Truth to tell, the pond treated the 30th July like any other day, and now here we are almost at the end of August, and it's nearly spring, and the squawking of the loons is at fever pitch ...
First a little pre-history - think of it as the time that the Portuguese, the Spanish and the Dutch arrived in Australia, which, though not as early as its original inhabitants, still pre-dated British adventurers and colonisers... (Greg Hunt some of the trips here).
For the pre-history, please allow the pond to deploy last night's Media Watch, online and with transcript in A monumental beat-up, in one of its notorious montages ...
It might be hard to believe it all happened, but it did, thanks be unto the Terrorists ...
Paul Barry began by wondering how talk of an inscription could somehow blow up into a full blown culture and history war ...
At the same time, the campaign to make Australia Day 30th July was raging ...
And so to the Terror today ...
Thank the long absent lord, the pond can safely ignore the arm-breaker, and thereby keep Sydney taxi drivers safe for a little longer - though the rogue that turned up yesterday is skating on thin ice ...
And the pond is very over the history wars, but the reptiles are into it, and the pond always likes to indulge its pets ...
It was the reference to Anglo-Saxon culture that caught the eye, since it clearly indicated someone into buzz words and dumb phrases, someone of immense stupidity ...
Someone who apparently didn't know that Anglo-Saxons were of Germanic origin - go on, Greg Hunt them here - not that the pond much minded, what with the rich mix of Irish and Germanic 'blut' coursing through its veins conspiring to produce a master race ... sieg ...
Oh wait, carried away a little there, and it's true that the pond would probably perform a more meaningful and useful public service by publishing an ancient recipe for chocolate crackles ...
But with the crackles and copha served ... wait a moment, whatever happened to copha?
It was all the rage in Tamworth back in the day, a bit like the crispy bacon they had before the war ... and then the pond and copha just drifted apart ...
Never mind, the point about all this Anglo-Saxon nonsense is that it's the work of a blonde.
The pond hesitates to resort to stereotyping, even if its preferred hair colouring is Celtic ranga, or at a pinch, brunette ...
There's something ... Germanic ... about the blonde stereotype, and not withstanding the pond's rich heritage, it did lead to the second world war, and latterly blather about Anglo-Saxon culture ...
Speaking of Stan Grant, it's probably worth interrupting the blonde to head back to Media Watch to keep the montage going ...
And here we should interrupt Media Watch to return to the late-arriving-at-the-scene-of-the-crime blonde, doing her best to maintain the rage, though she might have had better luck flogging herself with a wet, tepidly warm lettuce leaf ...
There is of course no point arguing with a paranoid hysteric who manages to leap from Stan Grant to persecuted Catholics, and the simpler solution is to maintain the montage by returning to Media Watch ...
Oh dear, who'd want to join that parade of dropkick losers?
Why a part-time Terrorist blonde of course, taking time out from maintaining the rage on Sky ...
No, no, you blonde fuckwit, are you saying that Australia's modern culture is based on the Anglo-Saxons of Germanic origin who turned up and melded into the polyglot culture that was once Britain?
You mean that the pond's German genes rulez?
Sorry, the pond forgot the golden rule.
Never argue with a dumb blonde or a Terrorist, especially one dropping in from Sky, and so to avoid controversy, it's back to a final Media Watch gobbet ...
Yep, the pond might go so far as to say you'd be bloody lucky ...
Stan Grant makes the unremarkable point that Cook didn't discover New Holland, and suddenly the reptiles have a complete and total meltdown and begin throwing a gigantic heap of whinges and moans on a bonfire of the vanities?
Here, have an Anglo-Saxon cookie ...
Or should that be an Anglo-Celtic cookie, or a Judeo-Christian cookie, or just a stupidity biscuit?
And now, since the onion munching notorious drunk featured heavily in that montage, how about giving him a lead role, thanks to the Pope, with more papal celebrations of folly here ...
The Germanic Blonde: "The irony is that it is Western civilisation and the Enlightenment we have to thank ...".
ReplyDeleteOoops, no just ask the Bromancer, it's really a bunch of Middle Ages popists we have to thank. Hasn't the message been delivered all throughout the herpetarium yet ?
Not only, but also: "... the only culture not worth celebrating in this melting pot is the Anglo-Saxon one, on which modern Australia is based."
Oh no it isn't. Australia, just like New Zealand, Canada and the USA is based on a Viking-Frank culture - generally referred to by its popular name, Norman. It was the Frankish king Charles the Simple that granted land to the Viking chief Rollo that started it all. And don't forget that what the Normans did to Angle-land, they equally did to Italy at about the same time (starting in 1030 and mostly taking over southern Italy by 1099).
"Never argue with a dumb blonde or a Terrorist..."
Absolutely spot-on DP, the reptiles are all just completely ignorant of their own history.
The pond had to endure years of British and English history. The least the useless buggers could do is a bit of book learning ... why is the pond always reduced to using the same cultural stereotypes the reptiles employ? Well it's because simplistic caricatures is all the dumb bunnies understand ...
DeleteAh, then you'd know the answer to this question (from the 'Quiz' section of a recent Good Weekend):
DeleteWho (and for bonus, when) was the last Saxon King of Angle-land ?
But Dame Slap surely would not know that. And neither would she, or any of the reptiles. actually grasp that the great centrepiece of "Anglo-saxon" England, namely the Magna Carta, was a declaration forced on a Norman king (John) by a Norman aristocracy. Norman, that is, no anglo-saxons to be seen.
And that, the Carta having been basically left to lapse, it was that great "anglo-Norman" knight William (the) Marshall who, as Regent to Henry III, revived and re-promulgated it. Saxons anywhere ?
And dont forget what the Englanders did to their ungrateful colonists - as described by Richard Gott in his book Britain's Empire.
ReplyDeleteAnd what they did to India too as described in the new book Inglorious Empire: what the British Did To India by Shashi Tharoor
Ah yes, Hattie McDaniel and her Oscar:
ReplyDelete"She and her escort were required to sit at a segregated table for two at the far wall of the room; her white agent, William Meiklejohn, sat at the same table. The hotel had a strict no-blacks policy, but allowed McDaniel in as a favor."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hattie_McDaniel#1940_Academy_Awards
:)³ That would have produced a richly ironic laugh if it hadn't led to richly ironic tears ...
DeleteIts Kulturkampf, all over again!
ReplyDeleteThat July 30th 1915 Australia Day pamphlet is quite unusual. No, not the date, but the Australian flag used. The Blue Ensign, today a design fit for hats, budgie smugglers, stubbie holders and capes for all dinkie-di Aussies, wasn't the national flag at the time - of course, the Union Jack was officially, but unofficially, the Red Ensign had the gig, until 1954.
See, you go messing about, reinventing the past, and pretty soon you're wearing the wrong coloured underpants, or waving the wrong symbols at your racist rallies.
The pond is always reminded FrankD of standing in assembly in primary school swearing allegiance to an invisible deity, a flapping flag and some far distant equally invisible Queen (apart from the one on the horse that got in the road of the serial starting), and routinely wondering what the fuck that was all about ...
DeleteInterestingly, FD, the second 'July 30th' poster above did have the "defaced Blue Ensign" (ie with the Southern Cross plus the 7 point 'Commonwealth Star' in place of the 'pointers' - alpha and beta centauri). It's crossed over with the British flag, of course, so it wasn't the Australian Flag as such.
DeleteI assume the pamphlet was for some official thingy, as the Blue Ensign was not the flag of Australia, but the flag of the Australian Government.
DeleteAn interesting distinction, FD. I did a little bit of greghunting and turned up this:
Delete"Proclamation: the Flags Act 1953
In 1941, Prime Minister the Rt Hon Robert Menzies issued a press statement recommending the flying of the blue ensign as a national emblem. The Flags Act 1953 subesquently proclaimed the Australian blue ensign as the Australian National Flag and the Australian red ensign as the flag for merchant ships registered in Australia
An amendment to the Flags Act 1953 was passed in 1998 to ensure that the Australian National Flag can be changed only with the agreement of the Australian people.
Other official Australian flags include the Australian Aboriginal Flag, the Torres Strait Islander Flag and the ensigns of the Australian Defence Force."
https://www.pmc.gov.au/government/australian-national-flag