Happy Australia Day!!!!!!!!!!!

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retrofuturist
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Re: Happy Australia Day!!!!!!!!!!!

Post by retrofuturist »

Happy Triple J Hottest 100 Day!

Metta,
Retro. :)
"Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."
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mikenz66
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Re: Happy Australia Day!!!!!!!!!!!

Post by mikenz66 »

Wow, I'm actually in Australia for Australia day, but since I'm in Melbourne Airport waiting for a flight to Adelaide I haven't noticed much in the way of festivities. I did watch a movie (Mabo http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2112195/) about they court cases in Queensland about the ownership issues of aboriginal people on the Torres Strait islands http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torres_Strait_Islands" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ...

:anjali:
Mike
plwk
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Re: Happy Australia Day!!!!!!!!!!!

Post by plwk »

ImageImage

Happy Aussie Day mates :mrgreen:
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Ben
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Re: Happy Australia Day!!!!!!!!!!!

Post by Ben »

tiltbillings wrote:


(Hasn't Peter Garrett fallen from this social consciousness?)
Tilt,
You could say, "its complicated". Peter Garrett, imho, has been an excellent cabinet minister in a very deeply flawed Labor Govt. Unfortunately, as a member of the parliamentary labor party and because of deep conventions whereby individual labor party members are forced to follow party policy, he has had to administer decisions that he personally did not support.

Chris:

Code: Select all

There are no Tasmanian full blooded aboriginals left. They were also different in appearance from the mainland aborigines.
The second statememnt above is technically incorrect. It was a fiction mainly perpetuated by the Royal Society (UK) that the Tasmanian Aborigine was a separate race, bound to die out due to the advent of the influence of civilization. In the 1840s Tasmanian aborigines were worth more dead than alive as biological specimens for collectors in Europe. The Hobart Mercury details a number of incidents where freshly interred corpses were raided. In reality, the original inhabitants of Tasmania were genetically no different to the population on the mainland.
The first statement is technically correct, but its much more complicated. George Augustus Robinson was the first "Protector of the Aborigines" in Van Diemen's Land, and his campaigns to 'save' the remnant population was actually an instrument in state-sponsored dispossession. Those that did not get sent to the unhygienic reserve on Flinders Island in Bass Strait, known to the Aboriginals as 'Island of the Dead', were either abducted or went willingly with the "rude wife-snatching men" of the lawless sealing colonies in the Bass Strait Islands, which our present Tasmanian aborigines descended from.
Our past inhumanity towards our indigenous peoples was unspeakable and it continues to cast a long shadow on Australian society today.
kind regards,

Ben
“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725

Compassionate Hands Foundation (Buddhist aid in Myanmar) • Buddhist Global ReliefUNHCR

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Ben
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Re: Happy Australia Day!!!!!!!!!!!

Post by Ben »

plwk wrote: Happy Aussie Day mates :mrgreen:
Cheers, mate!
:toast: (Diet non-alcoholic ginger (root) beer!)

Ben
“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725

Compassionate Hands Foundation (Buddhist aid in Myanmar) • Buddhist Global ReliefUNHCR

e: [email protected]..
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James the Giant
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Re: Happy Australia Day!!!!!!!!!!!

Post by James the Giant »

Happy Invasion Day!
At my workplace, Australia Day is an excuse to moan about the "bloody brown boat-people swamping the bloody country" who need to be deported or sunk, and the "F*#%ing filthy abo scum" who need to be wiped out.
Even though my workplace is composed to about 30% immigrants, (UK immigrants) there is still an outright anti-immigration, openly racist attitude.
There is one Indian guy who works there, the rest are white. When they are ranting on about the blacks, they sometimes turn to the Indian guy and say "Of course, Deepak here is different, he's a nice bloke, we're not talking about you Deepak."
Deepak smiles a small, thin-lipped smile as they return to their bigotry.
I've worked in two "blue collar" jobs since I came to Aussie, and both have had this culture to varying degrees.
I'm sure the vast majority of Aussies aren't like this, but it seems Australia day brings the bigots out of the closet.
Then,
saturated with joy,
you will put an end to suffering and stress.
SN 9.11
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Kim OHara
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Re: Happy Australia Day!!!!!!!!!!!

Post by Kim OHara »

David N. Snyder wrote:
cooran wrote: * Australia, founded by convicts. The homicide rate is in Australia is 1.8 per 100,000 of population. The United States was founded by religious zealots. It's homicide rate is 6.3 per 100,000. Almost 400% greater than Australia.
:jumping: :twothumbsup:

I love that one. Thanks for the history lessons. Australia is cool.

And Australians are particularly good at sports, Olympic medals, etc., per capita.
We're pretty good at lots of other stuff per capita, too, :embarassed: but don't celebrate it enough ourselves or encourage others to notice it.
One of the people who is "pretty good" at some of it had something to say about that yesterday: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-01-25/r ... ch/4484718

:namaste:
Kim
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Kim OHara
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Re: Happy Australia Day!!!!!!!!!!!

Post by Kim OHara »

James the Giant wrote:Happy Invasion Day!
At my workplace, Australia Day is an excuse to moan about the "bloody brown boat-people swamping the bloody country" who need to be deported or sunk, and the "F*#%ing filthy abo scum" who need to be wiped out.
Even though my workplace is composed to about 30% immigrants, (UK immigrants) there is still an outright anti-immigration, openly racist attitude.
There is one Indian guy who works there, the rest are white. When they are ranting on about the blacks, they sometimes turn to the Indian guy and say "Of course, Deepak here is different, he's a nice bloke, we're not talking about you Deepak."
Deepak smiles a small, thin-lipped smile as they return to their bigotry.
I've worked in two "blue collar" jobs since I came to Aussie, and both have had this culture to varying degrees.
I'm sure the vast majority of Aussies aren't like this, but it seems Australia day brings the bigots out of the closet.
I'm sorry your experience has been negative, James. I know those attitudes are not exceptional (wish they were!) but neither are they universal.
One thing that may be biasing your experience is that the people nearest the bottom of the heap are keenest to find some people/groups they are "above". :thinking:
Fairly recent arrivals want to look down on even more recent arrivals. When I was a kid in country Victoria, the immediate-postwar British immigrants (including my parents :tongue: ) looked down on the Dutch and Italians of the next wave. Then the Dutch and Italians looked down on the Greeks ... and so on.
And I'm not even going to talk about the indigenous people ... but if you want to see a couple of good movies, find "Rabbit Proof Fence" or "Ten Canoes". I believe "The Sapphires" is good, too, but haven't seen it yet.

:namaste:
Kim
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cooran
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Re: Happy Australia Day!!!!!!!!!!!

Post by cooran »

Having been through 40C ++ in the last month, and now the flooding rains - it reminded me of one of my favourite poems from primary school:

My Country
a poem by Dorothea McKeller

The love of field and coppice,
Of green and shaded lanes,
Of ordered woods and gardens
Is running in your veins;
Strong love of grey-blue distance,
Brown streams and soft, dim skies -
I know but cannot share it,
My love is otherwise.

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains,
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel sea,
Her beauty and her terror -
The wide brown land for me.

The stark white ringbarked forests,
All tragic to the moon,
The saphire-misted mountains,
The hot gold hush of noon.
Green tangle of the brushes,
Where lithe lianas coil,
And orchids deck the tree-tops
And ferns the warm dark soil.

Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When sick at heart, around us,
We see the cattle die -
But when the grey clouds gather,
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The stealthy soaking rain.

Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the rainbow gold,
For flood and fire and famine,
She pays us back threefold;
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze.

An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land -
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand -
Though earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.

You may find the images in this link to be of interest:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/41188800@N ... 206818678/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

with metta
Chris
---The trouble is that you think you have time---
---Worry is the Interest, paid in advance, on a debt you may never owe---
---It's not what happens to you in life that is important ~ it's what you do with it ---
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Kim OHara
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Re: Happy Australia Day!!!!!!!!!!!

Post by Kim OHara »

Happy-snaps from around the country: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-01-26/y ... 13/4484330

:namaste:
Kim
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Kim OHara
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Re: Happy Australia Day!!!!!!!!!!!

Post by Kim OHara »

cooran wrote:Having been through 40C ++ in the last month, and now the flooding rains ...
You could do both in one day yesterday - probably today, too - by driving from Rockhampton to Birdsville.
:jumping:
Weird country, this. I like it.

:toast:
Kim
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Ben
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Re: Happy Australia Day!!!!!!!!!!!

Post by Ben »

Kim O'Hara wrote:Weird country, this. I like it.
Yeah, me too. And I like the people - well, most of them.
For the most part it is a great egalitarian society.
I just don't like nationalism. And the flag for me has been tarnished even further since Pauline Hanson wrapped herself in it and the Cronulla riots.
kind regards,

Ben
“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725

Compassionate Hands Foundation (Buddhist aid in Myanmar) • Buddhist Global ReliefUNHCR

e: [email protected]..
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tiltbillings
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Re: Happy Australia Day!!!!!!!!!!!

Post by tiltbillings »

Ben wrote: And the flag for me has been tarnished even further since Pauline Hanson wrapped herself in it and the Cronulla riots.
That can happen. "The Soiling of Old Glory" (1976, Boston):


Image
>> Do you see a man wise [enlightened/ariya] in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.<< -- Proverbs 26:12

This being is bound to samsara, kamma is his means for going beyond. -- SN I, 38.

“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?” HPatDH p.723
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manas
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Re: Happy Australia Day!!!!!!!!!!!

Post by manas »

I love Australia, the land I was born in and in which I live, but this day, for me, is nothing more than a day of sombre reflection, and certainly not a day of celebration. More than 200 years have passed, and still no formal Treaty with the First Peoples of this land has been made. It's not good enough.

Metta
To the Buddha-refuge i go; to the Dhamma-refuge i go; to the Sangha-refuge i go.
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Kim OHara
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Re: Happy Australia Day!!!!!!!!!!!

Post by Kim OHara »

tiltbillings wrote:
Ben wrote: And the flag for me has been tarnished even further since Pauline Hanson wrapped herself in it and the Cronulla riots.
That can happen. "The Soiling of Old Glory" (1976, Boston):


Image
Yes ...
Samuel Johnson wrote:Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.
:reading:
Kim
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