Having four days off work (that extra-long weekend thing) has given me cause to do some thinking.

I was thinking about how, this year, it seemed to me that Australia Day was celebrated with almost maniacal fervour by Australian people. It got me to thinking about what it is that makes us so proud to be Australian.

I won’t say that the face of Australia hasn’t changed quite a bit lately. Sure, the country has always been a country of immigrants, and I am sure all the Arabic-origin people who have come here lately are facing similar challenges in terms of racism as the Chinese, eastern Europeans and Vietnamese before them. But I think what has set them apart and alienated them from the rest of the population is that those that came before them were more willing to embrace our culture in addition to their own.

Some groups (and I stress the word SOME) of Arabic-origin migrants seem to believe that our culture is inferior to their own and I just don’t get that. Why would you choose some country with values and customs so different to your own?

Many Australians react the way they do out of fear and ignorance, but I think the fear, in some ways is justified. Just think September 11th.

Anyhow, I think the answer to why we are so proud to be Australian (apart from the beautiful country we live in) is the sort of people we are.

We aren’t afraid to say what we think, and hang the consequences. We also don’t say what we think in times of crisis. “She’ll be right mate” is an often-used term in such circumstances.

When times are really tough is when we are at our best. Mateship is what it is called. The “drop everything to help a mate in need” mindset is where we’re at without exception, where we tend to put aside our differences and do what needs to be done.

The proof of this? I think the Australian public’s reaction to the Boxing Day tsunami did it for me.

When all is said and done, and despite the fact that we think some of the countries affected actually “hate” Australia (and we are probably terrified of their people too) we saw “mates”, a group of fellow human-beings in terrible need and our aid flooded out to them. I’m not talking about Government assistance. I’m talking of mums and dads, blokes down at the pub and kids at rock concerts who all emptied their pockets to help out.

To all you whack-jobs out there who might want to post political propaganda, I’m not interested. This is just my opinion. Read it, respect it. This is how we do it here.

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