Quote: There are other reasons for the failure of multiculturalism - the speed of the changes and the consequent swamping of our own brand of nationalism.....

So what are the answers? What strategies and tactics can we adopt? The "Australian Rules" of course. Unquote

"Great Australians friends"
knee...@bigpond.com
From jriv...@ausfirst.com

Date: Wed, 25 Jan 2006 09:23:18 +1000

AUSTRALIAN RULES
Australia Day 2006

John Rivett -Federal President - The Great Australians

It's our iconic national game - unique, vigorous, inspiring and played by fit courageous young men and those who wish they were. It grew out of the land and the vitality of our people with winter weather kind enough to allow them to run the ball roughhouse but surefooted on sunny pitches with gums trees for goals. It unites indigenous Australians with the newcomers. It's played from emerald green Melbourne private school ovals to the burnt paddocks of the Northern Territory with stones for grass. It's one hundred percent Australian. It's a game of which we can all be proud. It's nearly spiritual

There is however another set of "Australian Rules" of which we can be more proud - the "rules" which we have adopted and which have governed our behaviour and our unique national personality. These are mostly unwritten and no doubt the subject of debate in some quarters. They have been promulgated by the actions and sacrifices of our forebears - indigenous, European, Chinese and more recently a host of others. They have been shaped and moulded, adopted and altered by a blend of countless generations of pre-European struggles, imported cultures and the timeless land itself. These rules are entrenched in the ethos of our people. They govern our way of life and our thinking. They're nearly spiritual.

They can be heard in the mantras of "Give him a fair go" and "Don't kick a man when he's down" and "If you fight my mate you're fighting me". They can be seen in the fun loving larrikin behaviour of a one day cricket crowd at the SCG, in the strained faces of the children at a foot race held at a Sunday School picnic, in the mateship of a pensioner's shout of 5's, ruddy faced and cheery after a summer afternoon bowls game, in the uniformed school boy who gives up his bus seat to a frail lady, in the generosity of our responses as a nation to the recent natural disasters in our regions, in the fierce loyalty with which we cherish our Anzacs each 25th of April and in the freedom we continue to grant each other to enjoy "doing our own thing".

The cornerstone of these rules is undoubtedly our freedom. Without it, there is no chance to follow our rules, "do our own thing" and enjoy our short time here.

But, our freedom is under attack!

I saw the TV footage of drunken Aussies at the southern beaches of Sydney gang bashing a bloke just because he was a Lebanese and then hurling missiles at the ambulance men trying to help him.

Later, I saw the TV footage of a gang of 20 or so teenage Lebanese street thugs kicking the living hell out of a bloke in an alleyway in Sydney just because he was a skippy.

I spoke to my son's handsome 18 year old mate who returned from schoolies week with a face scarred for life from being king hit by 4 young Lebanese men in their early twenties. He committed the street crime of being good looking. A security guard bravely saved him from the slipper and probably saved his life.

The Imam crows that nothing is more important to Muslims than their religion.

The Federal Attorney General Philip Ruddock says - hold on a minute - the law is.

The Imam says Phil is picking on Muslims.

Now hold on a minute you lot, all this is against the "Australian Rules".

The first thing we have to do to protect our freedom is to dismiss the inane comments which our out of touch Prime Minister made after the Cronulla riots that these were not racially based riots. What planet is he on? What TV news was he watching? Do things look that different through the window of his RAAF jet or through his rose coloured binoculars on the lawn at Kirribilli house?

The facts are that the Cronulla riots were racially based and we have a problem. Forcing it underground by ridiculous Prime Ministerial denial and a new brand of harsh street violence laws might win a few state elections but it will not solve the problem. We as a people need to face up to the problem and come up with some positive answers of we will lose our freedom to "do our own thing".

Don't rely on the Governments. It is we who must act.

No one in their right mind can condone the violence, but the Cronulla rioters had a point and a message. The point was - they had a problem with the actions of one group restricting their freedom on and around the beaches. The message was - they were not going to stand by and let their freedom be further eroded. The fact is that young Australians took a stand in the only way their alcohol and summer sun fuelled brains knew how. It is a very positive thing that our young people are still prepared to start their own Eureka and fight for our freedom, even though in a totally disgusting and unacceptable way to most of us. They have drawn a line in the sandy Sutherland Shire beaches which will be long remembered, hopefully for the good that comes out of it.

Those who decry multiculturalism crow that the riots prove its failure. Well maybe they do, but don't forget that multiculturalism has been around forever. Until recently, it was inevitably imposed by the victors' swords. Those young males fit enough to be slaves and the pretty young women with charms to offer survived to "suffer" it, the rest were relieved of their heads and multiculturalism's impost.

There are other reasons for the failure of multiculturalism - the speed of the changes and the consequent swamping of our own brand of nationalism.

There is no doubt that in recent times we have experienced a very different form of multiculturalism from the "sword type". In the last fifty years, the speed of migration has been at rocket pace and the cultural diversity of those arriving has been immense. Witness how my old primary school in the Western suburbs of Brisbane changed in one generation. My school mates in the 50's and 60's were all scrubbers from Christian British stock with only 4 exceptions in a school of 500. In the mid eighties I took my children to the school fete there and witnessed a "parade of nations" with kids in their national dress. There were over 50 nations represented!

I have no problem with this, but it's easy for me. I believe that there is only one race - the human race - albeit with different tribes and cultures. For those who haven't studied and learnt this from history or those who have read the Bible or the Koran too literally and believe in multiple human races, the rapid influx of coloured faces and varied cultures by itself causes a threat they find impossible to cope with by any strategies other than isolationism, fear, hatred, self imposed segregation or worse - violence.

The challenge for us now is how to cope and how to educate our children to cope, for multiculturalism in Australia is a fact, brought about by world events and successive Government policies. We just have to live with it. None of us want to revert to the sword.

All is not lost, for more tolerant Australians have proven in the past to be the masters of rapid assimilation of different cultures. It is trite to remember that we all came here from somewhere else, even the first Australians. We all have this one thing in common. We developed our own brand of "Aussieculturalism" - reserved tolerance of the new comers and their cultures combined with some subtle, and some not so subtle, lessons for the newcomers in "Australian Rules".

We have never embraced the migrants. We are not that sort of people. But we tolerated them with good humour and enticed them into our way of life by example and inclusion rather than isolationism, by rubbishing, ridiculing and mocking them and giving them nicknames in that strange way by which we show our affection (the more personal and irreverent the better), by bonding with them in the mess halls of our remotest work places and closest city cafes and in the after match changing rooms of our sporting clubs. Our forebears exhibited masterly assimilation skills. We invited the migrants along to the Boxing Day test, the footy at the G and we shared our beaches with them. We showed them our own brand of nationalism not with flags and trumpets but with our unique way of life.

The problem is that our own brand has been swamped by multiculturalism. I am sure a lot of migrants don't see much evidence of nationalism in our communities at all. Nothing is visible. We are laid back about it. They see a void, so go on practising their own brand and culture. We need to make ours more visible.

The option is more harsh street laws, more muggings, more kickings and ultimately, the sword.

It is not the migrants' fault that they don't understand our culture - it's our fault.

So what are the answers? What strategies and tactics can we adopt? The "Australian Rules" of course.

1 Never kick a man when he's down. If a street fighter had done that in the streets of Brisbane in the 60s or 70s then his own mates would have turned on him and thumped him. Where did we go so wrong? Will all fathers please grab their sons by an ear right now and tell them that kicking a man on the ground is not an acceptable Australian habit. It is gutless and cowardly. Worse, it can kill, and the kicker could get life imprisonment. If we can't all convince one another that this conduct is totally unacceptable, then the laws have to be changed to bring in a mandatory sentence for it. Say 5 years jail. That might get the message across.

2 We demand and cherish freedom to "do our own thing" provided of course that it does not interfere with others doing theirs.

This means the freedom to practise whatever religion anyone wants to practise, but not to shove it down other people's throats. Practise it within the boundaries or our laws and don't even think about bringing in a set of religious laws and religious courts. We abolished them centuries ago and do not want to go back there thanks. If Christians want to celebrate Christmas or Muslims want to celebrate Ramadan - let them do so. No worries, just don't worry anybody else.

3 Beaches are sacrosanct. Anyone can go there and have fun - uninterrupted by others. Lifesavers are a protected species. They've earned it. Enough said.

4 Nicknames mean we like people. The more personal or irreverent the nickname, the more we like people. If you like a migrant - give them a nickname.

5 Practise our brand of nationalism. Go buy a flag. Hang it on the balcony. Sing louder. Have a barbie for the neighbours. Invite a migrant family over. Ask their kids to play with yours. Show them how to hold a cricket bat. Ask them to join in your sports team. Sit with them in the mess hall. Bury the swords.

Hoping all Australians and their children enjoy Australia Day 2006 and many more.