[Miscellany]

There is a lot of talk in the media about immigrants to this country needing to accept Australian values as their own before they become Australian citizens.
But what are Australian values anyway?
According to the government these are the Australian values that should be accepted.
Nothing in there about slapping people on the bum with your rubber thong at the beach or getting piss drunk on crap beer and shouting "milk, milk, lemonade - round the corner chocolate's made!" to school kids going on an excursion.

So, I don't really know what makes these values particularly Australian then, nor why we need this sudden focus on values in our new citizens anyway? What about the freakshows who were born here but insist on being racist arseholes (ie: Pauline Hanson - to flog a dead horse). She was in GOVERNMENT! I think before we start focusing our hoity toity "values" on immigrants we need to look at what is already going on out there by people who would probably consider themselves the 'first Australians' (laughable really, since weren't the Aboriginals the first Australians?).

Values, I think are an extremely personal thing and while there is nothing particularly wrong with the values outlined by the department of immigration I just believe that values are what you teach your children, not what is implored apon you by your government.

It gives me the creeps that the government wants to outline particular values for us anyway. Who are they to tell anyone how to think anyway? Enforce the law by all means, but tell someone what to believe? I don't think so.

The values thing is a scapegoat anyway. It is an excuse for Peter Costello (god help us when/if he becomes PM) to reignite the "this + this + this is unAustralian" debate by singling out muslims. When Pauline Hanson was around it was the Indonesians and the further back we go the more we'll find.

UnAustralian.

The last time I checked I had difficulty even defining what "Australian" was - let alone what unAustralian is. It's an empty word that is used to provoke meaningless arguments.

Really, the one time I actually thought "gee that's really unAustralian" was seeing the footage of the Bondi(*edit: cronulla*) riots. I couldn't believe there were people fighting about something other than whether Home and Away or Neighbours was better.

Which is the better Australian Soapie?
Home and Away
Neighbours
Chances
Paradise Beach
Parliment Question Time
I am above all that soapie crap because I'm a pretentious arsehole. How dare you make such a dumb poll!
I watch them all because I am a pop culture whore.
I stopped watching Neighbours after Bouncer died.
I stopped watching Home and Away after the first Pippa left!
Current results

thanks to matt for introducing me to the poll website. <3

err, not sure how to get rid of all that space between post and poll - sorry!

posted by M at 6:53 pm 8 comments