cont'd ...

ooops - my apologies for the typo. I meant to say, "Australian artists and poets helped to create the Australian Bush Legend..."

Albie Manton:>> Come wars, civil strife, cyclones, floods, droughts and always there will be that colonial spirit in abundance. My sprogs are Eurasian, and as proud of their Green & Gold and Cootamundra Wattle as their old man.<<

Albie thats exactly right, being an Aussie is not a birth right, it's a vibe and we identify another Aussie by that vibe not their grandfathers home town or how long they have been around.

AGIR is no Aussie

Real Aussies reject Bible

Crap and just have mates

When you all wake up tomorrow.....just smell the boat that your not in......:)and love Australia!....how can you not:)

All the best.

BLUE

AGIR

It matters a great deal how you treat others - I see how well you do that on these pages, none of your behaviour stems from your ancestry, your country of birth, or even your religion. It is about your level of compassion and civility towards others which would be the same whether your nationality be Iraqi or Irish.

I love Australia, I have travelled through a great deal of it. I have also traveled in other nations and can fully understand why the French and Spanish may adore the Pyrenees, the Vienamese the Halong Bay, the Americans the Grand Canyon - I am sympatico with the Aboriginal connection to the earth. That we feel somehow 'special' through simple accident of birth is very human and also a two-edged sword.

Beware who you cut in the name of patriotism.

I came here because I fell in love with the land when much younger and working here.

I bought my family here so that my children would become Australian although I did consider I may never be accepted unless my accent finally changes.

What I found was racism run literally riot. After a few years I discovered mateship here is about who you share the good times with, not the bad. A government that will not listen and does not care about people and a public that reflects it back, mirrors it sideways and passes it on down.

So here we are and most of my time is spent trying to balance letting the children become part of this country while encouraging them to reject the dominant attitudes.

You can define yourselves anyway you want but from the outside looking in the view is very different. I’m very very sad and extremely disappointed at what I had thought was going to be an optimistic and strong country with its peoples wellbeing as a priority has chosen to sit and become curdled with money, diplomatic relations, and bureaucratic arrogance as the main ingredients.

Still – probably puts you on par with the rest of the world so wouldn’t worry about it mate.