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

[GarethSE]

australia
bare laughs

 

[Metaltastic]

Funny how I don't think we in America can even relate to this, since our country is so massive and flanked by two equally traveled bodies of water (not to mention the notion of 50 semi-autonomous states which has been fundamental since its founding); obviously in many inner cities there are always tons of ethnic minorities, but while sometimes they can get annoying, I had no problem peacefully coexisting during the 16 years I lived in NYC (though fortunately, for most of those years Giuliani was mayor )

 

[Notuern]

In here, the health care system is pretty twisted. It's fine if you're fine, but have any kind of larger physical or mental problems and you just can't be helped. You'll end up being thrown around from place to place, arrogant doctors think all your problems are mental because your parents have split up (yes, even the physical pain must have been caused by that, THERE'S OBVIOUSLY NO OTHER WAY) and they don't send you to other doctors because they only do it if they aren't capable of helping you themselves, and fuck yeah they all think they're some sort of super-doctors who can save the world...

Sounds like Sweden.. and we are supposed to have "free" health care, yet we have to pay for our medical visits.
Although its VERY little money we have to pay, with our taxes, we should get it for free IMO.

Sweden is leaking financially, and its way past the point of no return.
I have been considering moving to either the US or Canada since 2005 or something like that.
From my understanding, Canada is somewhat a political mix between the US and Sweden, which is perfect for me!

 

[updog]

Sounds like Sweden.. and we are supposed to have "free" health care, yet we have to pay for our medical visits.
Although its VERY little money we have to pay, with our taxes, we should get it for free IMO.

Sweden is leaking financially, and its way past the point of no return.
I have been considering moving to either the US or Canada since 2005 or something like that.
From my understanding, Canada is somewhat a political mix between the US and Sweden, which is perfect for me!

Yeah, I think it's pretty much the same here. And I feel the same about Canada, if I were to move out of here someday, I would probably move there!

 

[Glenn Fricker]

People frequently misconstrue viewpoints like Harry's as racist (especially over here) but it really is just being realistic.

Agreed. Too many people fear having honest discussions on cultural assimilation lest they be branded "racist."

The Netherlands is a perfect example of a liberal western society clashing with muslim culture. Look what happened to Theo Van Gough.

 

[Eddy]

And as ive already said, in Sweden its not ok to criticize how the government handles the immigration, because then you are a racist! o,0

And as always, the half-witted little brother next door is steadily following behind. There has been quite a lot of talk on this exact subject on the Finnish press lately. If I remember right, the prime minister himself some time ago said something along the lines of "criticism is allowed, as long as it is not said aloud."

That reminds me, we had a bogus doctor out there with no medical education. He worked for months I think he's no worse than the rest of them doctors.

And just few days back there was headlines about a half-a-dozen more fake doctors discovered! One had even doubled as a fake veterinarian!

 

[slashvanyoung]

While I agree that this phoney political correctness is disgusting to say the least, I also think that guys like van Gogh are easily the worst examples to bring in.

Because that guy wasn't "just" 'political incorrect in general consensus', he was plain and simple a polemic and opportunist racist. Worse, he even became a martyr for neo-nazis and racists.

His murder can't be up for debate, but a guy who used to refer to Muslims as "goat fuckers" can hardly contribute to "having honest discussions on cultural assimilation".

 

[updog]

And as ive already said, in Sweden its not ok to criticize how the government handles the immigration, because then you are a racist! o,0

Just spotted this now. EXACTLY how things are here. As Eddy said, we're a copycat for everything Sweden does it seems.

 

[Skinny Viking]

I just thought I'd mention that you guys ARE taking over the movie industry

At least there is that

Gibson, Jackman, Ledger (RIP), Urban, Kidman, Watts, Crowe, Bana, Pearce, Blanchette ....

I know there's a shitload more but this is off the top of my head

 

[Dylan S]

Agreed. Too many people fear having honest discussions on cultural assimilation lest they be branded "racist."

The Netherlands is a perfect example of a liberal western society clashing with muslim culture. Look what happened to Theo Van Gough.

I agree with this too.

I was never trying to be a racist when I made my 'asians' comment. It was merely an observation I made whilst walking through Sydney and my university. There are plenty of asians around...so what? I never said I didn't like them or that they were a problem in any way.

I actually had this discussion with a mature age student (late 20's mum) in one of tutorials at uni for a sociology subject. We were discussing something about Australia being a multicultural society, and I was arguing that it might not be as multi-cultural as everyone thinks, particularly on this one example I saw on a 'current affair' style show one night...

There are a few suburbs in Sydney that have probably around 80% of the people living there, come from one particular Asians country (I can't remember which one). The idea behind the story was that it was difficult for the english speaking Australians to actually live there, because they would go down the street to the shops and all of the signs were in 'x' languauge, and hardly any of the people working in the shops themselves could speak english. My idea of multi-culturalism isn't this, as it is hardly a merging of the cultures, rather, it is more of a nuisance to the english speaking people who live there. Again, while I have nothing against ANY foreigners who have made Australia home, I find it unusual that you can find places in this country where english is completely redundant, whereas you can find many places (in south east Asia as well) around the world, where you can get by with a little english.

...anyway, after I dropped this point of view on the argument, she came back (to the whole class mind you) that I was one of the 'problems' of the younger generations these days, because I referred to them as 'Asians' rather than 'Australians' and she thinks people like me are incredibly intolerant. This really pissed me off, because 1. I only called them Asians because I couldn't remember what the specific country was, and also because you don't hear anyone bitching about being called 'Americans' if they're from America, or 'Indians' if they're from India, etc, and 2. I was merely raising the point to add something different to the discussion besides the 18 year old rich girls who were like "umm, yeh, I think Australia is multi-cultural because...umm...there are lots of people living here with different cultural backgrounds". It was a TV report I saw and just thought I'd put it forward in the discussion, yet I get called a racist for it...fucking stupid.

Please don't think I'm some sort of ignorant racist.

Also @ Deus.exe - I don't really think the conclusions you're drawing about my views are really correct or necessary by any means.

Also with regards to me being half-lebanese...the only time I even bring up being lebanese is when someone makes a joke about the hair on my back above my ass, or my crazy love for kebabs. I hate the kind of 'lebs' Harry is referring to as much as anybody, but not because they're lebs...I hate them because they are a group of people who act like fucking idiots, start fights, and bitch about Australians in the same way Harry said.

Finally, I only came into this thread because I thought it would be funny to poke at some of the stuff that happens in Australia. I am by no means having a proper 'bitch' about my country, with the mindset that I've got it worse than everyone else. I fucking love this country and to be honest, I can't imagine living in a better place in the world. It is just part of the Australian character (in a way) to talk about some of the stuff like this, and to be honest I'm not really sure why. Can any other aussies back me up on this idea?

 

[Morgan C]

I really don't have a lot of experienced with the racial violence everyone else has mentioned, I guess I've led somewhat of a sheltered life that way.. but the rest of everything is pretty much right.

My parents have private health insurance, but often lie, saying they DON'T have it. Why? Because with just public health insurance, basic operations and shit (that would cost ~$6-7k on private insurance), is free. Wtf?

And the whole health system is fucked. My sister has been hospitalised for mental reasons (don't really want to go into this, just an example).. so she gets 'good' treatment while she's there, with a decent psychologist. Then as soon as she's released from the hospital, the psychologist basically says 'fuck off'. Fucking awesome. And, god knows how or why, every psychologist we've been to seems to take 2month+ holidays twice a year. It's ridiculous.


And don't forget Rudd's awesome stimulus package. Give everyone $900 of Australian money to spend on eBay on American gear, Japanese plasma TVs.. basically anything anywhere else because its a fuckload cheaper than here. Last I heard it cost around $450 000 per job saved. And added to our government spending $100bn in a single year.

Oh, and the internet blackout thing? Save the fucking children people.



edit: I realise most of this isn't unique to Australia, but its still nice to rant.

 

[Bekanor]

I agree with this too.

I was never trying to be a racist when I made my 'asians' comment. It was merely an observation I made whilst walking through Sydney and my university. There are plenty of asians around...so what? I never said I didn't like them or that they were a problem in any way.

I actually had this discussion with a mature age student (late 20's mum) in one of tutorials at uni for a sociology subject. We were discussing something about Australia being a multicultural society, and I was arguing that it might not be as multi-cultural as everyone thinks, particularly on this one example I saw on a 'current affair' style show one night...

There are a few suburbs in Sydney that have probably around 80% of the people living there, come from one particular Asians country (I can't remember which one). The idea behind the story was that it was difficult for the english speaking Australians to actually live there, because they would go down the street to the shops and all of the signs were in 'x' languauge, and hardly any of the people working in the shops themselves could speak english. My idea of multi-culturalism isn't this, as it is hardly a merging of the cultures, rather, it is more of a nuisance to the english speaking people who live there. Again, while I have nothing against ANY foreigners who have made Australia home, I find it unusual that you can find places in this country where english is completely redundant, whereas you can find many places (in south east Asia as well) around the world, where you can get by with a little english.

...anyway, after I dropped this point of view on the argument, she came back (to the whole class mind you) that I was one of the 'problems' of the younger generations these days, because I referred to them as 'Asians' rather than 'Australians' and she thinks people like me are incredibly intolerant. This really pissed me off, because 1. I only called them Asians because I couldn't remember what the specific country was, and also because you don't hear anyone bitching about being called 'Americans' if they're from America, or 'Indians' if they're from India, etc, and 2. I was merely raising the point to add something different to the discussion besides the 18 year old rich girls who were like "umm, yeh, I think Australia is multi-cultural because...umm...there are lots of people living here with different cultural backgrounds". It was a TV report I saw and just thought I'd put it forward in the discussion, yet I get called a racist for it...fucking stupid.

Please don't think I'm some sort of ignorant racist.

Also @ Deus.exe - I don't really think the conclusions you're drawing about my views are really correct or necessary by any means.

Also with regards to me being half-lebanese...the only time I even bring up being lebanese is when someone makes a joke about the hair on my back above my ass, or my crazy love for kebabs. I hate the kind of 'lebs' Harry is referring to as much as anybody, but not because they're lebs...I hate them because they are a group of people who act like fucking idiots, start fights, and bitch about Australians in the same way Harry said.

Finally, I only came into this thread because I thought it would be funny to poke at some of the stuff that happens in Australia. I am by no means having a proper 'bitch' about my country, with the mindset that I've got it worse than everyone else. I fucking love this country and to be honest, I can't imagine living in a better place in the world. It is just part of the Australian character (in a way) to talk about some of the stuff like this, and to be honest I'm not really sure why. Can any other aussies back me up on this idea?

We are a commonwealth with England, of course we're going to know how to have a whinge. What usually happens is someone drops a clever joke about the situation and everyone has a good laugh and the collective bitterness disseminates.

But with our country modelling itself after the bastion of myopic liberalism that is America, nobody has a goddamn sense of humour anymore.

 

[Dylan S]

edit: I realise most of this isn't unique to Australia, but its still nice to rant.

Point I was trying to make earlier...sometimes it is nice to rant. It doesn't mean you think Australia sucks or anything...

 

[GarethSE]

and here is why you should hate everyone equally, it solves the racism issue.

 

[professorlamp]

Cant we all just get along

 

[Bekanor]

Cant we all just get along

Nuh!

 

[amarshism]

Fuck I hate living in Australia more every year. Give us a smoke cunt. Got a dollah bro. Yo sully. Fuck even the cops try and fuck you on everything rather than doing something worthwhile. The music scene is fickle. Not enough capital cities to make touring worthwhile until you start playing bigger venues. The abos cry out for apologies and equality and for no discrimination but they still bug you for smokes and money for the train, even though they've just purchased a vb tallie (longneck for you vic/nsw folk) and they still sniff paint. Too many monopolies in booking/promotion and too many fuckwits involved in that. Tall poppy syndrome is definitely worst in this country. Immigrants not assimilating. At the qut campus in Kelvin grove Brisbane there's commission housing that almost solely houses muslims that don't work or speak English when the accommodation surely would be more suited to hardworking, struggling uni students. The Internet filter. Fuck.

 

[timmy_522]

Watch for me being broke as a joke for the next 6 to 8.

At least they haven't tried to make you repay any payments made to you. I was fucked about by my local
TAFE and didn't start on the date i told centrelink. Yep i had to pay them back, no excuses. And i could afford it no worries being an apprentice.

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

Because it's only racist if you're white isn't it. It was an observation, stop playing into the mass medias hands. You won't win any medals for calling everyone with a different viewpoint to that of your own a racist.

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.

Probably the best post in this thread so far, good on ya mate! This thread has gotten a little of track hasn't it. My addition to the OPs question:

http://nocleanfeed.com/
And Barnaby Joyce and some other tard are on the bandwagon to have anything remotely offensive placed on the internet filter, apparently pornography containing women with small breasts will encourage paedophilia.

I guess my main gripe with Australia is the lack of unification and the over the top, heavy handed approach to everything the government perceives to be a threat. We aren't capable of making rational decisions ourselves as to what is good and what is bad for us, apparently. When it starts, that being censorship, where will it end.

 

[GarethSE]

being asked for cigarettes is one of my biggest pet peeves in life. over here people are especially obnoxious about it
"cahn ahh nick a fag mateeee?"
no you can't, because you're living in cornwall, yet you're putting on a hilariously false manchester accent, asking to nick one rather than have one, and calling me your fucking mate when you are anything but.
except for homeless people, im always down for having a smoke with the homeless and listening to their stories, its sobering and magical all at once.

also, i dont actually have anything to say about australia other than i feel really really sorry for ermz mixing in that room full of acoustic treatment.

 

[Notuern]

and here is why you should hate everyone equally, it solves the racism issue.

Thats what i do... no wonder nobody loves me.