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Aussies
(pronounced "ozzies") are just a little different. And that's
what makes them interesting. As Americans living in Australia
since 2002, we are constantly intrigued by the similarities, but
especially the differences. When you arrive, you look around
and say, "It's just like the U. S." It is a modern affluent
first-world country, mostly caucasian, mostly Christian, and they
even speak English (of a sort). That's the first impression.
On this page, I will give my impression of various aspects of
Aussies and Aussie life. It's not objective. It's
probably not even very accurate. But maybe it will give you
more of a feel for the people and why we like them.
| Ethnicity
- Aussies are overwhelmingly white. Coming from
California, with its huge Asian and Mexican populations,
this was the first thing that struck me. About
93% are Caucasian and nearly all of European roots.
English and Irish make up the largest groups but immigrants
from all over Europe like it here. Only 2% are
Aboriginal or Torres Islanders (Australian Islands to the
north). Torres Islanders are Melanesian blacks, not
related to Aborigines. Asians are the fastest-growing
segment. Australia adopted a "whites-only" immigration
policy in the early years, because of fears that illegal
Chinese immigrants would overwhelm the country.
Immigration today is tightly controlled, but all races are
welcome (by most people, anyway). They prefer educated
English-speaking young people. |
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Everyday Life - Aussies work
hard and they play hard. Despite a reputation for
being laid back, they work as many hours on the average as
Americans. They have a lot more holiday time (4 weeks
minimum per year) and they like to use it by going
somewhere. They travel internationally far more
than Americans. They may go to the beach with the
family and camp for a month. They spend amazing
amounts of money on their vacations (it seems to me) but
they don't worry about it. They drink more than
Americans, especially the 20-something's. The average
Aussie doesn't marry or have children before 30. The
20's seem to be reserved for seeing the world, getting their
careers going, and partying. Living together as
partners and having children without getting married is much
more accepted here. They live in nice homes,
generally a little smaller than the US (of course, the US
has only gone to huge homes in the last few decades).
Their yards and neighborhoods are cleaner and neater than
the US, on average. This is something they take very
seriously. They even have national "tidy town" awards,
which are cherished and advertised by the lucky winners.
Like the US, they use their credit cards lavishly and love
to spend. But the consumer society isn't as far
advanced as the US - yet. |
| Sports
- No discussion of Aussies would be complete without
mentioning that they are sports crazy here. It
is amazing to me that a country of 20 million people can
support three different major leagues of "football" besides
soccer. Regular international-rules rugby is the
oldest sport (called Rugby Union). But a faster-paced
Aussie version called Rugby League has passed it in
popularity. And then there's Australian Rules Football
which is an insanely rough sport and is also wildly popular.
They all have separate leagues and huge TV audiences.
I like them because everyone runs and tackles continuously
for the whole game - no 300-pounders need apply. These
guys are real athletes and they don't wear pads. Then
there's cricket, which is still very popular. I've
learned enough to follow the games but you have to grow up
with it to really appreciate it. Not to
mention lawn bowling. Every small town has a beautiful
lawn bowls club. Basketball is gaining rapidly and
Australia got the bronze in the last Olympics. Of
course, they are second-best in the world in swimming,
holding many world records. They also have the most
skilled surf lifesavers in the world and life-saving
competitions are held starting with pre-schoolers.
They have a national goal that every child will learn to
swim. Incredibly, they got the silver in Olympics
baseball despite the fact that there are no "big leagues"
here and it is never on TV. Horse racing is much
bigger than the US. And Aussies love to bet on the
horse races - or anything else! People dress up for
the big horse races, which is lots of fun. The women,
especially, wear big hats and fancy dresses and there are
contests for best-dressed men, women, and kids. Good
times. |
| Religion
- About 70% of Australians claim to be Christians (less than
50% of young people) compared to about 90% of Americans.
But fewer than 10% of
Aussies go to church regularly (most never go)
compared with almost half of Americans (or so they claim).
The Anglicans (started from the English church) and the
Catholics (from the Irish immigrants) comprise the large
majority. Their church attendance is declining
steadily with old people making up the active members.
There is a small percentage of American-style fundamentalist churches with TV preachers (early
morning only) and hell-and-damnation talk, but it simply
does not resonate with the average Aussie - which makes me
happy. One of the things I like best about Aussies is
their irreverence. They are suspicious of anyone who
takes themselves too seriously, especially if that person is
trying to tell them how to live. For example,
homosexuality and abortion are not important political
issues here. People may have strong feelings about
them, but they're considered to be personal choices. I was surprised by
how openly people talk about being non-religious.
There's no shame in it or fear of retribution like there is
in the States. Government policies are firm about
keeping religion out of government. |
| Crime
- This is an interesting subject to me. Murder rates
are only one-fourth of the US. Gun violence is much
less. There's no counterpart to the NRA here.
When a guy in Tasmania went crazy 20 years ago and killed a
bunch of people with a semi-automatic, everyone
demanded restrictions - and got them. It's not
difficult to get a hunting rifle or shotgun, but pistols and
semi-automatics are another thing. I'm sure some
people in the US (like the NRA) would point to the lack of
poor ethnic groups as a reason for fewer murders. But
robbery and theft are higher in this Caucasian country than
in the US. They are generally easier on the criminal
than in the US, which frustrates us at times. They
don't like long prison sentences except in the most violent
crimes. Still, we feel much safer here than in
the US. People are not so touchy. You don't have
to worry that the guy next to you is going to take offense
at something and pull out a gun. He's more likely to
call you a wanker (idiot) and buy you a drink. |
| Slang
- Aussies must have the most extensive slang language in the
world. It isn't just that they like to use slang - they
use it at every possible opportunity. Although
they can use formal language when appropriate, they almost
never do! If a word can be shortened, they shorten it.
If you can cut
a word off halfway through and add a "y", they do it.
We were surprised to hear TV broadcasters (presenters, they
call them) refer to pollies (politicians), firies (firemen),
prezzies (presents), brekkie (breakfast), or even littlies
(kids). "Have a cuppa?" is a lot shorter than "Will
you have a cup of coffee or tea?". A recent newspaper had a
headline, "Rorts questioned". Huh? Turns out
some people were scamming by using fake handicap stickers.
I'm still not sure what a "rort" is. But there's a
million other words just as obscure and they love them all.
A fairly new slang name is "budgie smugglers", referring to
Speedo-type swim suits. The idea is that it looks like
the man is smuggling a budgie (parakeet) in the tight swim
suit. I think they love slang because it's informal and shows a lack of
pretense, which is fundamental to being Aussie. And,
yes, they really do say "G'day, mate" although
just "G'day" or "How ya' goin' " are more common. They also use
the word "mateship" as a stronger word than "friendship".
You don't let your mate down. That's not to say that
there aren't plenty of bad people here, like anywhere else. |
| Big
Government - Like most European
countries, they have almost-free health care, and a generous
welfare system for everyone.
And they have high taxes. Unlike those European
countries, though, the government runs a surplus most years
and has almost no national debt. But they do expect
government to take care of most problems. The health
care system works fairly well. Basic health care is
free except for a co-payment, but you are limited to certain
health-care providers who agree to the government pay
scales. They strongly encourage everyone to take out
supplemental insurance, which is subsidized by the
government. This gives you a lot more choice. We
are officially "temporary residents" so we pay for our care.
For about $3,000 a year, we are both covered for practically
everything including eye and dental care. So far we
have been very pleased with it. "You can drop out of
high school, go on the dole, and stay on it the rest of your
life," I was told by an Aussie. This is changing
but it's still much more generous than in the US.
Retirement is mostly covered by government-mandated savings
or you go on the dole in the worst case. One thing we
really like about big government is that Aussies love parks
and so the government spends a lot on maintaining beautiful
parks, campgrounds, and trails. The standard is
much higher than the US. |
| What
Aussies Think of the US - This is an
important subject for us because it was going to determine
whether we could really fit in here or would always be
treated as foreigners. Aussies are inundated in
American culture from movies, TV shows (CSI is #1 here in
2004, but
Desperate Housewives may top it), and music. Few
Americans emigrate here so they usually don't know very many
Americans and they are curious about them. Probably
the thing they like least about the US is Americans'
ingrained belief in US superiority in everything, followed
closely by their in-your-face religiousness. It's just so not-Aussie.
They are also disturbed at Americans' ignorance of the world
outside the US and their focus on what's best for the US at
the expense of others. They don't understand the gun
nuts or the extreme right-wingers who seem to be dominating
US government. And they resent America's demands for
conformity on international issues, with threats of
punishment to those who don't agree - even Australia. Hey, aren't we
supposed to be friends? They don't like
George Bush at all. To them, he is the
embodiment of arrogant, ignorant, but powerful Americans.
But, with all that, they truly like most Americans and are probably our
strongest supporters internationally. And we get
along great with them. Just don't lecture or get
uppity and Aussies like everyone. |
| The
Aboriginals - I saved this subject for
last because I really don't feel qualified to comment.
I don't know any Abo's and seldom interact with them - nor
do most Aussies. There's only about 300,000
altogether, about the same number as when the Europeans
arrived. It's hardly a dominant problem here,
any more than American Indian problems dominate the US.
But it is an ongoing issue. The Abo's were physically
separated from the rest of humanity 50,000 or so years ago
when the oceans rose and buried the land bridge to Asia.
They adapted remarkably to this harsh dry environment.
There were no native plants suitable for agriculture and no
animals suitable for domestication so they developed the
hunter-gatherer lifestyle to a fine art and "became one"
with their environment. Unfortunately, the skills and
culture they developed are totally unsuitable to modern life
and they are, on the whole, misfits in today's Australia -
particularly the adult men. They still like to wander
and move around (go walkabout) but the white man wants them
to stay put, get jobs, and send their kids to school.
Most either live in isolated communities (sort of like the
US Indian reservations) or in ghettos in Sydney and a few
other places. As a result, most Australians never see
them in their day-to-day life. I believe the large
majority are on
the generous dole (welfare). Many of their
communities have terrible records of violence, mostly
because of adult male alcoholics. Many communities
have strict alcohol bans. The women and children are
the victims of all this. The government spends a lot
of money on them and has returned vast areas of land to
their control, but no one thinks this problem will be solved
for many lifetimes. No one is happy about it and no
one knows what to do. |
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