//you know the people who go to uni and actually come away with something other than an 'arts' degree in crayon painting or some other boronic subject, yes boronic//

Boronic? As in boronic acid? That would be covered in chemistry, ALTRAV. Chemistry is science, not arts.

Ahh Paul, you guys make it so easy for me.
All I have to do, if you won't believe the words of Aussie professors, is google 'World rankings for Aussie uni's', and voila', all is revealed.
As you can see for yourself, one chart gives four ranking systems.
The first three are enough to make my point;
QS, THE and ARWU, the forth is relatively new in the business of ranking so I thought I'd just leave it to the 'old school'.
I'm not going to bother copying all the data, you can read it for yourself, if I thought you were actually interested.
So as you can see, clearly, we are not as bright as you and your lot want us to believe.
Australia is a Mickey Mouse country with no actual substance, just a lot of chips on shoulders and ego's to match the size of this land.
As much as Aussies would like to think themselves 'worldly', they have no idea as to what the word even means.
So you guys keep telling yourselves that you know what your talking about, and keep believing your version of events and I'll keep reporting the true and real way things really are, in the 'real' world.
It is precisely people like yourselves that I am on forums, to attempt to correct the mis-information being spread, and the vial PC disease.
I believe I have once again made my point and so will now move on to conquer my next quest, if I may.

Alt Rave,

There are Polynesian-Australians at universities; Italian-Australians at universities; Chilean-Australians at universities; Korean-Australians at universities; Anglo-Australians at universities, including Scots-Australians and Irish-Australians; Kenyan-Australians and Ghanaian-Australians and Iraqi-Australians and Nepalese-Australians and Lithuanian-Australians. All Australians.

Despite your opinion, there are even Jewish-Australians. Yes, we worm our way into everything.

And yes, there are some twenty thousand Indigenous-Australians at universities.

Ethnicity and nationality are not the same thing. In fact, everybody can, if they wish, see themselves as all manner of hyphenated-Australians. I'm sure that you're proud of your Italian background and wouldn't mind being called Italian-Australian ? I feel some allegiance to Scotland, Hungary, Wales, Ireland, England, the Jewish Diaspora (by adoption) and maybe the West Indies, simultaneously and on special days, and I'm still Australian. It's not either-or. Our ancestors all come from somewhere else (and so did theirs, and theirs) and there's no reason not to feel some sort of attachment and affection about those original homelands.

As it happens, people with some Indigenous background can feel some affection and allegiance like anyone else, and most likely to some particular country in Australia. Certainly, my kids feel something for the lower Lakes and the Murray River area generally, many relations are buried there, as well as the regions around Crystal Brook and Yankalilla here in SA. Whether that makes them 'more' Australian, I couldn't possibly comment.

Can you understand any of that ?

Joe

Toni, are you joining the ranks of the 'let's say the obvious', now.
In case your education ceased at kindergarten, I might remind you that in the big wide world of words, some words, even though have the same spelling, actually have different meanings.
There, now you're a little wiser than when you got up this morning.
Now back to topic.
Do you have any words of wisdom to add to the fact that there are NO abo's going to uni.
Or to the fact that our tertiary education system is a joke and all they are teaching is petulant little 'children' to believe they are actually intelligent enough to have a relevant opinion about ANYTHING and how to be a loony lefty.
Or the fact that courses were dumbed down to accommodate and encourage wannabe abo's to uni, for what reason? no-one knows or cares.
No?
Ahh well, onward and upward then.

Joe, I will respond with a perfect example, myself.
As you rightly assert, my background is Italian.
My bloodline is for as long and as far back as the records show, Italian.
I have been tagged by the media as 'An Australian born, Italian blah, blah ,blah and so on.
There is nothing untrue about that title or tag.
Joe, where I take offence is that the title or tag of aborigine is used here as declaration of ones bloodline.
The sad truth is it's use has nothing to do with pride of ancestry, but more to do with being trendy and cool, if you call yourself an abo, not to mention physical and financial benefits or gain that come with that title.
Joe, my beef is mainly to do with the fact that you cannot dismiss the genealogical definition of someones bloodline by simply saying you have an affinity to some place or people.
This is not based on reason but on whim and therefore is not an acceptable or even legal premise or justification.
Another very important point is, by singling out one race in your background, over the many other races that copulated to produce you, is selfish, low minded and is disrespectful to all the other nationalities that were just as much a part of your very being, yet you single out just one, and it is of your choosing, not even by some genetic formula.
You speak of relating to a particular place in your past, well everyone has the same feelings about a particular place they had been in their past.
It means nothing, it's just the past, everyone feels it, but we don't use it to justify our ancestry, it is non-sensickle to say the least.
No Joe, I will keep pushing the facts over fiction and suggest that the proof of my message is in and has well and truly been tested and confirmed.
The other views are those of people with selfish or self righteous agenda.

ALTRAV,

Top marks for perseverance as always, but there is no way these people will ever see sense, and there is nothing to be gained by arguing with them. In real life, they collect together and they are not used to someone disagreeing with them. They've been getting away with their crap for so long that they cannot possibly believe anyone would question them; therefore, it is us who are wrong, and when they are not kowtowed to as they have been all their smug lives, they can't do anything to combat us but call us names, and we are supposed to mizzle off with our tails between our legs. Bugger that!

Who bloody cares about them! There are millions of people out there who agree with us; they just don't bother with social media, sensible people that they are.