Another one, author unknown, forwarded by Kirsty M: With not much hope of a job, we the very common people of Australya are constantly reminded of how equal we all are. The Australian nation is a loose conglomeration of a number of previously independent colonies set up to house British convicts, but now we'll take anyone. Our big continent IS an island, and it IS big, and we've all been mentally scarred by that fact. Since about 200 years ago we've abused the previous inhabitants because they look funny, but ever since Americans started buying their paintings, we feel a bit guilty about it all, but not enough to say sorry, or stop rich people stealing their land. We also have a lot of immigrants. And that's a good thing. We don't hate immigrants like some countries. Australians are pretty casual about life, and are pretty proud of their casualness, and anyone can chase their dreams, if they haven't been crushed yet. We hate smart arses, prefer the underdog, and are too emotionally awkward to say the word love, so we call each other mate, or maaate! We have a so-called democracy where you vote every 3 or 4 years for one party or the other and end up really annoyed at yourself if the ones you voted for got it, or really self righteous if they didn't. Oh yeah, and it's politically incorrect to tease anyone about anything anymore. For some reason we felt like putting this in, instead of "whereas", which was much truer to the Australian spirit of casualness. |