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The Forum > Article Comments > Integration or disintegration: a test for immigrants > Comments

Integration or disintegration: a test for immigrants : Comments

By Bill Muehlenberg, published 22/9/2006

Simple demands: they should have lived here for four years; they should know a bit about Australian history and values; and they should be able to speak English.

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I think that "Hedgell" was the person who destroyed the asparagus, and thus deconstructed the entire Aussie palate.

That was until the advent of multiculturalism.
Posted by CJ Morgan, Tuesday, 26 September 2006 9:57:20 PM
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Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel – I’m so glad the embedded humor aroused some minds- It would not have looked as good if I used Head -Jelly- ian in Relation to M/H Brain Injured.
But the Asparagus Hed-Gellian could have worked just as well. I like that, much better; Vegetable head, Obvious, but a bad attempt lost. Ha.

Snout, then you would understand this then. No more curve balls; A common Enemy is at large, and playing with peoples minds. Hegel is only one of many; This is the shorter abridged version ..
http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/bb970219.htm
Posted by All-, Wednesday, 27 September 2006 2:27:31 AM
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Snout

Wrong about the ANZACs forging our identy.
It was not they who defined Australia. It was the artists, publishers, writers and poets of a much earlier period who achieved that.
Among many others it was people like the former gold miner Jules Francois Archibald...to his mother, John Feltham Archibald to his father, Henry Lawson whos father was Pieter Larsen, John le Gay Brereton, David Mckee-Wright, Quong Tart, Jack Moses, George Robertson, Angus McDonald, the members of the bohemian Dawn and Dusk Club (Which had rules written in chinese), Louis Becke, Louisa Lawson, Barcroft Boake, Bertha and W.T. McNamarra, Sir Henry Parkes, Sun Johnson, Christopher Brennan, Kenneth Slessor, Katherine Pritchard and of course my favourite Barbara Baynton.
Most were immigrant or had one or two parents who were.
Posted by keith, Wednesday, 27 September 2006 12:47:00 PM
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I suggest new test - one for every body - even those who have lived here by virtue of good luck.

If we ever agree on what might be Australianess we should all be tested - and those who fail the test should go to a detention centre for re programming.

Songs of john wiliamson, chad morgan and slim dusty would play all day (those of Jimmy barnes and the Bee Gees would not be permitted due to suspect parentage)- at night they get Shannon Noll

Only the Sullivans and Kingswood Country would be screened on TV - the kids get playskool and Mr Squiggle.

Every one would go to a church service just the once - it would make no difference what denomination as long as it was Catholic or one of the Protestant types

The diet would be meat and three veg, or a BarBQ - pies would served on Saturdays

The meaning of ridgy didge, dinky di and fair dinkum would be studied and mandated to be used twenty times a day - when advised of any fact at all the detainee must also exclaim Crikey!

After one year of this the detainee must be able to distinguish between a core promise and a non core promise as well explain how to stack a suburban branch of a political party of his or her choosing - or they are forever banished to Hutt River Principality.
Posted by INKEEMAGEE2, Wednesday, 27 September 2006 3:27:44 PM
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Dear Snout
that post or 2 were quite impressive. But they do contain what I feel are a couple of flaws.

Re Lambing Flat

"very nasty tendency in the Australian psyche to mob bullying"

Nope..its a 'human' characteristic :) As I clearly explained and juxtaposed
-Boxer Rebellion in China (against whites)
-Lambing Flat in Australia (against chinese)

You seem to have missed that.

Then... when you said we "seek to define ourselves on by contrasting it with what we are 'not'"... as in 'not the 'other'..the migrant.. the Muslim etc...

Now on this point, while it may seem good reasoning, is lousy sociology i feel. We 'are' something whether or not we define it in terms of what we are not....
It is only when what we are 'not' is brought into our faces that we REALIZE our 'ourness'.

The desire to protect what we have and are, in terms of identity is probably the single most understandable and justifiable of human traits.

Marxism is not how I would explain my views on Lambing flat. I just see it as an understandble reaction to a situation. I think I can go further.. I would "justify" the intent, but perhaps not the method.

Unfortunately, the diggers so no other option, as the law was against their cultural interests. Cromwell arose for the same reason and I recommend a study of his emergence and his thinking during that time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Cromwell
Posted by BOAZ_David, Wednesday, 27 September 2006 6:27:40 PM
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Boaz,

Fair comment about mob violence being a human, rather than a specifically Australian characteristic. Negatives as well as positives can be unfairly attributed when we define ourselves against others and both can work against the recognition of our shared humanness. However I still question any nationalism that is used to justify such violence. Understandable and justifiable aren’t the same.

Keith,

The comment about Anzacs forging our identity was ironic, although in no way intended to trivialize the importance of the events of the first world war – especially for the men who suffered on the battlefield. My point was that the meaning of the experience, especially for the diggers themselves, was much more complex than that: for some it was physically and psychologically devastating, and others it was a massive betrayal. Simplistic myths dishonor these men, and more importantly blind us to the realities of others, such as Vietnam veterans, who may be suffering similarly today. Lest we forget, indeed.

I reckon you’re spot on, though, that we are more likely to find our sense of Australianness in our writers and artists than in our politicians, theorists and sportsmen. Not just the writers of old, either: Carey and Winton and Drewe come to mind, along with countless others: film makers, painters, poets. These are the people who create the truly sustaining myths of who we are and where we’ve come from. (And it’s many different things and many different places). The problems arise when were become unable to distinguish the myths from the truths they represent - as fundamentalists all over the world are now showing us.

All-,

If you’ve ever seen real living human brain tissue you’d probably say “head jelly” was a pretty apt description. It’s what makes it so flexible - and also so easily damaged
Posted by Snout, Thursday, 28 September 2006 7:33:26 AM
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