Leigh,

As a 5th generation Anglo-Saxon Australian, I'd don't really identify as being much other than "Australian". However, I can see that I'm just one of many vague 'types' of Australians. There are descendants of the native Australians, people with distant or immediate history from elsewhere in Europe, and the migrants and refugees from elsewhere around the world have all become "Australian". While there is certainly a dominate culture of football/cricket loving, beer guzzling, mate-ship forming larrikinism, there is far more to the Australian culture and we are far from a homogeneous society.

It's natural to be suspicious of the unknown, and that is what the multicultural push was aiming to address. It wasn't about changing the way you live or the culture you have, but acknowledging and learning about the other cultures that already successfully co-exist in our society today. The ideals behind multiculturalism are inherently Australian as they are all about a "fair go". Giving others and their way of life a fair go at being part of Australia. That said I'm not naive enough to believe that everyone and all cultures are compatible with these notions and the Australian way of life, but that does not mean we should be fearful of everyone who is different.

The Article: "Oddly not one non-Anglo name appears after 1945..."

I'm not well read on famous Australians, however perhaps all the important achievements were by people with Anglo names? It would be wrong to include someone based on the origins of their name. A specific example of someone worth including would go a long way in backing the argument.

DESIPIS

Well put.

If Andrew Jakubowicz thinks some people have been left out of some or other list of worthy Australians he has a simple remedy. He can argue for their inclusion.

Here are some "non-Anglo Saxon" Australians I think should feature on any list of great Australians.

Sir Gustav Nossel, Australian of the year, 2000

Peter Doherty, Winner of the Nobel Prize in physiology and medicine, 1996 (Doherty is an Irish name. NOT Anglo-Saxon)

Cathy Freeman, Australian of the year, 1998. It may be an Anglo-Saxon name but Cathy Freeman is not "Anglo-Saxon."

LEIGH

It's not non-Anglo-Saxon academic immigrants that should worry us. It's sloppy ones.

Dear Savvas (warm welcome to OLO)
you asked:

"Just answer me how my retention of my ethnic background impacts on Australia?"

Well..it depends a bit on how much you seek to retain, and then.. if there are elements which are not compatable with the values and culture you found when you arrived.

If..for example.. you were a Maori, and your method of greeting others is to rub noses... do you feel it would be appropriate to refrain from shoving your snoz into everyone elses rather than shaking hands ? :) A simple example, but a good one.

You see.. if 'retaining' means stubbornly clinging to anything which is likely to produce social confusion, or cultural 'in'trusion.. or insult.. or offense.. then in the interests of peace and harmony and definitely tolerance, it would be best to tolerate and acquiesce to the prevailing wouldn't it?

I'm rather hoping you are like the Greek migrant I met at a picnic ground. He said "I'm not really very Aussie, but my kids are more..and their kids will be much more"

After all.. people who 'migrate' as opposed to just spend time working, come to join the society not create a sub culture or.. am I missing something here? If I went to Greece and acted very 'aussie' and offended people right left and centre by my 'Aussie' ways.. I should expect some harsh criticism such as "You came to this place to live.. why not embrace our culture and lifestyle"?

I speak 3 non english languages, (Malay/Indonesian/Tribal language) because I did adjust, assimilate, fit in with, learn about... the country where I was living.

This Jacobowitz is an outright RACIST.. he wants people appointed to positions of authority based on their race.. he is even SEXIST as he wants them appointed for the gender reasons. He also advoates 'sexuality' as a criteria for public office ?
Did they just let this bloke out of LARUNDEL? He sounds like a maniac.
Plan.....for diversity... this from a bloke who worked in BIRMINGHAM, with all its 'utopian racial harmony'.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/alice_miles/article582770.ece
Put Jacobowitz back in the assylum.

Savvas... another thought :)

Regarding your 'background'.... how big is the 'Macedonian/Greek' issue to you ? Greeks and Macedonians don't seem to see eye 2 eye on that.
Lets say "Alexanda the Great"....was he Greek or... Macedonian?

Do you take a firm stand on this ? Do you feel insulted if someone takes the opposite viewpoint?... if they take that opposite viewpoint to your face, and passionately so... how do you react ?

We had problems beween Serbs and Croats at the Tennis a while back.. why? aah.. retention of ethnic background and history mate.

The best thing for any migrant.. is to lose their sense of 'ethnic' identity and seek to reclothe themselves in the label 'Australian' no need for any more.. no extr "Of Greek Background" or.. "Of Anglo Background".. nope.. lets ALL put that behind us, and simply call ourselves 'Australian'....

How do you feel if your son or daughter wishes to marry a partner of Anglo (or Asian, or German) background? Do you say "Oh nooooooo you must not marry out of our ethnicity".... or.. do you say "AAah.. this is good.. breaking down barriers and becoming more 'Australian'...?

This Jacobowitz is the biggest clown to hit OLO since the last moron who spoke about diversity as a 'good thing'.. no.. diversity of a cultural nature simply reinforces a 'them/us' mentality.

I've been enriched beyond measure by marrying outside my Anglo Scott background, and my mixed children have many great friends of various ethnic backgrounds. But the enriching is in the 'assimilation/integration/intermarrying' of all the various groups.

The outcome should be a wonderful Australia filled with wonderful "Australians" with no ethnic baggage.

Professor Jakubowicz claims that 'cultural diversity is the central social question,' but I would say for the wrong reasons. The central question, and the TEST, of cultural diversity is not that it can coexist with Australian values but whether it can coexist with other diverse migrant groups whose nations in the past and in the present have been and are at war and conflict. And in this test they have failed irretrievably. Croatians and Serbs, Serbs and Kosovar Albanians, Greeks and Turks, Arabs and Israelis, and Slav Macedonians and Greeks, all of them brought with them the "atavistic" conflicts of their history to this country. When Slav Macedonians and Greeks were burning each others Orthodox churches in the mid ninenties in this country were those events leading to the "social cohesion" of Australia, ala professor Jacobowicz?

This cultural diversity is not a PEACEFUL diversity but a WARRING diversity, and therefore is not merely a social question, as professor Jacobowicz avers, but foremost a POLITICAL question that has to be resolved for a peaceful and united Australia.

See:Multiculturalism: How a Pet Idea Became a Dinosaur
http://www.con.observationdeck.org

Like leigh, Boaz David and others, I am an immigrant in a black mans country.

My origins are Anglo Saxon and accordingly retain that culture, and the community I live in is from all corners of the world. A diversity of cultures that have enriched my life,from which I have learned and grown from, and helped me appreciate the wonderful contribution multiculturalism makes to the meaning of being an Australian.