Originally Posted by Mummy

Well, what can I say? I came to have a read of this forum because I am in the situation where I left the UK 18 months ago to come and live in Sydney, and I am now considering returning to the UK, and I wanted to try to remind myself of the reasons that I left the UK in the first place, to help balance my decision of whether to return or not.

My first reaction was suprise at the people posting about the lack of tolerance in society and the lack of respect between people, then going on to show their own lack of tolerance and respect by having a go at the people like me who are considering returning to the UK. Just because they want to go back???

I have found my time in Australia so far to be pleasant, and have not encountered any crime personally. However, I did read about an armed robbery in a petrol station near to where I live, and an attack in a post office nearby too recently. I also listened to a conversation between people at work who were discussing whether a colleague should move to North Sydney or Neutral Bay, and the discussions were about people's experiences of burgularies in the two areas.

I have lived in a few places in the UK - Plymouth, Bradford, Manchester, Wolverhampton, Cambridge, Stafford and Derby, and again have had no personal experiences of crime in any of those areas.

An aspect of Australian life that has not been mentioned here, that may be relevant to the topic is that of religion. My experience in Australia has shown me that the average Australian is way more religious than the average Brit, and the number of religious schools in relation to the number of schools in general is really high. Perhaps children may turn out nicer here because of the religious upbringing, and the fear not of authority but that of god? I am not religious myself before anyone comments on this, and would not send my son to a religious school, it is merely an observation that I have. Virtually every Australian that I have met goes to church, and most that I know have sent their children to a religious school.

Yes, my neighbours here have lovely children, in their early teens, and I do agree that most of the Sydney children I have met have not
only been friendly to adults, but also quite willing to have a conversation with them. But also, I had the same experience when living in Wolverhampton - the children I met there were lovely too.

I think a lot of it does have to do with the area that you live in - I could quite easily move to another suburb of sydney and experience personal crime every week. Likewise, another suburb of Wolverhampton.

Catherine

Originally Posted by thatsnotquiteright

to be fair on Vash, he ofen goes out of this way to look at stats ( a good objective metric) even when others have long not bothered to interpret them. What has he just done?
Of couse as we all know, stats can be problematic.

Originally Posted by Mummy

Perhaps children may turn out nicer here because of the religious upbringing, and the fear not of authority but that of god? I am not religious myself before anyone comments on this, and would not send my son to a religious school, it is merely an observation that I have. Virtually every Australian that I have met goes to church, and most that I know have sent their children to a religious school.

Originally Posted by jad n rich

Claimed australia was not even in the top 60 crime wise, when it was actually 13th usual stuff you can come up if you play around with figures.

Originally Posted by ABCDiamond

I don't think it is the fear of God, but more the tolerance thta is being taught.
My daughter goes to a sort of religious school, and one thing they do press is the 5 C's.

Consideration, Compassion and another 3 that I can't think of (she wil not be impressed with me)

Most of the kids are very respectful to the Adults, but not, in my opinion, "deeply" religious.

Originally Posted by australia to canada

Some people are in for one big mother of a wake up call when they land.

Originally Posted by australia to canada

Some people are in for one big mother of a wake up call when they land.

Originally Posted by steve`o

i dont think its an area thing in the UK
its peoples attitudes that have changed

from personal experience

we live, i like to think in a good area of Manchester
nice house good neighbours and our daughter attends the local grammar school
we live in trafford one of the last bastions of grammar school education and we moved here purposely to get our daughter into this highly rated school, she`s in her second year

this year however her class`s has been badly disrupted by two pupils in her class, last year they were "lads" a bit noisy but nothing bad, they have come back after the summer holidays as completely different kids
very disruptive abusive f-ing and blinding in class
these are only 12 / 13 year olds
they have both been excluded on several occasions
but even excluding them is a joke
for example if they overstep the line and are removed from class pending a 3 day exclusion.
under the present rules the school has to give them
a minimum of 24 hrs notice, so the little sods get to disrupt the lessons the next day as well then they get 3 days off school, no obvious hardship and come back in again the next Monday to repeat the whole scenario
we have spoken to the teachers they feel that their hands are tied. as i said at the start this isn`t some inner city school in a rough area, you have to pass an entrance exam to get in this school and every year its massively over subscribed

i still think alot of it is down to the dont give a f**k attitude and total lack of discipline that i mentioned earlier in this thread

regards Steve

Originally Posted by Olibeneli

I think you may underestimate the users of this forum.

I don't think anyone on here is expecting the land of Oz to be Nirvana.......Narnia (ie good "fighting" bad) with sun perhaps!

I think we all know shit happens all over the world:
racism
verbal abuse at work
bullying at work
poor schooling
poor housing
traffic
hoons
yobbos
chavs
fast food junk
poor TV (including in the UK)
racial and religious hatred
.........you name it, I expect to find varying degrees of it whereever I live so I am under no illusions.

I was just reading yesterday about racial abuse shouted at the South African cricket players at the WACA..........and they might not want to come and play again in Oz if it carrys on.............we get same crap at probably every league football ground in the UK. Officials in both places are trying to sort it out but hey, the world we live in will always have such people who want to do this.