Parting Thoughts...

It was good to be back in Oz for a while.

One thing that had changed which I found a little disturbing,
was a certain ugly brand of nationalism.

I would not have considered Australia to be a nationalistic nation,
not from what I remember anyway.

Australians seemed to be quite self deprecating,
more than willing to laugh at themselves and their foibles.

I can't remember there being so many Australian flags,
especially outside private residences, let along on shirts, hats and bikinis.

It used to be that, if you wanted to show national pride,
you were more likely to wear green and gold, or fly a boxing kangaroo flag.

Red, white and blue;
has unpleasant connotations.

It was not long ago that we voted to become a republic,
to ditch the queen and change the flag.

What happened to this spirit of Independence?
Since when did Australians become proud of another nations colours on ours?

I think we can look towards the current regime.
A regime that supports the unilateral invasion of sovereign nations.
A regime that incarcerates those seeking asylum.

Throughout history,
Nationalism has been used as a justification for immoral acts.
Is that what we are seeing today?

na-tion-al-ism: noun
1. the desire by a group of people who share the same race, culture, language, etc, to form an independent country
2. (sometimes disapproving) a feeling of love for and pride in your country; a felling that your country is better than any other

pat-ri-ot-ism: noun
love of your country and willingness to defend it

A S Hornby, Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary of Current English, Sixth Edition, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2003.

Western Australian icon - the black swan, once covered the "Swan River", now after having their habitat turned into a major traffic artery - they are hard to find.

Devil Scratch

These guys should be the Australian National symbol - all they do is eat, sleep and root. Apparently they also get loaded on the eucalyptus leaves!

Where's my baby!!

The wondrous wombat

Hey joey