Bronwyn
Me too we just differ on the day. Having spent some time in Ballarat I know the story of Eureka stockade not the idealized myth but the truth. Also the flag was adopted by the old BLF and would still have bad memories for some.
But all the rest is in my mind a given.
But well writ you!

BOAZ_David wrote "You know.. we were quite fine before you all came "
Do you mean you were quite fine in the GOLDEN DAYS OF WHITE AUSTRALIA?
Forget it BOAZ_David, it is very late!
Do you see what happened in America? A black president!
The burning cross of KKK did not help them to block the election of Obama.
Right and religious extremism only problems creates.
Col Rouge
We are independent with a foreinger as head of our state! Is not it shamefull?

Antonios Symeonakis
Adelaide

In a chapter of Kristos Tsiolkas' book "Loaded", the protagonist is asked if he's proud to be Greek. He responds that he's _glad_ he's Greek, but not proud, because he had no choice in it. That's fairly much how I feel about being Australian.

We've just been through 12 years of a government that encouraged us - a nation of immigrants - to celebrate our patriotism by excluding and attacking foreigners, and the people who most fervently celebrate Australia Day are the same ones who want to drag our society backward.

Nothing in the last decade made me proud to be Australian, so I'll be celebrating this as a new beginning, so that perhaps in another 10 years I can look back and say that I helped make this country proud for the right reasons.

______________________________________________________________________

" Australia's national day for celebration is selected on very different grounds to that used by other nations. January 26th is the anniversary date of the coming of white people. That makes celebrating that date and its significance, race-based. The national day for just about all countries is not the day Europeans landed, but the day the countries became liberated from the colonialists.


The US national day marks the date of its independence from Britain, not the date Christopher Columbus landed. South Africa and India do not mark the coming of whites but honour the date of their independence from Britain.


Chile and Argentina do the same from Spain. If Australia were to honour the date of its establishment, as North Korea, the Czech and Slovak Republics do for theirs, the date would be January 1, 1901, not January 26th 1788. Australia's date of independence from the British was the date of federation.

The nation should aim to make a settlement with Aboriginal people. The date that the settlement is reached should be the new national day for celebration, one that can include everyone."

______________________________________________________________________

EXERPT from Press Statement by Michael Mansell, Lawyer, Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre 25-Jan-09

Meredith “No, I'm not Col. “
OK, you would understand my error in assumption :- )
“I could write an essay on the suffering and great work of my ancestor,,,”

if you can, do so, if for no one else’s benefit than your children. They should know of the esteem you hold those ancestors in and why.

Examinator “BTW Didn't you see the comment 'yes it's satire' I wrote it especially for you and David. Not the satire just the comment. :-)”

Yes I did but I never realized it had a humorous component, I suppose it is as is often suggested, some can tell a joke and those who cannot just become one.

ASymeonakis “Col Rouge We are independent with a foreinger as head of our state! Is not it shamefull?”

Actually the Queen is not a "foreigner", I suggest you first learn about the Australian government relationship to our head of state, before you try to criticize.

Now to the “is it not shameful?”

No it is not.

I suggested in my first post what Australia benefitted from English colonisation were “skills and institutions brought here”

Institutions including the organization of a head of state as well as the structure and offices of government and the judiciary, military, civil, civic and commercial organisations.

We can go back to 1658 when the Republican usurper and “Lord Protector” Oliver Cromwell died and the Monarchy was re-installed under Charles II.

Since then Britain has suffered no civil war. And enjoyed 450 years of stable Monarchy and Head of state working with Parliament to maintain stability for the benefit of the nation.

Australia inherited those values and institutions and has enjoyed 200+ years of stable government.

I guess with your name you are from Greece.
Greece cannot go 20 years without some military dictator overthrowing the government and declaring martial law and himself head of state.

I fail to see what basis of criticism you can make or improvements you could suggest to improve what has worked successfully for as long as the British Head of state or more importantly, the civil institutions which were adopted from our British past, when the best you can do is a mere couple of decades. No wonder Greece is one of the poorest nations in Europe, they spend all their opportunities fighting among one another whilst Britain’s spent their time colonizing and then trading around the globe.

You and a few million others might have arrived recently, like me, to enrich our “multi-cultural” heritage but I will remind you, Australia is not just about you, it is about all Australians, most of whom proudly recognize their British heritage still.