Anything bad to say about Austraila ?

hussey

In fairness Joan has a valid point, when we view Australia from Ireland we see it as a mainly white, Summer place with good looking people and BBQ down the beach, like summer bay or Ramsey Street (I am serious btw), there is a huge Asian and Indian influence that before I came to Australia didn't know was here at all, I thought it was nearly all white. I'm not suggesting it's a bad thing, but can be a bit of a shock when you are a minority on a train to work.

Sydney is a big financial city, I don't think it has the same vibe as Melbourne, certainly more $ orientated. Everything seems to be big and flash. Although with new licence laws coming in we'll start to see smaller bars with more soul, rather than the super clubs, with staff with attitude.

I love Sydney but I think it's way too pretenious. Hence why I like Newtown, balmain, etc. much more friendlier

jank

Father Damo wrote: »

The trains in Sydney are at a third world level. How a country this wealthy cant have air con in every carriage is beyond me.

Bit of an exageration in fairness. There are a few trains with no air-con, most of them do. Id say you were never in an actual 3rd world country.

Father Damo wrote: »

One last thing that really gets my gripe, the way they talk about "whinging poms" when having a moan is an Austalian pastime.

The economy is dodgy. Carbon tax. Boat people.

Grow the fcuk up. You are the only country in the world to avoid the GFC (and you then voted in an idiot PM who booted out the guy responsible for avoiding it in the first place). The only Australians who are jobless are bogan fcukwits who are paid too well off the state to bother working. Your country of 22 million gets 6000 odd boat people- most of whom cost less in welfare and given the chance are probably harder working than your Centrelink regulars. Apart from this awful summer you have nearly continous good weather and yet all you can do is pretend your life is awful. Try living in Ireland in the Celtic Tiger years. High cost of living, sh1te wages relative to that cost, about 3 days of summer per year....honest to god they dont know how well they have it here

So I take it you are staying...?

jank

No6 wrote: »

Ireland is a complete ****hole and getting worse, I should know I am still here!!! And we didn't even know what coffee was untill a few years ago!!:D

radharc05 wrote: »

True, its getting unbearable to live here. Thats why we're trying to leave!
May as well be miserable in the sun shur wha!:D

Got to love the tiger cubs attitude, never let facts and reality get in the way of a good moan. Dont worry, the penny will drop some day soon.

catbear

Oh please do give us some of your wisdom and explain your post jank.

jank

joaneire wrote: »

Ah typical Irish sarcastic response... I didn't claim what I know Australia to be, and I don't know if you know anything about Sydney, but most Aussies here will say that Sydney is a horrible money-grabbing city, and most of the Aussies here are completely and totally racist (even though they all have European ancestry.) If this forum is supposed to be for opinion and discussion, then I suggest, as a moderator, you lay off on the sarcastic off-putting comments, and encourage discussion.

Ah the whole, every Aussie is racist argument. My cousin is married to a Filipino woman. They are both Australian so the odds are one of them are racist right? Well if they aren't, their daughter must be! Even though she is one of them most genuine people you will ever meet. Got a full scholarship to UNSW to study law, looks Filipino, has an Australian accent and a very very Irish last name. That to me is what Australia is about.

I know many people who are in mixed race relationships, happy out. Australia especially inner city Sydney is very open about race and sex. They don't really care what you are or what you do in the bedroom. I would agree that in small towns in rural Australia that the attitude may be very different but this would be the exact same back in Ireland. I would argue any day of the way that Australia is more open and accepting of different cultures, attitudes and people then Ireland.

Finally one of my best friends here in Sydney is an African-American guy from Alabama. He became an Australian citizen last year. One of the things that he loves about Australia is that you are judged on who you are not what you are. He got racially abused a few times when in the states. Yes, it still does happen there, especially in the south. (he told me once he was going out with this girl who was white and couldn't tell the parents because they were racist). He has been here over 6 years and it has NEVER happened to him. Many other Americans (mostly white by the way) have said the same thing to me which I found interesting.

Basically apart from a few red neck Bogans and ignorant ass holes, Australia is one if not the most open, accepting, liberal democratic societies in the world where opportunity is afforded to everyone according to their ability NOT on what they are. Where else in the world right now do we have a atheist woman elected as head of the government?

Some people just love to knock something because its an easy thing to do. Ireland is one of the most insincere place in the world where we talk about nothing important and then some people have the cheek to spout of popular crap on an internet message board? Id say you don't know what racist actually means.

As to finding the real Australia, maybe move to broken hill, you may find it there. Might suit you better! Or maybe you are just a vessel of naivety.

myflipflops

catbear wrote: »

Oh please do give us some of your wisdom and explain your post jank.

I suspect he is referring to the certainty that the grass is greener. All encompassing declarations like 'Ireland is a s**thole' are as lazy as they are false.

Of the 4 countries I have lived and worked full time, Ireland remains my favorite and remains home.

jank

catbear wrote: »

Oh please do give us some of your wisdom and explain your post jank.

My guess is that those two posters have never lived anywhere else in the world apart from Ireland. They may describe Ireland as a dump or a ****hole but it is neither. Believe me, I have seen them and Ireland is not that. Ireland no matter what people say it is one of the best countries in the world to live it. It may not mean its the best (what is best anyway) but to describe the country as a ****hole is just tiger cub, self loathing, masochistic, small mindedness insecurity that we love doing so well. We have no pride in ourselves as a nation. The Irish disease has spread to another generation unfortunately.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GNI_(PPP)_per_capita

Now if you can prove me wrong I am all ears?:D

mandrake04

Good post Jank, but then most your posts are.

Should also point out that I'm Australian but a few months ago I put in a good word for my S.African (coloured) friend at my work as there was a job going, I could have just as easily phoned up some of white Aussie friends instead.

To be fair I have heard plenty of racist remarks in Australia (usually behind the back stuff), but I have yet to see anyone being barred from any pub or hotel because of their ethnicity like they way Irish Travellers are back home.

markymark21

Well said jank. In usually on the journal.ie most days and the moaning and begrudgery is astonishing.

Anyway back on topic. I would have nothing bad to say about Australia.. I've only really seen melbourne anyway. The Australians who I work with don't seem to have much of a work ethic but that's only where I work i guess and generally they're a friendly bunch!

...however the amount of lads goIng around in short shorts and wearing vests that don't even cover their nipples freaks the **** outta me

Father Damo

joaneire wrote: »

I suppose once I leave Sydney I'll get to see real Australia, but all in all, it's a very English-Asian city with very little Australian thrown in.

Enjoy the "real Australia". If haphazard mobile coverage and paying 6 dollars an hour for internet are your thing you will love it :pac: For a modern 21st century country the sticks is still in the last century (and Im not on about 200 km outside Alice, even large towns anywhere outside the city are like that).

jank wrote: »

Bit of an exageration in fairness. There are a few trains with no air-con, most of them do.

Most might do, but its hardly an overwhelming majority is it. The only trains that are actually comfortable are the new ones with the electronic displays and all that jazz. Even the old trains that do have air con, the AC isnt particularly strong and the leather seats make the carriage too hot anyway.

g5fd6ow0hseima

mandrake04 wrote: »

but I have yet to see anyone being barred from any pub or hotel because of their ethnicity like they way Irish Travellers are back home.

Where do the aborigines fit in here?

Zambia

Jazlyn Late Vocation wrote: »

Where do the aborigines fit in here?

They are the original owners of this land are acknowledged as such.

mandrake04

Jazlyn Late Vocation wrote: »

Where do the aborigines fit in here?

I'm not saying it doesn't happen just haven't witnessed with my own eyes, where in Ireland I have.

puzzle factory

oz people are more raciest than the people that invented racism,IRONY ALERTY they even hate the tans.

Father Damo

Racism?

In all fairness who in their right mind would let a load of travellers drink in their bar? Especially a wedding/ funeral- the fine for refusing to serve them would probably cost less than the damage/ loss of business. They arent even a seperate race.

Ive never seen an Aborogine in a Sydney bar but then there are very few of them in Sydney anyway. Bars up north were full of them, didnt seem any more troublesome than anyone else. Actually I was quite surprised that they and the whites seemed to get on well enough with each other socially. Varies by area mind- never been but Alice Springs is meant to be a war zone.

mandrake04

Travellers are an ethnic group.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Travellers

Irish Travellers (Irish: an lucht siúil) or Pavee are a traditionally nomadic people of ethnic Irish origin, who maintain a separate language and set of traditions. They live predominantly in the Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom and the United States.

and

"Racism" and "racial discrimination" are often used to describe discrimination on an ethnic or cultural basis, independent of their somatic (i.e. "racial") differences. According to the United Nations conventions, there is no distinction between the term racial discrimination and ethnicity discrimination.[1]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism

Makes me kind of laugh when Irish people whinge on about Racism in Australia, they seem to forgotten about the Racism at home..... how convenient and embarrassing.

puzzle factory

mandrake04 wrote: »

Travellers are an ethnic group.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Travellers



and



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism

Makes me kind of laugh when Irish people whinge on about Racism in Australia, they seem to forgotten about the Racism at home..... how convenient and embarrassing.

speak for yourself,travllers never bothered me and i never bothered them,but what i saw in queensland and darwin did bother other me

puzzle factory

puzzle factory wrote: »

speak for yourself,travllers never bothered me and i never bothered them,but what i saw in queensland and darwin did bother other me

add alice springs and merriden to that.............

catbear

To dislike the irish political culture is not self loathing. Ireland has serious accountability problems that i don't see being tackled anytime soon. There are many positives to ireland, but being told to belt up and not complain cause other places are worse is naive too.
Sometimes people complain about where they are because they really miss home but don't want to admit it, especially if home has nothing for them.

puzzle factory

catbear wrote: »

To dislike the irish political culture is not self loathing. Ireland has serious accountability problems that i don't see being tackled anytime soon. There are many positives to ireland, but being told to belt up and not complain cause other places are worse is naive too.
Sometimes people complain about where they are because they really miss home but don't want to admit it, especially if home has nothing for them.

what are you on about?

The Aussie

puzzle factory wrote: »

oz people are more raciest than the people that invented racism,IRONY ALERTY they even hate the tans.

You have never been in a minority in Ireland i presume, that nice little Parrish bubble must have been quaint.

joaneire wrote: »

the Queen herself on the money

It stops the children from putting it in their mouths

puzzle factory

The Aussie wrote: »

You have never been in a minority in Ireland i presume, that nice little Parrish bubble must have been quaint.


man i seen an abroignal kid getting the absoutly fup gettin kicked outa him in palmerstown park because the ozzies said they were upsetting there australian day,and i was with the ozzies and when i when i went up to the law to taell them stop,i was told to fup off home potato eater,sydneys grand so is pert so is taz but the rest of the place is full of the lpwest type of reptiles,bar the odd few,dont tell me otherwise,i gave long enough dealen with em,dont get me wrong,theres sum dead nice people there,but theres 2 cnuts for every nice wan.

mandrake04

puzzle factory wrote: »

speak for yourself,travllers never bothered me and i never bothered them,but what i saw in queensland and darwin did bother other me

Trying to decipher all the rubbish there, I get the just you never were bothered about discrimination (as we know now to be a form of Racial Discrimination) against Irish travellers but you were bothered about discrimination against indigenous Australians.

My point is exactly that, Racial discrimination is alive & kicking in Ireland when it comes to Travellers but trying to get an Irish person to admit to it is like asking Ian Paisley to admit to being a catholic. But once someone mentions Australia the old racism card comes out, how embarrassing.

The Aussie

puzzle factory wrote: »

The Aussie wrote: »

You have never been in a minority in Ireland i presume, that nice little Parrish bubble must have been quaint.


man i seen an abroignal kid getting the absoutly fup gettin kicked outa him in palmerstown park because the ozzies said they were upsetting there australian day,and i was with the ozzies and when i when i went up to the law to taell them stop,i was told to fup off home potato eater,sydneys grand so is pert so is taz but the rest of the place is full of the lpwest type of reptiles,bar the odd few,dont tell me otherwise,i gave long enough dealen with em,dont get me wrong,theres sum dead nice people there,but theres 2 cnuts for every nice wan.

Yeh, nice story there Bro. could you not have come up with a better one in the time frame you had???

mandrake04 wrote: »

Trying to decipher all the rubbish there,

You think thats bad, this one made my eyes bleed. since when is "wan" shorter than one or even if your in a rush 1

Zambia

puzzle factory wrote: »

man i seen an abroignal kid getting the absoutly fup gettin kicked outa him in palmerstown park because the ozzies said they were upsetting there australian day,and i was with the ozzies and when i when i went up to the law to taell them stop,i was told to fup off home potato eater,sydneys grand so is pert so is taz but the rest of the place is full of the lpwest type of reptiles,bar the odd few,dont tell me otherwise,i gave long enough dealen with em,dont get me wrong,theres sum dead nice people there,but theres 2 cnuts for every nice wan.

Did you call an ambulance for the kid?

mandrake04

The Aussie wrote: »

You think thats bad, this one made my eyes bleed. since when is "wan" shorter than one or even if your in a rush 1

Yeah at at loss with that one too, I give up after the third word.

Father Damo

mandrake04 wrote: »

Trying to decipher all the rubbish there, I get the just you never were bothered about discrimination (as we know now to be a form of Racial Discrimination) against Irish travellers but you were bothered about discrimination against indigenous Australians.

But we have good reason to dislike travellers. During the boom near on 90% of them were on benefits. They are, in general, a load of inbred violent disrecpectful alcoholic layabouts who think the state owes them a living. They have even brought their crap over to this country

Im not saying all abos are saints, but up north alot of them seemed to be in employment, drink in bars with the whites, lead regular lives like anyone else basically.

The main issue here is that "racism" against travellers, if you can call it that, usually has good justification. In Australia, from experience, racism against immigrants and boat people seems to be more borne out of a fear that they will show up the locals by working harder than they do. You will never get an Aussie pollie coming out and saying the truth, that in urban Australia unemployment as such does not exist. That pretty much everyone on the dole is too lazy to get a job. Instead Abbott and Gillard play table tennis on the almost non existant boat people issue to curry the favour of a large redneck bogan proportion of the electorate into voting for them so they can keep out the whopping 6000 odd boat people per year. When in truth the Australian taxpayer and justice system would benefit better by bringing them in and deporting the 5% of the native population on the dole to Malaysia As for the abos I dont think the average Aussie hates them as a whole, just the ones who spend their days sitting on the streets with a goon bag moaning about how society fcuked them over. A bit like the likes of Pavee Point do back home really.

sudzs

puzzle factory wrote: »

add alice springs and merriden to that.............

What did you see in Merredin??

mandrake04

Father Damo wrote: »

But we have good reason to dislike travellers. During the boom near on 90% of them were on benefits. They are, in general, a load of inbred violent disrecpectful alcoholic layabouts who think the state owes them a living. They have even brought their crap over to this country

Well to be honest about 20 years ago some Travellers stole my fathers 6 week old Hiace van, but I wouldn't hold it against every Traveller because in every society there are good & bad.

My opinion is that some Travellers have given the rest a bad rap and to most Irish people they are just "Gypos" "Knackers" & "Tinkers" and because they are in a closed ethnic culture they are easily targeted for discrimination.

It's very much like a mirror image of Indigenous discrimination in parts of Australia.

My point is (having both Irish & Australian Citizenships) that many Irish people on boards are happy enough to point fingers but they loath to have the finger rightfully pointed back.

6ix

joaneire wrote: »

I've been in Sydney for 5 months and leaving soon because I've found the place to be wholly un-Australian. I don't know what Australia is supposed to be, but it's certainly not city. When I first got here I was very unimpressed with everywhere in Sydney being named after somewhere in England, the Queen herself on the money etc. Obviously it makes sense seeing as the country itself is an offspring of the UK, but it was just a shock!

Just out of curiosity, what exactly were you expecting from Sydney? The majority of Australians live in urban areas (both large and small), particularly on the East Coast... and like all developed English speaking nations Australia is subject to globalisation and the same music/TV/films/coffee shop franchises have proliferated here as everywhere else.

It's not just Sydney either, half of Australia is named after British explorers who discovered places - Broome, Cairns, Brisbane, the Sturt Highway, Alice Springs, Port Macquarie and obviously lots of streets/places in every town, so wherever you go within Australia you're going to find this influence whether you like it or not.

I suppose once I leave Sydney I'll get to see real Australia, but all in all, it's a very English-Asian city with very little Australian thrown in.

So yes, you'll probably experience a less globalised/more unique Australia experience when you leave Sydney. If you go travelling you'll see all the wonderful and unique things throughout the country... but the reality is that for work, most people have to live in an urban area so unless you're going to move to an Aboriginal settlement, don't expect anything too different in terms of culture.