(Click to enlarge)

A keen observer may notice that their resolution is the same as the PAL video I record with my Panasonic NV-GS200 digital video camcorder but that's just a funny coincidence. I probably chose that resolution when I was resizing the images in Photoshop or something. Did I say "images"? I meant "photographs" ...

The Ute: It’s part car and part truck. This ingenuous vehicle was designed by Lewis Brandt at the Ford Motor Company in Geelong, Victoria in1934.

The Cask: Invented by William Thomas Angove in 1965 and improved by Penfolds, the trusty wine cask remains a popular resident in many Aussie fridges.

The Hills Hoist: Australian enterprise at its best! Invented in 1946 by Lance Hill, the rotary clothes line has been swinging kids round Aussie backyards for over 60 years.

The Bionic Ear: The Cochlear Implant was invented by a team at the University of Melbourne in 1978. This amazing invention has allowed over 50,000 people in 80 countries to hear.

The Ugg Boot: An international style icon. There’s too much debate about who actually invented the Ugg, but universal agreement that they’re as dinky di as vegemite.

I forgot that January 26th was Australia Day, but luckily Victoria's Secret model (and my girlfriend on the side), Miranda Kerr, reminded me through secret messages on her website. Sure it's a week and a half late, but I'm sure any Australian would be happy to receive a Foster's beer or a slap on the behind for their geographical good fortune. Maybe a punch to the face or a kangaroo kick to the gut is more appropriate. Those Aussies and their rough housing. Add some timeless Crocodile Dundee impressions and you've got yourself a full day. I'm sure they will appreciate it.

Don't Look At Miranda Kerr!

So what did we do?

The plan was to spend Saturday doing really Oz stuff, because it was the actual day (Australia Day that is), but the best laid plans...... We had to empty a dresser that I had sold on eBay and (as often happens with my planning) I underestimated how long that would take, so we pottered about emptying the dresser and filling boxes with all our crockery and bowls and glasses while we listened to the Hottest 100 on jjj and had the TV on mute and flip between the cricket (Australia v India) and tennis (Oz Open). Then we had fish and chips for tea, out in the backyard at sunset, with the bats flying over and the mozzie coils burning. Loverly!!

Sunday we headed for the hills. Sarah (our daughter-in-law) had to take her dog up to the kennels for a little holiday, so we drove her up to Dixon's Creek, then we stopped in Yarra Glen for lunch on the way back. We had calamari which was OK and then Berry Crepes which were BERRY delicious. Yum, Yum. We followed that up by going to my sister's for a BBQ. They have bought a new one and this was the Christening Feast! What a beautiful evening. It was balmy and perfect for sitting on the deck, catching up and having a yack (as my Dad always said!).

Sarah stayed at our place on Sunday night and then on Monday we all went down to Timboon (in the Western District). It is gorgeous. Greg and I had never been, but Sarah had because her brother used to live there. We went to the famous Timboon Cheese Factory and tasted and then bought LOTS of cheese. mmmmmm!!!! I forgot to say that on the way down we stopped at Winchelsea for a break and had Devonshire Tea (well Devonshire coffee and Devonshire Hot Chocolate really, but you get the picture) at a little cafe in the old Shire Offices. It's right by the river and really gorgeous.

Anyway, after Timboon we went on to Port Campbell and stood out on the cliffs to blow away the cobwebs and re-energise. It was a fantastic day. Not too hot and not too windy, but just enough to make you know you are alive.

We drove back along the Great Ocean Road. It is so beautiful. The rolling hills, the roiling ocean, the rain forest .... Everything along that stretch of coastline is just magic. We stopped in Apollo Bay and looked in the real estate agents' windows, as you do when you are in paradise. Then we drove on to Lorne and had dinner. The last leg saw us getting home at about 10:00 pm, exhausted and ready for bed, but energised by the wonderful day we had.

All in all our OZ Day Weekend was perfect and I hope your's was too.

How sore will I be? How burnt did I get? Is my big toe still attached to my foot?

As it turns out, apart from the slight redness on my neck and my healing toe, I was ok. My shirt, shorts and boxers were a little damp (from..umm...sweat mostly..I hope) still however. Good thing I had a shower before bed, I must have smelt DIS-GUST-ING!

So, we come to Saturday and of course Hottest 100 Day! And some sort of Australia Day thing as well.

10am always comes along so quickly on a public holiday, and while LaLa and I were still breakfasting (with yummy bacon, eggs and sausages), No's 100 - 82 were being played.

Interesting mix there. I am glad The Hives got in with Tick, Tick, Boom. There's a few surprises in there, like The Waifs (who I rarely hear on JJJ) and the Fooeys so low down with Long Road to Ruin. One of my favourites was Eliza by Jackson Jackson. Glad it made it in.

It was around this point that LaLa and I had our first real fight ever. It was to do with music, my insensitivity and such things.

I really should realise that people's passions come in different ways and that just because The Hottest 100 is on, doesn't mean that anyone else has to like it like I do.

But anyway, the countdown continued as LaLa and I prepared to make our way to the Domain for the Hottest 100 Outside Broadcast (OB).

Some more top songs in there, and my first voted song, Lines on Palms by Josh Pyke made it in, plus Editors with Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors. Lots of Aussie stuff as well with Silverchair, Operator Please, Muscles, British India, Grinspoon and Butterfly Effect etc.. It's always a big thing to see how many of the 100 songs are Australian. I have highlighted them in GREEN.

We drive on down towards the Domain and parked near an old car 'Show and Shine' around Hyde Park. We strolled through the old Holden's, Fords and vintage English cars. (Ever heard of a Vanguard?)

It was a gorgeous day. Sunny, not too hot and just right to celebrate being an Australian.

As we mosied on down to the entrance of the Domain we noticed that we weren't the only ones with the great idea of relaxing in the shade.

Finally we made it through the gates and scored a neat posi just in the middle on the left, laid out our blanket with a Bluetongue beer and chilled out to the next 20 or so songs..

Another interesting mix. John Butler Trio scored their first entry. How many would they get? I was picking them for No. 1, but maybe they had too many songs in contention. Missy Higgins scored 2 in 3 songs, and I'm glad the Fratellis grabbed a slot with their song, Chelsea Dagger.

32 of the 60 songs so far have been Australian. I think 50% is a damn good percentage and here's hoping it stays like that..

The afternoon cruised along. It was so nice in the shade just chatting and people-watching as we munched down on a souvlaki in a roll with some sweet chilli sauce. (yum!).

And some interesting people there were!

I was also stoked cause I had scored Linda and Dools autograph earlier on and was waiting to get more later!

And we compared tongue sizes...

The countdown continued..

There's one Beautiful Girls song, but I am doubting that the one I voted for will get in now. It was a big year for Architecture in Helsinki who returned to the scene with a killer album and 2 songs in this group. There was a big cheer from the crowd when Just a Song About Ping Pong hit No. 27. Not a bad spot for a bunch of teenagers. It's the top 25 that I really like to take note of and every song has been a popular and most requested song on JJJ throughout the year.

Chemical Brothers' Salmon Dance was hugely popular, as was Kanye's Stronger. Well Done to Gyroscope for their spot at No. 16 and The Presets at No. 18 with My People. It hasn't even been out that long. Am sorta surprised that Angus & Julia Stones' Wasted came in above The Beast, but I guess it was catchier.

After I lined for Rosie and Vijay's autograph..

..and we walked back to the car via some old Corolla's, Holdens and Mustangs..

I thought about how lucky I was to have a great girl that I could spend this day with. Even though she is not even into nearly all of the music that they play on JJJ, she was willing to come along with me and share it with me.

We reached the car and there were 14 to go. I listened to half of them on the drive back and the rest back at home...

In past years there's always a couple of songs just out of the top 10 that I really love and this year was no exception. The Wombats song, Let's Dance to Joy Division was just outside as were The Kaiser Chiefs. Both of them are British Rock/Pop and I like them both.

The Top 10 itself was an interesting mix. I have still not listened to The Panics album and took me a while to realise who it was. I am glad Soko's novelty song didn't get any higher than No. 9. Cold War Kids at No. 8? Surprised! Then there was Daft Punk at No. 7. I still don't believe that you can re-release an old song as 'live' and then get it voted in to the current years countdown. Don't get me wrong, I love this song and it is probably my favourite song of theirs, but I didn't vote for it because of my 'rules'. LaLa thinks I am silly. :)

My favourite song of the year made it to No. 6, Foo Fighters, Pretender. Not bad really . I also voted for No. 5, Faker's This Heart Attack. It wasn't until the BDO the day before that I realised so many people were into this song! My pick for No. 1 made it to No. 4, JBT's Better Than. Kings of Leon at No. 3? What the? I had no idea this song would get so high.

It was now that I was hoping, hoping, hoping that Silverchair's Straight Lines would not make No. 1. It's not that bad a song, but I just didn't think it should be No. 1. Call me un-patriotic! As it turned out it was No. 2 and was pipped to the No. 1 spot by just 13 votes. I had no idea who No. 1 was going to be, but if I had analysed the list a bit more I might have figured it out. Muse are enormously popular on JJJ and they had been in the chart with Invincible earlier on. I just forget about them. They released Black Holes & Revelations in 2006 and Starlight was No. 9 in the 2006 countdown. When I think about it, I can see why Knights of Cydonia made it to No. 1. There are a lot of Muse fans out there and because they only had 2 songs to vote for, many people would have picked it in their Top 10 just because it was there.

Great song though and first non-Australian No. 1 in 3 years.

All up there were 52 Australian songs in the Hottest 100. That's bloody awesome.

So, it was over for another year. Time to start listening to the new music and waiting for those stand-out tracks that always seem to pop up out of nowhere.

We headed into the city to Bennelong Point so we could view the Opera House, the Harbour Bridge, and the decorated boats.

Daytime Opera House full of people:

Daytime Harbour Bridge:

After seeing Bennelong Point we headed over to Darling Harbour to secure a spot for the fireworks celebration that was happening later in the night.

It was awesome with fireworks and lit up boats.

After escaping the crowds downtown, we headed back to finish our night in Coogee Beach at the CBH. The CBH was hoping with bands, drinking in the beer garden, the works. It was a fantastic day of celebration.

• a rainy day (always),
• gathering in a herd of 100-1000 Australians (and hangers on),
• heading to a local pub with an Australia Day Party on,
• drinking loads of beer (anything but fosters),
• spending the day debating important Australian cultural issues such as the relative merits of Triple J Hottest 100 Volume 3 versus Volume 4, Neighbours versus Home and Away and how much longer it may be until John Howard is swept from power in a surge of anti crusty-old-man sentiment.....

Well at least one of things is no longer an issue!

So we were invited to an Australia Day party by our resident Aussie expats Zoe and Ruth – Zoe is an ex Aiesec QLDer and lives in Sao Paulo working for one of the large banks and Ruth is here to organise the Aiesec International Congress which is on in SP in August. So we knew we were in for a good partying afternoon.

The party was held in a nice park near the centre of town and there were about 30 attendees – 3 of which were even Australian! Luckily the Brazilians like a good party – or were aparently tempted along with the promise of free Tim Tams.

The Australia Day Gang

A veritable feast of indigenous Australian foods were available for the locals to try including, Tim Tams, vegemite and Jatz crackers, freddo frogs, sarsaparilla cordial, ginger beer cordial, weetbix with peanut butter on top, Lamingtons (made by us) and pavlova (made by Zoe and Ruth). Now I think that collection makes our party more Australian than almost any other Aussie party held that day – even if there were only three aussies there!

As Tim Tams are famous around the world, Ruth and Zoe organised an Australian Obstacle course challenge with the chance to win Tim Tams, the challenge involved the following challenges:

• Boat races with undiluted saspirlla cordial,
• Putting on an aussie cork hat and apron,



• Eating a whole weetbix with peanut butter spread on it - washed down with nip of undiluted ginger beer cordial,
• Throwing a boomerang through a hoop



• Crash tackling skippy the inflatable kangaroo

The winner then got a single Tim Tam – lucky beggars

In Brazil there is a large chain of restaurants called “Outback Steakhouse” they are apparently a fair dinkum reproduction of a typical Australian restaurant – well according to their own marketing at least.

The locals really love these places and one of the first things Brazilians asked us is if we have been, now it being Australia day we felt we had no option to visit this cultural homage to Australia, so in the evening we headed with our hosts Zoe and Lucas to one of the restaurants in the grandly named “Shopping Eldorado”, the restaurant was done out in aussie paraphernalia, the first thing I saw was a large stuffed Kiwi?!?!?, and the usual array of number plates, cricket bats, AFL jumpers and the other stuff you always find on the walls of restaurant in Australia. The place though was massive and packed, unfortunately we missed the “Billabong Happy Hour” – two hours of two for one drinks every evening, but we did make it time to enjoy a fine feast including – and I hope all our aussie readers recognise these important national dishes:

• Blooming Onion (as in a fungal bloom perhaps)?
• Kookaburra Wings (obviously not a protected species over here)
• Grilled Shrimp on the Barbie (of course, aussies are always eating these)
• Gold Coast Coconut Shrimp (a short pacific islander who lives on the gold coast I presume)?
• Aussie Cheese Fries (delivered to your table by Rove – the cheesiest aussie I know)
• Walkabout Soup (sorry, you have to go find it yourself – start walking now)
• The outback Special (a night in bed with your sister perhaps)?
• Rockhampton Blue Rib-eye (sounds like a police report of injuries on a typical Saturday night in Rockie)
• Victorias Filet (a not so tender slice of Queen Vics thigh – I think I will pass)
• The Melbourne (for those few of you who have never been to Melbourne, this is apparently a typical 500gm T-Bone steak, a favourite in Melbourne)
• Outback Rack (my favourite)!
• Alice Springs Chicken (I am not sure they got if they intended the “spring chicken” bit here or not)
• Botany Bay Fish O’ the day (hmm have been to Botany bay)?
• Tilapia Filet J. Woodhouse style (sorry none of us had any idea who he is/was – but I am a kiwi – answers in the comments section please)
• Aussie Tassie Kid (which is a pasta for kids – not sure how you can have a Tasmanian who isn’t an Aussie, but this question was lost on our waitress)
• Grilled Cheese-A-Roo (never worked out how much Roo was in this kids meal sandwich probably not much though)
• For desert you could also have these Australian dining classics:
• Sydney’s Sinful Sunday (a veiled reference to Mardi Gras perhaps)
• Cheesecake Olivia (Newton-John)?
• Chocolate Thunder from Down Under (need I say anymore)?

]]> http://magicoftheordinary.wordpress.com/?p=24 Tue, 29 Jan 2008 07:11:27 +0000 Peregrin http://magicoftheordinary.it.wordpress.com/2008/01/29/australia-day-and-the-group-soul/ For the past few years the annual Australia day celebrations have troubled me. Each year I see more displays of a false, in-your-face aggressive patriotism, particularly by younger people. There are more flags – as flags, as beach towels, stubby holders, eskies, underwear and bikinis. I’m waiting for the Australian Flag glow-in-the-dark condom.

This year I was reminded of some scenes from Mad Max as I stumbled across several drunken, aggressive groups of half naked youth with ‘tribal’ Australian makeup over their faces. The words “Australia – ya fuckin’ beauty” were scrawled in letters five feet high on a wall near my local beach.

From an esoteric viewpoint what I perceive is the partial manifestation of a dark, violent undercurrent within the group soul of Australia. After all, our young nation still carries the scars of the violence and racism which allowed colonization (or invasion) in the first place. The shallow grave of our violent, racist past spills open periodically and we are then all aghast at the results – such as the Cronulla Riots in 2005.

Australia Day, rather than being a day of unity and expression of a collective – the nation – which transcends the self towards a higher, social goal, is becoming a festival where the shadow is allowed some form of expression. In the guise of celebrating the nation, acts like public drunkenness, nakedness, aggression and scapegoating are legitimized. It is all rather like the medieval Feast of Fools or the ancient Roman Saturnalia.

I really do not want to sit back and just let this happen, but am at a loss of where to begin a critique, let alone how to help change the situation. Of course, I could be wrong here. But my reading of the nature of our group soul and the occulted violence within it tells me that one year, quite soon, Australia Day will be marked by some shameful, bloody happenings. Any ideas, anyone?

Some young 'no-name' player called Chris Masten was handcuffed by police and led away from Australia Day celebrations in Perth. Allegedly he was involved in a brawl on the Swan River foreshore and refused a 'move-on' notice.

So much for the club's tough, new approach to rebuilding pride, spirit, decency and whatever else it believes will help restore its shabby image.

As I've said before, the club just can't seem to fathom that it is a business and that its players are employees. In any normal job, such continued behaviour would warrant sacking. I'm just not sure it's the players who need sacking.

Reputation management is a core business function, but if the Eagles aren't in business then I guess it doesn't matter.
More PR comment can also be found at http://www.prlab.com.au

And yet, one must rue, that like many in my generation – there is a widening gap – between my concept of belonging and the idea of patriotism that has been commonly subscribed to. So, while I approach national days, national songs, parades, leaders, freedom fighters and speeches with a perfunctory regard, India for me resides in my experiences of a free and evolving society of my youth and childhood. Unfortunately, this sometimes made celebrations of Independence, Republic Day and the birth anniversaries of our greatest leaders, somewhat difficult to identify with.

I often wondered - if looking forward to such days because they were holidays – was the worst form of blasphemy possible – rivalling other despicable acts like drinking on national holidays and wearing the national flag, disrespectfully. Since I was never exceptional or extraordinary, I am certain that I was not alone in wondering so. Most of the urban youth of my generation shared a similar, arguably misplaced sense of pride and belonging. We were respectful of our history and our struggle, but we identified with our present and it’s potential.

Coincidentally, Australia celebrates Australia day on 26^th January – sharing the date with the Indian Republic Day. Since this year, Australia Day fell on a Saturday, convention demanded that the following Monday was declared a Public Holiday as well – so Australians could enjoy an extended weekend of festivity. And what a celebration it was!

The City Council fired up the barbecues in all the parklands, riverside gardens and botanical gardens along the city and put up a grand display of fireworks by the riverside. Brisbane-ites planned to do what they loved most – get together, have family barbecues, go sailing and drink some beer. We encountered teenaged Australians sporting carved watermelon shells and the Aussie flag on their heads, houses bearing signage that proclaimed “Honk for Australia” outside their gardens and advertising for cockroach racing! Yes, you read that one right!! The thought that I had turned delusional, did cross my mind, as I took in these sights.

When Kym (my girl friend at work) asked me, if I would like to go to the Story Bridge Hotel for cockroach racing and dancing I thought she was joking....for more reasons than one. The idea of betting on racing roaches had me in splits for about a quarter of an hour, before my manners could reclaim me back to reasonable conversation. And then my brain had to battle with the shock of a pub, alcohol and dancing on a national day! But how was that possible....was that not utterly disrespectful? Surprisingly my mind took a puritanical stance to this celebration.

We disembarked from our taxi amid swirling crowds – apparently everyone between the ages of twenty and forty in Brisbane, seemed to be there. As I stood on my toes (it seemed the most probable way of squeezing into the crowd), I noted everyone was wearing T-shirts with the cockroach racing schedule on it. There was a race titled “Waltzing Mat-roach” that really tickled my confined funny bone. A woman – not visually unlike a member of the Arthropod family herself – walked by, clutching the race trophy and a big plastic cylinder – most likely bearing the prize winning, prancing roach! The band belted out lovely, alien sounding, country music and people everywhere were sporting the Australian flag – on their clothes, faces and hands.

It was the best evening out that I have experienced in Brisbane. The lead singer selected renditions of - what were obviously – true blue Aussie numbers, while the crowd sang and danced along. People were celebrating Aussie beer, Aussie music and their common heritage by spontaneously hugging their neighbours and just having a good time. There must have been close to five thousand people in that tiny hotel, but there was no sign of a brawl or a misbehaved soul. Australia Day had brought out the best in these young citizens. I watched them connect and celebrate a shared sense of belonging – in the best way possible – by just being themselves.

It dawned on me, that many young Indians would identify with this more contemporary, inclusive display of national belonging – fun filled and yet wrought with respect and identity. This all inclusive celebration seemed very distant from some of our more formal gatherings and moral policing. At the risk of being irreverent, I now wonder aloud (or in print, actually)..... Surely, it cannot be such a bad thing?

Botany Bay had been portrayed by Captain Cook as an attractive place with deep, dark soil and a fine meadow. That was not how Arthur's party found it, so they sailed north and came across a beautiful, deep harbor with a stunning opera house... No, I'm getting ahead of myself.

Australia Day brings all the pundits out of the wordwork who feel qualified to write about what it means to be "Australian." There is much blather about the "fair go," "mateship," and the bush but our local newspaper suggests with its photo spread and stories that Australia is now a multi-ethnic universe and it may be time to reconsider what it means to be "Australian."

San choy bow is as significant as bratwurst on the barbie.  Dim sum as important as meat pies.

With its current population of 21 million, there are 250 ancestries and 400 languages. A fifth of the continent's residents were born overseas. Howard is history and Pauline Hanson's powerful stranglehold is well and truly dead.

Raise a toast of fine wine to this country's heterogeneous future. Australia has significant issues to address and it will exact the best human resources to forge a prosperous future. Cheers!

"With Christ our head and cornerstone,

We'll build our nations might.

Whose way and truth and light alone,

can guide our path aright.

Our lives, a sacrifice of love, reflect our Master's care.

With faces turned to heaven above, Advance Australia Fair.

In joyful strains then let us sing, Advance Australia Fair."

However you celebrated Australia Day, whether watching the cricket, at the beach, a BBQ with friends, or getting down and dirty on motorbikes like we did, we thank God for the freedom we have in this country and the beauty of our 'sunburnt country.' 

We went to Oately (a suburb of Sydney) to meet some friends of Daniel, who live at a great spot! Their house is built on the top of a scarp, overlooking a whole lot of trees. It was impossible to capture this scenery with my camera. We had BBQ at the balcony, enjoying the view and watching exotic birds, like big white cockatoos and colourful parrots chasing each other through the tree tops.

A nice thing: Australia Day was on Saturday, so it was a holiday today (Monday) in order to assure that a holiday results in a day off from work, even if it falls on a weekend. (Somebody should introduce this to Austria!) I still had to go to the Uni to work today, but well, I also currently have like three jobs (or four, if I count my PhD project as well) ...

So we’re sitting around the table tonight and discussion turns to the enormous ‘sorry’ that was written across the sky on Australia Day. The ‘sorry’ story made the headlines briefly and was removed abruptly, as if it had just evaporated into thin air. It’s rather symbolic really.

You see, saying ‘sorry’ has been a matter of contention in Australian culture for quite a few years now.  Many Australians have thought that saying ‘sorry’ to the Aboriginal people would be beneficial, would aid reconciliation. However, some of our population, indeed our last Prime Minister, John Howard, thought that there was no point in saying ‘sorry’. Their argument went along the lines of, “well we didn’t kill your family, steal your children, give you grog or keep you uneducated so why should we apologise for things that the generations/governments before us were responsible for? Why should we say sorry?” In my opinion, we have a lot to say sorry for: invasion, the stolen generations, inequality in health and education, deaths in custody, the introduction of alcohol…and I could go on. These things still affect the Aboriginal people of Australia today, regardless of who instigated them. 

Kevin Rudd has stated that he will say ‘sorry’ on the 12th February 2008, so long as there are no legal ramifications – which, by the way, there aren’t. Saying ‘sorry’ has no real consequences. We don’t have to give land back, reunite families, offer equitable access to health or education, or provide rehabilitation. There will be no compensation – which is lucky for how would we ever compensate for these life-shattering losses anyway? -  Isn’t that great. Ha! A sorry without consequence.

As my dad said rather facetiously, “We can say sorry and Cathy Freeman can carry the Aboriginal flag if she wants…as long as she carries the one emblazoned with the Union Jack as well. Archie Roach can sing from time to time…we kinda like his tunes – he’s a good Aussie.”

Let’s say sorry, what can we lose?

Today I’ve been reading Saussure in preparation for teaching this year. You probably know Saussure, he was the French guy who revolutionised the study of linguistics. He was of the view that language was a system that consisted of a signifier (the word or sound) and a sign (the object to which the signifier referred). The signifier never was the sign. For example you don’t get much of a sense of what a dog is by reading or hearing the word ‘dog’ in isolation to the object to which it refers. ‘Dog’ doesn’t tell you anything about what it is to be a dog. In this way language is arbitrary. But Saussure argued that it is this very arbitrariness of language that makes it so important to use language correctly. If I start calling a dog a ‘dooshka’ communication is going to be limited, hindered because you will not know what I am talking about.

All this, and the discussion of the significance, or lack thereof, of saying ‘sorry’ has left me with this question: what does ‘sorry’ actually mean? To us? To the Aboriginal people? Because if it means “sorry bad stuff happened to you, but it wasn’t our fault and we’re not doing anything about it,” then I’m mad about that. What kind of sorry is that? What does it signify? What is its sign? And what does it say about our culture when our most potent words are emptied of meaning? I want to know exactly what kind of ‘sorry’ we’re offering before I start applauding politicians on the 12^th Feb. How will a ‘sorry’ aid communication between disparate people if we don’t have a clear understanding of what ‘sorry’ means?

I know I’m sorry. Sorry I belong to such a racist and discriminatory society that is afraid to speak meaningfully into the hurting lives of its citizens – even if they were only recognised as citizens of their own country in 1967.  Sorry we don’t have a language to express what we mean. Sorry our words are empty. Sorry I fear our ‘sorry’ will evaporate into the ether like the words that appeared in the sky so briefly on Australia Day, or Survival Day – the day we are supposed to celebrate the tenacious endurance of a race that our ancestors tried to erase like an inappropriate news story.

On the upside: It will be so nice of us to make Aboriginal people “full participants” of society…after over 200 years of abuse and deprivation!

[end rant]

I’m still mad.

Thanks if you stayed with me through that. :)

 If you're still game, here's a question:

What does 'sorry' mean and what should 'sorry' look and sound like?