The Beginning
It’s my dream to turn this blog into a book but I’ve long struggled with a beginning. As I’ve laid here tonight, stressing over my midterms in organic chemistry, biology and South Asia studies, I began facebooking my guide from the Red Center, Kate. That inspired me to read my Enter the Red Center post, which got me thinking about the blog and wishing I had time to finish it. Laying in bed at 2:00am spawned this. I think I like it.
“There you go,” the driver grunted, handing me my luggage. “Follow this pathway around the corner, take a left up the steps. Your doorway is the third on your right. Take the stairs to the top, apartment 61. Is there anything else I can help you with?”
“No, I think I got it,” I muttered exhaustedly. I thanked him and he drove off.
I started rounding the pathway, stopped to look about and was hit with a 100-lb ball of reality to the chest. It was as though I was watching myself on a camera. It slowly began to zoom out, picking up speed. First a view of myself slumped over my luggage, then the apartment complex, the suburb of Marsfield, then city of Sydney, and finally Australia as a whole. I started to feel the 7500 miles of ocean between myself and those I loved-heck, those I knew.
Apartment Tour
I took this video a day or two after I arrived in AUS, but haven’t been able to upload it available to slow internet. Just discovered this week that the internet at the Uni is a lot faster. Enjoy!
_______________________________ Click HQ button above after you click PLAY…
A Night with the Socceroos
The major post previous to this, titled “An Unexpected Relationship” has raised an unexpected amount of emotion and comments/feedback from (wow, how pompous is this gonna sound) my readers. It caused pain for a couple of people whom I care deeply about, and that was the absolute last thing I wanted to do. My ignorance in all of this was that by being open the only person that could be hurt would be me; I forgot how all of our lives weave and intersect with each other. I apologize to those people I hurt.
Also, one of the most common questions I’ve received is, “So what did that girl think when she read your blog?” I just kind of chuckle at that and feel a tinge of frustration at people’s assumptions of me. The subject of that blog post proofread that post before it was made public, and I made sure to have her permission about posting it before it went public. It may sound weird to most, but that’s just how our friendship is, incredibly open.
I’m not going to change the way I write because of the fallout I received from that last post. It seems as though that would be…lying to myself, compromising myself. I cannot do that. I will not do that. And I don’t think I need to do that. Just know that from here on out I am going to continue to be open, but I NEVER EVER intend on hurting anyone. This is somewhat of a flaw of mine, if it can even be called such. If I think I have hurt somebody, I feel terrible about it until I feel I have rectified it. Which is why I had a half-hour phone conversation with one of the persons I hurt, as well as an internet conversation with another. Please know my motives are not negative in any way, and if I hurt anyone in the future it is due almost undoubtedly to ignorance.
Alright, now read on to some light-hearted recollections. Below is one of my proudest blog posts to date. Enjoy!
School on Wednesday was a routine day with Bio lab for four hours with my friends Ann, Mina, Derrick and Reese. The only difference was that Mina and I were yelled at by the instructor for talking as we came in late from break. I believe her exact words were “Shut up. Just SHUT UP and SIT DOWN” yelled in the most exasperated, Eastern-European-tinged voice possible. Ugh, slightly embarrassing. But we are known as the “loud” table, so it wasn’t all that surprising. Following that was GEO 262-Australians and their Environment; a class that I attempt to stay awake in, but it seems as though this becomes more difficult as the weeks pass by. On Wednesdays I have a tutorial (recitation) followed by a lecture in that class.
It had rained on and off and was powerfully and ominously overcast. Towards the end of the school day, however, it seemed as though the sun was attempting to poke through. This greatly excited me, and is yet another piece of evidence of God’s existence; it was, of course, the day of the Australia-Uzbekistan World Cup Qualifier game at Stadium Australia, the Olympic Stadium! I didn’t know it at the time, but this was a HUGE game for the Socceroos. If they won and the Bahrain v. Qatar game the following morning resulted in a draw, Australia would be the first team to qualify for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
After my GEO lecture I raced back to the apartment to get ready. I had bought tickets for two friends, Ryan Priest (from now on referenced as “RP”) from Chicago and Ryan Doucette (referenced as “RD”) from Wisconsin. I took a power nap and waited for a call from RP letting me know that RD had arrived at his apartment. I received the text much later than I had hoped, at around 6:00. The game started at 8:00pm, and I had hoped to leave at around 5:30. It takes about an hour to get to the Olympic Park, so that would have given us some time to chill and casually get some food. Whatever. I met them at the station around 6:20 or so.
I love RP and RD. I’ve talked about RP before, he’s the first guy I met and actually had a legitimate conversation with here in Australia. We became friends from day one. RD is in our group of American friends as well, and he is on the Macquarie soccer team. It was good having him at the game in case I had any questions. (That’s of course in addition to his coolness…haha.) We had gone out the night before to see Watchmen, a ridiculous movie, but still my first movie in Australia. It was a surprise for me to be invited because they had been doing things without me, so that helped my confidence a bit.
Man where we pumped! We took group pictures at every train station.
Train Station 1
Train Station 2
Our excitement level seemed to increase at the same level as the Australia Socceroos fans that we came upon; at each stop the throngs of yellow-wearing ‘roo faithfuls increased exponentially.
We had a lot of fun on the train, let me tell you! We made fun of one another, and I made myself look somewhat like a racist pig, much to the delight of the Ryans. To explain this I first have to give you some back-story. This past week I was hanging out with Mona (like always 
), and I met two of her guy friends from her high school. I hadn’t shaved in maybe a week or a week and a half, so I was kinda hairy/dark in the face. (Oh, guys, I’m starting to be able to connect my chin and jaw facial hair with my mustache! THIS IS HUGE!) We were talking about gangs or something in America, and one of the guys jokingly asked me if I was in a Hispanic gang. I’ve gotten this before; apparently I look Hispanic when I don’t shave for a while. Now, this frustrates me, but not because I don’t like Hispanics. It frustrates me because I am proud of my heritage and my ethnicity, and I don’t like being misrepresented. I don’t know…is that racist? I also find it funny.
So I was on the train recounting this story and talking about how people think I’m Hispanic when I don’t shave. I thought they’d find it funny, which RP did. But RD saw who was sitting next to me, and just said, “Peter!” kinda motioning to stop talking. I didn’t care, and kept on with the story, until he kinda made me feel stupid and I stopped. I looked over my shoulder and saw a group of Hispanic young men. Wow. Felt like an idiot. But was I being racist? It was a bit awkward as we disembarked, although they didn’t look at me weird or say anything. We had a bunch of laughs later about it though…
We finally arrived at the Olympic Park Station and followed the sea of yellow, coming upon Stadium Australia.
Olympic Park Station
We snapped a few photos and walked around a bit. At this time it was a 7:20 or so. It was a carnival-like atmosphere, only saturated with alcohol. Mardi Gras is a good way to describe it, sans flashing. Many food stands were set up, the night clubs were blaring music, a live band was playing, and people were EVERYWHERE. I would come to learn later that there were 67,000 of us there…whew!
The throngs of fans with the stadium in the background.
We headed over to get some Makkie’s (McDonald’s) but the line was literally 100 feet or so long. We high-tailed it back to a burger place we had come across earlier, which was much less crowded. It was at that point, running through the park to the burger place, that it began to rain. Well, rain is a bit of an understatement. Thirty seconds in this rain left parts of my jeans wet all the way through. UGH. So much for the rain holding off!
The burger I had was epic, let me tell you. An Australian beef pattie with fried egg, beetroot, pickles, lettuce, tomato, and I think bacon if I’m not mistaken. And hot chips of course. We hurried through our burgers, but at one point we just resigned to being late to the game and decided to enjoy our meals. However, when we neared the end of our massive burger-consumption experience we realized that it was 7:51pm and we might actually be able to make it to the stadium on time. We finished and began to jog towards the stadium.
Cheers began to emanate from the stadium so the jog turned into a sprint through the ever-increasing rain. We made our way through the turnstiles and RD exclaimed, “This is us! 123!” We were on the ground level, which surprised me. I thought we had good seats, but not THIS good! It was comparable to going to a Blazer’s game and sitting three or four rows back; we were about 50 feet from the beginning of the field, in the corner. Best seats in the house. And for $44AUD apiece!
This is how close we were. That's my knee on the right...
We arrived just in time for the national anthems. What an atmosphere, people all jacked up and excited to see their teams play. The rain ceased as if on cue, and we took in the scene that was about to consume us.
The Crew. Ryan Priest, Ryan Doucette and myself
I just kind of sat there in wonderment and amazement throughout the game. The highest level of soccer I’d seen was college women’s, and I’ve been watching the World Cup additively the past two tournaments. To see players of this caliber (even though they weren’t European or South American) was just incredible.
Also, the crowd fascinated me. I kept on coming back to the metaphor of the crowd as an organism; an amoeba that encircled the playing field. You could hear it collectively get restless, excited, frustrated, and angry. When the excitement rose it literally felt like water gathering to form a tsunami; it kept on getting bigger and bigger, louder and louder, and when the first goal was scored it was as if the tsunami had made landfall. You could almost feel it breathe…it was amazing.
This video is from the second half, but illustrates pretty well what I’m trying to describe…
The first half ended scoreless. We were pretty jacked up, and there were some close calls, but the Socceroos were attacking the goal opposite to us so we knew the best was yet to come. I ran outside into the concession area trying to beat the crowd, and came upon the memorabilia store. Those who know me know that I love to buy memorabilia at special events such as these; for some reason I feel like it will legitimize the experience and memory even more if I have something that I can look at that reminds me of the event. I know this is flawed thinking, but it’s how I am.
I bought a cool Socceroos flag attached to a pole to wave around (for only $15!!!), as well as a special gift for someone who doesn’t yet exist. (So, if you exist, I’m sorry…) I really was looking for a scarf but they were sold out at the two locations I checked. Oh well, if I see them play Bahrain June 10th I’ll have one before then.
I made my way back to my seat a tad late, again missing the Socceroos come out of the tunnel. Whatever. Turns out that both Ryans had decided to get the large Soccerroo flags. Pretty funny! The rain started to pick up again, so RD broke his out and we used it as a shield. Not that it helped, being made out of cheep nylon. But it was fun anyway, draping ourselves in the Socceroos’ flag.
The ‘roos kept on getting closer to scoring with each passing minute. It seemed as though they kept sophomoric-ally screwing up on their attacks, frustrating the crowd to no end. They got a few corners, which was incredibly exciting. It was on our side, and as we were next to the crazy cheering section the place just went wild. Everyone stood up and got loud and cheered, then held their collective breaths. When the attack went awry the previously-described amoeba let out a short scream/whimper of pain and took its seat at once.
The first goal came off a cross, a header by a streaking forward who entered the game a mere few minutes previous to his heroics. (I’m such a newbie with soccer that I actually had to google “soccer positions” to come up with ‘forward’…) Man was it tight! I think I might have been caught behind the camera for that one, maybe not. It was just kind of a blur. The place erupted with cheers, and the forward ran to our corner, in front of us, and wiped off the rain/sweat from his brow with the corner flag.
Thanks to Ryan Doucette for the photo.
Thanks to Ryan Doucette for the photo.
We all yelled in ecstasy, maniacally waving our flags. It was my first legit, high-level goal, and man was it memorable. So much fun. To be a part of a crowd erupting with such glee and euphoria was intoxicating. What a moment!
I know, ridiculous. It was such an incredible moment!
Seven minutes later Uzbekistan committed a foul in the box, yielding a penalty kick for Australia. And, in turn, another goal. Do you guys think it was a foul? RD, whose playing soccer for Macquarie, said it was a bogus call…check it out below.
Setting up for the penalty. Thanks to Ryan Doucette for the photo.
After this it was pretty much game over. There were a few scares from Uzbekistan, but as the game entered its 90th minute all was joyous. We left about two minutes early, something that I regret. I really wanted to see the Aussies celebrate their victory and erupt into chaos, but we had to get to the train station before the other 66,999.
As we exited the stadium the downpour began. The weather was quite amazing during the game itself. We were so close to the field that we weren’t under the cover, so it could have been miserable. The soccer gods kept us dry, though, and there were only a few instances of rain, which we somewhat joyously endured; it added to the atmosphere! (And gave us a reason to cover ourselves with the Socceroo flag!) It was as though water was sloshing out of a cistern, and at the end of the game it was overturned. (Too much of a metaphor? haha.) It was somewhat comical to see thousands of people reach for their hoods/parkas at exactly the same time. How lucky we were to have the weather behave! It was probably 68º throughout the match. Perfect.
I sound EXACTLY like my dad on this. EXACTLY! It’s kinda eerie…
We began to sprint through the rain, only stopping to take a few pictures of ourselves with our flags. As I ran I held the flag up, as if I was running to claim land for the motherland. I felt like such an Aussie!
After a little while we figured out we were running the wrong way. What a bummer that was! We left early for no reason!!!
Anyway, after about half an hour we finally pushed our way onto a train, made it back to Strathfield, then took the train to our pseudo-home base of Epping Station. We waited for a bus there, all the while joking about a certain person’s flatulence on the train, my ridiculous Hispanic story, RP looking like a gangster in one of our group pictures, and RP mistakenly refusing a guy a dollar that he actually had, even though our ticket got us free transportation. (Had to have been there. We were giddy and all that was absolutely hilarious.) The night turned out to really be a good bonding time for all of us, it was wonderful. I’m looking forward to doing more stuff with them in the future. I departed the train at my stop, entered the apartment, conversed with Vasya about the game, and proceeded to end my magnificent night.
This has nothing to do with the night, but it’s interesting. For the Easter Break RD and RP have rented an RV and are driving through New Zealand by themselves with three other guys. They are going to a place they’ve never been, driving on the other side of the road, and have no plans for food. And man, I wish I was doing it with them! It was disappointing to not be invited, but I think it was a spur-of-the-moment thing with other friends. And it wouldn’t have worked out anyway because my parents are coming and I want to show them around SYD. Anyway, thought that was quite intriguing. What memories they’ll make!
Just a quick note…Bahrain did defeat Qatar 1-0, so the Socceroos have not officially qualified for the World Cup. They need one more point. The day after this game I got tickets, along with Vasya and Heat, to the game versus Bahrain on June 10th. I am so pumped for it! Now I HAVE to get a scarf!
Assimilation
This past Friday was a wonderful day, which was somewhat of a surprise to me; I wasn’t expecting it to be much. I had been planning on visiting the Blue Mountains, but those plans were dashed due to the fact that I had to submit a paper that morning at 9am. I woke up at 8 to get the paper turned in on time, then returned to my room and fell asleep until about 11:30.
As I was walking to class to turn in the paper I was so comforted… it was finally raining! My Aussie friends think that I’m a bit crazy because I’ve been hoping for rain. In Eugene this time of year it rains about three times a week, so to be in a place where it doesn’t rain for weeks, with incredible, sunny weather just puts me on edge. I’m not kidding! I feel a little stressed and annoyed, and when it rains and the air gets all thick and cool, ahh…I am at home.
I met Mona on campus at around 12:30 and had a burger and hot chips. Normally these would be mundane details, but I’ve got to explain the hot chips! Yes, it is true that they are just french fries, but man are they good! They put some kind of garlic salt on them, along with a bit of sugar, and the tomato sauce (ketchup) is sweetened with sugar as well. Those are some of the best fries I’ve had!
After eating we tossed the disc a bit. I attempted to teach her forehand and she surprisingly got it down quickly! She was having such a great time with it, saying “Oh, this is so much fun!” and being shocked when I threw an inside-out or any throw other than a straight-forward backhand or forehand. It was great!
She had to leave after a little bit, but my friend Reese texted me and invited me to the UBar (University Bar) at three to have a beer with a coworker of his. I had one beer while they downed 4 or 5, and talked about everything with them. It was cool meeting Ashley. She’s a kindred spirit. She’s incredibly open about everything, almost as if she’s one of the boys, but hot, and able to speak about anything with ease. Oh, and she has a bf, so yeah. (Thanks Reese! You introduce me to all these babes, who just happen to be taken. UGH.)
As they kept drinking the conversation naturally turned to one of sex and sexuality. As they were talking they would look at me, in a sort of “You know what I mean?” way. After a few of these looks I said, “You know, this will probably blow you away, but I’m actually a virgin. So…”
“I can see that”, Reese quipped. He has been somewhat surprised of my lack of experience with drinking, therefore the lack of sex made sense. I wasn’t made fun of or bagged on. They just said things like, “Sometimes I wish I’d have waited,” and kept on repeating, “That’s hard. That’s hard.”
At one point I was advised to continue to wait, as I had made it this far. I thought that was quite profound. How rare is it for people to say something of that nature, instead of trying to tear you down by talking about how amazing sex is and how weird you are for being a virgin. These people are true friends. (They did end up saying, though, “You should lose your virginity to someone in Australia!!! That would be so awesome!” Yeah, to somebody I would probably never see again. Awesome.)
At around 6 or 6:30 Reese and Ashley decided that they had had enough. Reese wanted to drunkenly throw the disc around so we walked out to the lawn area. Boy did it pain me to play catch with them, let me tell you! I attempted to teach Reese how to throw a forehand, but his throws just kept on blading into the grass. It was a new disc before last night, but alas, not anymore. After a while it started to get dark and a little chilly so we headed inside.
At this point it was about 8:00 pm and the stomachs started to growl. We headed to The Ranch, a hotel/club/grill for a bite, and Reese proceeded to spill a full beer on himself. His American cousin Sean met us there. He’s a pretty cool dude, and it was good to have a fellow American there to join me in saying, “You say it like THAT? That’s now how you’re supposed to say that!” The plan was to go to a birthday/house party, but as the pasta wasn’t sitting too well with me I felt as though I should head back. I thought about it a bit more and decided that I should go to the party even if I felt like crap. I hadn’t been to an Australian house party yet and felt that I needed to go. (Once again, another example of my personal transformation. In the past I would have played it safe and went home, but I thought, “If I don’t go to this I will regret it. And what’s the worse that can happen?” I’m proud of myself!)
Ashley and I at The Ranch.
The party was pretty lame (as Reese had warned) but it nevertheless was an awesome experience. Sean is from the East Coast so it was cool going to a party completely representing America…West Side and East Side! They were pumpin’ Kanye’s Late Registration, so there was a comfort factor in that, and I met a few people that I will be seeing again next week at Reese’s 19th-birthday blowout. There were a few people dancing, but it was mostly a party of talking and drinking. I had some wonderful homemade Sushi as well, and even though I felt physically terrible from the pasta it was still a good time.
- Reese, Ashley and I at the party.
The dynamics of an Australian house party (at least this house party) are much different than what we have on campus in America. Here virtually no uni students live on campus, therefore most “house parties” are at a parent-owned residence. This was the case last night. The girl’s mom and dad were there, as well as her grandmother!
Another difference is the drinking age. It was very weird for me to see people younger than myself walking around with beers in front of parents and grandparents, but, as it is legal, apparently it is also chill. I don’t know if it is the people or the culture, but it also seemed as though getting drunk wasn’t the point of the party, which many times is the case in America. Though I have heard my Aussie friends say, “Let’s get f***ed up tonight!” It must just have been the people…I’ll report back as I go to more Aussie parties!
Looking back on that night, that experience really made me feel as though I’m assimilating with the Australian people instead of just being on campus and playing the role of a tourist. This is why I am here. It is fun to go to the zoo, take a million pictures of the Opera House and go to the Rocks, but you learn so much more and it is so much more fulfilling when you immerse yourself in legitimate Australian culture. These experiences are what make truly lasting memories.
Oh, and I also rode shotgun for the first time in Oz. It was very weird as I felt I should have been driving, sitting on the left side of the car. Trippy!
Mark & New Assignment
Got my marks back for that paper I posted on here last week, my paper for Australians and their Environment. Turns out I got a D! D stands for Distinction, the only mark higher is an HD, which is High Distinction, and, according to Will, that mark is reserved for “geniuses”. I don’t think I’ve met anyone yet who has gotten an HD on anything…
Here's my mark and comments. Super proud of them comments!
I was also notified by Will yesterday that we had an 850-word essay where we were to compare and contrast two essays…due tomorrow. At 9am. Just finished that at around midnight, so here it is…More proof that I’m workin’!
Discussion Paper
Australia is an incredibly vast and diverse country, and its history and culture is no exception. From the Aborigines to the ‘settling’ of Australia by the British, the history is truly fascinating. After reading the essays “Being Shaped by the Stories We Choose from our History” by Rodney Hall and “The Blessed Country: Australian Dreaming 1901-2001” by John Carrol, I feel as though I understand the two opposing views of the nation/continent that is Australia.
Rodney Hall’s article concerns itself with the hand-picked history of Australia versus the actual history of Australia. He writes of his youth when his school used a textbook with “Australian history start(ing) with Captain Cook in 1770” (Hall n.d., cited in Mills 2001). Hall goes on to recommend that what Australian history text books should begin with is “Once upon a time there was the land which had been someone else’s for a very long time” (Mills 2001). In Hall’s point of view the Aborigines did indeed own the land they inhabited for thousands of years.
John Carrol, on the other hand, concerns himself with spelling out the greatness and uniqueness of the “New Australians”, from the English who came after 1770 to all of the immigrants of the present. It takes him a full 17 paragraphs before he even writes the word ‘Aboriginal’, and when he does mention them he lightly touches on the issue of Aboriginal mistreatment, describing it as “the exception to Australian inclusiveness” (Carrol n.p., cited in Mills 2001). He then quickly gets on to the selection of Cathy Freeman, an Aboriginal woman, as “national ambassador to light the torch at the 2000 Olympic Opening Ceremony” (Carrol n.p., cited in Mills 2001). This sums up Carrol’s essay; he writes about Australian exceptionalism while briefly covering the damaging and torturous deeds the “settlers” invoked upon the Aborigines.
Both writers touch on the topic of immigration, coming to opposite and conflicting conclusions. Carrol, in the uniform tone of his essay, writes that “the vast immigration of peoples from hundreds of different backgrounds has been overwhelmingly successful. The host society has…been welcoming and exceptionally tolerant of diversity.” (Carrol n.p., cited in Mills 2001). From this it sounds as if Australia is an immigrant’s dream, a utopian melting pot welcoming of every creed and race.
Hall, however, has a different take on this. He brings up the issue of the White Australia policy. In October 1949, the former Labor Minister of Immigration, Arthur Calwell, wrote a pamphlet titled ‘I Stand by White Australia’ (Hall n.d., cited in Mills 2001). “In it he vehemently argues against the idea of admitting even a quota of Asian migrants” (Hall n.d., cited in Mills 2001). John Carrol’s essay is a perfect example of what Rodney Hall is trying to prove; countries are shaped by the histories they choose. Carrol is choosing to write of Australia as a very welcoming place in regards to immigrants, but it turns out that less than 60 years ago the Labor Minister of Immigration was trying to close the borders to a specific race.
As is usually the case, the truth of the matter of what Australia truly is and what is should be characterised as such lies somewhere in the middle of both these arguments. It is true, as Hall states, that Australians have a well-founded guilt of what happened in the past due to the idea that the land they own was essentially stolen. If Australia is to be real with itself it must come to grips with its tarnished past in the same way that America has dealt with its horrid past of slavery and racism towards African-Americans. The historical facts of the colonisers’ treatment of the Aborigines must be recognized and taught, and those Aborigines who desire the same opportunities as white Australians must have these rights awarded to them.
Carrol does, for his part, have many valid assertions. In much of his writing he explains the uniqueness and outgoing nature of the people of Australia, which one experiences in every neighborhood and city of Australia. He writes that “the elemental human interaction is less governed by ritual predictability or the platitudes of formality” (Carrol n.p., cited in Mills 2001). Sydneysiders, and Australians on the whole are generally interested in what a foreigner has to say, and this is very unique and refreshing.
He also describes a “strange something in the air-both elusive and welcoming” (Carrol n.p., cited in Mills 2001). There truly is something special and unique about Australia, something intangible and inexplicable. One feels it as one walks about; it is a mystical and spiritual place. It is as if one can feel the blessings that the Aborigines gave to the land and the love they have for it.
The juxtaposition of these two essays is fantastic, and gives one a real sense of the issues that Australia struggles with. Australia is a fantastic land with unique and wonderful people. It is also true that much of the history of Australia has been hand-selected with the unflattering details all but expunged from the Australian consciousness. The synthesis of these two articles would illustrate the complete condition of the Australian citizen when dealing with their feelings towards and the realities of the past.
References
Mills, J., 2001 The Alfred Deakin Lectures, ABC Books, Sydney.
Fulfillment
Ah, good day. Satisfying day. I haven’t been having too many of those, to tell you the truth. Well, at least recently. My routine has been a lot of school, coming home, kinda being by myself, watching youtube videos and doing a bit of work, and then going to sleep really late. I stay up late because I think i continually look for something to fulfill me, nothing does, i get tired and go to bed. And yes, I AM in Sydney, but when i get home from school at 4 or 5, and am tired, Sydney really isn’t that much different from any other place. Especially when you have homework.
Well, today was different in the fact that it was Thursday, which is my friday, which is always fantastic. Had bio with Mona, Derek and Reese, and it was incredible. Had a guest-lecture by Richard Shine, an esteemed professor at the University of Sydney who spoke on Cane Toads and evolutionary change.
Here he is with a Cane Toad
This shows how cool he is!
His lecture was absolutely amazing and just captivated my attention. First off, Cane Toads were introduced into Australia to eat bugs that were killing the sugar cane. However, they had no natural predators in Australia, so they have started to take over. And I’m not kidding. Some places are completely blanketed with them. Also, they have a very powerful toxin that effects the nervous system, and are killing out native species. (Also, people smoke them to get high.) Here are a few gems from my notes..
- Cane toads have just arrived in the state of Western Australia in the past two weeks
- They take the roads and highways to move quicker through Australia
- They move north-west incredibly accurately. and nobody knows how they do this…
- Their invasion speed has been increasing every year. They are now up to 55 km/year. And they’re TOADS!
For more info check out Rick Shine’s website, canetoadsinoz.com. It’s fascinating stuff!
Alright, then I had a break and had lunch with Mona and Derek, and ran into Dulce and introduced her to the group. It made me so happy because her and Mona really got along well…its swell! Then I turned in my GEO paper, had a tutorial, followed by a lecture, then headed to ultimate.
Ultimate was so much freakin fun, the most fun I’d had in ultimate in a while. Nothing special, just some throwing, a short drill and game, but I think that’s why it was so much fun…cause I wasn’t exhausted when we got to the game! I was a force in there! Sweet cuts, directing people, making it flow, some scores, sweet catches, it just felt GOOD. Then we all went to the Ubar afterwards for some drinks (i had water…) and a team meeting. SO MUCH FUN. THAT is why I felt fulfilled today. There’s a tournament in Perth, but its on the west coast (like flying from NY to LA), and the flight costs $500 AUD. I’d go but money isn’t really comin’ in right now, its going out. Donations??? hahah..
Well, it was fantastic, just a great day. Made myself some spaghetti, watched the Daily Show and Colbert, and had watermelon and talked about politics and American exceptionalism with Vasya and Jenya. For a long time..! I love talking with them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Aight, thats all for now. Off to Bondi tomorrow! Look for pix soon!
Australia-Colonized or Invaded by the British?
2.14.11-UPDATE–For more of my writing, visit SaintProse.com.
Well, here’s proof that I HAVE been going to school! Just finished this paper…wasn’t too proud of it, but Mona did me a big favor in proof-reading it and telling me to make it more formal…Now I dig it! Hope you enjoy it, and please leave your opinions!!!!
GEO262-Tutorial Paper
In choosing a research question that at its core has no finite answer, and one that cannot be exhausted or successfully responded to in any length of paper, one must explore both sides of the issue. In the following essay the argument for the British invading Australia will be outlined, followed by a rebuttal from the school of thought that Australia was merely settled, and not invaded, by the British.
The concept of terra nullius is essential to this discussion. Terra nullius is Latin for “land belonging to no one.” In the day of the colonial powers, a country was required to determine a territory as terra nullius before it was annex or colonized.
In 1785 the British Government declared that Australia was a terra nullius (Attwood 1996, p viii). The government determined that it was not previously occupied and that it was open for colonization. However, it is a possibility that the Brit’s actions were in fact illegal under their own law, as settlement or annexation of a land found not to be of the terra nullius distinction was illegal. It would be somewhat understandable if Captain James Cook, one of the discoverers of Australia, had made brief contact with Australia, seen what many Europeans of the time felt was inhabitable land, and declared terra nullius. As history shows, this was not the case.
Cook actually made his first contact with Australia in April of 1770. A diary entry written by Cook, dated 22 April 1970, reads “(we) were so near the Shore as to distinguish several people upon the Sea beach. They appear’d to be of a very dark or black colour but whether this was the real colour of their skins or the C[l]othes they might have on I know not” (Cook n.d.). This entry proves the notion that Cook as well as the British Crown knew of previous humans inhabiting Australia. The seizure of land inhabited by other peoples is, by all accounts, an invasion.
In 1791 the British began their colonization of Australia. At first, relations between the Aborigines and the English were relatively peaceful. This all changed when the Aborigines came to realize that the English weren’t just visiting. According to the Australian Government’s website, Aborigines began to fight back, with “clans people of the Eora group in the Sydney area (undertaking) a campaign of resistance against the English colonisers in a series of attacks” which lasted from 1790-1810 (Australian Government n.d.).
This resistance led the English settlers to become violent towards Aboriginals, treating them like animals and shooting at them without thought. According to a report by Lyndall Ryan, author of the essay “Abduction and Multiple Killings of Aborigines in Tasmania: 1804-1835”, Aborigines were shot at for reasons such as motioning for a settlement party to leave, appearing on a hill behind an English outpost, and just simply existing. A visiting missionary is quoted as asking “’Why are there no natives seen in the town?’ the answer given was – ‘We shoot them whenever we find them’” (Ryan n.d.).
To their credit, the government did outlaw “the habit of maliciously and wantonly firing at, and destroying, the defenseless Natives or Aborigines” (Ryan n.d.). Nevertheless, the killing continued but went unreported.
Diseases brought by the English were devastating for the Aborigines. This is not a characteristic of an invasion per se, but more of an unofficial invasion. In his book review of Keith Windschuttle’s The Fabrication of Aboriginal History, Steven Churches writes that in some instances Aboriginal “death rates from disease, presumably influenza, (rose to) 50 per cent in as little as 11 days” (Churches 2003, p. 117).
There were a few shining moments in Aboriginal-English relations as not all of the newly-arrived colonizers treated the Aborigines poorly. In 1835, a farmer named John Batman “signed two ‘treaties’ with Kulin people to ‘purchase’ 600,000 acres of land between what is now Melbourne and the Bellarine Peninsula” (Australian Government n.d.). He felt that the Aborigines owned the land, and attempted to purchase it by trading goods for the land. However, his good deed was expunged when the governor of New South Wales Sir Richard Bourke was alerted to this news. He legally “established the notion that the land belonged to no-one prior to the British crown taking possession” (Australian Government n.d.). After this act, all Australian land not occupied by settlers was seized by the British government, relegating all Aborigines to squatters on land that they had occupied for thousands of years. The invasion was in full force.
With all of these terrible facts and realities it is quite easy to let emotions dictate this discussion. Yet one must remember that there are always two sides to every argument. At the time of colonization, many Brits felt that the Aborigines were “‘inhabitants’ but not the ‘proprietors’ of the land” (Attwood 1996, p x). Because many of the Aborigines were nomads, they did not use the land in what western thinkers viewed as ‘”a progressive manner”’ (Attwood 1996, p x). They ‘roamed homeless’ and therefore, in the western point of view, had no claim to the land. From this perspective Australia was terra nullius, legal and available for the British to colonize.
In the book titled “In the Age of Mabo” written on Australian land rights, the author quotes Tasmanian historian John West, who spoke of the Aborigines as “wandering hordes (who) engross vast regions…which would feed millions where hundreds are scattered” (Attwood 1996, p xi). For many this may not seem to be a valid point, but one must frame the idea with the current global economical situation; a shortage of land as well as a shortage of food. The question now becomes whether it would have been responsible for the British to NOT have settled Australia due to the fact that it was previously inhabited. Australia is an incredibly fruitful land and is essential in global food production. Imagine what the global situation would be like without it.
On whether it is a ‘black armband’ or ‘guilt-promoting’ version of Australian history to learn about white-black conflicts, the answer is no. Whenever the facts of history are accurately represented and conveyed, it is never guilt-promoting; it’s called proper education. However, when people enhance certain aspects of history in order to further their own agenda, it is very possible that the history turns into ‘black-armband’ and ‘guilt-promoting’ propaganda. And if the history in all of its reality is a ‘black-armband’ affair, there is nothing wrong with that; the act of remembering and commemorating the dead and the traditions of the past should be honorable.
As with most hotly-contested arguments, the answer lies somewhere between both sides. Australia was settled by the English using methods of invasion. Instead of meeting with the Aborigines and respecting them, the British seized their land, yielding them homeless, and killed them for no valid reason. The British did settle the country of Australia in the eyes of westerners, as they began to utilize precious resources that prior to their arrival had barely been tapped. They installed an infrastructure to aid in the civilization of a new land and brought new knowledge of undiscovered nature to the western world. However, in the eyes of the Aborigines, their culture and way of life was ruined, they were brutally murdered, and their land was stolen and destroyed. The only universal resolution to this conundrum-riddled question is that the answer wholly depends upon the perspective of the individual.
References
Attwood, B 1996, In the age of mabo: history, aborigines, and australia, Allen & Unwin, Sydney.
Australian Government n.d., European discovery and the colonization of australia, viewed 16 March 2009, http://cultureandrecreation.gov.au/articles/australianhistory/.
Churches, S 2003, ‘The fabrication of aboriginal history; vol 1, van diemen’s land 1803-1847’, Adelaide Law Review, The, Volume 24, Issue 1; viewed 18 March 2009, http://www.heinonline.org.simsrad.net.ocs.mq.edu.au/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/adelrev24&id=1&size=2&collection=journals&index=journals/adelrev
Cook, J n.d., Cook’s journal: daily entries, viewed 16 March 2009, http://southseas.nla.gov.au/journals/cook/17700422.html.
Ryan, Lyndall n.d., Abduction and multiple killings of aborigines in tasmania:
1804-1835, viewed 16 March 2009, http://72.14.235.132/search?q=cache:G6Tkfx2r-eEJ:www.yale.edu/gsp/colonial/downloads/Aborigines_in_Tasmania.doc+’Why+are+there+no+natives+seen+in+the+town%3F’+the+answer+given+was+–+‘We+shoot+them+whenever+we+find+them…&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=au
