Australia Day

[hansp77]

Originally Posted by Raggi_Thor

Sorry if I have missed it, what are you celebrating on Australia Day? Is it the day you got independent (or do you still have the Queen?).

we still have the Queen (IMO unfortunately), and our own little Emporor "Teflon John" Howard.

Australia Day, some call it Invasion Day, celebrates the landing of the first fleet at sydney.
It is the day where we rightfully claimed (terra nulius)from the indiginies this great fair land that they had had caretaken untill this great and fair moment when providence provided it to us.
or something like that.

Of course it means something rather different than that to most people (I think), and is now more just a celebration of Australia, being Australian, and national pride and what not. A great excuse to have a BBQ, drink lots of beer, go to the beach, play cricket, and generally have fun.

I don't mean to be too provokitive here, obviously some Australians feel very proud and justified in the celebrations of this day (yesterday now). For me, I guess it is a time to wish my fellow Australians good will, and wish for a day when some (of my percieved) injustices and inheritances from our past may be admitted, reconciled and healed. For me it is a day of hope.
In all appearances, rather blind hope as it stands.

Hans.

[safewalrus]

What he means is; the Australians celebrate(?) the day the first prison ships landed in Australia and good old England opened its second foreign penal colony (the land was taken from the original inhabitants because it was perceived that they really didn't need the place and were not using it to it's full potential and the fact that we had guns and they did not!) the first one being in America until the locals got a bit uppity and wanted to charge for dumping our rubbish on them! (I mean a tax on tea is a fairly natural thing to do ain't it? our government is still doing it!). So we left America and set up in Oz, they done well out of the deal (actually seems to have got the best from the old country - seems that not only crims escaped - sensible!) America didn't do so well, they were doing OK but then they started taking all the dross from other European countries! Worse than that WE never learned from this and are now taking the same stuff! not so far for them to travel apparantly!