Australia Day is Here again

[Saintly]

holy crap... that test speaks nothing about living in the land of Oz...

think you would have to be a fifth grader of the current generation to know all the answers!

and in terms of the test results, I scored a measly 25% (5/20)!

[i_amtrunks]

Indeed. The test itself has been subject to controversy... but for the purposes of this thread I thought I'd stick it here just to have some fun.

It's a terrible test, but it's more or less a comprehension exam as people wanting to sit it are given a little booklet to read through that has all the answers in it.

Having a basic knowledge in English should be all that is required to be a citizen anyway.

Spent my Australia Day at Bent's Basin, before coming back to play some cricket in the evening, before a nice BBQ. Beautiful day for it too.

[TheDirtyDigger]

Having a basic knowledge in English should be all that is required to be a citizen anyway.

Yeah maybe now it should.
I miss the days when citizenship of this great nation was more homogenous and required everyone by law to sport a mullet and a flannel shirt.
Ah good times.

[GoktimusPrime]

and for those who may not know it, the person in that video is also a Transfan.

[img][/img]

Case in point, the Australia Day celebrations at Darling Harbour, Sydney. Before the fireworks spectacle, you could see a wave of people with their Aussie flags draped on their backs like capes, face painted etc in strong form with the Oi Oi Oi chant.

That chant came from the "oggy oggy oggy" chant which is debatably Cornish or Scottish in origin.

In my section of the crowd (I was out in front of the Imax), come national anthem time, they don't even sing. Like WTF??? How could you not sing the national anthem? It was all the more embarrasing with the Spanish tourists next to me asking me why we don't sing it loud and proud.
It wasn't very vocal in general but maybe it was cause people preferred the soparano singer to sing it sol

As Paulbot said, it's a crap anthem.

The Star Spangled Banner is - in spirit - a much better national anthem. The US anthem at least sings about the values that the nation was supposedly founded upon and the core values that it supposedly stands for. Yes, there are some references to war and violence in that song too - but then again, the United States was a nation born from the fires of war. But the song isn't necessarily glorifying war but rather sings about the struggle that went behind fighting for their independence and the formation of their nation in which they take pride in.

Advanced Australia Fair on the other hand doesn't really carry any of that kind of spirit about really taking pride in the nation of Australia. Yes, people do sing it with pride, but the song itself doesn't sing about being proud or the greatness of this nation.

Girt by sea?! WTF? Who cares if we're girt by sea?? What's so special about being freakin' girt by sea?? They're plenty of other nations that are also girt by sea too like Antigua and Barbud, the Bahamas, Bahrain, Barbados, Cape Verde, Comoros, Cuba, Dominica, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Grenada, Iceland, Jamaica, Japan, Kiribati, Madagascar, Maldives, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Nauru (those of you who failed the Citizenship Test may be gettting deported there! ), New Zealand, Palau, the Philippines, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, São Tomé and Príncipe, Seychelles, Singapore (lah), Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and arguably the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and the Republic of China (aka Taiwan) - the latter two whose independence are not officially recognised by the United Nations.

There's nothing particularly special about being girt by sea that one would feel like taking pride in. We're an island-continent girt by sea? Great, that means we've got a bloody massive border that we need to patrol - which means more effort and work - and doing more work is bloody unAustralian!

The Star Spangled Banner on the other hand - at the end of every verse, ends with "O’er the land of the free, and the home of the brave" - which even as a non-American I can really feel the pride and spirit behind that line as it achieves this climactic point at the end of the song. Our anthem finishes with "Advance Australia Fair!" - which every schoolkid at every assembly sings thinking, "thank god it's over, now we can sit down." Of course, that's out of the very small minority of kids who every bother to even sing the song.

[TheDirtyDigger]

Some people just go too far....

[Trailer Park Ninja]

Yeah, I'd have to concur on the USA's national anthem being a stirring and emotional one. Particularly if it's sung by by someone with a good voice or even with by solo trumpet and a slow tempo.

The point about the lyrics was interesting as I was thinking about it the other day. The war and violent references e.g. motar shells etc made me do a double take when I was at Rod Laver Arena for the USAB vs Australia Basketball Exhibtion match in 2000. I never paid particular attention to it until that night. It is pretty jarring hearing someone sing joyfully about war in a national anthem.

[GoktimusPrime]

One of the neat things about living in Australia is that our nation was born in peace, not war - and it's something that we should take pride in (*cough*republic*cough*). While the war references in the Star Spangled Banner is dubious (although appreciable given the US's violent birth) as you said, it is very emotionally stirring. Advance Australia Fair doesn't achieve that same level of emotional pulling of the heart strings even when it's sung very well.

Waltzing Matilda actually draws more national pride from Australians than Advance Australia Fair, and - let's be honest - it's just a silly song that's about some dude getting chased by the law because he stole a sheep!! But it is a very iconic Australian folk song which elicits the level of national pride from Australians that Advance Australia Fair should - but usually doesn't. You play Advanced Australia Fair and Waltzing Matilda at a public assembly - Waltzing Matilda will get people singing along with greater participation and greater spirit!

Also, the third verse of Advance Australia Fair is quite objectionable as it sings about Australia's subservience to the British Crown and flies against the spirit of Australia as an independent sovereign state (in effect, it says that Australia is Britain's bee-otch).

IMO a far more ideal national anthem would be "I Am Australian". Some people resent it because it was adopted by Telstra in a very widely publicised marketing campaign, but the song itself wasn't made by Telstra and long predates Telstra's 2003 campaign that used the song (it was originally made in 1987 by Bruce Woodley and Dobe Newton). It's a contemporary Australian folk song and it stirs more national pride in me than Advance Australia Fair ever could.

"I Am Australian"
Traditional version
Modern version (Telstra)

[roller]

i notice that footballers now a days do the American thing and hold their hearts with one hand during the national anthem.

i spent the day working, got double time

[TheDirtyDigger]

This should be the Australian anthem.

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=pxM8XB61ZvU


Anybody that disagrees with me can just get back on a boat and go back to New South Wales!

[Saintly]

I disagree TDD! :P though not because it's a VFL song (love it!) and I'm already in NSW

but the Qantas ad comes close for an aussie anthem -> http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=bWTxWnePn2w