Australia from an Amerocentric Point of View

I'll start this one with a few disclaimers. Although I've been in Australia for about two and a half weeks now (time is really flying) I am just starting to get real comfortable, so some of these observations might be a little premature. If so, I'll try to update. Also, we've spent a huge chunk of our time isolated, as a group, in beautiful Australian parks - Camp Laurence (three days) and North Stradbroke Island (seven days), so our time interacting with every day Australians is often limited to our homestay families, our professors and tutors (their term for TA), and whatever guides we meet along the way.

Hopefully Amanda and Liz will have some things to add to some of these topics and I'm sure some people will disagree with chunks. I gave some pretty brief synopsis in a lot of the categories, but leave comments and I'll address them. Until then, I have a bird report to work on (Porphyrio porphyrio melanotus).

Homestay Life

I live with a couple other Americans from Union College, Doug Merkert and Jon Campano, in a suburb about 25 kilometers south of Brisbane. We live with our homestay mother, Lauren, a host brother, Alexander (9), and a family friend, Rachel (26). I have Alexander's room for the time being and Doug and Jon share the computer room and the sole connection to the internet. Most of the time I write these blogs ahead of time and then post them when I can plug into the internet, but my computer is broken. So for the time being I write e-mails and blogs out, store them on a thumb drive and post them on campus.

It is about an hour commute to campus via a ferry to a train to a bus. I really enjoy the ride, but lately it has been crowded (because I am not leaving at 6AM anymore and am hitting rush hour), so I can't sit down and read on the train. The ferry is scenic and only takes about ten minutes to move us and a heap of cars across the river. The city of Brisbane has very few bridges, which is a bit of a pain for transport, but I'll elaborate on that later.

Lauren is fantastic and really looks after us pretty closely. I find myself hiding clothes away so she doesn't wash them every day (the environmentalist in me). She's been extremely kind and we can always have a good conversation with her about Australian life, horses, etc. She can also cook a pretty good apricot chicken, which I found out tonight. Lauren owns a beautiful home and trains horses on a few acres of river front property. She has a few claims to fame - she is training for the 2012 olympics, she met John Howard (conservative prime minister), was a model and a bank manager in the United States.

Rachel is hilarious. She is in many ways like Daria from that old MTV show. Kind of pessimistic, but really bright. She is the first to knock Australians and admit their downfalls. She is also a good source if I want an honest Australian perspective about education, politics, Brisbane night life, and so forth. She works really hard - about 60 hours a week in a tissue donation center in a morgue as well as being a full time law student. I get the feeling she really wants to make a difference.

Alexander is a handful. Extremely energetic and he talks like the kids in the movie versions of the Chronicles of Narnia. Very British sounding. "Excuse me, mother, may I have some turkish delight please?" He's a good kid, but I find myself having to trick him into getting to cooperate sometimes.

Homestay life has been very comfortable in both accommodations and the company the family brings. All very good people, always willing to offer a ride, or a perspective.

Australian Culture
(this is the section I might get myself into trouble)

Attitudes

One of the most striking things I've noticed is how similar Australians and Australia is to the United States in many ways. I find that Australians have about the same ratio of nice people to assholes and I haven't noticed, overwhelmingly, the "No Worries" attitude that Australians fame themselves for. Australians seem just as stressed as Americans - in fact, I read today in the state newspaper that Australians, on average, work the most hours of any developed nation. I find that very difficult to believe since there work week is 38 hours and they have three weeks of Holiday with added sick time, no matter the occupation. I have a feeling the United States is still number one in work hours. Anyways, the point is that I haven't experienced the rural, "No Worries" attitude. You might think this is because we are in a city, Brisbane, but almost all of Australia's population is concentrated in coastal cities - Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Hobart, and Darwin. I've heard Australians say no worries, but always in the context that Americans would say "no problem." Small situations, such as thanking someone or apologizing is met with "no worries."

Food

The similarities continue. Australians are the second most obese nation in the world, according to my host mother (U.S. is number one). This makes sense. Food here is centered around meat, as in the U.S., especially lamb, beef, and chicken. On top, butter, salt, and pepper are used more liberally here than I have ever seen in the United States. It tastes good, but I think I will be feeling it in the gluts when I get back. They seemingly have a fast food culture, as well. Replace Burger King with Hungry Jacks and their malls, train stations, and suburban shopping centers look very similar.

Societal Differences and Media

There are a few intense societal differences, though. All Australians have healthcare. I'll leave it at that. The fact that their population is very urbanized also allows them to make fairly effective public transportation - I think my farthest walk to get somewhere is two miles. It is very expensive, though. It costs me about 30 USD every week to get to and from school. Student discount doesn't apply, because I am international (they are pretty strict about it, too). Aussies also have pretty aggressive public media. The government advertises and educates about drugs, environmental issues, long term planning, citizen involvement in the schools and on television. On the Australian Broadcasting Channel the ads are mostly government public service announcements. That said, the Australian newspaper I prefer, The Australian is very conservative (a Murdoch paper) and opinion is apparent even on the front page. The alternative newspapers seem to lack focus on national issues.

Education and Native Aborigines



While Australia is much more proactive about certain civil issues, it has a gaping problem, which is obviously ignored - Aborigines. Most of the people I have talked to outside of the University setting view the "Blacks" as drunks who cannot take care of themselves, as drains on society, with special benefits, such as free education. In fact, the adults I have spoken to learned almost no Australian history (Australia started up somewhere around the time that we were ratifying our constitution, 1789, I think) and even less about Aboriginal culture or history. The view of the past and seemingly the present is that these people are inferior and, although intentional genocide was not right, they were bound to die out. Countless times I've heard them referred to as drunks. On the flip side, it seems as though industry always takes precedence over preservation of ancient Aboriginal culture, ad programs destined to help these people are mismanaged. We were told about a week ago that by the end of our brief stay here, we will know more about Australian history, culture, and the Aboriginal people than most native born Australians. I found it shocking that Australians know so little about how their government functions and about the history of their young nation and that they seemingly are very passive about issues.

Environmental Movement

Especially surprising is lack of evidence of the environmental movement that I read about before coming. Maybe I just haven't seen it, but Australia really isn't far ahead of the U.S. I was even told that most Australians didn't really hear about Global Warming until about a year or two ago. For a country so vulnerable to climate and climate change it seems that this should be a larger issue. This is a country that is already very sensitive to drought, so adding increased temperatures, sea level change (nearly all the population is coastal), and more climate variability seems like it would be and should be a huge issue. Haven't seen it. I think there is a preoccupation with the water shortages, but I don't see much foresight beyond that. I have to admit that my culture teacher told me that the climate initiatives in the government were from grassroots initiatives, but either this isn't hitting the people I interact with or it isn't widespread.

Australia has incredible and unique fauna, known nowhere else in the world.

It also has some of the best coastlines imaginable.