I think Australia has a very rich language, although I haven't been there. In Canada, we seem to have added only one word to the English we started with: "eh?" - which I think of as synonymous with "what?" and lately, "yeah?". I think, if I were younger, I'd like to visit Oz and listen to locals converse to see if they sound as colourful as the characters in TV shows like "Water Rats", "Sea Patrol", "McLeod's Daughters", and the movie "Crocodile Dundee". I had never heard the word "whinge" before, from which they get "whinging pom" (a complainer). But you really can't base opinions on movies either...some are largely strictly for entertainment. (I looked up origin of "pom" or "pome" without a convincing answer.)
My Country, Your country
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RainLover
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It is truly a sad place when one makes an outrageous statement like this and is taken seriously.
Do you not see by the contradiction of the statement that it was a joke. How do you get out of bed in the morning and face the world with this great fear of being offended.
With my heritage when I have a go at the poms I am also having a go at my own family. I am proud to be Australian and proud to fly the Jack in the top corner of our flag. I am a Royalist and have no desire to break ties any further than what we have done with Great Briton.
Your comments earlier about Australians wanting to see these boat people die at sea is outrageous. We still have troops in their country dying while trying to make their country a safer place.
These boat people are safe where they are in Indonesia. Or are you going to tell me that they are mistreated there too. In Indonesia there are many people who have applied to come to Australia as refugees. And they are been slowly but surely processed. But they can't get into the Country because of cue jumpers. Some have the Money to pay for a trip on a leaky boat to get here. It is these people who are causing their own countrymen to wait longer than they should.
As far as the boat that went down on Christmas Island there were many Australian locals who were risking their lown ives to save them. Our Coast Guard and Navy are doing what they can to prevent these leaking ships from sinking by trying to get them to stay where they are. They (the boat people) have been warned by both Australian and Indonesian Governments that the trip is dangerous and not to proceed. Unfortunately there are people of their own race are making a fortune as people smugglers. They can charge around $10,000 per person. So a boat with 100 people is a lot of money.
So why do they make this dangerous voyage. It is simply because of the way we treat them. They come here to have a roof over their heads and plenty to eat. True the accomodation is not 5 star but it is far better than what they have been used to.
This is more than what I can say about the Aboriginal People of Australia. These people were so badly treated by the POMS from the day England invaded this land. It was the POMS who were responsible for the stolen generation where Aboriginal children were taken from their parents. Simply a disgraceful act.
Aboriginals have a short life expectancy because of their health. They don't get three meals a day and so many don't have a roof over their heads. Aboriginal children who actually go to school go there without food in their bellies. Australia is racist when it come to its own people.
Australia spends so much money caring for these cue jumpers that we neglect our own.
While we are at it lets look at that tsunami years ago that killed and displaced so many people. The Australian people gave over $1 billion dollars in aid. We have only 23 Million people. This is far more than most Countries around the world and is by far the highest per capita by a long shot.
I think it is time for your people to have a good hard look at yourselves and do something to help others rather than pointing a finger while hiding behind this big racist sign where it is all warm and fuzzy.
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John Big Booty
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So you are either the descendant of "Illegal" Boat arrivals, or the descendant of Economic refugees.
Disclosure; I'm the descendant of transportees.
You have clearly not been following the news on that subject.
I would suggest that before you spew that little furphy out any more you acquaint yourself with the facts on the subject
(my highlighting)
A nice bit of blame shifting there.
It's a practice that went on right up to 1970's by which we'd had plenty of time to repeal the policy. In fact it was not until 1967 that the indigenous people of this land even gained the right to vote.
So whilst you like to show a façade of tolerance, I'm afraid that by continuing to fall back on proven untruths cracks are starting to appear and your underlying intolerance is starting to peak through at us.
Dick7Access
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Why can't everybody hate all people equally!!!
RainLover
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Sounds good in theory, but there are those special people with their own opinions. I really hate them.
AnthonyGerrard
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It does seem to be a popular myth that Australia does have an unfair burden on these things.
I never mentioned this kind of stuff you brought it up - but If you want to do statistics we can.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_governments_by_development_aid
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/jun/20/refugee-statistics-unhcr-data
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_in_Afghanistan_(2001–present)
Did Australia really donate 1 billion to the Tsunami?
http://www.aidwatch.org.au/sites/aidwatch.org.au/files/oped.pdf
The private donations may make interesting reading too.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4145259.stm
I couldnt agree more. Seems like a few stories have become popular and are masquerading as reasoned explanation of why refugees should be kept out.
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The Australian Labor Party.
John Big Booty
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Fingergraphical error 
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What you said was:
"about as perverse as a country could be"
If that is not lumping everyone together I don't know what is.
AnthonyGerrard
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Yes you are right - large sections of the Australian population being basically decended from ecomomic migrants themselves , but having a rather funny attitude towards similar folk from Afganistan or Iraq etc doesnt make about as perverse as a country could be.
You could of course be even more perverse.
I have yet to encounter a more perverse one however. The fact that Australia is about as good at swimming as a nation could be - doesnt mean everyone can swim or is likely to win an olympic medal over the next 2 weeks does it.
I think your hiding behing nitpicking.
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My earliest immigrant ancestors.
A Dane from Slesvig-Holsten who left on his own aged 18 in 1863, never to see his family again, to avoid being conscripted into the Prussian army after they invaded his country.
He married a seventeen year Polish woman whose widower father brought what remained of his family to Australia about the same time. The ship carried many more people than it should have, was becalmed on the Equator in the middle of the Atlantic for six weeks, its water stores polluted by petroleum products and the ship carried cholera on board.
Their son married the daughter of a Scot family. They came out probably having had enough of English economic oppression.
Another branch from England lost their infant child to measles on their voyage. So don't presume to lecture me about desperate people looking for a better life.
BTW, did you stand up and be counted like I did when "The Coalition of the Willing" illegally invaded Iraq? Or did you just quietly approve by your complacence?
I think you are hiding behind you own selective prejudice. Yet you are naked.
A Dane from Slesvig-Holsten who left on his own aged 18 in 1863, never to see his family again, to avoid being conscripted into the Prussian army after they invaded his country.
He married a seventeen year Polish woman whose widower father brought what remained of his family to Australia about the same time. The ship carried many more people than it should have, was becalmed on the Equator in the middle of the Atlantic for six weeks, its water stores polluted by petroleum products and the ship carried cholera on board.
Their son married the daughter of a Scot family. They came out probably having had enough of English economic oppression.
Another branch from England lost their infant child to measles on their voyage. So don't presume to lecture me about desperate people looking for a better life.
BTW, did you stand up and be counted like I did when "The Coalition of the Willing" illegally invaded Iraq? Or did you just quietly approve by your complacence?
I think you are hiding behind you own selective prejudice. Yet you are naked.
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Dick7Access
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I imagine that Aussie’s, Brit’s, Cunuk’s Etc. all have their bad drivers. Here in the USA there are two drivers that I hate. Those that drive faster than me and those that drive slower than me. On serious note: I have driven in about 39 of our conus states and the worst drivers (big city) have been Philadelphia, PA. Driving a 32 foot RV towing a pick up and nobody will give you a place to pull in. The best (big city) Houston, TX, not saying they were super good. Road wise TX has some two lane narrow roads with 70 miles an hour speed limits. Mexico had lots of muddy roads; luckily all I was driving was the pickup. Costa Rica had fairly courteous drivers but lots of traffic jams in the city and scary turns in the mountains. Did not drive in Plymouth, England but my friend scared me when he shut off his headlights until a car was coming the other way. Canada was pretty much like driving in the USA. Boston, MA had/has massive traffic jams and the rotary’s can be a problem if you are not use to them. What is it like driving in Australia and or you country?
RainLover
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When I was very young I called my Grandmother a Pome.
She quickly informed me that she was English and that it was I who was the POME. Being so young I did not understand but she explained the she was here of her own free choice and that it is the convicts who were the Prisoners OF Mother England. POME.
So we often get called convicts by the POMs Inspite of my Grandmothers explanations Australia and NZ still call the English POMS.
But don't include the Scottish in that. Most of them hate the POMS.
Dick7Access
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Technically you are correct, but your wife told me you donated $1.00 and she donated $499.00.
RainLover
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This subject has been going on for quite a while now and is going around in circles.
The two sides of the argument are that some say that most of these Boat people are cue jumpers. They create dangerous situations for both themselves and those Australians who's job it is to help protect this country and to go to the aid of people at sea who are in danger.
The other side of the story is that others believe all Australians are racists, some of us would prefer to see all these people die, we mistreat them when they get here and one of the latest we do not have a foreign aid policy.
So I ask this question. Are these people better off because of Australian help or would they be better off staying where they are or perhaps seeking refuge in a different country.
The two sides of the argument are that some say that most of these Boat people are cue jumpers. They create dangerous situations for both themselves and those Australians who's job it is to help protect this country and to go to the aid of people at sea who are in danger.
The other side of the story is that others believe all Australians are racists, some of us would prefer to see all these people die, we mistreat them when they get here and one of the latest we do not have a foreign aid policy.
So I ask this question. Are these people better off because of Australian help or would they be better off staying where they are or perhaps seeking refuge in a different country.
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They jump over the sticks used to hit billiard balls?
AnthonyGerrard
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Thats a interstestin family history- hardly unusual in Australia or anywhere else though. I am not sure of its relevance other than you share a recent economic migrant story which you would think would make Australia one of the most tolerant countries.
The Iraq thing has no relvence here really whatsoever, nor Libya nor Syria - they are all foreign though.
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We have a saying. Never trust a nun driving a Volvo. They fear nothing.
AnthonyGerrard
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I think its largely irrelevant to this discussion how much I gave. Or really how much you gave.
Since you want to compare though - you gave more, quite a lot more.
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