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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group

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To: Condor who wrote (6450)	10/20/2001 5:51:21 PM
From: HG	Read Replies (2) of 281500

On my shoulders....<innocent look> My response about Australians not liking anyone was more from people point of view than from the govt response to the crisis. It was a response to E's surprise at why they had been lukewarm. I wasn't surprised. A lot of people think Australia and Canada are similar in all respects. Well, they aren't. A lot of American spirit of tolerance and multinationalism has rubbed off on Canada. Australia OTOH is isolated. It hasn't been able to assimilate all the immigration which they encourage. And they have never been able to decide if they are part of Western world or whether they are part of Asia. They keep changing their foreign policies every couple of years. I guess their heart belongs to the West, but in their mind they know they have no choice. This struggle makes their neighbors, especially Japan, very upset and eventually works against the Australians. A lot of educated Asians, especially Chinese and japanese immigrate there, get disillusioned and leave....the Chinese are not held in great esteem there. And so Australia is left with only the kind of immigrants they DO NOT want...and its a self reinforcing vicious cycle. Its sad really, for they have such abundance of natural resources, but the've never been able to exploit it. the lack of manufacturing and the high trade tariffs make it a very expensive place and yet the tax slabs kinda break an average man's back. They're not conducive for business at all. The weather is so good and the social security system so perfect for the non working and taxation so high for the working that they would rather be at the beach than be working for a livelihood...and that creates an awful burden on the govt. Thankfully, they went into accelerated phase of tax reform, social security reforms, work for dole programs <which was vehemently opposed -g-> and bank reforms a couple of years ago. It was really needed and overdue. I hope it works for them. I was called a "Wog" <g>. They have a name for American's <they have names for everyone !> They call Americans Seppos. Please don't ask me to explain what that means <g>.

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