Australia - 24th February 2008

Australia as anti-American. Like it, “a land of opportunity,” “young and free.” Like it, massacres of Aborigines, ghosts, cemeteries of unknown ancestors, nature’s extremes. And the language shared, the culture shared. But when Europeans fought to leave for America and then kept on longing to return, it was by force that they were sent to the Australian colonies at first, and later via assisted passage. Like America, it’s a land of immigration, but without a globalised mythology. This is not the land where all needs are met; it was never seen as the hope of the nations. And yet, when Philip tells his students that he is Australian, most of them say: “oh, Australia – my dream!”