IAP Political Forum

Fair dinkum, down under is a truely different wonderland with its own slang of English. It is also the largest continent surrounded by water and thus has many different evolved plant and animal life forms found nowhere else (except perhaps Zoos). It is a beautiful place with its own charm, yet the culture is remnicent more of the U.S. than 'Mother England' that founded and used it as a Penal Colony. So most Australians come from prison or guard stock and also is the driest continent in the World. Feel free to ask, add comments, and discuss in general about bloody 'stralia and Galahs!   8)


- Terry


Oh, and most importantly. DO NOT piss off our women, they are mean fighting machines. Never,ever, do that or your knickers will be knackers mates!  :-X


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Smallest.


Antarctica.


How sploh ne I enjoy reading it in your posts.

Terry what are knickers?

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Underwear, love.


Warm regards
Terry


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knickers is a term used in the UK and many commonwealth nations to refer to women's underwear, i.e. panties.

ummmm, looks like Terry already replied but I do not see it except here in the reply review screen...

I will see if I can quote it and get my reply to show up on the forum...

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Rachel,

'Knickers' are underwear, usually used as feminine, but guys can use the term as well.  :-\



Warm regards
Terry

PS Gomper, 'strines  are only members of the bleeding Commonwealth in name only. Mater of fact, there IS NO Commonwealth!   ;D



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Sorry Terry..I hope I didn't embarrass you as much as I have myself!!!!!!  :-X

No wucking furries Rachel, except no one has fixed this thread yet!!!   >:(


You ought to see me hanging out the washing on one of our famous 'parasol' clotheslines. Three neighbors hooting and ROTGLTAO at me and me wifes knickers and bra's (big).  :-[



Warm regards
Terry


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You're a good man Terry..you really are.  :)

 :-[ .. I do try, it is important to do unto others good deeds. Thank you Rachel ..



Warmest regards
Terry


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Terry..tell me some more about Australia. How is it different compared to the US? What do you do there as far as a job and entertainment? I mean..what is life like over there?

The Australian accent annoys me. I don't know why.

I like the accent..but I have trouble understanding some of the words. Obviously :-\

You don't have to listen mate, or the goanna's will get your sorry arse, silly Galah you are. Fair dinkum mate. Wait till you hear Okker, a variational slang that most Aussies 'canna understand!  ;D

Now really mate, the same could be said to any country, so what is your point? Notice my writing now? Plain old south Georgia accent (where I was borne and raised) caint be fetched to thuh magic box boy!

Get my drift?




Kind regards (International supporter h'yuh!)
Terry


PS- Rachel I'll do right by you but it will take awhile to answer all your queries and I want to do well by you. I do apologize, but I must run off to work as a Animal Scientist!  :D


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Russell Crowe :D

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What? No Nicole Kidman (Oscar)I bet you think the bloody drunken walking piss bucket is a hunk, am I right?

And quite honestly, I think he's on the wagon right now and won't fall off!!   :police:




Kind regards and welcome to IAP, your base belong to us.
Terry


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In Chicago I'm grungy, in Australia i'm dundee/
cookin' barbeque from just the smoke from my gun heat/

Terry, tell me about Goulburn. I have never been there.

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(sigh)
What are you on or on about?
Do tell.


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Well actually that was the thing that popped into my mind after the Sydney opera-house and the Uluru - Ayres Rock :)

Well as much as we would love to claim Russel Crowe, I should be honest and say that he is a New Zealander. I did write a bit about his life story in the "What is your true vocation" thread in the lobby.

One of the outstanding inspiration Australian singers at the moment is a girl who writes her own songs. From the age of 7 she wanted to be a singer and started writing songs then. At age 16 she sent a demo tape to her favourite football club who were so impressed they sent it to a music manager who subsidised her first album. This album reached number 1 in Australia and the UK. Since then she has been diagnosed with cancer at age 18, she did chemotherapy and had a comeback only for the cancer to reappear, and she had to do chemotherapy for the second time. She is in remission now and made a comeback and has written a completely brand new album , which has just entered the australian charts.

Her name is Delta Goodrem. Here is her new single "In this life", if anyone is interested.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7mtMcEOy30

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Fort,

Doesn't he live in Australia (Australian Passport) and spent most of his life here? .. Or am I wrong about that?

Warmest regards
Terry


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Terry, he lives in Australia most of the time. He has an apartment in Wooloomaloo on the wharf, which is an upper class inner suburb of Sydney..

So, of course I am happy to claim him as australian, but I wrote out his life story and why he left New Zealand to come to Australia, as a source of inspiration to people that finding your dream job is possible as long as you dream big, and act on this dream.  :)

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Gotcha mate, thanks for filling in the 'blanks'.  ;D



Warm regards
Terry


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OK this is going to offend our Aussie posters,,,atleast the men. But having been to Perth Twice and Sydney once, I found Aussi men to be,,,,,well,,,,generally A-holes. Now maybe that was becuase they are tired of Americans in Dress uniforms getting all the good looking ladies but from what I saw they treated those ladies like dirt as well.

HOWEVER they Aussie ldies are fantastic. And damn do they know how to treat a man.
If a sailor can't find female conpanionship in Australia then they just aren't trying.

Tell me, are the Aboriginees treated as porrly as they used to be? I have a friend here in the US from New Zealand and he was telling me that only recently was the Abo deamed HUMAN!

From what I SAW. The treatment was worse towards them than any I have ever seen of blakcs in the deep south of the USA.

I can understand your viewpoint of a few days at a town with a U.S. base. BUT! That is not Australia and you know it. You were looking down a very narrow view which invalidates your premise of applying it to all Australia or Australians.


Regards
Terry

It has improved a lot in the last 10 years or so. The thing that has helped is football. The aboriginals are to australian football what blacks are to US basketball. They dominate the sport which is great, because they are one of the most gifted and talnted races in the world.

The plight of the aboriginals is still sad though. They have many social problems, alcoholism and family abuse problems. One of the saddest things is going to a place like Alice Springs and seeing hundreds of aboriginals lying in the gutter with a bottle of metho or flaggon of wine in their hand. It is soul destroying because they are such an amazing race which has been harmed by our(european) inventions, alcohol.

I am not sure what the aboriginal population in Perth is. Usually they live in the northern hotter areas, such as Darwin, Cairns, Alice Springs.

Personally I have never had any problem with any aboriginal, but I have not lived in any of those cities mentioned above, so people who live there might have a different opinion than I.

P.S. The term 'abo' is equivalent to the N word in the USA, so it is a term I would never ever use, but maybe some australians do use it.

The song is good :)

I knew this, I used it intentionally to see what reaction I would get. I apologize to anyone who maybeen offended by its use. I must say I have never even met an Aboringine but I have read much about thier plight. It makes Alabama in the 50s and 60s look like a church picnic.

They were not even considered humans until 1960 something is my understanding

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Absolutely. It wasn't that long ago that station owners were allowed to shoot them out of trees. Now, the shoe is on the other foot, meaning if ancient bones of aboriginals are found, it is theirs because of their religious beliefs. BTW, the aboriginals are NOT indigenous to Australia, but rather to Africa before the continent of Australia split off the mainland. It does get complicated.   :-\



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I will say though that while I do not know about how general society feels about them, the governemnt of Australia, once it decided to move, moved much fater than the US with ITS civil rights problems.

Hey no problem  :). I think if non australians it is not too bad, because they might not know the implication, but if australians use it, then it is really bad beahviour because they are fully aware of it.

The treatment of aboriginals by the government has been historically really poor. The living conditions of many of the aboriginals, especially in the outback, are dreadful. It is a crying shame really. Alcoholism and abuse has destroyed communities. To be honest, I am not really sure what the answer is. The government has thrown money at aboriginal problems for many years, and nothing seems to be working.

In my experience, the racism towards aboriginals by australians has dramatically decreased in the last 15 years. For instance, when I was a small boy, if I went to the football, many of the crowd would yell out "black ***" to aboriginal players. Now you never ever hear it. Society would not accept it. This is a good thing.

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Dayum Fort, the PM even apologized to them fairly recently.  :o


-Terry


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Actually, he promised he would apologise to the aboriginals over the "stolen generation" if the public voted him in, in the novemeber 24 election.

It smacks of political desperation to me. He had 10 years to do that, if he was so concerned about it. He could still even do it now, before the election.

One of the true stories about aboriginals that makes me laugh, is their delicacy in their food diet. For them, turtle flesh is the most delicious thing that they can eat. Which is all well and good except for one small problem, it has the highest fat percentage,of any food you can find. Eating turtle meat is like eating 10 big macs. So all the aboriginal footballers used to turn up to pre season training 10 kilos heavier, because they had been gorging themselves on the turtles over the offseason. So all football clubs have new directives, "No eating turtles".

BTW Terry, who do you think will get in,out of Howard and Rudd?


Hope you and the family are well  :)

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Now Fort, since you brought up the so called 'stolen generation', please remember that it applied to all White and Aboriginal. Matter of fact, many more whites were affected mate.  ;)



Warmest regards
Terry

Sounds exactly like Native Americans, except I don't know what "metho" or "flaggon" is, but whatever. Native Americans are some bad ass people though, I work with one at Dunkin' Donuts and he's the shit.

metho = bottle of metholated spririts

flaggon = big bottle

Problem that alcoholics face with drinking metholated spirits(it is used purely for cleaning purposes and has 100 proof alcohol) is that it is so powerful it rots the liver. Life expectancy is pretty short when the drinking problem has reached that stage.

One of the saddest things you can see in Australia, is go to Alice Springs and see many aboriginals lying in the gutter or road,completely drunk, clutching their bottle of alcohol. It is a pretty soul destroying sight  :(

Terry, maybe we are talking about two separate things.

I am talking about the aboriginal children taken by the government and put into custody with white families or orphaniges.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stolen_Generation

lol, it seems like Australia carbon copied what we did to the Native Americans, and our "boarding schools".

always wanted to go to Australia.

Don't let this discussion discourage you though Chovy. Aussi is a paradise, or it was in the early to mid 90s when I was there. Around the beaches. Diving, SURFING,,,OH DEAR GOD THE SURFING,,,,and the ladies,,,WOW!

If I was deported from the US Australia is where I would want to go.

During my time in the Navy I visited Bunbury and Perth, Darwin, Melbourne, Townsville, and Sydney.

Perth is gorgeous. It reminds me of a cross between Vancouver, B.C. and San Diego. (Whis is a really great combination). I remember blue skies and blue ocean, green parks and clean streets.
Darwin was fascinating, only a few degrees south of the equator. Vehicles have these huge reinforced front bumpers. They call them "roo-guards" because of all the Kangaroos that they tend to run over on the highways. Outside of town there are anthills taller than me.
Townsville was a nice little place, and Sydney is also gorgeous, with a huge inland waterway. If you had a boat you could spend months traveling around, visiting the various communities bordering the bay. We saw a Mozart opera in the Sydney Opera House (I still don't like opera, but it was fun anyway).

The people were the friendliest of all the ports we hit.

One other thing. I've traveled quite a bit, and a lot of that travel has been off the beaten track. It seems like if you meet an English-speaking person, chances are good that they're Australian. They must be, per capita, the most ubiquitous tourists on the planet.

I have noticed that flights bought IN australia to the US are alot cheaper than flights bought IN the US to Auzstralia.

I was in Australia in 2002 for the South Pacific Star Party.  I wanted to see the stars and constellations of the southern hemisphere, so mostly I was looking up.  Someday I may return to see more of the country. 

Well I'm a Brit who has spent over a year in a boarding school in Australia. Actually I disagree with those who say Australia is more like the US than the UK. It is somewhere in between physically, but the values, laws and customs of Australian born Anglo-Celtic Australians (who are 78% of the population according to the last census) are much closer to Britain than America. The language is the same (but the accent is different from Received Pronunciation,) the education system is the same, the health care system is the same, the justice system is the same, they celebrate all the same holidays, the religion is the same (most Australians are Church of England), we share the Westminster system of government, and Queen Elizabeth II is the Australian Head of State. And we all have afternoon tea.  ;D

I have to say that the broad Australian accent is probably the most unpleasant form of spoken English in the world (it is nasal and quite horrible, and they can't pronounce the letter 'a') but an educated, cultured Australian does not sound very different from a Brit from the Home Counties.

I also have to say that, from what I have learnt, it is not fact that Australians did not consider Aboriginals human beings until the sixties, and they were definitely not allowed to shoot Aboriginals from trees, etc. (But it is fact that Aboriginals were not given citizenship until the 1960's.) There was no parallel between what the US government did to the native Americans and the Crown's policies towards the Aboriginals. That settlers often treated the Aboriginals terribly and even murdered them (research Mayall Creek) is beyond question, but this was not the policy of the Crown, or the later Australian Federal Government.

There are several documented examples of the US government deliberately setting out to commit genocide on various Indian nations, and it is reported that 95% of the native American population was wiped out by means of these actions, and by means of disease, often deliberately spread. There are no such records of the Australian government doing the same thing. In fact the Crown proclaimed the Australian natives to be British subjects in order that killing them be legally punishable as murder.

I think Aussies are a great bunch of people with a highly developed sense of fair play, and great compassion for the underdog, but LOL! if you tell any Aussie he is like an American, you will get a very negative reaction.  ;D

1. I have to disagree on the Aussie accent. To me as an American  both the borad English accent and the Aussie one, spoken by a woman, are unbeleiveably sexy. I once told an Aussie woman she could read to me from the phone book and turn me on.

But I much prefer the Aussie accent as it comes across much more laid back and relaxed while more often than not, the English accent just leaves me wanting to beat any man speaking that way with a blunt object until he shuts up.

2. I was by no means attempting to draw a parralel between the US treatment of Naative Americans and the Aussie treatemnt of Aborigineas (sp?). More of a comparison of the governments officials stance on them compared thre to US governemnt official stance on blacks in the us. The racial tnesions in Australia have been dealt with much more smoothly than those in the US.

I agree. Our accent is a shocker. I don't realise how bad it sounds until I travel overseas and don't hear the australian accent for a while, and then hear it by the hundreds when I am boarding a Qantas plane to fly back. It sounds not cultural at all.

LOL! It must be a gender thing. When I was in the US, older males viewed me very suspiciously when I opened my mouth, and at least one went so far as to 'correct' my pronunciation. But the American ladies (especially the older ones) seemed to love my accent. ( I have a pretty standard southern English 'received pronunciation' accent, so nothing special to either love or hate.)

I have to say that I find many of the UK regional accents (including some London ones) pretty awful but these are more due to socioeconomic conditions than anything else. As with anywhere else, educated and cultured people speak more clearly than the rest.


But only the very broad Australian accent. I have met many educated Australians in the UK and in Australia, who spoke very nicely, with hardly any accent. Much nicer than the rough regional and London accents we encounter in Britain.

It is quite similar.  In fact it also shared the high rates of physical and sexual abuse our boarding school system encountered.

What state are you studying in Leo?

If you go to Adelaide you will find their accent slightly classier than the rest of Australia. Although I hope any South Australians don't read me actually admit it  :P

I'm in New South Wales. I went to Melbourne but only for a weekend, and I haven't been to Adelaide.  :)

Leo, keep watching the current news about the "Apology" that will come to the aboriginals by the Australian Government over the stolen generation many years ago. Rudd will be the first prime minister to do this, where his predecessors have shied away from it.

It will be probably the biggest aboriginal story for many many years when it happens. I should do a thread about it.

Thanks for that. I will, coz I think it's a great idea.  I know it wasn't done with the intention of genocide or any of that stuff, but it was still a terrible thing for the kids that suffered. And whether it was with good intentions or not, the government should apologise for it. I don't think anyone should be paid compensation though, coz that will only encourage people to make false claims, and it will detract from the sincerity of the whole thing.