Who amongst Able2knowers has been to Australia?

hmmmm.... i belive i have a disability. wonder if i can get some money out of this. if so, i can stay on this forum all day long and torment all you fine people.

LOL Pueo

'Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished! An on-demand, on-line gadfly!

gad-fly????

going to google again..................

that's good because i really like wabbits.....

specially fried.........

Now now, don't start on the rabbits. My pet happens to be a bunny.

Really, Gezzy?

Yup. Her name is FooFoo :-)

gezzy

FooFoo! Tell us more!

Ok. Well, FooFoo is a female bunny and I've had her since she was just a little baby bunny, about 3 years. She is grey and is very cute. She is not is a cage, in fact she has her own fenced in area in the back which is about 15 by 20ft. If she wants to come in she just scratches at the door, but that's very rare. She use to come in and visit us every now and then, but now she prefers to stay outside. She does come up on the back porch and peek in the window if she wants us to open the door and pet her. I'd say that she is one very happy bunny. No cage with plenty of food and love. What more could a bunny ask for, lol.

I would like to ask some questions to the people familiar with Australia (preferrably the citizens/permanent residents of the country):
1. Dlowan stated in his/her posting that there were lots of racists in Australia.

I would like to know, whom do these people regard as enemy: everyone not being an Anglo-Saxon/Celtic, or just people of another race? And are they violent toward the non-Anglo-Saxon people?
2. Is it really so uneasy to understand Australian accent in English? I have never talked to any of the Australians. My experience includes Americans (their accent is very clear) and British citizens (Englishmen can be understood relatively easily, Scottish and Irish people somewhat less, and I always failed to understand Welsh people speaking English). So, where are the Aussies on the scale between Americans and Welsh?

gezzy

A happy (& lucky!) bunny, indeed! I didn't know they were so friendly.

msolga
She sure is. I suppose it really depends on the bunny, but all the bunnies I've met were friendly ones. The fact that she's not bound to a cage makes it a much nicer life for her. I hate seeing any animal in a cage. They need to be free.

gezzy

Yes, yes, I agree!

Steissd,

I have no idea if there are more or less racists in Australia than anywhere else! They certainly exist - often fed by stupid propaganda from small political parties and the usual mix of ignorance, poor education and feelings of alienation from mainstrea, society.

Also, given that we are a multi-cultural country, many communities have brought their own racisms with them to the new country - I, for instance, was once subjected to four years of quite insidious racism as a caucasian working in a Chinese restaurant!

In general, I do not think that it is something that one notices particularly as a caucasian.

There is a small but sometimes quite active group of neo-Nazis - who pick on their usual targets of Asian and black people and thir political opponents.

In the outer suburbs, or the less expensive suburbs of bigger cities, where new immigrants tend to settle first, there has been some bad feeling between particular groups - eg there was a gang of islamic boys who were pack-raping non-islamic women. No doubt these boys had been subjected to a lot of abuse from non-islamic kids. These areas have always tended to experience some problems as new ethnic/cultural/racial groups settle in - 20 years ago there was some trouble between young people when the influx of Vietnamese and Cambodian boat people were settling in.

From time to time some idiot or other will make a big deal about how we are letting too many Asians in.

There has been some harassment of obviously Islamic people since 9/11.

Aboriginal people complain of ongoing racism - overt or subtle - and many of the issues for them that have existed since invasion in 1788 remain - seemingly impervious to all the programs that have been devised. The current federal government capitalised on the normal unease that comes with rapid social change (large numbers of non-white immigrants over the last 40 years or so, Aboriginal challenges re land rights etc, multi-culturalism and so on) to gain and maintain power, and there was an upsurge in people feeling entitled to express racist views, and support for denying access to illegal immigrants. The recent threat of terrorism has probably encouraged such feelings all over the western world - witness Celticclover's thread about enough being enough, which you have posted on - (CC is from new Zealand.)

Overall, I think this country has done pretty well given how much the ethnic mix of the place has changed over the last forty years. There was a nasty backlash a few years ago - and 9/11 has brought xenophobia out of the woodwork again - but an Asian or middle eastern person would be able to tell you more.

And Aborigines would also have a sad tale to tell.

It would be good if other Australians commented, too.

As for the accent - I would be the last person to know! 'Tis a relative thing anyway. The strengthof the accent varies a bit from person to person and region to region. I guess if we find you hard to understand, you are gonna find us hard!

Why don't you try out some Australian films? Or bloody "Neighbours" - it seems to screen many places!

Steissed

Yes, there are bigots in Australia - the same as anywhere else, really. But remarkably little (any ?)organized race-related violence of the type you ask about. Nothing along the lines of say, the riots in Brixton a few years ago.
In fact, Australia has a pretty good history of tolerance, when you consider the diversity & the number of people from different cultures who have successfully settled here. (Including my own family.) It is very much a cultural melting pot.

Racial concerns at the moment include debate about Middle Eastern people of Muslim faith wishing to be accepted as asylum seekers (or "illegal immigrants", depending on which side of the fence you sit on.) The detention centres are a major cause of debate, concern & division in the wider community. No doubt November 11, the Bali bombings & our government's support of a possible war with Iraq has contributed to the divisions. (Now we have government advertisements in the media encouraging people to 'dob in' possible "terrorists" behaving suspiciously!)... There is a lot of fear out there, but thankfully no organized violence as an expression of this.

And of course, Australia's history of mistreatment of the Aboriginal people of this country is truly shameful ... Yet we have a prime minister who refuses to officially apologise on behalf of the nation, despite most people wanting this.

So yes, there are racial tensions, but virtually no organized violence as an expression of it. And there is a great deal of interest & debate in the media about these issues.

In response to your second question: I don't know if Australians are hard for others to understand. I can't see why we should be. We do speak English!

I did Australia, NZ, and Fiji in March-April 1999. I did the bridge climb in Sydney when that was allowed from about a year earlier. Visited the Rain Forest, the Great Barrier Reef, Cairns, Port Douglas, the Kuranda train ride, and one of the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia visitor center. c.i.