Blogging politics, culture, sociology and life from Brisvegas
Ok, to help Hugh Morgan and Andrew Robb out, I’m running a contest for the top five Australian or unAustralian values! I haven’t thought of a prize yet, but it’ll be a book, as in my previous contests. Submit your entries – you have a week!
Ps – as demonstrated below the fold, Emus, Kangaroos, Black Swans and Magpies exhibit UNAUSTRALIAN BEHAVIOURS!!!
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Larvatus Prodeo is an Australian group blog which discusses politics, sociology, culture, life, religion and science from a left of centre perspective. more»
Does anybody remember the Fosters’ “I am Australian” ads that ran during the Sydney Olympics (the ones that were a direct ripoff of a Canadian Molson beer campaign)? One of the purported Australian characteristics was “we fight wars, but we don’t start them”.
Guess we’ll have to cross that one off the list these days… :/
UnOstrayan? ELITISM!!
(*excepting the economic sort, which is true blue, dinky-di, shearin’-when-I-knew-’im Ostrayan. And the Toorak / North Shore/ Adelaide Hills Liberal party sort – which is so bloody Ostrayan you could bottle and flog it to homesick expats, next to the twisties in the Earl’s Court Woolies. Struth, even the mere mention of this in the context of elitism makes me a ‘hater’.)
Postmodernism seems to be unaustralian.
Numeracy and literacy are Australian values! Please submit five values that are either Australian or unAustralian!
Just to kick it off.
Money/power; Status/Prestige; Security/safety; Pleasure; Freedom. Almost universal really.
Does anybody remember the Fosters’ “I am Australian� ads that ran during the Sydney Olympics (the ones that were a direct ripoff of a Canadian Molson beer campaign)?
I was always amused by the NEC branding campaign from the early 1990s, using the character of Mr Okimura. In New Zealand, the same actor was called Mr Kirimura. Ocka, Kiwi, I guess you need a degree in marketing to think that stuff up.
Using the words ‘pee cee’ and ‘multi cult’ are as Australian as Jack Strocchi
Bludgers (like us). Battlers (like them). Mum-and-dad investors (scuse I, must chunder). World class. Oy oy oy.
I believe that members of mainstream society in this country know what Australian values are without having to be told by pointy headed geeks like yourselves.
But for what it’s worth, I reflected on the same questions just after Straya Day:
http://crazybrave.blogspot.com/2006/01/austrayan-values-sense-of-bollocks.html
Football, meat pies, kangaroos and Holden cars. Wait, that is only four. And I drive a Ford anyway. I’d add a copy of ‘Back in Black’ in the CD collection.
Shaun, advertisers sold us a pup there too. Would you like “Braavilies rugby, sunny skies and Chevrolet” perhaps?
Cheeky little buggers.
I’ll start with the first line of our magnificent national anthem:
Australians all eat ostriches
There’s a nice, simple test – if you can’t manage to tuck away at least a drumstick and a couple of slices off the breast, no protection visa for you.
It’s unAustralian to ask what is unAustralian these days.
The Poachers Pantry just outside Canberra used to serve up our coat of arms – “Skippy & Roadrunner with greens” – kangaroo and emu fillets with a wattle leaf garnish. T’was delicious, ‘cept for the wattle. That cannot be boiled enough.
Australian:
1/.Billy Tea
2/.Damper
3/.”Doing” your paycheque when the spinner lands “heads”
4/. Humping Bluey
5/. Pulling the Pin when your mate gets the sack.
Un-Australian:
1/. Not going “out” in support of your mates
2/. Lending a quid instead of giving
3/. Bludging on the job, so your mates have to carry you
4/. Using reindeer instead of Boomers
5/. Asking what does “Strewth” mean?
“4/. Humping Bluey”
And it’d be really unAustralian not to offer a reach around in return, right?
steve at the pub: “2. Un-Australian: *lending* a quid instead of giving…”
Quite right. And as long as these sort of fine things are what makes up nationalist values, then so long shall ‘nationalism’ not have a problematic name….
Nabakov: Presumably you don’t know the meaning of “Greasing your skates” either?
“Presumably you don’t know the meaning of “Greasing your skatesâ€? either?”
Really Fern Bar Steve, there’s no need to belabour the point.
Mateship! what about mateship? The stuff found in the trenches. It has got to be worth a preamble.
You just flunked the new citizenship laws Nabakov, your removal to Nauru will take place forthwith!
” your removal to Nauru will take place forthwith!”
Been there. Only place in the world where the airport runway is longer than the whole bloodycountry.
Fuck,IjustspilledLagavulinonmykeyboardandthespacebarjustdied.
I’mjuststeppingoutforamoment.Imaybesometime.
I would have thought anything foreign was un-Australian, know that I am being disingenuous here, as ‘Un-Australian’ has come to mean anything negative, an offshoot of the term un-American (no doubt) and part of, in its loathsome ascendency, the ‘cultural strut’. Something I consider most definitely un-Australian if I were un-Australian enough to use the term.
Steve at the pub said -
Un-Australian:
1/. Not going “out� in support of your mates
So you’re a union man, Steve?
Anyway, mine are.
1- Simpson
2 – Simpson’s donkey
3 – Simpson’s donkey’s mum
4 – Simpson’s Mum
5 – Sir Ian Standish Monteith Hamilton
UnAustralian
1 – Wets x 5
Football, meat pies, kangaroos and Holden cars. Wait, that is only four. And I drive a Ford anyway. I’d add a copy of ‘Back in Black’ in the CD collection.
Shaun, add a Ford Ute and you’ll be right
Happy 200th post, Kimberella!
Australian
Critiqueing someone/something
The Combine Harvester
The Black Box Flight Recorder
Hills Hoist
Victa
The Victorian Paper Ballot
Spray on Skin
Synroc
John Curtin
The forgotten aussie humour
UnAustralian
Criticising someone/something
The Great and Powerful Friends doctrine without critique
The guillotine motion
The sale of national or state infrastructure
the price of petrol west of the blue mountains
ACCI
Winston Churchill
Those that abhor australianisms and ockerisms
Guy/Bloke
six pack/half a dozen
Cowboy/Rough Rider
Buddy/Mate
Rock Music/Slim Dusty
’tis
primary school education
’tisn’t
tofu
oh, happy happy on the 200 post thing too.
Meat Pie/Sushi
Tea/Coffee
Milk/Soy extract
Rum/berben
Toyota/Nissan
Rock Music/Slim Dusty
Yeah, country music is as Australian as apple pie.
Eureka. Crikey. Blimey. Fair go. Level playing field. acadaca. Alan Jones. Jonesy. The Jonesmeister.
Its un-Australian to want to stay out of a good dustup in the International arena once an ally seems ready to do some of the hard yards. So un-Australian in fact that its never happened. But its un-Australian to have tried to get us to turn our backs on our mates and on our committments.
Don’t do it again.
Steve,
you forgot one:
rodeo/ buckjumping show
This bloke reckons these people are un-Australian
http://antiprotester.blogspot.com/2006/04/life-in-iraq-part-ii-civilization-of.html
australiana:
parents & citizens associations, surf lifesaving clubs, volunteer rural fire and emergency organisations, volunteers at hospitals who visit patients etc, local landcare and conservation groups, community child care organisations, before and after school care committees; community health and seniors community organisations, junior sporting clubs, meals on wheels groups, rsl work with veterans and families….
and the hundreds of thousands of other community groups, made up of unpaid committee of managements and most often, volunteer workers etc.
What other countries have such extensive volunteer groups that the govt and populace can reply on for so many services? Or does this level of community service organisations just expose what crappy standards of govt. services we have here? hhm?
What could be more Australian than this?
When gallant Cook from Albion sail’d,
To trace wide oceans o’er,
True British courage bore him on,
Till he landed on our shore.
Then here he raised Old England’s flag,
The standard of the brave;
With all her faults we love her still,
“Brittannia rules the wave!”
In joyful strains then let us sing
“Advance Australia fair!”
Should foreign foe e’er sight our coast,
Or dare a foot to land,
We’ll rouse to arms like sires of yore
To guard our native strand;
Britannia then shall surely know,
Beyond wide ocean’s roll,
Her sons in fair Australia’s land
Still keep a British soul.
In joyful strains the let us sing
“Advance Australia fair!”
But this surely is the defining verse:
With Christ our head and cornerstone,
We’ll build our nation’s might,
Whose way and truth and light alone
Can guide our path aright;
Our lives, a sacrifice of love
Reflect our Master’s care,
With faces turned to heav’n above,
“Advance Australia Fair!”
In joyful strains then let us sing,
“Advance Australia Fair!”
Indeed Silkworm, I have often wondered why the wankocracy who so savagely opposed Pauline Hanson & made sure she always sang “both” verses of Advance Australia Fair, well, they themselves never take their hand off it long enough to sing more than one verse. Hmm……
That defining verse is an add on silkworm.
I declare myself the winner of this competition. Behold the tagline from the new KOKODA movie:
“Mates became heroes.
The track became a legend.”
Repeat after me in a Brian Brown voice:
MAAAATE! You’re a HERO! LEGEND!
Oy oy oy.
I’m shocked that no-one has yet proposed the non-core promise as a primary Australian value.
And let’s not forget the solid, rolled in gold, iron-clad guarantee.
Good points, both of youse. (YOUSE is uniquely Australian.)
The tendency of the populi to promote “Australian values” is a pre-eminently Australian value.
And a good one too, considering the brazen lunacy that passes for cultural understanding amongst our elites.
Could we please just not do this Orwellian thing with the word ‘elites’? It makes my head hurt.
Like Vee’s and Jo’s list.
Aussie Values
1. The Fair Go …. in addition to mere justice.
2. Love of anyone willing to Have A Go …. and not just of winners …. such as Dick Smith for his RTW helicopter trip.
3. Fondness for innovation, inventiveness …. and scrounging.
4. Tolerance of anyone, no matter what their background, so long as they pull their weight.
5. Delight in satire, irony and blackfella sense of humour.
Un-Australian Values:
i. Bureaucratic bullying …. both corporate and governmental..
ii. Crawling of the Failed Elite.
iii. Imported ethnic hatreds and religious intolerance.
iv. Lying Aussie-bashing such as that committed by dodgy “historians”.
v. Hatred by finance industry boofheads of Australian enterprise and inventiveness.
Pavlov’s Cat on 1 May 2006 at 7:54 pm
Cultural elites exist. And they hold the nonsensical positions that are attributed to them.
George Orwell, Looking Back on the Spanish Civil War
I was never told about Australian values and I don’t recall ever breaching them. Let’s keep this in perspective. I have no knowledge of any alleged unAustralian behaviour.
Jack, that SMH link is a terrible piece of writing. Sheehan is floundering around with no idea of what he actually wants to say. But at least I think I get the gist of so-called ‘reputational rape’ — you mean the sort of thing Tim Blair and his droogs did to Margo Kingston, right?
Toyota/Nissan???!?
But on the other hand, what could be more Australian than arguing the merits of various Nipponese automotive marques as one way of defining national identity?
The one that gets me chuckling is the smugly English “toff” voiceover that routinely appears whenever a product is being passed off as “clarsey” eg Prado 4WD, Macquarie bank etc.
Obviously market research approves this sort of thing. What does that say? Clearly, success offers aspiriationals escape from lowly hoipolloi of Strine.
By the way, in case there’s anyone left who hasnt heard the good news: ‘Pajero’ means ‘wanker’ in Latin American Spanish.
It really does.
Lefty Elitist: Are you ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN that ‘pajero’ is not the slang noun to describe the recipient male in gay sex?
Nabakov: This country was built on the back of the Toyota Landcruiser. Their reliability is legendary, nothing like them had ever been made before. The old model Landcruiser was everywhere and utilised everywhere for everything, to the point that when one hears the word “toyota” it means “landcruiser trayback”. Toyota had the market cornered.
Jack Strocchi and Pavlov’s Cat:
So often, when you get two of something, instead of one, you count yourself lucky. Well, The Lucky Country did get two of something and it is very unlucky indeed ….. We got two elites.
The first is much the same as you’ll find in any country: people who have power and influence through their own vigour, talent, good luck or what they inherited. It includes people like Pro Hart, Dick Smith, Sr Elizabeth Kenny, Joan Kirner, John Clark, Tim Fischer, Dawn Fraser, Alan Bond, Pauline Hanson …. I said “elite”, I didn’t say anything about “nice”.
The second is Australia’s very own Failed Elite, a bunch of pompous, rich, ignorant, vicious dills who have wrecked the economy, stifled innovation, stirred up communal strife, ruined the environment, crawled to one brutal regime after another, hindered art and education, bullied the helpless …. and made themselves despised everywhere. The problem is, they are Australian and we can’t off-load them onto anyone else. (I didn’t name any names here because I don’t want Larvatus Prodeo sued; their usual response to criticism is litigation).
Pretty sure Steve – thats why they call it the ‘Montero’ in the USA, and other Spanish-speaking countries.
It may have alternative meanings I’m unaware of, of course. The one you cite sounds entirely feasible.
Here we go, look under “Paja” here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_profanity#Paja
Mitsubishi should take comfort though- as well as “wanker”, it also means”weakling” “fool” and “lazy person”; which pretty much covers my views on 4WD drivers.
Howdy, Lefty E.
Don’t know what got into me the other day; a bunch of my posts were needlessly grouchy and prickly. My apologies to you and Peter K., and anyone else who found it irritating. (full moon, perhaps? Now, where did I leave my tinfoil hat?)
Bartender! A round for the house!
Mine’s a laphroaig, neat, with a stout chaser, if you please JPZ.
And if that’s not a Stroine order from the bar I don’t know what is.
No sweat JPZ! Next round’s on me.
The New Improved Little Johnnie Ozzzzzie Values – just the thing for the school kiddies
1. I wasn’t there
2. I didn’t do it
3. It wasn’t me
4. I didn’t read it
5. I can’t remember
Courage, mateship, strength and honour
Um, the US for one….
And can we please knock off this mateship is uniquely Australian crap? There are other countries where people call each other mate. And if we keep on claiming that standing by friends, or whatever mateship is meant to mean, is a uniquely Australian value, I will suggest that some people need to start travelling a bit more.
“Mates became heroes.
The track became a legend.�
Someone has a problem with that…?