ozzieeagle

I think I need some education here, or some enlightenment at least.

First of all It's been great seeing you on here NKSK, I've always enjoyed your balanced posts, and enjoy posters that question the status quo.

I can definitely understand your comments about the education system, as you obviously work in the area, and what happens within that system directly affects you.

How though, do Pharmacists having vested interests in their own causes, likewise with the AFL and Trade unions, and Doctors and Real Estate agents concern me or you in everyday life, would the UK be very different in relation to groups pushing their own causes ? On these points I'm totally confused, maybe I've been here too long ?

I certainly understand your point about the blandness of the polished but oh so soulless suburbs, I saw plenty of that around my Cousins place on the Gold Coast, Much of Melbourne escapes these faults.

Anyway best of luck, wherever the future finds you.

Please keep posting

Normal for Norfolk

Not sure how long you have been down under but there are plenty of souless new estates in UK. On the edge of a motorway or business park, no shops or parks, looking like 'toy town'. Having said that we saw similar in Aus last year - lots of dead suburbs stringing the coast between Brisbane and Sydney. At least the houses had bigger plots and some nicer designs. Seeing kangaroos hoping in your front garden dawn and dusk was intriguing to, although kangaroo turd on your lawn must get on your nerves! However the local RSL and bowling clubs are quite interesting - I reckon if Brits populated Aus in the first place we'd do the same. Hang on a minute, we did!

michael_w

"How do Pharmacists having vested interests in their own causes ..., likewise with the Doctors ... concern me or you in everyday life,?"

Let me give you an example - pharmacists have a closed shop, literally - nobody but a pharmacist (and then only very rich ones) can own a pharmacy. So no Boots, no pharmacies in Woolies or pharmacists offering all those extra services, opening hours etc that they would if they opned up the market.

Likewise with doctors. Ask anyone in a country town how long they have to wait to see a doctor - if they have one at all. The doctors groups and government between them have restricted training places and made training so long and complicated that there simply aren't any 'ordinary' surgeons, obstetricans etc outside of the big cities. All the new medical graduates are working for peanuts at shonky Skin Check and Heart Check Clinics or churning out lucrative "Care Plans" for one of the corporate medical centres - and thereby undermining the local GP.

The ray of hope is that Labor's new health secretary has set herself against the AMA and may actually do something about these cosy "mates club" arrangements. One other example? Look at Prof Thomas Kossman the Swiss surgeon who has been hounded out of the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne by trumped up charges from the Aussie medicos old boys network.

Having got all that off my chest I have to say I'm very happy here in Australia and have no plans to go back to the UK where the NHS is being shafted by Mr Brown!

NKSK version 2

AFL - their paranoia about other codes -e sp soccer. WA stadium?

Real estate agents - do I need to point this one out?!! As a tenant and a prospective purchaser they are a nightmare in distorting the market. Sponsorship by another agent needed to enter the market reducing supply of agents and therefore true competition...? (second hand knowledge)

Trade unions - the blue flu episodes in WA for example. The teachers union who are handling the case for teachers so badly...amid rumours of leaders being in cahoots with the Lab govt for prospective electoral seats.

I'm not going anyhwere with regards to this forum - I'll still be posting. And I doubt I'll be leaving Australia that soon.

brendarover

To get the gist of the situation, i am forty, went to a very high muilti-ethnic school. White-Caucasian to Asian-Indian ratio was about 50/50.
Remember this was about the time of very high racial tensions in the UK, especially Coventry 1978 to 1984. Now every Asian looking girl and boy were Asian, not Sikh, not Hindu, not Muslim, but Asian.

Now us kids may have been ignorant, yes, ignorant to Eastern religion, but my point is, we as kids could not differentiate between the three major Asian religions in our school, because it was just accepted that they were just Asian religions to us kids.

We were bought up with accepting white and black kids are just white and black kids, nothing new here, move along. So as i left school, started work, my new best mate was Asian, thats all he was Asian, it was not until early 2002 that his religion became a problem to others, not me, others, because all of a sudden, he was not Asian, he was a MUSLIM.

My point is, all through school, up until September 2001, to be a Muslim, well, you were a Muslim, my mate was/is a Muslim, no big deal to me or others, he was just a normal Asian guy.

But now, because of the highly racial aministrations around the globe stirring up this hatered, and ignorant thick people falling for it, well all of a sudden, being a Muslim has become very difficult for Muslim's in certain community's in the UK and around the globe.

You know what, my partner is of Irish parentage, the Irish suffered the same, if you were from Ireland with an Irish accent, you were a bomber, end of story, you were a bomber. Disgrace how people fall for mass media brain washing time and time and time again, but what do you expect from the mind numbing trash we get dished out every day in the newspapers and in the television programs.

I was hoping Australia may be different, we will have to wait and see.

Thanks.

Vin 'n Bin

WA Stadium ??????

simongb

I live in the US, so I have no experience of Perth. Never been. I was in Australia when I was a kid, but don't really remember. It seems, from what I have read, that a lot of people have a problem with Perth. I can relate to what people have been saying about bland suburbs. When I came the US, I was amazed that some people chose to live in distant suburbs, where all the houses were the same. No shops. No local pubs, no where to walk to. But, their argument was that they got to live in a big house and that was very important. Bigger is better!!! NOT!
You are right, life is too short. If you don't like it, you have every right to leave. You don't need any other reasons. Good luck with your future. If you are a teacher (which I think you mentioned) there are several international school websites where you can look for jobs.

deryans

I would have to agree with most of the observations on this tread , certainly with the "Muslim" issues, which has been clearly stoked by the last petite PM.

There also appears to be, certainly to my thinking a kind of "anything goes" with moral , ethical and contractual obligations, this , never more apparent than with the MacBank Model , the Wollies Model, petrol and so forth, which is why I burden myself by working through a limited company, I've already seen attempts to coerce me personally , so I just say it's a corporate issue and this is my policy.

The A Triple C seems to be asleep most of the time, as do any consumer watchdog, which needless to say has had it's teeth pulled long before it was let out of its Kennel.

Education, well lets see................. even at year 1 It's pretty damn poor unless you get lucky or pay for private. That is unacceptable given the tax rates here. May I remind viewers that little Howard made promises to use public tax coffers to fund Private schools if re-elected.........Hardly a fair-go society eh ?

University fees are quite a disgrace, there is no other word for it.

We have spent 7 years here now, I have worked in a variety of Industries, Primarily Finance, but am now in Aviation (a personal love alas I cannot even afford to take a FO position because it does not pay) and whilst generally Banks will be Banks, and so forth, I did have a small contract with the NSW department of Housing last year, at which I worked with some pretty sharp and gifted Procurement policy people, and some very good liability maintenance/asset managers.

unfortunately, any spark that they wished to shine was brutally beaten down by the jobs-worths and bureaucratic state driven drivel of people who had let themselves go both mentally and physically....:curse:

The country as a whole is pretty striking, I have traveled over more of it than most Aussies will, the NT (spent a week travelling last April 07 by light aircraft) was an absolute disgrace in light of the Aboriginal issues.

Aussies overall are a pretty good bunch, I've got some really great true blue friends, very close and "guys you could rob a bank with" they are very aware of the state of the country, especially the media, education, health and earning potential, but dont' get me started about culture, I download the "culture show" from UKnova as soon as it appears, and was listening to Seamus Heanys "cure at troy" from BBC R4 last week, you just can't get this stuff here in oz, they just don't know any better, the ABC is villified for being too "elitist" and SBS is termed a wog channel...... where do you go ?


Alot had changed here in the last 8 years , especially under the Howard Government and that has made us think of elsewhere , ironic that Howard would piss off the very people he wants to stay here (anglo-celtic, educated ,professional, 3 wonderful WHITE-NON-MUSLIM kids, etc).

those last capitals were intended as sarcasm , if it were 100 years ago, you could replace Muslim with Irish.

I actually think the problem is that Australia has too many accountants, all evidence points to it, lack of imagination, no creativity, all things must balance to the cent , chargeable society, secret deals, box must be ticked, ridiculous tax system, a DISGRACEFUL corporate sponsorship culture (you know , fat overweight corporate clowns at the rugby when ticket tek has sold out 30 minutes after the game went on and there are still 30% empty seats 60 minutes into the game. [not my comment, John Eales - Wallaby]


Wish you luck NKSK! Great Post!

Australia_bound?

Think you'll find yourself in exactly the same boat in Aus. Dont move for the money. Has all been explained in this thread, but you must have missed that, along with poster not wanting to come back to UK!

lisas

Some really interesting posts on here. We are also in two minds as to whether to return to the UK after just 6 months in Australia as my partner especially has strong feelings similar to many of the issues raised here about Australia.

We have just returned from a short visit to the UK and yes crime is high and there are more and more immigrants arriving daily but the country seems much more advanced and tolerant of people regardless of colour or religion. When all said and done UK will always be home for us regardless of all its flaws and now we are in Oz it is clear that nowhere is perfect. Yes Oz has the weather and outdoor lifestyle but we have found it to be now more expensive than the UK for food and interest rates and the choices you have here are just so limiting. Everyone seems obsessed with supporting aussie made and owned, yet the majority of aussie owned gets its stuff from China. Someone earlier mentioned that so does every other country but failed to mention that it is a lot cheaper to buy something from the UK or USA that has been made in China.

In the UK we found it quite easy to live cheaply if need be as because of choice you can always find products less expensive elsewhere due to supermarket competition or cheaper shops such as Netto or Home bargains etc. Here in Oz the consumer is being screwed because the competition isn't allowed. Also being a teacher I know that life in the UK offers more money and opportunites in my career than here. I just don't know if the bonus of the sunshine is worth it anymore. Some people move here and are finacially better off and have a better lifestyle but others like us find themselves worse off. I guess it depends on your career and your lifestyle before you moved to Australia.

On another note I also find the openly racist comments here unbelievable and people are certainly buying into the media hype. Which brings me to an interesting situation. We have just been on a flight from Abu Dhabi to Singapore were a muslim man kept requesting alcohol and was given it until he'd had about 10 bottles of wine and then became aggressive and abusive. Sitting 2 rows behind it was a pretty scary situation, but I have to admit that if I hadn't known that it was purely down to the booze I would have been worried that he was a terrorist as at one point he was up in the aisle thumping the baggage compartments and was shouting on top notch for about 30 minutes. It crossed my mind that it was a good job the food trays had been taken away as metal forks are used and could easily have been a weapon. It also crossed my mind that again if I hadn't known he was plastered I would be thinking it could be some kind of diversion whilst an accomplace was up to no good. It is wrong, but you start to look at all the other young Muslim passengers with suspicion. The media hype does not help as it is so easy for people who don't know any better to think all Muslims are bad. To cut a long story short the air stewards handled the situation badly it got out of hand, went on too long and really the male passengers had to sort it out. He got restrained, carried to the back of the plane and was met by officials at Singapore.
Good luck to all would be migrants and people happy here but remember its not for everyone and be prepared for that.

Lisa.

Kalenge

Not sure what you mean by the AFL's paranoia about other codes??

The AFL enjoys the 2nd highest average attendance across all sporting codes in the world (the NFL has top spot). I think it's definitely big enough not to be paranoid.

Assegai

Not a lot of point in trading then

melbournegirl

I am surprised at the comments regarding racism. Maybe it is where I live but I can't remember the last time I head a racist comment and if anyone around these parts made a racist comment they would be severely criticised by those who heard it. I do think there is more racism in Queensland for some reason and regional areas. Melbourne is very multi-cultural and has been for decades so we are used to people of all races living here. I don't even think twice about it. We embrace multi-culturalism here.

Also regarding education people keep saying that the education system is inferior to the U.K. Just because something is different it doesn't mean it is inferior. Why does Australia come above the U.K. in every education survey if it is so bad. Is every school in the U.K. excellent? I doubt it. Just like in Australia there are great, bad and everything in between. Choose well and you won't be disappointed.

Australia is not perfect and it has it's problem as does the U.K., Canada or the U.S. and every other country in the world. If you come with a negative attitude then you will find fault wherever you look.

ozzieeagle

I dont want to have a go at any way at NKSK, but if one wants to talk about vested interests hurting soccer. Nothing repeat Nothing has hurt English soccer as a general entity more than the English Premier League.... Sending it backwards at an enormous rate, another 10 years and there wont be a English player in the division if they are not careful. English players will certainly be in the minority by then.

My point being sometimes one can see faults easier in other countries than they can their own.

The axis of evil in really received a kick up the Arse in relation to soccer and its renewed interest here in Melbourne. and they haven't tried it on since. Channel 9 The Herald Sun and 3AW. People power can work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYTSCLReIyI

NKSK version 2

I agree about the EPL.

The earlier post about AFL domination meaning that it can't be paranoid.....I reckon it is paranoid because of that very position - i.e. it wants to protect its position. Also, AFL drugs policy (3 chances (or is it 2 chances now?) and you're out?!! Talk about completely the wrong message to gibe out. And why does it allow this? Why is ALLOWED to have this as policy? Anyhow I really shouldn't get into AFL discussions - I'm on dodgy ground.