Straya Mate!

I am now laughing at myself for trying to plan an entire week of exercise in advance! Today turned into a 'rest' day after I slept in. I went to the golf club with Mum and Dad around lunch time. The course was really busy so we just hit a few buckets of practice shots. My fairway shots were extremely inconsistent but my chips onto the green were on fire. My current state of inconsistency gives me no joy. If I ever get thrown out of the club it'll be for a Marcos Baghdatis style rage incident.. My clubs are lucky that they are inanimate, I grip them so tight that I've now got a blister on each thumb. 

It was a beautiful day in Melbourne, so I had a swim when I got home which was lovely. After my swim I was lucky enough to be able to go to the tennis to see Rafael Nadal beat Roger Federer in the first men's semifinal. It was a fantastic match and I thought it was pretty special to be able to see part of one of the greatest sporting rivalries of our time in person. Katie and I took some photos so I'll write in more depth about the tennis experience tomorrow.

Today was Australia Day. I'm all in favour of public holidays and late January is a great time of year for most people to enjoy a day off. The cricket and the tennis is on and the weather is usually beautiful. However, I find the whole idea of Australia day to be immoral and hypocritical. I feel really uncomfortable celebrating the anniversary of the occupation and genocide of a people. The state of Aboriginal health and welfare in this country is absolutely shameful and the original "Australia Day" was the day that suffering started.

I also think that Australia Day serves to promote some of the really negative aspects of our culture. One of those would be binge drinking. The police and ambulance services deal with more alcohol affected people on Australia Day than any other day of the year. I think it is really sad that our "national culture" seems to amount to little more than intoxication.

The part about Australia Day that I find most hypocritical and disturbing is that it serves to promote an Anglo -Saxon exclusive view of how Australia "ought to be". I think the Australian flag and the Southern Cross are increasingly becoming emblems used to promote an extremely racist and intolerant view of what acceptable Australian-ness means (remember Cronulla, anyone?). White, English as first language, lazy, tall poppy syndrome, meat eating and alcohol consuming. 

Unfortunately, I think there is an inherently racist element to modern "Australian culture". It was created out of genocide and continues to be used in an attempt to exclude people based on their race and culture. At the moment it is anyone of African or Middle Eastern appearance, 20 years ago it was anyone who looked Asian and 30 years ago + it was those of Mediterranean origin. The excuses for this are pathetic and haven't changed. 

"They don't work hard" 

"They're taking our jobs"

"They don't want to assimilate" 

"They're not trying to fit in" 

"They're in our country so they should do things our way"

It's pathetic because the excuses for the racism hasn't changed but the target group has. Australia seems to be like a child who is a fussy eater, it takes many years and many attempts to get to know and like something that they had no real reason to fear or reject in the first place. It's called xenophobia and it's immature. Australians of Greek and Italian heritage seem to have been accepted into a category of acceptable 'Australianhood' after about 50 years. No one is outraged if Italian or Greek lessons are on the curriculum in schools or are reluctant to eat if they are served pizza or pasta (unless they're trying to avoid carbs!). How long do the current groups of recent migrants have to be discriminated against before the masses get the message that they just want to live safe and happy lives?

I think the migrant population is fairly similar to the rest of the population. Most work hard and want to participate in their communities, whilst others do not because they have no interest or because they are struggling with some kind of barrier that prevents participation. 

The hypocrisy of this is that the Anglo-Australians who seem to determine to "preserve" their culture seem completely ignorant to the fact that the very culture of which they so starkly defend was created by a group migrants. Australian culture is flexible and whether the racists like it or not, every group of migrants will contribute their own unique practices, food, music, religion and talents to our society. This should be what makes our country great but it seems to be what divides the community.

I would love to celebrate the day of Kevin Rudd's apology to the Indigenous population, or the birthday of a great Australian humanitarian. Coming together with family, friends and  local or broader community is a great thing, so long as the spirit is one of inclusiveness. I think if our nation is to have any chance of moving away from its racist past we ought to move our national holiday away from the start of a genocide.