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Peopple Differ: the Australians

The Australians, or Aussie (this is how they prefer to call themselves) are awful individualists. They bear absolutely no resemblance to each other. But there's one feature that unites them into one community. Namely, their madness. Frankly speaking, there's nothing weird about it, because only people who're not quite all there are able to survive in this country.

The Aussie shouldn't be underestimated. They pretend they don't care about anything. The Aussie's character is the best evidence that their attitude towards life has nothing in common with their life-style.

If you want to confuse an Australian, ask him about his national anthem. Most of them have no idea what is it called. Nobody, except politicians, knows the lyrics.

Since Great Britain started to resettle its undesirable social elements onto the territory of Australia, England began to be considered as a relative. In about seventy years almost 170 000 prisoners were transported to the green continent. And this is just a drop in the bucket of voluntary immigrants.

For 2 hundred years Australia had lived under the patronage of Great Britain. The Aussie attained the most-favored nation status in their relationship with England. But this bliss was over when Great Britain became a member of the European Union. European solidarity turned out to be stronger than the ties of relationship. After becoming self-dependent, the Aussie do nothing but try to keep the life-style they've got used to. For all their problems they blame politicians, who couldn't care less about the nation and its needs.

There's no particular attitude towards English people. However, there is one towards the New Zealanders, but only because this country is too close and it's hard to ignore it. The Australians call them “kiwi”.

The Aussie laugh up their sleeves when their nation is called athletic. The number of people who are keen on sport isn't that big.

Apart from the aborigines Australians consider themselves international losers. It's a pretty convenient position, as nobody demands much of them.

In the 50's and 60's of the XX century, English mass media strenuously advertized immigration to Australia. A typical Australian was shown as a well-grown tanned young man, who spent all his time on the beach. The Aussie were happy that such a romantic lustre was shed on their adventures. They believed that each Brit, if he's stupid enough to swallow this bait, deserves to be doomed to life in Australia.

Nowadays the population of Australia is 18 million people. The offspring of aborigines make less than 1%. The rest of the population consists of a mix of almost all nationalities of the world: English people, Irish, Italians, Greeks, Russians, Ukrainians, Dutch, Germans, Spanish, Polish, Vietnamese, Indians, Lebanese, Turks, Chinese, etc.

The Aussie dream to break the stereotype that their country is just a settlement of state convicts. They aren't rogues. They are people with practical talent. They want to be viewed as recognized leaders of independent thinking.

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