayed in that show aren't even an exaggeration anymore.
The show started around 2000, IIRC when things weren't as bad, but since then more aspects Australian society has sadly become much like what you see in the show.
I don't think they meant to create a show that would end up being so disturbingly accurate at times, but it happened.

 

[Deus.exe]

You can say "same situation" as many times as you want, but it's always the differences, no matter how big or small, that are the most shocking and disturbing.
Whether it's necessarily any worse or better where you live, I don't know, but the same situation?
Definitely not.

Dude, it is the exact same situation. I my example above it's dangerous for white German kids to be in the same schools in those areas due to interracial violence.

 

[Ermz]

I don't think they meant to create a show that would end up being so disturbingly accurate at times, but it happened.

I think it's similar to Attack Attack. It started as a joke, but then you found out people actually listened to it for enjoyment...

 

[Deus.exe]

I would just like the other ethnic groups to assimilate into mainstream society as I have. I want to interact with people on the same level and not worry about whether they're going to try to stab me just because I'm white. Take a trip through Footscray at night and see how tolerant you come out on the other end

I know what you're saying but as I was saying a lot of these minoirties live in areas with such large ethnic populations that for them there is very little need to assimilate. When I first came to Germany the only german I could speak or understand were Rammstein lyrics (and thats no exaguration). I slowly learned the language my watching the Simpsons and hanging out with my new German buddies. A lot of minorities have very little day to day contact with "Native speakers" and watch TV from their home countries.

By the way, in Germany not only do you have various ethnic groups wanting to fight but Neo-Nazis as well.