Briefly
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Some time in the next few weeks we will yet again debate the date on which we should celebrate Australia Day. I’m jumping in early with my tuppence worth.
Australia Day should not be 26 January as it has no relevance for the celebration of Australia as a nation. Instead it celebrates the day English authorities established a penal colony in what is now NSW.
Even though Australia only became truly independent several decades later, officially, we became a nation on the 1st of January 1901.
If we want to celebrate Australia becoming a nation, rather than England establishing a penal colony, then Australia Day has to be 1 January.
An elderly man (the grandson of a European migrant, married to a Slovenian, who sponsored his wife’s parents to migrate to the United States) is seeking to become the President of the United States (a nation of immigrants) for a second time.
Last weekend he made the following remarks about immigrants—
They’re poisoning the blood of our country. That’s what they’ve done. They poison mental institutions and prisons all over the world, not just in South America … but all over the world. They’re coming into our country from Africa, from Asia, all over the world. (Saturday 16 December 2023)
This is an invasion. This is like a military invasion. Drugs, criminals, gang members and terrorists are pouring into our country at record levels. We’ve never seen anything like it. They’re taking over our cities. (Sunday 17 December 2023)
He must have been addressing native Americans.
Straya Day
Some time in the next few weeks we will yet again debate the date on which we should celebrate Australia Day. I’m jumping in early with my tuppence worth.Australia Day should not be 26 January as it has no relevance for the celebration of Australia as a nation. Instead it celebrates the day English authorities established a penal colony in what is now NSW.
Even though Australia only became truly independent several decades later, officially, we became a nation on the 1st of January 1901.
If we want to celebrate Australia becoming a nation, rather than England establishing a penal colony, then Australia Day has to be 1 January.
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Xenophobia and Hatred
An elderly man (the grandson of a European migrant, married to a Slovenian, who sponsored his wife’s parents to migrate to the United States) is seeking to become the President of the United States (a nation of immigrants) for a second time. Last weekend he made the following remarks about immigrants—
They’re poisoning the blood of our country. That’s what they’ve done. They poison mental institutions and prisons all over the world, not just in South America … but all over the world. They’re coming into our country from Africa, from Asia, all over the world. (Saturday 16 December 2023)
This is an invasion. This is like a military invasion. Drugs, criminals, gang members and terrorists are pouring into our country at record levels. We’ve never seen anything like it. They’re taking over our cities. (Sunday 17 December 2023)
He must have been addressing native Americans.
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As Old as Electricity
This photograph from circa late 19th or early 20th century is a reminder that in some areas we haven’t come that far in the past 120 years.
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