Quote:
Originally Posted by matt
You might also want to apologise to our numerous American IIS members while you're at it 
There were some fairly anti-US sentiments expressed in here.
We celebrate plenty of our own traditions, by the way. There's no reason we can't embrace a few more even if they're not 'our own', if just for the fun of it. |
??? Apologise for what?
I was trying to make a point about celebrating our traditions and values. Why does the local media, especially when aimed at young children, need to perpetuate the need that somehow American culture is somehow superior than our own. One has only got to listen to the current television ad on the Walt Disney "A Christmas Carol", which is blatantly said as being "Disney's A Christmas Carol." The story was written by Charles Dickens and is considered classical English literature. My jaw drops every time!
As to Halloween, just type in google "Halloween in Australia" as see how many hit you get. For instance, the site
Halloween Australia, which says;
"Halloween is fast becoming a popular occasion in Australia, with regular Halloween events, parades and fetes at schools, house decorations, parties, and groups of children and teenagers dressed up in Halloween costumes, trick or treating through local streets."
Sinking of other peoples cultures by misleading the young is a common form of subversion. IMO it should be avoided, not because someone else is doing it - if they want do it that's their business. however, it should not be a part of Australia, especially because its origins are related to us at all.
As said in the news.com.au article; "Should Australians be Hallo-weaned off Halloween celebrations?"
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574...33-421,00.html
As Andrew Banks says;
"I'm not bothered whether we have a proper Halloween or not, but sooner or later Australia has to decide: are we in or are we out? Do we drop the whole idea or do we embrace it properly?"
My opinion is we should dump it, even by law, and we should all publicly say so!
I was also interested in the response of a "doolie of perth, who said ay 3.37pm (well after my original post here;
"Very sadly we are becoming Americanized to the extent that even TV adds have fake yanks doing their thing. Get rid of all of this Yankeeism now before it's too late. We do not want to be perceived as arrogant, overbearing and as ignorant of worldly affairs as they are. Keep Oz for Ozzies."
The poll results on this site, with 6447 votes at the time of writing said to the question ; "Should Australia ditch Halloween as an event on the calendar?" Guess what. 84% said "Yes. It is totally irrelevant!"
Only 15% of people agreed with it, and I'd assume most of them probably were the kids doing the door knocking.
Let the Americans have their Halloween - and I hope they enjoy it - but don't expect me or our Australian children to be subverted by a cultural celebration that is unrelated to another country.
My suggestion was only to encourage another reason to celebrate our own worthy cultural values. They killed "Guy Fawkes Night" because the kiddies my get hurt be the fireworks around this time of year, so perhaps we should do something else?
The question i want to know is the Halloween drive being driven by deliberate subversion though the media (foreign and domestic), or is it symptomatic of the long-term rise of American culture in the minds of Australian.
Should we be expected to conform to the extent of also celebrating "Thanksgiving" or even the "American Independence Day" (and never do "blackface again'
) to appease American sensibilities? I know already, they would
never embrace Australia Day or ANZAC day.
That my "buck-o-nine's" worth…
