Sometimes I think Australians are like dogs. Loyal, friendly, at times suspicious of others for no apparent reason and, most of all, desirous of love. We seem to be too busy wanting everyone else to love us, and beating ourselves up when they don't. Many nations are much less accepting of immigrants than we are. Many take more immigrants than us, but exclude them from citizenship and other distinctions that allow them to be truly included. Many ostracise minorities (consider the stateless gypsies in Europe, for example). The thing is, these nations aren't filled with media beat-ups about how racist they are, because they don't care. If we think they're insular and racist, that's fine with them.

We, on the other hand, constantly fuel these debates about whether or not we are racist. We ask people what they think about us, then get upset what they tell us. If we ask foreign students if they think we're racist, of course some of them will say "yes". That doesn't mean they have given it any thought before, or that they will give it another thought in the future. At that point in time, they call us "racist" then get on with their lives. We stew over the responses, argue about whether we really are racist and what we can do about it.

I say that, if we stopped asking, they would stop telling us we are racist and we could feel good about ourselves once again.

I give the pieces to the puzzle! Its your sh@t with your brains! .........if you have any......... to see the future.

Lets play it your way.

The planet fails.

TT>

Dear Peter Kell,

Thank You for a thought provoking article.

Denying some of the points you've raised
won't achieve anything constructive.
We as a nation should be interested in
how we are perceived by others, especially
if we want to be a part of the global scene.
Image is crucial, and we should be interested
in the reasons behind why people see us the way
they do, and more to the point we should be
interested in what we're going to do about our
image and reputation overseas.

Education does seem to be what's needed.
Closing a blind eye to things will work against
our attracting skilled workers to this country,
as well as international students that our
institutions of higher learning so desperately
need.

foxy - why would we care, why should we care, what the world thinks of us?

"We as a nation should be interested in how we are perceived by others, especially if we want to be a part of the global scene"

Why do you think everyone wants to be part of the global scene?

Most of us just want to be happy, bring up our kids and do the best we can, without need to be admired, or approved of, by foreigners.

"Image is crucial, and we should be interested in the reasons behind why people see us the way they do, and more to the point we should be
interested in what we're going to do about our image and reputation overseas".... why? Do countries really care about their international reputation, no of course they don't.

Image is not crucial, values are.

Let's stop cringing as we'll never form any kind of cultural cohesion if all our actions are to please others. We'll never please everyone, and end up looking .. well, like we do know with progressive types trying to mold us into a culture we don't easily fall into - multiculturalism is a myth, we all live here in our separate little worlds, hardly a cohesive society.

Some folks will never be pleased with us - see the way many in the Australian media find racism everywhere in Australia, that's just Australia, it's somewhat racist, but most of us accept that and don't constantly bleat that it MUST be different to please others.

Be comfortable with your countrymen and women, they are what they are.

Dear rpg,

I love this country.
However, we are a player on the world stage.
We rely on overseas trade, we need it
for our economy, to both import and export,
and whether people like it or not
we can't stick our heads in the sand and pretend
that the rest of the world doesn't exist, or that
our international reputation does not matter.
Our various governments have signed agreements
that have placed us on the international scene,
we're not some sort of isolationist backwater.
And our reputation does matter if we want to be taken
seriously.

In the 1950s and 1960s Australians were becoming
aware of the fact that Australia was considered a
cultural backwater.

For the best in the arts one
had to go overseas. However, during the following
years many plans were made to put an end to this state
of affairs. The Australian Opera House was built in
Sydney. In Melbourne, the Victorian Arts Centre was
built as was the art gallery. Then the overseas fame
of Australian masterpieces, like the play, "The Summer
of the Seventeenth Doll," and the fame of individual
performers like Peter Finch, Joan Sutherland, Sir
Robert Helpmann, Rolf Harris, the Seekers, Barry
Humphries and many, more...writers, musicians,
and performers in all the arts, earned Australia a place
amongst the world's best.

The same applies to sport, where Australians have long
excelled, with our athletes competing and gaining a
reputation worldwide. We all await the Olympic Games
eagerly, to show the world our ability and talent.
We even hosted the Olympics several times in this country.

Surely you don't want us to go back to the days when
the world thought of Australia as a place where
"kangaroos hopped around the streets," and where the
"down under" label was a label for backwardness?

Perhaps you do. I would suggest that most people
would find that no longer acceptable. Just as most of
us would no longer find outmoded words like,
"boong," "dago," or "wog," acceptable today. Clearly
people no longer view one another in that way, the
world needs to know that.

In response to Foxy’s : “ we should be interested in what we're going to do about our image and reputation overseas”

While I’ll admit that if one gleaned most of ones information about world affairs from GetUp or The Aust Refugee Council, publications, one just might be misled into thinking that the rest of the world is some sort of privy council looking down from its high benches with distain at our immigration policy.

But anyone else, who has done even a little bit of world travelling, or wider reading, and still has some semblance of independent thought would find the charge & image comical.

Outside the field of point scoring on some fora such a claim has no life or credibility.

I am reminded of a talk I heard in celebration of Gough Whitlam, in it Justice Kirby quoted Whitlam as saying that our regional neighbours would judge us on the basis of how we treated our aborigines.

Quite apart from the rights or wrongs of the way we treat our aboriginals. Anyone who knows even a smidgen about our near neighbours indigenous affairs would know our regional neighbours, were & still are, in no position to look down on us. And issues relating to our treatment of aborigines are well down any list of priorities they might have,

So there poor Gough was spouting off about something he was ill-informed about –and alas his long tern reputation, amongst thinkers, can only be poorer for it!

And it’s the same with “we should be interested in what we're going to do about our image and reputation overseas” with regard immigration policy--it has no legs!

But fortunately for Foxy –unlike poor Gough-- I’m here to point out the errors of her ways ---and preserve her reputation

Foxy , it just ain’t so! Australia's reputation will be fine.