Australia Day

[saffronlie]

I do not feel much like celebrating today. I have gained a new perspective on my country since moving to Sydney just under twelve months ago

Comments

[moon_chylde]

In many ways you could be talking about the US. The same regional snobbery exists here. The people who live on the coasts think that we who live in "middle American" (a term I hate) are a bunch of closed minded idiots who really don't matter in the great scheme of things.

And same with the Aboriginals...our Native American are treated much the same way.

[saffronlie]

I'm not sure what it is about living in close proximity to the coastline that is supposed to make people superior! Although, here, almost everyone is on or near the coast. But I still get Sydneysiders assuming that I must have gone to uni in a capital city because there couldn't possibly be decent universities in regional areas, etc.

[hezzabeth]

I get what you mean about inner city sydney snobbery and ignorance. I've been living in the south west for fifteen years now and it's amazing how insane some inner west people are! they think my town is filled with crack addicts and killers lol. In your response to the indigenous australian statement I think it's more that the community is more out my way and in the north west. I have a large portion of aboriginal and torres strait islander students in the schools I teach at with many of them living in the suburbs of green valley and miller but yes accept for Redfern they really dont exist in the city. I also think it's really unfair that a fair portion of my anglosaxon community get housing assistance, welfare benifits and drug rehabilitation when I'm well aware that many of my students end up for some time periods homeless due to family issues and lack of housing. You're right something does need to be done about it, the aboriginals are visable further out west but their situation is still just as bad as it ever was.

[saffronlie]

See, I didn't realise there were more indigenous people living out there, because I've never heard anyone discuss the outer suburbs in anything but disparaging terms. Thanks for bringing that up. It does bother me that even within Sydney there are these kinds of divisional prejudices. The inner west is so crazily insular.

[pandorasblog]

I always wonder about this kind of regional/metropolitan snobbery, particularly in light of the fact that in most state or national capitals, a goodly proportion of the population is surely made up of people from less lauded parts of that state or country. Their social, economic and cultural contributions then get praised to the skies, but the person and their achievement will be treated as 'the coolest thing to come out of [capital] or [country] in ages, as if that capital had made them up out of whole cloth. This is reflected in all sorts of ways: Snow Patrol being seen as a Scottish band because they met at uni there, even though they're from fricking Bangor, County Down. Or the common lament among Scots, that when their national team loses it's a Scottish loss, but when it wins, it's a British win

[saffronlie]

It's all a bit ridic, especially given the size of Australia. OF COURSE there will be a lot of people not in capital cities, and many in really remote communities. Once we stopped celebrating the bush and the outback we decided to just ignore it, apparently. I blame Modernism and its city-love!

[rebness]

I dislike this big-city arrogance. I always remember the people in Aubenas going on and on and on about arrogant Parisians and thinking they were just being bitter, because of how l'awesome Paris is.

But then over the years, I have grown to hate the stupid London-centric view of the UK. It's like nowhere else exists, according to film and TV and tourists. If it doesn't happen in London, who gives a damn? Even Croydon is far too exotic. And visiting London alone doesn't mean you've done the UK, or that you understand the English, let alone the Welsh or Scottish. Fiddlesticks!

I don't know enough about the Aborigine situation to say much, but this is a pretty depressing way for them to live. How can the ruthless erosion of the Aboriginal culture sit well with jingoistic celebrations? Huh.

[saffronlie]

I would probably like Sydney more if it was less like London, although at least London almost has a legitimate reason to be the way it is. Nonetheless it's still not the best Britain has to offer!

[ozfille]

Actually I work with quite a few Aboriginal people but then I work in the Public Service and so I don't know the percentage of places in private industry that are filled by Aboriginal people. The Public Service tends to be a bit different - for years it was the safest place for gays and women to work in that at least there were formal rules about discrimination in HR policies in the Public Service long before there were overall anti-discrimination legislation enacted that covered all forms of employment

[saffronlie]

Thanks, it's good to hear perspectives beyond my fairly homogenous peer group at university. I completely understand a regional bias against the big cities. The Beattie and Bligh governments in Queensland have made only the most token of efforts to acknowledge the rest of the state that isn't south-east Queensland. The majority of a state's population may live in the city but that doesn't mean they need all the money that the government wants to throw at it. The recent decision to abolish coin tolls in Brisbane is a great example. Anyone from out-of-town who wants to drive in Brisbane is going to have to get their own e-toll account at inconvenient expense. There are ways to at least pay lip service to regional concerns without making it obvious that they couldn't care less. Of course, that's just an old Queensland rant coming out.

And while Henry Lawson may have hated Sydney, you do get Kenneth Slessor & co. writing poems about the beauty of William Street etc.

[ozfille]

William Street must have looked a lot better in Kenneth Slessor's day, the current version is rather drab and depressing.

[saffronlie]

I think it was much the same in his day, but he still managed to find it lovely: http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/william-street/ Probably a glass-half-full kinda guy.