I am going to start off by admitting that I am a huge fan of sports. When it comes to sports Australia really has two; football (soccer) and cricket. As we learned in class Australia Day is the national holiday equivalent to our Fourth of July. Every year the Australian National Cricket Team plays a ceremonial game against their former mother country of England. The match lasts throughout the course of the week leaving the final match day to be held on none other than Australia Day. This last Australian Day series was a disappointing loss for the ‘Roos as England downed them 3-1 in a five match series as depicted in the article. The latest round of feuding between the two teams is a direct application of what the book says about the Australian ties to its ancestors. The book simply states that “70 percent of Australia’s population continues to reflect a British or Irish cultural heritage…and close cultural ties to the British Isles remain today” (p. 646). England and Australia seem to be better connected culturally than any pair of countries in the world even though the two countries are separated by such a great distance.
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| One of the many new flag options |
Australia has a very diverse population thanks to an onslaught of immigration from all around the world. The book goes as far as to say that “25 percent of Australia’s people are now immigrants” (p. 646). The article I found has to deal with the identification of a nation filled with immigrants. With the current flag as is, Australia does not represent 25 percent of its national population. This very point is illustrated when the authors of the book say “Australian society…has been changed forever by its varied immigrant mix” (p. 646). There are many people in the country who want to change the flag into something that represents the historical founding of Australia, the aborigine population, and the new found immigrant population as well. The flag, as it stands today, represents purely the historical background of the white Europeans who came across the sea and settled in Australia. Personally, I think that the flag is not a representation of the Australian population as it stands today. As the number of immigrants arriving in Australian ports raises so does the support for a new flag. I would not be surprised to see a new Australian flag in the next couple years.
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