asprilla

This isn't the gaza strip mate, its an internet forum. Not sure what factions you are on about, to be honest.

asprilla

for what its worth, I would agree that certain posters are more positive than others. Take, for example ABCDiamond. Once you have sifted through the mountains of stats, you will find that his/her posts are, on the whole, of a positive nature.

And I'm sure there are others who are consistently negative, but off the top of my head, I can't really name any.

But is this really that different from real life? Some people are just more positive than others...that's just the way it goes.

I would share Hutch's concerns, that new posters to this forum often receive unbalanced replies. The only thing we can do about this, is offer a countering view, if we don't agree with what we read.

DunRoaminTheUK

Hutch, I hope things pick up for you mate I really do. The situation that you find yourself is perhaps my biggest fear for me and mine so I really do sympathise with you.

You seem to be the sort of chap who will find a way out of a situation, one way or the other and you do have a very positive attitude so in my opinion that's half the battle won.

Good luck mate.

NKSK version 2

This is one of the most perceptive posts I've read on BE. You'll find that many people who are ambivalent about Australia - and I'm one although increasingly I see more positives than negatives - will agree with this interpretation.

And it is symptomatic of a wider issue in Australia. I remember speaking with a highly qualified person when I arrived about a car purchase.
I was after a 99 model and I couldn't believe how few models from that year had dual airbags. None of the standard commodores or falcons did.

I spoke with this person about said concern and the response was "Well, I suppose that we just don't have as many crashes in Australia as the UK" (And this person is recognised as being one of the top people in their field in WA).

This is one of major concerns about Australia - at every level the country just doesn't seem to want to accept that other countries do things better.

Some recent issues:
The use of a pesticides (sulfan?) - banned in many other developed nations - not here (don't need to)
The use of transfats - controlled in some other rich nations - not here.
The use of colourings in food - 102, 110 - commonplace in top brands- much more difficult to find in the UK or Europe.
Safety in cars.
Maternity leave provision

kevin747

In many ways Australia is backward

Kim67

It's called "taking the p**s." Something you may not have picked up on being a new arrival at the time.

asprilla

I think the real issue here is that Australia is worse at some things than other countries, and better at other things.

That "nobody does it better" thing, is just as prevalent in the UK, America, France, Italy, and every other country in the world... I am not sure why some people believe that Australia is especially bad in this respect?

iamthecreaturefromuranus

...because it IS especially bad in that respect. There is a deep seated belief in many Aussies that Australia really is better than everywhere else, at everything. If anything the UK has a tendency to run itself down more than is justified with many Brits now believing that the UK is better at nothing.

Opposite ends of the extreme.

NKSK version 2

Yeh right - and you were present to see the facial expression, hear the tone and the context.....

Are you Australian?

asprilla

Hmmm... I'm not really sure whether that "deep seated belief" really exists, or perhaps you just believe that it does.

Apart from sports (cricket, rugby, olympics....the Aussies always bang on about how great they are in this regard) I've seen nothing particularly different about your average Australian that would support your statement.

Can you give me a few examples of what you mean? I'm more than happy to admit I'm wrong, if that's the case.

NKSK version 2

But here's the real difference.

In my experience, there is no other country in the world which can see its weaknesses like the UK.

I hear Brits criticising Britain. Often the quality of life is perceived to be so poor that people say "It's just crap"

I get it from family, I get it from ex-colleagues on e-mail - I even get it (occasionally) from people who have left Australia to return home.

Can you say the same for Australia and Australians?

NKSK version 2

It isn't always a case of Australians saying "we're brilliant" (although to listen to talkback radio does tend to give a flavour of that - they all want to come into our fabulous country and we should stop them), it's more a case of Australians accepting the status quo because there cannot possibly be a better way of operating for the good of the general population.

See my examples earlier.

asprilla

You're right, you very rarely hear Australians beating themselves up about things... I quite like that.

Compared to the UK, you can really see why they came up with the expression "whinging pom". I wonder, what were the origins of that expression... I bet it can be traced back to one particular event. Wonder what it was?

NKSK version 2

Don't know.

My own theory on the whinging pom sobriquet is that it's an easy put-down for anyone who has the temerity to suggest that there is possibly a better way of doing things than the Aussie way. (By throwing out an insult it saves them having to do any work in changing the status quo)

asprilla

ha ha... that could be true. But it could also be down to us Brits, and how we like to run ourselves down.