[australia] this is my country

[bantha_fodder]

We think of ourselves as happy and carefree and laid back, and on days like today we are that. No one hurries, we just sit out there in the sun all day, drinking beer and enjoying ourselves. And I like that we think of ourselves like that. But that's just today - most of the time we're stressed and hurried like the rest of the world, and that's just the way it is.

But we're not the same, at the same time. And listening to the fireworks and their soundtrack over the local radio station this evening, and it was all Aussie pubrock and This Is Australia stuff, it made me wish that the music they played was more Australian, as in, more of everything. Something Chinese followed by Japanese and Pakistani and Greek and English and just everything. I mean, that's the fucking point, isn't it?

Okay, whatever, my country is a hypocrite but I love it. Listen to the post. I'm such an embarrassment.

The End.

Comments

[cathiexx.livejournal.com]

You are too cute! That was the first voice post that I've ever listened to on LJ, by the way. Feel special!

Australia Day is pretty lame. But hey! Any excuse for a public holiday, right? Isn't that what Australia is all about? Or something...

Happy Australia Day! :P

[gobsmackit.livejournal.com]

♥

I feel the same way you do about my country - I'm a little in love with American ideals and the promise of the Republic and all that, even though I'm depressingly aware that we fail to live up to potential daily.

[cupiscent.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Sorta, all of that.

I sorta wanted to make a big post about how Australia for me isn't, actually, cricket and Cold Chisel. Or rather, it is, but it's also... I dunno, Chinese Irish senators practicing toboganning in Parliament House, and people saying "chemo-fucking-therapy", and vibrant gorgeous Aussie indie-alternative music of all ilks, and great Chinese for dinner with baklava for dessert, and mad Croatians running a cutting edge gay bar. But I couldn't really find the words to make it work and then I felt stupid and pretentious.

Our country is a hypocrite, but it's also muddling away at it the best that it can. We haven't resorted to wars to sort it all out, we haven't had violent uprisings to hammer The Way It Will Be into the people. It isn't carved in stone. And that's part of what's great about us. It's not perfect and it's unrealistic to expect it could be, but we've got something beautiful and multifaceted and flexible and possible, and yeah, I love it too. We can be embarrassing together. *G*