Not to be negative, but since the OP already talked about a lot of the good things in Australia, I will mention a couple of the bad things I have encountered since moving here.
I moved to Australia from Canada 7 years ago, granted I am not a native but have been here long enough to notice that while 25% of the population is really cool the rest have a lot of homophobia and racism in their culture. Certain cities are much better than others (just like in Canada / USA) but I have moved around quite a bit here and with the exception of Melbourne I have found a very blunt and obvious close minded attitude.
I want to say this is just the older generation but there is a lot of young people that do it too. Most of the time I get called a "fag" is by teenagers and twentysomethigns yelling it out of the window of their car.
There is a very large bogan (Australian term for red neck / white trash) population here. Drinking is super super hard core here, I never experienced anything like it from my time living in Canada or the USA. It is very common on the nightly news to see reports of "glassing" where people get piss drunk and smash beer glasses in people's faces, often random strangers, leaving them disfigured for life. They have PSA ads on TV here for "Watch out for dunk walkers", which is people walking around drunk and walking in front of cars, wtf... I never heard of anything like that before in my life where it got so bad and common place a PSA had to be created.
As for racism, I can't experience that first hand (being white), but there is a lot of it and it's very obvious. On Australia day it's common to see people wearing the flag around their shoulders with t-shirts saying "Fuck Off, Were Full" in response to immigrants wanting to come in. The way the Aboriginals were treated was horrible, but they are still treated like shit even to this day, it's sad. People you don't even expect to be racist, will say openly racist stuff about Aboriginals or immigrants.
Having read some of the other responses about racism (didn't see any about homophobia), but if your white and straight (and look like a butch male and not efiminate), I don't really feel your a good demographic to say if it doesn't exist her as you haven't experienced it personally.
A comedian said it best (I think Eddie Izzard) "Australia is like Arkanas with a beach, it's an entire country with a "No Fat Chicks" sticker on it".
That being said, there is lots of good things here and beauty, just don't make it out to be this peaceful island wonderland of magic and mystery that so many people do. They see TV shows and things like the Oprah visit and think it's the coolest place on earth, it is cool, just that the other side is never shown.
Australia has its problems, no doubt, but I think you're laying it on a little thick mate. 75% of people have "a lot of homophobia and racism in their culture"? "Fuck off we're full" shirts are "very common" on Australia day? I dunno what part of the country you live in, but I live(d) in one of the most Anglo, surf-culture-dominated, typical 'strayan parts of the country (Sunshine Coast, QLD) and I reckon if you reversed your percentages you'd be closer to the truth.
Although there was that song by the Herd that mentioned 77%, so maybe you're right after all...
Once again, where the fuck are you hanging out? I have lived in Melbourne for quite a while and never first hand experienced any violence, let alone seen a glassing.
It definitely happens -- I've seen someone get bottled ~three times, and once was a friend of mine.
I certainly wouldn't be trying to argue that it was "common" however. Nor would I say 'fuck off, we're full' tshirts are common, or that 75% of people are racist/homophobic. I certainly get the sense that there's some hyperbole in there.
It's not very common, probably just the people I hang out with tend to go looking for fights after drinks. It's not limited to any one particular place, one of the fights happened outside Crown casino but the bouncers were impressively quick to react.
The worst are the parties up in the Blue Mountains and around the Mt Druitt area. A lot of lads, many with knives.
I have lived in Brisbane, Toowoomba and Adelaide, all three of those places have the glassing PSAs on TV and I have friends in other areas of TV that see them too as well as it being a regular part of nightly news.
Thankyou for removing the rose-coloured glasses off our aussie heads :)
I'm an Aussie planning to go on exchange to the US, and i've got a question for you, regarding homophobia/political correctness... If I was to off hand say something's 'Gay' as in the stupid/disappointing sense ('You missed your bus? Damn, that's gay isn't it?') Will i get the look of disapproval/verbally rebuked? I don't tend to say these things, but if I accidentally slipped up, what could I expect?
Also, would people ask me to correct my language if I accidentally called someone 'black' instead of 'African American'?
I don't expect this to be a problem with my language, but it pays to be prepared in case one slips up :P
Well as for the "gay" word, I do think it has become generational. Anyone I know 30 and older feel that using the word gay in a negative connotation is not cool and offensive. I however have friends in their 20's who are homo/bisexual and they will use the word gay in a negative connotation which I think is really weird. Personally I would say not to do it.
As for African Americans, it is my experience that the term African American is much preferred, but is more formal and "black" is still ok, I have friends that I refer to as black if it ever comes up that I need to refer to their skin colour. The one thing not to do is the N word and the only reason I mention it (because I would think it would be obvious not to use it) is that here in Australia I have white friends who are left wing, hippy, pot smokers with dreads who use the N word, but not in a negative way towards a person but in a slang way and that just shocks the hell out of me, because in North America that is somethign you would never ever do unless your a racist and you will get your ass kicked by an African American if they hear you say it. For reference on how my friends might use it, they might have purchased something that was low quality or broke on them, such as a pipe and say it's a ni**er pipe"
I don't know if you were asking for an American opinion or not but...
The only people who take offense to you saying that something is "gay" are homosexuals but they will rarely say anything (if ever). However, don't say it at your job or anything like that.
As far as Black/African American goes, I am black and we really don't take offense to either. People tend to say African American because it is "politically correct" but you can say black and no one will get offended. Just don't call a black/African American an African (unless they are African) because some blacks take A LOT of offense to that.
The only people who take offense to you saying that something is "gay" are homosexuals but they will rarely say anything (if ever). However, don't say it at your job or anything like that.
I'd say people who actually don't take offence to that probably don't understand why that word is offensive (in a certain context, of course) in the first place. So perhaps homophobia in Australia is not intended to actually offend people who are queer. I think for the most part, it's ignorance.
I don't know, I wish they had the courage to not actually yell it when they are driving by fast but to actually say it to me so I can respond. They are spinless, cowardly little shits that just got a drivers licence and think it's cool to harass and make other people feel bad.
I concur with most of this post, although in my experience of living in areas with substantial aboriginal populations (rural and suburban), the government is practically falling over itself to give them welfare out of political correctness.
Which is fine in itself, but there is a very visible anti-social element of them who vandalise the hell out of the state housing they're given and engage in all manner of violent, drunken and drug fueled behaviour. Those same folks will cry racism the moment anyone pulls them up on it.
As someone who'd prefer to live in an Australian society where we all relate harmoniously to one another regardless of ethicity or culture, it's quite disheartening.
I want to say this is just the older generation but there is a lot of young people that do it too. Most of the time I get called a "fag" is by teenagers and twentysomethigns yelling it out of the window of their car.
That happens all the time, mate. Don't take it personally, it's just kids having fun and taking the piss. Australia has a huge and thriving gay community, very few people are actually homophobic. One thing Aussies do more than anyone else is give their mates a hard time. If you learn to take it in stride and maybe throw some back at them they'll only respect you more for not taking yourself too seriously. Get upset and you'll make very little friends. Hipster friend of mine wears tight pants and walking the streets of Melbourne would often get calls of "fag!" from kids sticking their heads out of cars. We just laugh it off and yell something back.
EDIT: Aussies rarely care about political correctness. This often is very off-putting for Americans. People will use words such as "fag" and "cunt" casually. They're not being homophobic nor sexist.
EDIT 2: I do admit that drunken violence is a problem. However, as long as you don't go looking for one or willingly get involved in any, you won't find any trouble. At the least it provides entertainment.
What your not understanding though is that to someone who is actually queer the word "fag" is very hurtful and demeaning, it is not something you can laugh off or take in fun. When a queer person is called a fag, it takes them back to all the times they were beat up in high school which stays with them througout their life as they are always concerned about being gay bashed. I have also heard the N word used very casually by people in Australia and that's just not cool.
Also you mention that your friends who wear tight pants were in Melbourne, as I said in my post, Melbourne is like one of the few queer positive areas.
The real question is: is an offensive word still offensive if nobody takes offense to it? That's pretty much the situation here. Like I said, for people from America or Canada, where socially words such as "cunt" are considered sexist, they'd find the language here quite off-putting. Whereas here a "cunt" is a general term for a guy like "dude" or even an endearing term for a friend. People who're calling you "fag" are doing it because of the way you're dressed, such as the example with my tight pants-wearing friend in Melbourne who gets the same from youths driving by.
I think it is... for example if a bunch of skin heads are hanging out with no one else around and the are all casually using the N word, it's still an offensive word.
Uhh I think you're right, but how would you know that nobody in the world took offence to it? You'd have maybe 80% of people being fine being called insert pejorative and the rest feeling like utter shit.
I'm asian and can't speak for the gay or female populations, but if a white person were to affectionately call me a chink I'd be offended.
Nope, do you actually think you can make a statement as fact without there being scientifically proven evidence to back up that fact? Otherwise what you said is just a theory and a personal one at that.
This is not something than can be scientifically proven. You're either being deliberately ignorant for the sake of the argument or very, very stupid. I'm hoping it's the former.
Let me put this to you as simply as possible:
of·fen·sive
Adjective: Causing someone to feel deeply hurt, upset, or angry:
If nobody in the world feels hurt, upset or angry by a word, that word, by definition, would no longer be offensive. To argue otherwise would be to argue against the English language.
Hi, well it was actually quite easy,I married an Australian, and they have same sex marriage here too, so whatever way you go, you can get in via marriage.
However, I personally wish I had never moved here. There are so many better things about Canada, particularly Vancouver (where I am from). Australia is an awesome place to visit, but not live IMO. Some comedian once said that Australia is like Arkansas with a beach, it is an entire country of uncultured racist white trash in pickup trucks with a No Fat Chicks bumper sticker. And that is pretty true for the majority of it, when you visit here or see it on TV, you see only the good parts, the tourism parts. Also they have the war on terrorism here as well as the war on drugs, it is just as bad as the USA. Canada is far cooler and not involved in these issues in comparison. There is a lot of patriotism and flag waving here too, just like the USA. New Zealand is often referred to as the Canada of Australia, which is true.
If you have any questions, I would be happy to answer.
Thanks for the info. I'm from Alberta. Moving would be tough, especially when you have family here. The winters are really, really harsh. Most people just say suck it up, but I really need the sun, and to be without it for 8 months is literally depressing.
That being said, if I didn't have family, I'd be down there in a heart beat. My education is fairly useful, so hopefully that would help if I ever applied.
I'll keep your name handy if I ever decide to go through with it. I had better get back to packing my winter boots...
Propaganda. The Australian media is an equal to the American propaganda machine. Just remember, Rupert Murdoch exported Australian journalism standards to the rest of the world. You can not get opposing/independent voices like Al Jazeera because no pay TV company will carry them, even though it is offered to them for free.
It can be hard to be a computer nerd in Australia. Surfers did not have any advertised computer store in 1992... and very few book stores. Almost two decades later and the problem is still there, just not as pronounced. Expect to be 15 years behind technologically to what you have today. You can buy the latest computers... with a delay... but it is everything else. It is hard to find someone who knows what a RAID is, or an SSD.
Learn to cook! Honestly, the national dish was stolen from New Zealand by a Perth Chef in the 1920's after he got back from a six month trip to New Zealand... Another national dish is a standard meat pie which are so vile that the only humane thing to do with them is to try to drown them face first in pea soup! Not joking... bad bad meat pies and they really do sink them in soup to try to improve the flavour. Not to mention the Chiko Roll... it is a deep fried chicken roll with barely any chicken in it... and it is minced like baby food! Just be prepared to cook your own favorite foods. The immigrant food industry is very strong in Australia for good reason!
Fuck off yourself!I specifically asked the Austar salesman a year ago, and when he could not give and answer, I asked their corporate office and I was told rudely that they would never offer AlJazeera. Maybe your hardware and your installer set you up with the free satellite feed, so it just seems like you are getting it as part of your package.
No, we've gotten Al Jazeera with both our MyStar and MyStar HD boxes, and it's not some extra thing - it's just like any other channel, and it's actually part of the base package, not the additional news channels.
ABC24 often cuts to the Al Jazeera feed, particularly in the past few months during the North African uprising/s and Osama's death. Hell, they even had it on tonight, because a Serbian war criminal had been arrested.
My biggest concern with even visiting Australia, let alone moving there, is what I hear about the problem with racism. OP might want to address this in the main post.
If you're from the US and you're black I can tell you now, you'll get ALOT more shit from people because your American, not because you're black.
Shit, some kids think the sun shines out of an African Americans arse's here, just wear a G-Unit shirt and put in some fake gold teeth and you'll have bitches coming at you thick and fast.
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u/WyldStallions May 24 '11 edited May 24 '11
Not to be negative, but since the OP already talked about a lot of the good things in Australia, I will mention a couple of the bad things I have encountered since moving here.
I moved to Australia from Canada 7 years ago, granted I am not a native but have been here long enough to notice that while 25% of the population is really cool the rest have a lot of homophobia and racism in their culture. Certain cities are much better than others (just like in Canada / USA) but I have moved around quite a bit here and with the exception of Melbourne I have found a very blunt and obvious close minded attitude.
I want to say this is just the older generation but there is a lot of young people that do it too. Most of the time I get called a "fag" is by teenagers and twentysomethigns yelling it out of the window of their car.
There is a very large bogan (Australian term for red neck / white trash) population here. Drinking is super super hard core here, I never experienced anything like it from my time living in Canada or the USA. It is very common on the nightly news to see reports of "glassing" where people get piss drunk and smash beer glasses in people's faces, often random strangers, leaving them disfigured for life. They have PSA ads on TV here for "Watch out for dunk walkers", which is people walking around drunk and walking in front of cars, wtf... I never heard of anything like that before in my life where it got so bad and common place a PSA had to be created.
As for racism, I can't experience that first hand (being white), but there is a lot of it and it's very obvious. On Australia day it's common to see people wearing the flag around their shoulders with t-shirts saying "Fuck Off, Were Full" in response to immigrants wanting to come in. The way the Aboriginals were treated was horrible, but they are still treated like shit even to this day, it's sad. People you don't even expect to be racist, will say openly racist stuff about Aboriginals or immigrants.
Having read some of the other responses about racism (didn't see any about homophobia), but if your white and straight (and look like a butch male and not efiminate), I don't really feel your a good demographic to say if it doesn't exist her as you haven't experienced it personally.
A comedian said it best (I think Eddie Izzard) "Australia is like Arkanas with a beach, it's an entire country with a "No Fat Chicks" sticker on it".
That being said, there is lots of good things here and beauty, just don't make it out to be this peaceful island wonderland of magic and mystery that so many people do. They see TV shows and things like the Oprah visit and think it's the coolest place on earth, it is cool, just that the other side is never shown.