So many divisions, so much disputation, so many terrible things. It’s even reached the state where the latest social media trend is all about 2016. Apparently it was the last time the world was any good: “The last good year”, they all say.
Yet Australia, I’ll wager, is still the best place in the world. More troubled than it was, I’m sure, but a place that should be appreciated. Ahead of “the day” on the 26th, here are 26 reasons to love it.
- We know how to make a hamburger. Beetroot. A bun that’s not too sweet. Why not throw an egg on it? Would a slice of pineapple be too much to ask?
- We invented chicken salt. Whatever others think, it doesn’t have chickens in it.
- People are civil on the roads. Not all the time, I agree, but mostly. When two lanes of traffic merge, we take turns. Good for us.
- We are starting – OK, just starting – to face up to our history. This was unimaginable when I was at school and still learning about Captain Cook’s “discovery” of Australia.
- The Italian food is better than in Italy. Ditto the food from everywhere else. Please thank the world’s greatest farmers.
- Fires and floods aside, we are in the land of Goldilocks – not too hot and not too cold. If you are ever gripped by a fit of whinging, consider life in Toronto – and I don’t mean the one on the Central Coast.
- We’ve produced the best bands and musos: Midnight Oil, Divinyls, Chisel, AC/DC. More recent examples are available, just not from this particular correspondent.
- In America, the system rewards politicians who appeal to their base, resulting in rabble-rousing policies to “get out and vote”. Our system, in which everyone is required to vote, encourages an appeal to the middle. It’s a choice we made a long time ago but it may be the basis of what’s good about the country.
- We made the best-ever children’s TV show. It’s about a family of dogs.
- We commissioned and built the Sydney Opera House. Messy process? Yes, but we did it.
- We make the best writers. Geraldine Brooks, Charlotte Wood, Sarah Holland-Batt, Tim Winton, Helen Garner … Provide your own examples! Any more from me and I’ll be detaining you for hours.
- We’re girt by sea. (Beaches everywhere. Lots of fish. An inbuilt defensive moat.)
- There are free BBQs in most Australian parks, maintained by the local council. (Does any other country do this? I don’t think so.)
- We invented the Tim Tam (then, admittedly, sold it to the Yanks).
- We invented Wi-Fi (then, admittedly, let others commercialise it).
- We invented the game Goon of Fortune (then, admittedly, found no one else wanted it).
- Our animals are better than anyone else’s. OK, maybe not the Tassie devil – only quite cute, in my view – but I’ll back the Kookaburra in any best-bird competition. Especially when it comes to what C. J. Dennis called their “highly praised campaign against the snakes”.
- We can drink the tap water. (Internationally, surprisingly rare.)
- You can put toilet paper in the toilet. (Internationally, surprisingly rare.)
- You can’t identify someone by their accent. In the UK you can place someone by listening to them talk – identifying them right down to their home town, social class and – I’m exaggerating now – what bed they slept in at Eton. Here, most of the time, you can open your mouth and no one is the wiser.
- You don’t face corruption any time you try to do the smallest thing. Yes, I know we have a problem – it’s what keeps Kate McClymont actively employed – but it’s nothing like the daily grind of paying out money for nothing, every day, in every way, which is what happens in most of the world.
- Shiraz from the Hunter. Or Coonawarra. Or Heathcote. I’m sure there are other countries in which to live, but why would you bother?
- We’re friendly. One of my English friends, Michael, recently came on a walk with us to the local dog park. He felt quite uncomfortable. People kept saying hello. When we arrived back home he did employ the word “weird”. But I think he liked it.
- Strong women who take no crap.
- The ABC.
- Seeing the Southern Cross, up there above.
I’m sure 2016 was good. But, for all our troubles, so is Australia, right now, most of the time.
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