Honk your horn, mate

Australia Day. Clearly important to so many of my countrymen and countrywomen. Just another day off for me.

That's not entirely true. While I do use it as a platform for some deserved rest, it is also a day that seems to make me reflect on what I think Australia is, or who we are. I guess I do this because for so much of the year my view of Australians and/or the more abstract Australia, can be decidedly bleak and negative. This is my one day to make sure that I'm not focusing on the detractions alone.

In the positive camp there is the Australian spirit. It is tangible, it is very authentic, and it is enough to make one all warm and gushy. I'm talking about the openness of character and the pragmatic approach to come what may. The smiles. The giggling kids whose parents are a mixture of convict stock, Afghani and Thai at once. The very Zen thousand mile stare of the content Australian.

There's also the cultural sophistication and particular spaces in which I frequent. The music, the theatre, the food and wine culture, the festivals, the urban complex. And with this comes the delight of my constant surprise as to who engages in this unique beast. Generations of families sitting elbow to elbow at a local Asian eatery, an unlikely ockerish farmer-type at the Malthouse watching a lawyer speak about human rights, nodding, the surfer-dude watching a Chinese love story at the international film festival.

I love this Australia, and I pine for it when I've been away for any length of time.

But, then there's the Australia that makes me want to give up my passport and move to Europe.

The ugly Australia. The endless generations-old, white Australians who care about nothing other than themselves and their very immediate family; who fear any sort of change and take the bait from every ugly politician to take the stage. The gross materialism. The she'll-be-right culture that endangers our very lives in the face of an already in motion energy, water and climate crisis. The apathy. The racism. The misplaced patriotism. The acceptance of anything and everything without ever questioning the foundations. The advancement of sport and celebrity over intellectualism and creativity. The uselessness. The fear factor. The international embarrassment we have become at the hands of our Federal Government.


Ultimately, for this writer, it's hard to look past the negatives. The good in this country does not outweigh the bad as of the day I write this post. David Hicks is in a cage in South America and our Government, and the people of Australia, let it be. Hicks is a very good representation of what is so inherently wrong with our nation. And while he remains there, and people aren't bothered by that, there's no hope as far as I can see.

Meanwhile Nicole Kidman scratches her arm making a movie, where she is being presumably paid millions of American dollars destined for her own account that sits outside the taxable boundaries of this country, and this makes the front of news bulletins. Our Nicole. So white. So celebrity. So rich. So what we all want to be.

Australia's priorities are fucked and people are being hurt as a result. It's hard to feel proud about being Australian when you see the wheels turning towards an even bleaker picture and no one is paying attention.

When I was younger I thought the way out was to quite literally get out. Leave. Live in another culture that embraced more important issues than who was the best dressed at an awards ceremony. As I have aged, however, I have been of the opinion that one should stay and fight for what they love. In the face of what I see as a growing antagonism towards progressive thought, though, yet again I find myself thinking about escape.

And all this on the day where we are supposed to be celebrating our nation? What does that tell you?