Ah, but there's cricket-- as solid a wall against American-style homogenization as any.
3
Some points from my five-week visit to Oz: In the downtowns of Australian towns and cities including the largest, there are one or more mid-sized grocery stores within a few blocks, usually below ground level; similarly Targets and enclosed shopping centers. Bakeries abound. In the large cities there are awesome parks right there in the CBD, meant for local relaxation. I didn't see as many joggers as in the U.S. except in Sydney. One big source of homogenization is the huge presence of
Asians, especially Chinese (students, tourists, residents) in mid to large cities -- homogenization toward the Hong Kong model. These are differences from the U.S. that sink in over the time of a visit.
Asians, especially Chinese (students, tourists, residents) in mid to large cities -- homogenization toward the Hong Kong model. These are differences from the U.S. that sink in over the time of a visit.
1
We spent three wonderful months in Australia. Went everywhere but Perth. The whole country is very much like the USA with a heavy spice from the aboriginal culture, especially in the Outback. The truth is it's a better place than the USA, with forthright assertive people who nonetheless maintain a warm civility. There's a great sense of brotherhood or camaraderie, and it's extended to American visitors. Australia has a much better, fully functioning government, because all the political participants value their Democracy. Once the winner is declared, everyone buckles down to serve the public interests.
As someone noted, the air is clean. The food is good. Sydney is most likely the friendliest, cleanest, most smoothly functioning city in the world. The public transportation (boat, train, bus) is superb. Public amenities abound. Their medical system is a model of efficiency, with single-payer basic services and private insurance to cover high-end extras. Total health care costs have recently been between 9 and 11 percent of GDP, about 40 percent less than the USA.
We spent some time in Alice Springs, where you see a much larger Aboriginal presence. Sadly, like our American Indians, they have a publicly-evident alcohol problem. The Outback has a geography and cowboy culture that is an exact analog of the Southwest USA (West Texas, New Mexico, Utah). Adelaide is a very European city in its architecture and ambiance, even with a nearby German influenced town.
As someone noted, the air is clean. The food is good. Sydney is most likely the friendliest, cleanest, most smoothly functioning city in the world. The public transportation (boat, train, bus) is superb. Public amenities abound. Their medical system is a model of efficiency, with single-payer basic services and private insurance to cover high-end extras. Total health care costs have recently been between 9 and 11 percent of GDP, about 40 percent less than the USA.
We spent some time in Alice Springs, where you see a much larger Aboriginal presence. Sadly, like our American Indians, they have a publicly-evident alcohol problem. The Outback has a geography and cowboy culture that is an exact analog of the Southwest USA (West Texas, New Mexico, Utah). Adelaide is a very European city in its architecture and ambiance, even with a nearby German influenced town.
2
As a New Yorker originally from Sydney, who is about to move back to Sydney next week, I had a good laugh. After 18 years here, I can't believe I'm going back to the land of servo's and footpaths! But of course, this homogenous portrait is not the Sydney I know, which is one of biryani on the beach, huge Islander cookouts, Chinese school on Saturday mornings, and parties at the Castellorizian club.
1
I will opt for the unlikely optimism this article inspires re the Cohens of the world who chose to supplant an indigenous people from his homes and homeland.
Should they go to Ausraoa or Camada or their nursing mother ,the USA, they will ceretainly have a far better life than in the land they usurped and far fewer enemies and a peace of mind og the genre they will never have in Palestine.
They will have to give up on their JEW and GOY mentality which makes it a pleasure for many among them to discriminate and persecute and feel much better for that and will have to accept to be equal with others with undivided , unilateral,loyality and a single allegiance , not double with a very big question mark about which comes first.
Considering AIPAC ...where does its primary loyalty lays??
Should they go to Ausraoa or Camada or their nursing mother ,the USA, they will ceretainly have a far better life than in the land they usurped and far fewer enemies and a peace of mind og the genre they will never have in Palestine.
They will have to give up on their JEW and GOY mentality which makes it a pleasure for many among them to discriminate and persecute and feel much better for that and will have to accept to be equal with others with undivided , unilateral,loyality and a single allegiance , not double with a very big question mark about which comes first.
Considering AIPAC ...where does its primary loyalty lays??
Australian expatriated to the US here. I remember the first time I drove across the country; I got to Wyoming and was overwhelmed with a sense of the familiar. It took a while to realize it was the space that did it. Most of the drive to Sydney to Canberra, no houses are visible. Drive from NYC, and it takes days to reach the end of suburbia.
Mr Cohen is right, to an extent, but it's a certain class that homogenizes thus - those that need HSBC investment funds belong to a class that looks the same the world over. And they live (and visit) NYC and the frou-frou parts of Sydney. For the rest of us, the homogonisation is... more limited. I arrived in Kyoto, Japan this morning; country number 48 (or there about). Once past the HSBC signs (perhaps there none, to be honest, I can't tell one airport from another), the onigiri, the canned coffee, the salary men, the children walking themselves home from school, the ramen for dinner have all delighted me. Bangkok might have a McDonald's, but no one could deny its essential Thai-ness. McDonald's in the Philippines does a roaring trade in chicken and rice. And McDonald's in India doesn't offer beef patties at all. KFC in Islamabad is entirely staffed by deaf and hearing impaired people and - unlike some US states - guns must be left outside).
Don't worry Mr Cohen; below the elite, there are cracks in the homogeneity. (and so far, Starbucks has done the best coffee in Kyoto. I can deal with that).
Mr Cohen is right, to an extent, but it's a certain class that homogenizes thus - those that need HSBC investment funds belong to a class that looks the same the world over. And they live (and visit) NYC and the frou-frou parts of Sydney. For the rest of us, the homogonisation is... more limited. I arrived in Kyoto, Japan this morning; country number 48 (or there about). Once past the HSBC signs (perhaps there none, to be honest, I can't tell one airport from another), the onigiri, the canned coffee, the salary men, the children walking themselves home from school, the ramen for dinner have all delighted me. Bangkok might have a McDonald's, but no one could deny its essential Thai-ness. McDonald's in the Philippines does a roaring trade in chicken and rice. And McDonald's in India doesn't offer beef patties at all. KFC in Islamabad is entirely staffed by deaf and hearing impaired people and - unlike some US states - guns must be left outside).
Don't worry Mr Cohen; below the elite, there are cracks in the homogeneity. (and so far, Starbucks has done the best coffee in Kyoto. I can deal with that).
2
I hitch hiked the Aus east coast in 1964. Seemed like the US 50-70 years earlier, at least outside the two big cities. Swinging doors into pubs ( saloons), where only one brand of beer was served, bars for men-only and separate lounges for bring your wife in for a pint, or schooner.
I returned in 1994 on business. Queensland coastal areas had become Ametricaized, but the gaps between the main cities were still populated by the older forms. I'd hate to see the differences disappear altogether, but I expect those differences will become quaint artifacts.
I returned in 1994 on business. Queensland coastal areas had become Ametricaized, but the gaps between the main cities were still populated by the older forms. I'd hate to see the differences disappear altogether, but I expect those differences will become quaint artifacts.
You forgot to mention that Australia is the second largest coal exporter in the world after Indonesia and will be largely responsible for the water rising along the coast of Florida where I live, as well as along coast lines all over the planet where billions also live. Also, from past behavior, they will be the last ones to accept immigrants from the flooded areas.
www.InquiryAbraham.com
www.InquiryAbraham.com
With regard to the landscape plants I witness being installed at new commercial centers throughout the West , the homogenization effect is in high gear. Landscape architects specify a standard model which is applied to every geographically separate area, building the sense that anywhere is everywhere, dissolving the variety in nature's plant palette. Plant communities are the first recognizable variant people notice in their travels and this is retreating with the homogenization effect.
1
i find it hard to sympathize over the disappointing homogeneity Mr. Cohen finds as he globe trots. NY, Sydney, Naples, oh so similar. Oh so terrifying! Oh the humanity!
Heck, if that's the point you want to make, why not stay in America? Oh, look, another Chilis! With Fox on.
Try finding some wild place you enjoy and return to it throughout the year. The seasons change its face, its smells and its residents. Feel how a good arduous hike changes your body almost immediately.
Naples? You can find plenty of crud in that nasty port town, btw.
Heck, if that's the point you want to make, why not stay in America? Oh, look, another Chilis! With Fox on.
Try finding some wild place you enjoy and return to it throughout the year. The seasons change its face, its smells and its residents. Feel how a good arduous hike changes your body almost immediately.
Naples? You can find plenty of crud in that nasty port town, btw.
Roger: You had not noticed? The triumph of socialist capitalism ?
The homogenization referred to here is the result of mass marketization working in tandem with globalization. I call it the "McDonalds-ization" of the planet. I find it interesting that globalization was supposed to place more of the world's wonderful diversities in reach for everyone thereby making our lives more diverse and interesting, but instead it has homogenized or assimilated them. We are all consuming the same stuff no matter where we live it seems. The world is becoming a boring place.
Forty years or so ago, a couple of friends of mine, with winter coming on, were laid off from their jobs as construction workers. They asked a fellow co-worker of theirs, a young man from Mexico who was also in their situation what he was going to do. Go home for a few months, he said. Come back in the spring. You should come down. He told them the name of the small seacoast village that was home and gave detailed directions on where to get off the bus.
A few weeks later they took him up on his offer, got word to him they were coming, and he was there at the roadside in the Mexican coastal jungle waiting. He led them through the forest for a couple miles until they emerged from the foliage onto the beach. Before nightfall, the villagers had erected a palm frond hut where my friends and their friend lived on fresh seafood, tropical fruits and cerveza for the next month, their only expenses being the beer and their cigarettes. With unemployment checks mailed from home for income, they left to return to Minnesota with more money than when they arrived. I know there are those who snark at the idea of unemployment, but that was the reality of construction work in Minnesota during winter.
Today, the people who welcomed my friends and brought them in as family are "rapists" and bent on impoverishing America by stealing jobs.
It is a different world, this increasingly homogenized yet xenophobic planet of today.
A few weeks later they took him up on his offer, got word to him they were coming, and he was there at the roadside in the Mexican coastal jungle waiting. He led them through the forest for a couple miles until they emerged from the foliage onto the beach. Before nightfall, the villagers had erected a palm frond hut where my friends and their friend lived on fresh seafood, tropical fruits and cerveza for the next month, their only expenses being the beer and their cigarettes. With unemployment checks mailed from home for income, they left to return to Minnesota with more money than when they arrived. I know there are those who snark at the idea of unemployment, but that was the reality of construction work in Minnesota during winter.
Today, the people who welcomed my friends and brought them in as family are "rapists" and bent on impoverishing America by stealing jobs.
It is a different world, this increasingly homogenized yet xenophobic planet of today.
2
If Roger could manage to get out of his downtown hotel he would realize that Australia is very much different to the US. For starters their coffee is so much better. Sydney is one of the few cities in the world where Starbucks failed because the product they already had was better and cheaper.
A tip for Roger and anyone who hates duty free. Only tourists drink capuccino. Veer left as you approach the sales area and you'll wind up directly in the customs hall.
A tip for Roger and anyone who hates duty free. Only tourists drink capuccino. Veer left as you approach the sales area and you'll wind up directly in the customs hall.
1
The beer, with everything else, is homogenized, too. Fosters used to be a tasty bit of Australia in a can. Now it's brewed in the US under license. Bring me back a schooner of some Aussie craft beer, mate!
Roger,
You really need to get out more.
The sameness of your travel experience is the result of your own decisions. When traveling abroad always stay in a smaller hotel or B&B used by the locals. Share a buffet breakfast with local people and strike up conversations with total strangers. You'll find that everyone has a past, present, and future that just happens to intersect with yours on that morning. A few questions (any reporter should know them) will unlock stories and plans from your new real life friends that will enrich your experience.
Remember, cell phone and Ipad OFF, pay attention to the people and world around you.
For entertainment, forget the electronic stuff. Take in theater and you'll visit the playwright's mindscape with characters, driven by their own wants and needs toward a dramatic climax. If language is a barrier, take in a live musical performance and let the music take your heart and mind to a timeless space that makes you feel different when the performance is done.
Try just local foods. If you can't read the menu, that's all the better. Ask the waiter what he likes to eat.
Avoid the familiar, embrace all that is novel. Life is too short. Make the day interesting!
You really need to get out more.
The sameness of your travel experience is the result of your own decisions. When traveling abroad always stay in a smaller hotel or B&B used by the locals. Share a buffet breakfast with local people and strike up conversations with total strangers. You'll find that everyone has a past, present, and future that just happens to intersect with yours on that morning. A few questions (any reporter should know them) will unlock stories and plans from your new real life friends that will enrich your experience.
Remember, cell phone and Ipad OFF, pay attention to the people and world around you.
For entertainment, forget the electronic stuff. Take in theater and you'll visit the playwright's mindscape with characters, driven by their own wants and needs toward a dramatic climax. If language is a barrier, take in a live musical performance and let the music take your heart and mind to a timeless space that makes you feel different when the performance is done.
Try just local foods. If you can't read the menu, that's all the better. Ask the waiter what he likes to eat.
Avoid the familiar, embrace all that is novel. Life is too short. Make the day interesting!
1
Being lost is so crucial to our lives. When I was lost in Rome was when I first came upon Caravaggio's church, which changed my life. I watch tourists now, eyes fixed on their phones, never having to ask locals where to go, never making mistakes or eating in a restaurant that is not listed on Yelp, having perfectly curated holidays but by playing it always safe lose the life changing gifts waiting for them outside of their phones.
4
Roger,
Another big thank you from Brooklyn Heights.
John
Another big thank you from Brooklyn Heights.
John
Ding bat! Get out of that hotel and turn of your devices.
1
Hey Roger, can you bring me back a couple of boxes of Wheetbix? Also, my wife fancies a couple of packets of Golden's Crumpets. Thanks.
In your next article let us know how long it took you to see the difference in the gun culture in the two countries. It should be apparent within the first 24 hours and that is much more significant than the the similarities of the lattes. And by the way the coffee in Australia is much better than in the US. Several years ago Starbucks had to close down almost all of their locations there because they couldn't compete with the quality and the Australians wanted no part of it. I hope you enjoy the rest of your journey of discovery.
3
Coffee culture thrives in Melbourne (politically Australia's most progressive city)- and no Starbucks in sight. And Vegemite (on toast) is a life long addiction for those of us brought up on it!
2
Vegemite on lightly toasted bread with cucumber slices is pretty good.
1
I love it when people use the phrase "outback". I dont think Ive heard that since I was a kid. It reminds me of the FJ Holdens and tight footy shorts of my childhood.
But no, americans are nothing like Australians. If you head north along the coast of my home state of Western Australia, you'll find that the landscape is nothing like America either (not that Id know, since Ive never been to the states. But as an Australian who has travelled widely (Roger got that bit right) I have never seen anything like the blue skies and martian sunsets of my homeland.
But no, americans are nothing like Australians. If you head north along the coast of my home state of Western Australia, you'll find that the landscape is nothing like America either (not that Id know, since Ive never been to the states. But as an Australian who has travelled widely (Roger got that bit right) I have never seen anything like the blue skies and martian sunsets of my homeland.
2
The centres of cities seem to be fairly much the same, although in Australia because we are a younger country what is left of our historic buildings are not as historic. All shopping centres are pretty much the same, although I'm told that unlike in America in Australia we have multiple supermarkets.
What makes Sydney special is how easy it is to get back to a more natural Australia. Take a couple of buses to the Spit then walk to Manly and get the ferry back to Sydney. You won't see kangaroos or koalas but a lot of distinctive wildflowers, lizards and some great scenery.
Or take the train to the Blue Mountains. 2 hours and you are in a completely different world of views, waterfalls and finish with a coffee shop.
What makes Sydney special is how easy it is to get back to a more natural Australia. Take a couple of buses to the Spit then walk to Manly and get the ferry back to Sydney. You won't see kangaroos or koalas but a lot of distinctive wildflowers, lizards and some great scenery.
Or take the train to the Blue Mountains. 2 hours and you are in a completely different world of views, waterfalls and finish with a coffee shop.
6
I don't know who told you that "American does not have multiple supermarkets". We have a vast selection of all kinds of supermarkets and grocery stores, specialty markets, fresh markets, farmer's markets, health food stores and you can buy groceries at big "superstores" like Target and Walmart.
Obviously there are more choices in bigger cities, than in small towns, but even fairly small US villages can support 2-3 supermarkets.
Obviously there are more choices in bigger cities, than in small towns, but even fairly small US villages can support 2-3 supermarkets.
1
Mr. Cohen. It seems to me you have spent too much of your life in the safe zones of NYC. So If you want diversity, why won't you go and visit Iraq, to watch a few car bombs explode in the middle of the market place. There people run too, but for their life. Then take a tour in central africa, and ask to watch how they mutilate the genitals of young females. You might have to get out of the hotel for that, and take someone to support you in case you faint. Then go to Russia and talk to some of Putin's supporters who believe that Democracy is too weak to handle terror or crime or just other countries. To sum up your world experiences, I suggest that you rent an apartment for a month in one of those US neighborhoods, say in Baltimore or Detroit, where the average yearly murder rate is 15 times that of the all American average. people there behave much more "authentically", taking the life of any person that they feel "disagrees" with them.
After you had enough of a world where killing and hating is the norm rather than the exception, I suggest you go back to your NYC apartment (or your Sydney hotel, or Berlin), to suffer "the homogeneity" of the Western world which has left the killing instinct behind it.
After you had enough of a world where killing and hating is the norm rather than the exception, I suggest you go back to your NYC apartment (or your Sydney hotel, or Berlin), to suffer "the homogeneity" of the Western world which has left the killing instinct behind it.
18
Gee, it's even simply than that. Mr. Cohen could simply go to any one of the hundreds of cities or rural areas in "flyover country" and talk to some of his fellow American citizens....who are obviously invisible to him and his NYT pundit buddies here.
4
What I think Tom is saying, Mr Cohn, is that you have had it so good that you are dissatisfied with your own world in your quest for authenticity. Standardization offends you. I get that. But the bottom line is, do you really have reason for your navel gazing when you have it so good? Count your blessings, Sir, and be grateful for the good things.
1
My thoughts, exactly. i’d also suggest visits to selected “red” states, where the fixtures of a homogenized life might be familiar, but the mindset — stuck in the less equal, less fair, less humane past — is not.
Welcome to Oz Mr. Cohen. I'm an expat living in Pyrmont, just a short stroll from the CBD. My family and I moved over here from Portland, Oregon six years ago. Would love to have a beer with you while you are visiting.
1
So, let's think. When did tea become a ubiquitous drink worldwide? When was porcelain manufactured outside of China? When did paper become the technology to write on (and print on)? Oh drat, here I am sitting and drinking a cup of tea from a porcelain cup and reading the newspaper (not really - I'm using an iPad, but just for argument's sake). How can I tell where I am?!
7
Querido Roger,
I feel that way myself when I travel and find the same fast food chains and American-style shopping malls.
The gentrified parts of most global cities these days do look a lot alike, down to that heart shape design in the foam of your macchiato.
But as you already note, beneath the veneer of globalization are profound cultural differences. Step out of the homogenous areas of the globe's metropolises and one finds an astonishing process of urbanization that has brought the countryside into the city and which has transformed shantytowns into cultural outposts of distant villages.
And in key cities in the developed world, the marginalized areas -- what the Parisians call the banlieues -- are made up of migrants from across the globe who have brought their real and imagined cultures with them. Globalization is as much a phenomenon of the poor and displaced as it is about globe-trotting elites and multinational coffee shops and hamburger outlets.
And then you find the parts of each country where the population has resisted the lure of the big cities. In Spanish we call these areas the "deep" part of the country, such as "Colombia profundo." Here global currents become background noise while earlier rhythms and customs endure.
With your traveler's sensibilities, intellectual's curiosity, and journalist's ability to capture your thoughts in poignant prose, I am eager to hear your reflections as you leave Sydney and travel into "Australia profundo."
I feel that way myself when I travel and find the same fast food chains and American-style shopping malls.
The gentrified parts of most global cities these days do look a lot alike, down to that heart shape design in the foam of your macchiato.
But as you already note, beneath the veneer of globalization are profound cultural differences. Step out of the homogenous areas of the globe's metropolises and one finds an astonishing process of urbanization that has brought the countryside into the city and which has transformed shantytowns into cultural outposts of distant villages.
And in key cities in the developed world, the marginalized areas -- what the Parisians call the banlieues -- are made up of migrants from across the globe who have brought their real and imagined cultures with them. Globalization is as much a phenomenon of the poor and displaced as it is about globe-trotting elites and multinational coffee shops and hamburger outlets.
And then you find the parts of each country where the population has resisted the lure of the big cities. In Spanish we call these areas the "deep" part of the country, such as "Colombia profundo." Here global currents become background noise while earlier rhythms and customs endure.
With your traveler's sensibilities, intellectual's curiosity, and journalist's ability to capture your thoughts in poignant prose, I am eager to hear your reflections as you leave Sydney and travel into "Australia profundo."
3
Hope you make it to Canberra - our nation's capital much-hated by those Australians who haven't been here.
With a city design established by Americans - Walter and Marion Griffin.
With a Parliament House designed by a former US citizen - Romaldo Guigola, who loved the place so much he settled here. And recently died here.
It's a city unlike any other in Australia. More's the better, too.
With a city design established by Americans - Walter and Marion Griffin.
With a Parliament House designed by a former US citizen - Romaldo Guigola, who loved the place so much he settled here. And recently died here.
It's a city unlike any other in Australia. More's the better, too.
1
She'll be right mate as soon as you learn the lingo and to drive on the left. After brekkie you can do the galleries in the arvo. Don't forget to fill up at the servo before you drive a long way, sometimes it's a long way between servos. Watch out for the roos if you go outback, they put a big dent in your bonnet. Anyhow, welcome mate, if you get up to Coffs look me up.
2
I'd like to hear about their national health care and how it differs from ours, and what are the similarities. All I know is that this week a close relative who lived in Australia passed away, and for a long time was receiving a mega expensive injectable medication to correct his anemia. Until the point he was developing serious health problems stemming from it, and it was discontinued. Are they able to spend fortunes on individual elderly people without bankrupting their system? Is their elder healthcare better, yet more economical, than ours?
3
Yep. To both questions.
5
That's an excellent question. For all the journalists and pundits extolling health care systems in other nations...or even high minimum wages....nobody is curious enough to really go to Europe, Scandinavia, Australia or even Canada and ask "how do things work?" or 'how much does this actually cost"?
The assumption by American liberals and pundits is that it is 'free". And of course, nothing is free -- certainly not health care which by its nature is very costly. If you don't pay in fees, you pay for costly insurance OR you pay high taxes AND VATs (national sales tax). In some nations, you pay ALL of these.
It shouldn't be that hard to do "side by side", apples to apples, comparisons with these other nations. So why has nobody done this? For example: it's not enough to say "Australians have a minimum wage of $15 (US)" without noting that the cost of EVERYTHING is much higher there, from food to rent to clothing. Buying power matters more than simply dollars, as anyone knows who remembers 35 years ago -- what they earned, and what they could afford to buy back then!
The assumption by American liberals and pundits is that it is 'free". And of course, nothing is free -- certainly not health care which by its nature is very costly. If you don't pay in fees, you pay for costly insurance OR you pay high taxes AND VATs (national sales tax). In some nations, you pay ALL of these.
It shouldn't be that hard to do "side by side", apples to apples, comparisons with these other nations. So why has nobody done this? For example: it's not enough to say "Australians have a minimum wage of $15 (US)" without noting that the cost of EVERYTHING is much higher there, from food to rent to clothing. Buying power matters more than simply dollars, as anyone knows who remembers 35 years ago -- what they earned, and what they could afford to buy back then!
1
Because nationalised health systems, by design, exclude the rent-seekers.
2
A nice reflective piece. I often find the little language differences trip me up when I'm in the States. But Roger, if you're over our way and want gas, eat some beans. If you want to drive your car to the outback, you'll have to buy petrol when you're at the servo. (And buy a lot of it - the outback is awfully big.)
1
Too right, mate.
Good on ya mate!
Went to Oz once and loved every minute of it. Could never figure out, though, why almost all the kangaroos I saw were sleeping by the side of the road...
Ah, Mr. Cohen - you're in for a treat if you get out and explore. Sydney's a wonderful city located on the one of the most beautiful harbors in the world. Like many cosmopolitan cities, it possesses a diversity of cultures, museums and other attractions - but don't spend much time in the tourist areas!
The real delights of Australia are to be found in the small towns and remote areas of this huge country - get up into the Blue Mountains, the Daintree rainforest or the Kakadu, visit Hinchenbrook or Frasier Islands, travel across the Kimberley to the northwestern town of Broome. Dive on the Great Barrier Reef (but the coral bleaching is frightening), or the even more spectacular Ningaloo Reef. Visit Coober Pedy - the most surreal community you'll ever experience. Go to a cricket match or Aussie-rules football game, and chat up your neighbors. Try Australian cuisine - from Barramundi to kebabs and meat pies, great beers and wines, and develop an addiction to Tim Tams. Of course, watch out for the dangerous features of Australia - funnel back spiders, taipan and king brown snakes (and many others), Gympie Gympie stinging trees, "road trains" driving on roads with no speed limits, and a certain type of rum that shall remain nameless.
I hope you have the time to explore and enjoy the country and the people. The politics are almost as crazy as in the US, but almost all Australians I've met are proud of their country and want you to like it as much as they do.
The real delights of Australia are to be found in the small towns and remote areas of this huge country - get up into the Blue Mountains, the Daintree rainforest or the Kakadu, visit Hinchenbrook or Frasier Islands, travel across the Kimberley to the northwestern town of Broome. Dive on the Great Barrier Reef (but the coral bleaching is frightening), or the even more spectacular Ningaloo Reef. Visit Coober Pedy - the most surreal community you'll ever experience. Go to a cricket match or Aussie-rules football game, and chat up your neighbors. Try Australian cuisine - from Barramundi to kebabs and meat pies, great beers and wines, and develop an addiction to Tim Tams. Of course, watch out for the dangerous features of Australia - funnel back spiders, taipan and king brown snakes (and many others), Gympie Gympie stinging trees, "road trains" driving on roads with no speed limits, and a certain type of rum that shall remain nameless.
I hope you have the time to explore and enjoy the country and the people. The politics are almost as crazy as in the US, but almost all Australians I've met are proud of their country and want you to like it as much as they do.
1
Relax, Roger. I'm a Frenchman married to an Aussie (a Tassie to be precise) and I know all about brekkies, bickies, mossies, and pressies. If a froggie like me can make it in Oz, a seasoned journo like you should have no problem. Have a coldie, go to a footy match, enjoy a good barbie, and be sure of one thing: Australia is NOT the USA.
5
If MR. Cohen's complaint is that the world is succumbing to uniformity,and that every place looks like every place else, that individuality has given way to homogeneity, then he is correct. The world is one, and has been since the explosion of the first atom bomb in Hiroshima which ended WWII, an act of war many believe was not necessary, since Imperial Japan was on the verge of surrendering anyway.( I don't buy the facile argument that the alternative was an all out attack on the Archipelago which would have cost millions of American lives.) The militaristic regime of Todjo was faltering, and Japan's dream of a "co prosperity sphere" had long been relegated to history's dustbin. But RC is correct, that modern technology leads to sameness. Recall once that group of French students visiting Manhattan made a bee line for the outlet stores where they could buy consumer clothing cheap. Everyone wanted a Yankees baseball cap. Remember sitting in a café in Nouakshott in Mauritania ,one of the most isolatd places on earth, and scanning the latest NBA scores in the local newspaper. But so what? "aoan ne peut pas faire marche arriere!RC should enjoy his perapetetic life and leave it at that.How many of us poor folk would give our right arm to have his job as a foreign correspondent. ENOUGH ALREADY!Cohen was probably suffering from an extreme case of jet lag.Jolly for him that his kidneys held up after an entire day of flying. RC must be in excellent physical condition.
2
The blank spaces on maps are gone. But it's still easy to get lost, to get into trouble. Walk a mile off trail into a desert. Paddle a mile out to sea in a kayak. Stay on the subway to the end of the line and find a place to eat... without looking at Yelp.
Want to feel free? It's easier than ever. Drive without a seatbelt. Ride a bike without a helmet.
For the past century people have been saying that the best time to have visited Bali was 40 years ago. They'll still be saying that 40 years from now.
Want to feel free? It's easier than ever. Drive without a seatbelt. Ride a bike without a helmet.
For the past century people have been saying that the best time to have visited Bali was 40 years ago. They'll still be saying that 40 years from now.
2
Australia also keeps out illegal immigrants
for real
=
I am not sure of mandatory voting, that is I am for sure against it
and I like my guns, the Aus do not agree
for real
=
I am not sure of mandatory voting, that is I am for sure against it
and I like my guns, the Aus do not agree
4
One has the right to "bear arms". That does not mean one needs to bear arms to indicate that one has the right to do so. This is a caveat lost on too many average Americans I feel. Your founding fathers erred terribly by placing your second amendment in your bill of rights. Feeling that one must bear arms to indicate one has the right to do so is an American affliction: a national psychosis.
Australia has no bill of rights but without some musty document telling them what they should want, many Australians decide all on their own that they want to own a firearm. As with all such desires such usually arises from a sense of need. Any Australian that feels they have need of a weapon who does not have a record of violence, and can prove such need, may purchase one. Membership of a sport-shooting association would qualify as legitimate proof of such need.
There's no need for assault rifles here in Oz. The expression of "need" of such would be regarded as - at least - neurotic. Australians are spared the shame of making such expression by the common knowledge that the fulfilment of such "need' is foreclosed: ownership of assault rifles (and other such weapons) is banned.
Australians love freedom, but do not in significant numbers crave the freedom to bear the means of killing other Australians with ease. Australians also love the freedom to be safe from those bearing such arms with designs to kill them, just because some others feel compelled to display their right to bear them.
Australia has no bill of rights but without some musty document telling them what they should want, many Australians decide all on their own that they want to own a firearm. As with all such desires such usually arises from a sense of need. Any Australian that feels they have need of a weapon who does not have a record of violence, and can prove such need, may purchase one. Membership of a sport-shooting association would qualify as legitimate proof of such need.
There's no need for assault rifles here in Oz. The expression of "need" of such would be regarded as - at least - neurotic. Australians are spared the shame of making such expression by the common knowledge that the fulfilment of such "need' is foreclosed: ownership of assault rifles (and other such weapons) is banned.
Australians love freedom, but do not in significant numbers crave the freedom to bear the means of killing other Australians with ease. Australians also love the freedom to be safe from those bearing such arms with designs to kill them, just because some others feel compelled to display their right to bear them.
2
We dont have mandatory voting. We have a system where its mandatory to rock up and take your ballot forms. After that youre quite free to do what you want with them, including.... well, I could have used an earthy expression there but I doubt a US publication would print what we can get printed in our press.
1
@GRW: Americans obviously feel their Founding Fathers were correct -- since our nation has prospered for 240 years so far, and is more than 10 times the size of Australia.
Since you guys disapprove of our Constitution and Bill of Rights, I guess it's good you don't have one -- in the words of your PM John Howard who confiscated all your guns 20 years ago -- "Thank GOD we Australians don't have a Bill of Rights!"
Of course, those rights also give us stuff like Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Religion -- even the freedom to NOT vote if that is what best expresses our opinion and desires.
Clearly Australians CANNOT decide on their own if they want a gun or not -- because Mr. Howard CONFISCATED THEM ALL. I actually saw online the newspaper headlines that "you must turn in your gun by such-and-such a date, or face legal repercussions". It was blood-chilling. not unlike Nazi Germany (which did the same thing).
Amazingly, there was no significant protest or disobedience to this government edict. So in a nutshell, that explains to you why Americans and Australians are different.
But that's OK, because we don't need to all be the same.
Since you guys disapprove of our Constitution and Bill of Rights, I guess it's good you don't have one -- in the words of your PM John Howard who confiscated all your guns 20 years ago -- "Thank GOD we Australians don't have a Bill of Rights!"
Of course, those rights also give us stuff like Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Religion -- even the freedom to NOT vote if that is what best expresses our opinion and desires.
Clearly Australians CANNOT decide on their own if they want a gun or not -- because Mr. Howard CONFISCATED THEM ALL. I actually saw online the newspaper headlines that "you must turn in your gun by such-and-such a date, or face legal repercussions". It was blood-chilling. not unlike Nazi Germany (which did the same thing).
Amazingly, there was no significant protest or disobedience to this government edict. So in a nutshell, that explains to you why Americans and Australians are different.
But that's OK, because we don't need to all be the same.
1
What impresses visitors to Australia? Shirley MacLaine was overwhelmed by the bright blue sky and the freshness of the air. One sees Chinese visitors photographing the sky. Others are bewildered by isolated beaches where their only companions are kangaroos. But get beyond the few big cities and amenities disappear. Lonely places abound. There is nothing like the tight network of cities that one finds in Europe or the northeastern USA. Culture thins out. And beware: for an edgy experience, remember to drive on the left.
10
Mr Cohen - Glad to see you're settling in here, but a few pointers:
1. Vegemite is why Australia doesn't need nukes. We have a simultaneously detonating network of jars of the stuff planted around the world in case of World War 3.
2. If you're surrounded by Bogans, you're in the business district.
3. Traffic is an evolutionary force in Sydney. If you're hoping to evolve in to something totally different and unheard-of, you've come to the right place.
4. The insurance industry is run by Russian meerkats.
5. Everything you've ever seen in your entire life is on Australian TV, and we don't know how to get it off. You can do your own version of War and Peace in needlepoint during the commercials.
6. Australian commentators try to avoid using sentences with words in them. The risks of comprehension and relevance are thus avoided. Think wannabe Howard Stern without a vocabulary.
7. The Outback is full of camels, roos, crocs and buffalo selling real estate; apparently they can afford it.
8. After the restraining order, we no longer put shrimps on Barbies. How an anatomically incorrect doll started a class action we don't know, but Mattel have been insufferable ever since.
9. Australian internet connections are to communications what syphilis is to ballet.
10. You're an American. Nobody in Australia will think it strange, whatever you do.
1. Vegemite is why Australia doesn't need nukes. We have a simultaneously detonating network of jars of the stuff planted around the world in case of World War 3.
2. If you're surrounded by Bogans, you're in the business district.
3. Traffic is an evolutionary force in Sydney. If you're hoping to evolve in to something totally different and unheard-of, you've come to the right place.
4. The insurance industry is run by Russian meerkats.
5. Everything you've ever seen in your entire life is on Australian TV, and we don't know how to get it off. You can do your own version of War and Peace in needlepoint during the commercials.
6. Australian commentators try to avoid using sentences with words in them. The risks of comprehension and relevance are thus avoided. Think wannabe Howard Stern without a vocabulary.
7. The Outback is full of camels, roos, crocs and buffalo selling real estate; apparently they can afford it.
8. After the restraining order, we no longer put shrimps on Barbies. How an anatomically incorrect doll started a class action we don't know, but Mattel have been insufferable ever since.
9. Australian internet connections are to communications what syphilis is to ballet.
10. You're an American. Nobody in Australia will think it strange, whatever you do.
7
Aussies are excited by the 24/7 fast pace of NYC, only because it is so different to our generally laid back, easy going lifestyle, but we are a bit bamboozled but also incredibly bored by the US election campaign (which goes for ever). But don't be offended becaue we are equally bored with our own election campaign, even though it will last less than two months. The thought of Donald Trump as President scares us - but only in as much as it will affect us. They say Australian's are apathetic - but who cares. Maybe Americans need to de-tense. No worries mate, she'll be right!
5
I loved this piece! And more importantly, it reached me, it moved me, and it changed me. I have no higher compliment.
1
No matter where you go, there you are! ( Not original but true )
2
Yes Cohen....this is what White infected virus do to the world. They kill diversity ; they homogeneous for their convenience, comfort and power and they murder differences, especially differences they do not understand, do not feel comfortable with and constantly fear. For all the machismo White men try to display they are some of the most fearful and most cowardly of the races in the world. So they murder and kill...We are not just talking about physical murder or annihilation (which has been part of Anglo history, their colonialism and enslavement of people of color)...but destruction of cultures, infect minds with their propaganda and through lies after lies they try to ruin other communities, cultures, their heritage, roots, families and their history. By uprooting people from their land, ecology, history, community and roots you can destroy the mind, basic confidence, self worth and one's very identity (as it was done to the Natives and African Americans...and across many regions where colonial brutality and domination was established). This white man's deviance, perversion and hatred of "the other" extends to his own women...even today. This hatred for a normal woman's body, her natural beauty and her normal or innate personality, confidence. clarity and assertiveness. White male race is a perversion: a deviance. The Anglo culture of capitalistic junk, from food to fuel to financial laws to fermenting lies, is now global. How did it get globalized? How did it happen?
4
How did it happen?
You could ask the same thing of the Muslims who raped, robbed, extorted and enslaved most of the world starting about 1200 years ago, and whose colonialist, supremacist and imperialist influence persists to this day.
You could ask the same thing of the Muslims who raped, robbed, extorted and enslaved most of the world starting about 1200 years ago, and whose colonialist, supremacist and imperialist influence persists to this day.
1
I'm regularly amazed at what people post and apparently believe...
1
What nonsense. There is no colored man's hatred of the other (see ISIS)? There is no colored man hatred of the woman's body (how about the hijab and burqa and the stoning of rape of kidnapped women?) There are no colored man colonizations (Ever heard about the Mongol invasions (the "Chinese Wall"?)
It is amazing how political correctness has twisted people's conception of history.
It is amazing how political correctness has twisted people's conception of history.
2
It is the 1920's I walk down the Bund in Shanghai, same buildings as Europe, same newspaper at the club though older. I go to the market in Palmyra 240AD same buildings as Spain and North Africa. I understand what you are saying but it is the rule rather than the exception. There have been times when it did not apply, strangely after ww2 up until the 80's was one time. No colonial outposts a bit more insular and isolated.
"How ya going" Roger?. I'm not sure where your staying in Sydney. I assume around the Rocks/Circular Quay or Manly area, because that's where all Americans WANT to stay, but Australia is a whole lot more than the touristy foreshore of the city. Can't wait to hear what you think when leave your hotel room!
5
l have never visited the US and my wife, who would prefer another holiday in Crete, tells me not to bother: "It's just a bloody big Australia." That can't be true, but I get her point, which is close to Mr Cohen's. I love American literature (and newspapers) and I wish we could better emulate their achievements in technology and business. Most Australians I know admire America as a friend but we would rather not let our admiration get too obvious. At the same time I'm glad we don't share the American obsession with religion and guns and their lack of interest in cricket, wine, universal healthcare and a decent cup of tea.
15
Yep, there's no two ways about it. Despite the Yanks' strange spelling and their refusal to accept the metric system, their newspapers are far better than any others in the English speaking world. Not just the big boys like the NYT and the Washington Post, but even the local US papers are just brilliant.
Plus American literature and American films, American music. Just fabulous, absolutely fabulous.
Second rate sports cars, though, that historically could only go in a straight line. And most Yanks can't drive unless it's an automatic, and they can't hunt without a semi-automatic rifle and they can't mow the lawn, even a small patch, without a sit-on mower.
Awful architecture and built environment in cities and large towns. Rubbishy restaurants that serve enormous portions of cheap food that use inferior ingredients that aren't the real thing and pretend to be what they're not. Poor quality public schooling for the most part that can't teach physics and chemistry properly because they won't drop imperial and adopt the SI system fully.
Still, overall, in so many different ways, for all its many faults, despite all the guns, all the bibles and the extremes of riches and rural and urban poverty, the USA is perhaps the best country on earth in which to grow up if your family is self-disciplined, ambitious without much money. For most, truly a Land of Opportunity like no other.
Plus American literature and American films, American music. Just fabulous, absolutely fabulous.
Second rate sports cars, though, that historically could only go in a straight line. And most Yanks can't drive unless it's an automatic, and they can't hunt without a semi-automatic rifle and they can't mow the lawn, even a small patch, without a sit-on mower.
Awful architecture and built environment in cities and large towns. Rubbishy restaurants that serve enormous portions of cheap food that use inferior ingredients that aren't the real thing and pretend to be what they're not. Poor quality public schooling for the most part that can't teach physics and chemistry properly because they won't drop imperial and adopt the SI system fully.
Still, overall, in so many different ways, for all its many faults, despite all the guns, all the bibles and the extremes of riches and rural and urban poverty, the USA is perhaps the best country on earth in which to grow up if your family is self-disciplined, ambitious without much money. For most, truly a Land of Opportunity like no other.
1
WINE? are you kidding me? We not only love wine in the US, but our California wine industry basically turned the entire industry upside down 35 years ago and we now produce wines that are the best in the world, better even than the European wineries produce! (It helps that California is the most sublime wine growing region in the world.)
But we produce wine all over; I live near the Great Lakes which is a grape growing "micro ecosystem". We have terrific regional wines here.
And we are definitely interested in health care, note our stabs at it (the awful ACA) and of course, we do have universal health care IF YOU ARE OVER 65, or very poor, or in the military.
Cricket and tea, you got me there. We play football and basketball instead, and we (like the French and Italians) prefer coffee to tea. After all, we invented Starbucks!
But we produce wine all over; I live near the Great Lakes which is a grape growing "micro ecosystem". We have terrific regional wines here.
And we are definitely interested in health care, note our stabs at it (the awful ACA) and of course, we do have universal health care IF YOU ARE OVER 65, or very poor, or in the military.
Cricket and tea, you got me there. We play football and basketball instead, and we (like the French and Italians) prefer coffee to tea. After all, we invented Starbucks!
1
@Colenso: thanks for the....sort-of compliments. And we like not having the metric system. It suits us, just as eating Vegemite suits Aussies.
Second rate sports cars, though? I wonder which you think are first rate? Anyhow, Australia produces NO cars at all. I believe they closed the last car plants there recently.
Rubbishy restaurants? Surely you do not judge us by McDonalds? (Which Oz has too!) We invented the whole "back to the farm" movement and natural foods. How about Alice Waters? Julia Child? James Beard? While we have chains, we have a vast array of world class restaurants and also wonderful regional eateries, and food trucks, and restaurant entrepreneurs at every price level.
Poor schools? In some areas of poverty, yes. But go to our nice suburbs and upscale urban areas, and you'll find schools that equal or exceed any in the world.
Architecture? We have some of the best architects in the world here, and history of architecture that includes Frank Lloyd Wright! Australia has a few wonders, like the Sydney Opera House, but what fabulous architecture beyond that?
Lastly: Americans are not as overtly religious as most foreigners think, and "the Bible" means vastly different things to different people, depending on whether you are Evangelical, Mormon or an Orthodox Jew. And you could live your whole life here, and never set eyes on a real gun (not on TV, I mean).
Second rate sports cars, though? I wonder which you think are first rate? Anyhow, Australia produces NO cars at all. I believe they closed the last car plants there recently.
Rubbishy restaurants? Surely you do not judge us by McDonalds? (Which Oz has too!) We invented the whole "back to the farm" movement and natural foods. How about Alice Waters? Julia Child? James Beard? While we have chains, we have a vast array of world class restaurants and also wonderful regional eateries, and food trucks, and restaurant entrepreneurs at every price level.
Poor schools? In some areas of poverty, yes. But go to our nice suburbs and upscale urban areas, and you'll find schools that equal or exceed any in the world.
Architecture? We have some of the best architects in the world here, and history of architecture that includes Frank Lloyd Wright! Australia has a few wonders, like the Sydney Opera House, but what fabulous architecture beyond that?
Lastly: Americans are not as overtly religious as most foreigners think, and "the Bible" means vastly different things to different people, depending on whether you are Evangelical, Mormon or an Orthodox Jew. And you could live your whole life here, and never set eyes on a real gun (not on TV, I mean).
1
Get on a public bus to the center of town; look at the variety of people around you, including those vending from trucks and cleaning the streets. Walk into the central food markets, the farmers markets. Best of all, walk into a slum or at least a low income housing area. Do this not only overseas, but do it in any American city and you will find that not all is homogenized. David Brooks recently "confessed" in his article that he had failed to do this, and now felt out of touch. Imagine!
4
LOL! David Brooks "confesses" that he feels out-of-touch? Whodathunkit?!
1
Welcome to Australia! I am a long-time expat, dual citizen. The US and Oz are indeed very different, despite some similarities. It's a monarchy here, mate, for one thing, and the class system is more obvious. And it is in some ways a more openly racist society, which hates being reminded that we are geographically part of Asia. But we have no guns, and health care for all.
The Reef is a wonder of the world, see it if you can.
Vegemite is awful.
The Reef is a wonder of the world, see it if you can.
Vegemite is awful.
6
What on earth are you talking about? Vegemite is great! Now I've got used to it, I couldn't live without it. And I speak as a Marmite Baby.
2
Thanks for reminding us all that Australia -- like Canada -- is a monarchy, and subject to the Queen of England.
'Nuff said right there. We kicked the Brits out, along with their mangy King (the insane one, as it happens) and said goodbye to MONARCHY back in the 1770s.
You guys did not.
'Nuff said right there. We kicked the Brits out, along with their mangy King (the insane one, as it happens) and said goodbye to MONARCHY back in the 1770s.
You guys did not.
1
A friend loves America but this evening her voice faltered because she never realized how chauvinistic it could be, and she ventured that she might also wish to live by the sea in Ireland.
The world has always been going to the pots and pans, and this essay and travel-log by Roger Cohen reminded me of another favorite author, Evan Connell, his short stories in 'Lost in Utter Pradesh' which come from the pen of a man who has traveled strange lands, one who—with sad confidence—can claim to have:
… read myself near to sickness
with Mathematick, Classick, Medicine, Divinity,
Astrology, Geography, and much else I forget,
ofttime leavened by profanity of bargemen
at the dock. Therefore, I pray you,
tell me how I could be other than I am,
stepchild of a stupendous dream.
Acrid fumes seep through fissures in the earth,
Bubbling clouds foretell tomorrow.
Locusts gather.
I have more to relate, but it is almost dawn
And the river wind blows cold.
The world has always been going to the pots and pans, and this essay and travel-log by Roger Cohen reminded me of another favorite author, Evan Connell, his short stories in 'Lost in Utter Pradesh' which come from the pen of a man who has traveled strange lands, one who—with sad confidence—can claim to have:
… read myself near to sickness
with Mathematick, Classick, Medicine, Divinity,
Astrology, Geography, and much else I forget,
ofttime leavened by profanity of bargemen
at the dock. Therefore, I pray you,
tell me how I could be other than I am,
stepchild of a stupendous dream.
Acrid fumes seep through fissures in the earth,
Bubbling clouds foretell tomorrow.
Locusts gather.
I have more to relate, but it is almost dawn
And the river wind blows cold.
3
Sydney is not Australia. Go to a BHP mine and see the real mess that the world has made of nature.
8
hehehe....
this is a good story Roger....
and a true one.....
I'm a former New Yorker...transplanted to Cebu Philippines...
retired here a couple of years....
I'm surrounded by Aussie expats all the time.....
none of them can speak English....They insist that they can....
but they can't.....constantly have to give them English lessons....hehe..
also have to give them New York slang lessons.....hehe...
If you really want to get away from the ordinary...
come to Cebu in the Philippines....whole new experience here....
Cheers Mate....
how's the tucker.....
this is a good story Roger....
and a true one.....
I'm a former New Yorker...transplanted to Cebu Philippines...
retired here a couple of years....
I'm surrounded by Aussie expats all the time.....
none of them can speak English....They insist that they can....
but they can't.....constantly have to give them English lessons....hehe..
also have to give them New York slang lessons.....hehe...
If you really want to get away from the ordinary...
come to Cebu in the Philippines....whole new experience here....
Cheers Mate....
how's the tucker.....
2
Oi Mate! Fair suck of the Sav!
What's your game Cobber?
Crikey ! You'd think I'd of run off with ya sheila or something!
Fair Dinkum Mate...Have a go why don't ya?
STREWTH!
What's your game Cobber?
Crikey ! You'd think I'd of run off with ya sheila or something!
Fair Dinkum Mate...Have a go why don't ya?
STREWTH!
1
Hurry, hurry to Havana!
2
Nancy...I fear we are too late.
1
A fine piece of writing.
Re: "The homogenization of experience is also an insidious invitation to conform."
Possibly harmonization of concepts of justice, peace, fair and accountable government, prosperity will follow. In some areas of human experience, increased conformity would be a big plus.
Re: "The homogenization of experience is also an insidious invitation to conform."
Possibly harmonization of concepts of justice, peace, fair and accountable government, prosperity will follow. In some areas of human experience, increased conformity would be a big plus.
Read the first chapter, or so, of Larry Niven's "Ringworld".It was written in the very early '70's-maybe '69. He is a politically conservative science fiction writer, but his imagination shows he may have some pieces of a cracked crystal ball in his head.
M Braun
NYC
M Braun
NYC
Welcome to my Country Mr Cohen, I hope you have a fantastic time and many positive experiences.
Enjoy. :-)
Enjoy. :-)
2
Good piece, Mr. Cohen.
But by all means there is a good hint even to the naked eye.
Public transport works in Sydney and while Americans drive on the right hand side, Australians drive on the right side.
So you're back to civilization.
Switch off your laptop and your mobile, relax and enjoy it while it lasts.
But by all means there is a good hint even to the naked eye.
Public transport works in Sydney and while Americans drive on the right hand side, Australians drive on the right side.
So you're back to civilization.
Switch off your laptop and your mobile, relax and enjoy it while it lasts.
As a "commuter" whose main home is in Australia but who travels to NY each year with my American spouse, I found much that I can relate to in your column. Sure, much is now the same wherever we travel in this interconnected world, but there are also great contrasts ( sometimes to delight us, occasionally to horrify us.).
The unique beauty of American landscapes, like the Rockies and the Canyon Lands, and the austere grandeur and emptiness of the Australian outback, come to mind as great examples of the diversities in our world. The contrasting attitudes to gun control in our two countries can perhaps be explained, but most Australians would still find it hard to understand why anyone would want gun ownership to be a fundamental right.
As for the politics...well, the U.S. has Donald Trump but Australia has one or two near equivalents.
It's a funny old world.
The unique beauty of American landscapes, like the Rockies and the Canyon Lands, and the austere grandeur and emptiness of the Australian outback, come to mind as great examples of the diversities in our world. The contrasting attitudes to gun control in our two countries can perhaps be explained, but most Australians would still find it hard to understand why anyone would want gun ownership to be a fundamental right.
As for the politics...well, the U.S. has Donald Trump but Australia has one or two near equivalents.
It's a funny old world.
1
Well, I can explain the gun thing pretty easily -- you are a Commonwealth of the British Empire and subject to a Monarch.
We are not. We booted them out 240 years ago and it required GUNS and war and sacrifice to gain our independence.
Naturally we think of it differently, and we have never forgotten that it took gun ownership to create freedom & independence.
Funnily enough, Australians had guns up until about 20 years, when your PM John Howard arbitrarily took them away from you -- and apparently without any protest. Because you don't have a Bill of Rights to protect you.
Apparently you Aussies didn't care. But it is good to remember sometimes, if they can take your guns away .... what ELSE can they take away?
We are not. We booted them out 240 years ago and it required GUNS and war and sacrifice to gain our independence.
Naturally we think of it differently, and we have never forgotten that it took gun ownership to create freedom & independence.
Funnily enough, Australians had guns up until about 20 years, when your PM John Howard arbitrarily took them away from you -- and apparently without any protest. Because you don't have a Bill of Rights to protect you.
Apparently you Aussies didn't care. But it is good to remember sometimes, if they can take your guns away .... what ELSE can they take away?
If you need PETROL before you head to the outback you'll find it at the servo.
If you ask for gas you'll be directed to the LPG bowser.
If you ask for gas you'll be directed to the LPG bowser.
3
Wait until he gets to Melbourne. That's a whole different world. Also, he had better remember to look both ways before he starts to cross the street.
4
First world problems! Woe is me!
When you get to the Outback (to escape the world you've advocated for all these years), you'll see Donald Trump on the small TV tucked in the ceiling corner at the local bar.
"G'day mate. Like The Donald, do ya?"
When you get to the Outback (to escape the world you've advocated for all these years), you'll see Donald Trump on the small TV tucked in the ceiling corner at the local bar.
"G'day mate. Like The Donald, do ya?"
1
Great column! I can't stand the fact that it's harder and harder to travel to places and find that they have not taken on the generic sameness that is also homogenizing most of the United States. Australia, though, has a certain overall similarity to the USA that would make it, maybe, less jarring than finding American generica in Seville. Maybe in Namibia?
2
"Can it be then that Sydneysiders are merely New York’s Westsiders with a smile and an economy that has not seen a recession in over 20 years."
Add ... that has not seen a recession "or gun violence" in over 20 years. That will explain their smile.
Add ... that has not seen a recession "or gun violence" in over 20 years. That will explain their smile.
5
Enjoyed your column which reminded me of a quote of Mexican poet Octavio Paz -"Beyond my self somewhere I wait for my arrival".
3
Roger - The poor little rich boy!! Oh! The trials and tribulations of the wealthy!
1
What I get is that Cohen is saying that the whole world is homogenizing, that differences between cultures and places are becoming less and less. I had the same take driving a few years ago through Colorado's small towns. According to myth, small towns are different from big cities; they have Main Streets, the people know each other and are friendly; they have stores owned by known individuals, etc. It's the sort of myth Sarah Palin propagates, the "us" vs. "them." But there is, I discovered, little real difference. We all watch the same cable channels, seeing, for example, Bill O'Reilly or Rachel Maddow lash out against some "threat." The local newspaper has largely been replaced by the internet. The names on the gas stations might change, but otherwise they are blandly uniform. We are all, city and country people, into real estate. The firs in Colorado are dying not due to local conditions, but to global warming, about which locals can do little. Small farms have given ways to Big Ag. Etc. So the landscape might look different, the roads might be narrower, but the feel is largely the same.
I am old enough that I remember how the feel of one place differed markedly from another. No more. Thanks, Roger, for making that point.
I am old enough that I remember how the feel of one place differed markedly from another. No more. Thanks, Roger, for making that point.
12
Beautifully written. Your use of language, syntax, and flow have become increasingly rare in the MSM which has been, like you described in your travels, homogenized and commercialized. Thank you for maintaining a sense of style, grace, and imagery in your writing
2
As a many time visitor to AU I can tell you that it is more reminiscent of California, particularly the Bay Area, than pretty much everywhere else I've visited, Cape Town included. (not that I have been to all that many places, mind you).
Throw in a certain degree of cosmopolitan via a large influx of cultures from all over, especially S. Asia, and you come up with a really interesting mix of accents, viewpoints and friendliness. We were standing on the interurban platform at Flinders St. Station, Melbourne, looking a bit perplexed when we were hailed by someone clearly of Indian origin who asked if we needed help and then gave it to us both informatively and charmingly. She tracked us so as to make sure we had gotten it right. "No worries" was absolutely apt.
Throw in a certain degree of cosmopolitan via a large influx of cultures from all over, especially S. Asia, and you come up with a really interesting mix of accents, viewpoints and friendliness. We were standing on the interurban platform at Flinders St. Station, Melbourne, looking a bit perplexed when we were hailed by someone clearly of Indian origin who asked if we needed help and then gave it to us both informatively and charmingly. She tracked us so as to make sure we had gotten it right. "No worries" was absolutely apt.
2
David Efron writes, "As a many time visitor to AU I can tell you that it is more reminiscent of California, particularly the Bay Area, than pretty much everywhere else I've visited, Cape Town included."
Try Chile. It's like California 50 years ago, before it became overcrowded -- particularly Valparaiso, analogous to the old SF.
There are even direct flights from Sydney to Santiago. Maybe the Southern Hemisphere will survive a nuclear war; I can't imagine a much better place to start over.
Try Chile. It's like California 50 years ago, before it became overcrowded -- particularly Valparaiso, analogous to the old SF.
There are even direct flights from Sydney to Santiago. Maybe the Southern Hemisphere will survive a nuclear war; I can't imagine a much better place to start over.
Why would anyone find themselves in Australia and feel like they were back home in New York, unless it was a self-enforced exile from that lovely place.
In a simpler time and place as a Marine on break from NATO work, I walked up and down random streets in London until I was too tired to walk just to appreciate it's Britishness. Said Britishness included so many cultures I had never seen before and loved them all. A bit later I did the same in Paris. Several days, no maps, no phones, just up and down streets of each arrondissement, admiring the sights and sounds, stopping in markets and cafes for food and rest or to just try to digest the many things that were very much NOT like home.
Maybe I can't pull that off again today but at the time I thought every trip was supposed to be like and can't imagine one thing so pressing it could keep that from happening.
In a simpler time and place as a Marine on break from NATO work, I walked up and down random streets in London until I was too tired to walk just to appreciate it's Britishness. Said Britishness included so many cultures I had never seen before and loved them all. A bit later I did the same in Paris. Several days, no maps, no phones, just up and down streets of each arrondissement, admiring the sights and sounds, stopping in markets and cafes for food and rest or to just try to digest the many things that were very much NOT like home.
Maybe I can't pull that off again today but at the time I thought every trip was supposed to be like and can't imagine one thing so pressing it could keep that from happening.
Australia is a wonderful country, great people, safe, and interesting, but David Sedaris described it best. Australia ,he said, is just Canada in a thong
3
Canada is cold.
Australia is warm.
That is the very simple way to keep them straight.
Australia is warm.
That is the very simple way to keep them straight.
In my view, the most significant American cultural export (and all good) is the "Americano" coffee popularized by Starbucks. For a small extra charge relative to the ordinary "drip" coffee, the customer can enjoy a freshly brewed cup that tastes more or less the same everywhere in the world. Same thing for those little green bottles of Perrier or San Pellegrino, which show that French and Italian cultural exports are equally present and appreciated.
It's these reassuring little similarities that help the intelligent traveler appreciate a new location's unique differences. Stay hydrated! Stay alert! It's the tired mind in a thirsty body that sees everything as being the same.
It's these reassuring little similarities that help the intelligent traveler appreciate a new location's unique differences. Stay hydrated! Stay alert! It's the tired mind in a thirsty body that sees everything as being the same.
Aussie expat here, good lord, get out of Sydney....Head for Hobart and drive the island. Wombats, wallabies, and maybe if you're lucky the "innernet cafe" may have wifi and a fresh lamington for you...
1
Turn off your gadgets, get out of the city, live in the moment, and let your mind wander. It is the cure for homogenized urbanism.
13
As I travel sometimes I have the feeling that very little changes except the name on the airport sign. A good word that I heard years ago was to call it "genericity." One possible way to resist this process is to work to promote and celebrate our small cities, towns and villages' uniqueness. This is easier in older communities with their individual history, function and architecture. It is harder to do in sprawling newer developments of condos and townhouses, where nearly everything looks the same from state to state. Wasn't there a song years ago with the refrain, 'little boxes?"
2
"Little Boxes" by Malvina Reynolds in 1962, covered most famously by Pete Seeger in 1963.
Australia is one of the many civilized countries in the world, with health care , livable minimum wages, and gun control. America is not one of those countries. We have many people who greedily hoard their money , get third homes, and dont care if their fellow Americans rot in emergency rooms. Rootin tootin shootem. Uncivilized.
4
And yet....here you are. And I might add, in one of the poshest places in the most expensive city in the nation.
As an Australian rounding out my third year living in the US, I found this fascinating. It reminded me of my first few months, seeing much that was familiar and then being tripped up daily by the minutiae of life.
Learning how to write and cash checks (cheques) from YouTube. Inadvertently offending colleagues by starting my responses to questions with "Look,..." or "Listen..." And I still have no idea how to deal with anything described in ounces, fluid or otherwise.
There are deeper cultural differences that take time to unearth. They surface slowly, often in relaxed conversation. Next time you order a cappuccino, sit down and listen a while.
Learning how to write and cash checks (cheques) from YouTube. Inadvertently offending colleagues by starting my responses to questions with "Look,..." or "Listen..." And I still have no idea how to deal with anything described in ounces, fluid or otherwise.
There are deeper cultural differences that take time to unearth. They surface slowly, often in relaxed conversation. Next time you order a cappuccino, sit down and listen a while.
1
Hi Roger,
Way down in the down under. Just a comment : Way back in 1981, my
husband and I took a trip to Paris. We were so excited on arriving at our hotel on the West Bank; it was something new, something different, until I turned on the TV to view French broadcasting. I nearly cried when the big, bold CNN logo appeared across the screen announcing news from where we had left some eight hours earlier, Atlanta, Georgia. I knew then that everything was going to change. Atlanta had followed us to Paris. Some people would find that comforting but I, like you, felt discomfited by it. We went to France three more times, but we never turned on the television in France again; nor any other place we traveled either. All best, Nancy Goldberg
P. S. I have told and retold the story about the bird and your Uncle in Italy during WWII. Be well.
Way down in the down under. Just a comment : Way back in 1981, my
husband and I took a trip to Paris. We were so excited on arriving at our hotel on the West Bank; it was something new, something different, until I turned on the TV to view French broadcasting. I nearly cried when the big, bold CNN logo appeared across the screen announcing news from where we had left some eight hours earlier, Atlanta, Georgia. I knew then that everything was going to change. Atlanta had followed us to Paris. Some people would find that comforting but I, like you, felt discomfited by it. We went to France three more times, but we never turned on the television in France again; nor any other place we traveled either. All best, Nancy Goldberg
P. S. I have told and retold the story about the bird and your Uncle in Italy during WWII. Be well.
1
So basically, no matter where you go there you are. Things may look the same, the Western world has infiltrated corporately at least to the extent that shopping is made easier by less choice. You'll always have the Starbucks when you need it and if fast food beckons there is McDonalds, et.al.
There are also issues we share and in most places there will always be elections. We dominate because we have an orange clown representing one party and it's hard to believe someone so unqualified has thus risen. They follow us and they emulate us and they sometimes are even aghast at us.
I'm betting if you barely scratch the surface that Australia remains sane though looks may deceive. Underneath it all is a country and people who care about issues and sort them out without destroying anything. They live well and with a history. They do things for their citizens without obstructing them.
What they have is enviable right now so judge not by the cover of the book but by the content of daily life and concern for each other.
There are also issues we share and in most places there will always be elections. We dominate because we have an orange clown representing one party and it's hard to believe someone so unqualified has thus risen. They follow us and they emulate us and they sometimes are even aghast at us.
I'm betting if you barely scratch the surface that Australia remains sane though looks may deceive. Underneath it all is a country and people who care about issues and sort them out without destroying anything. They live well and with a history. They do things for their citizens without obstructing them.
What they have is enviable right now so judge not by the cover of the book but by the content of daily life and concern for each other.
And religion doesn't insert itself too much on Aussies....the separation of church & state is in place. Did I mention guns?
1
While I agree with your point about the global homogenization of experience, I'm not sure that picking America and Australia, two British-settled, English-speaking, continental nations with a dominant Anglo-Saxon majorities and marginalized brown minorities, is necessarily the best proof of that point.
6
As just another American who's visited Australia, may I say it seems you have a lot to learn.
When you go to Canberra, their Washington D.C. notice that their "Congress" is housed in a building that has a grass roof. Notice that the statue of their War Hero is of a man who brought down wounded soldier after soldier from Gallopoli's cliffs in WWI, not only celebrating a man courageous in his compassion, but ignoring that the battle was the major defeat the Allies suffered against the Ottoman Empire.
Stop in smaller towns. You'll no doubt find people more cosmopolitan than most in our big cities - many of them have taken fairly long trips out of country.
Also, while you're traveling around, watch the drinking. In Sydney, you can be arrested for driving with about half the alcohol level as here in the States. And they even pull you over on Monday mornings, so no weekend binges. (By the way, unbeknown to most Americans, they produce excellent Port to go with some great wines that never get to the U.S.A.)
There is so much more. Try really seeing the country and people; then write the column again.
When you go to Canberra, their Washington D.C. notice that their "Congress" is housed in a building that has a grass roof. Notice that the statue of their War Hero is of a man who brought down wounded soldier after soldier from Gallopoli's cliffs in WWI, not only celebrating a man courageous in his compassion, but ignoring that the battle was the major defeat the Allies suffered against the Ottoman Empire.
Stop in smaller towns. You'll no doubt find people more cosmopolitan than most in our big cities - many of them have taken fairly long trips out of country.
Also, while you're traveling around, watch the drinking. In Sydney, you can be arrested for driving with about half the alcohol level as here in the States. And they even pull you over on Monday mornings, so no weekend binges. (By the way, unbeknown to most Americans, they produce excellent Port to go with some great wines that never get to the U.S.A.)
There is so much more. Try really seeing the country and people; then write the column again.
2
When my son and his family (including my dear grandchildren) started talking about moving to Australia (his wife was born there and still had her citizenship even after leaving it when she was seven), I tried for three years to deal with it, but finally they left and settled in Brisbane. Since they moved, nearly two years ago, I've had a chance to visit them twice. They are happily settled in a nice country, experiencing the benefits that have been described in these comments.
I miss them terribly, but I think they made the right choice.
I miss them terribly, but I think they made the right choice.
3
Come join them!
You will be most welcomed (especially by the Grand Children!)
You will be most welcomed (especially by the Grand Children!)
Roger C would be uplifted if he would have cited a different Cavafy poem, not "The City" but "Ithaka"!: Keep Ithaka always in your mind. Arriving there is what you are destined for. But do not hurry the journey at all. Better if it lasts for years, so you are old by the time you reach the island,wealthy with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.
Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you would not have set out.
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.
Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you would not have set out.
2
People who make quick trips to East Asia or confine themselves to the affluent international business ghettos often complain that "Asia has become too Americanized."
Perhaps the best response to this perception is the advice I received from a long-term expat when I first arrived to live in Japan: "People here may wear jeans and play baseball like Americans and eat at McDonald's like Americans, but don't assume that they think like Americans."
It's true that the world's commercial cultures are merging, and it's not a one-way street. Witness the Westerners who devour Asian anime and cuisine with equal gusto.
But if you look beneath the surface, you find that a Japanese McDonald's, with its smiling, step-to-it, perpetually mopping and cleaning employees and the surprising menu items is very different from an American McDonald's and that Japanese baseball is different enough from American baseball that Robert Whiting has made a career of writing about it. (Check out "The Chrysanthemum and the Bat.") Also, don't assume that it's all right to wear jeans in all situations in which an American would wear jeans.
It is correct to say that the advanced Asian countries have modernized, but deep down, they are still very much themselves.
Another contributor wrote about the homogenization of America. Yes, Holiday Inns are everywhere, but cultures change more slowly. Otherwise, we wouldn't have such a strong cultural divide between the red states and the blue states.
Perhaps the best response to this perception is the advice I received from a long-term expat when I first arrived to live in Japan: "People here may wear jeans and play baseball like Americans and eat at McDonald's like Americans, but don't assume that they think like Americans."
It's true that the world's commercial cultures are merging, and it's not a one-way street. Witness the Westerners who devour Asian anime and cuisine with equal gusto.
But if you look beneath the surface, you find that a Japanese McDonald's, with its smiling, step-to-it, perpetually mopping and cleaning employees and the surprising menu items is very different from an American McDonald's and that Japanese baseball is different enough from American baseball that Robert Whiting has made a career of writing about it. (Check out "The Chrysanthemum and the Bat.") Also, don't assume that it's all right to wear jeans in all situations in which an American would wear jeans.
It is correct to say that the advanced Asian countries have modernized, but deep down, they are still very much themselves.
Another contributor wrote about the homogenization of America. Yes, Holiday Inns are everywhere, but cultures change more slowly. Otherwise, we wouldn't have such a strong cultural divide between the red states and the blue states.
2
Mate,
I reckon you need to give my native land a fair go. First impressions can be deceptive, particularly when you might be burdened by the jet lag that travel Down Under can inflict on you Yanks.
So one piece of advice that you can use anywhere there in Oz. Go to the pub. There's one around the corner from your hotel. I don't know which one you might be holed up in, but I reckon it's a safe bet there is a watering hole within cooee of you, so stop putting on the dog with your cafe culture and head to the nearest pub, with alacrity. Order a beer in a loud, clear voice and I can pretty much guarantee you that within a couple of ticks, you'll have an Aussie at your elbow asking where you're from, what brings you to our sunburnt land, and where you're headed next. You'll also likely get a free beer or two out of it.
Jump a ferry, find other pubs. By the beach in Manly, perhaps. Or along the main street in Balmain. Head to Paddington or Surry Hills and hit the pub before you get lured into the restaurants or shops that, yes, might even look like something from your US of A. But please, for your next piece, and before you head walkabout to the Outback, get to a few pubs there in Sydney, and you'll discover a true difference between Australia and nearly anywhere else (shut up Poms, I know, you have them in England too. Ours have colder beer and more Aussies. Just).
Yours, the son of a publican and of "the bush".
I reckon you need to give my native land a fair go. First impressions can be deceptive, particularly when you might be burdened by the jet lag that travel Down Under can inflict on you Yanks.
So one piece of advice that you can use anywhere there in Oz. Go to the pub. There's one around the corner from your hotel. I don't know which one you might be holed up in, but I reckon it's a safe bet there is a watering hole within cooee of you, so stop putting on the dog with your cafe culture and head to the nearest pub, with alacrity. Order a beer in a loud, clear voice and I can pretty much guarantee you that within a couple of ticks, you'll have an Aussie at your elbow asking where you're from, what brings you to our sunburnt land, and where you're headed next. You'll also likely get a free beer or two out of it.
Jump a ferry, find other pubs. By the beach in Manly, perhaps. Or along the main street in Balmain. Head to Paddington or Surry Hills and hit the pub before you get lured into the restaurants or shops that, yes, might even look like something from your US of A. But please, for your next piece, and before you head walkabout to the Outback, get to a few pubs there in Sydney, and you'll discover a true difference between Australia and nearly anywhere else (shut up Poms, I know, you have them in England too. Ours have colder beer and more Aussies. Just).
Yours, the son of a publican and of "the bush".
3
Damian....I hope translation of your comment is available on request.(lol)
...'Strine is such a strain for those Yanks!!
...'Strine is such a strain for those Yanks!!
Roger Cohen pointedly captures the double bind dilemma that comes with homogenization of experience which he describes as: "How reassuring! How desperate!" There's both a need for continuity/sameness and at the same time a need for novelty; for getting lost in awe and newness; for losing ourselves. Yet, our super charged age of technology while providing enormous benefits like access to information and social connectivity can also be addictive making it hard to break away. One way out of this conundrum is through the practice of mindfulness. Of making conscious aware choices about how much technology to allow into our lives and to take up our precious time. When our personal expiration date arrives, few of us will declare I wish I had spent more time texting? And for a momentary experience of losing ourselves and experiencing a sense of awe, there are our National Parks kept mostly wild offering that experience in spades.
The problem, Dear Roger, is you are traveling in comfort on English-speaking land. Try traveling with just a backpack, stay in hostels, ride on local busses, eat where the common folk eat, and above all go someplace where English is not the first language. You will see how quickly comfort and civilization-as-we-know-it disappear, you are surviving by your wits, and you will know you have definitely left Kansas.
2
Oh, I think your readers get it by now, Mr. Stone.
you are the proponent of open borders in every European and European majority country around the world...but support restricted, Jewish only immigration to Israel, and tacitly support Israel's apartheid colonization of the West Bank.
does that make you a progressive, or more of a proponent of 'Jewish exceptionalism?'
you are the proponent of open borders in every European and European majority country around the world...but support restricted, Jewish only immigration to Israel, and tacitly support Israel's apartheid colonization of the West Bank.
does that make you a progressive, or more of a proponent of 'Jewish exceptionalism?'
2
Apparently you haven't tried driving yet... Just make sure you drive on the "correct" side of the road, turn on the turn signal instead of the window blades, things that make all former British colonies and a few other places distinctly different.
If anyone wants a great laugh, bring up a video of the Australian parliament in session. Perhaps if the US congress dispensed with its idiotic decorum and called the opposition vile names and stomped out or was thrown out by the opposition leader, we could take the skin off the onion and see what all politicians are truly like.
2
You need not go all the way to the outback Mr. Cohen to find the differences. For me the difference is all about values. Ask a local to define what a 'top bloke' or a 'good woman' is - that'll help. And you're just as likely to discover those differences on a Sydney beach as you are in the outback. Like an optical illusion the differences with the USA aren't immediately obvious, but once you notice them they stick out like the proverbial.
The abundance of things that want to eat you or at least gratuitously poison you remain a uniquely Australian thing, global brand-transcendent. 100,000 saltwater crocodiles for every human in the NW Territories is the stat recently published while detailing the unfortunate experience of a couple of guys looking for shrimp (one dead, one still alive after pelting the animals with spark plugs and tools).
Not recommending sampling this feature but some places truly do offer differentiation.
Not recommending sampling this feature but some places truly do offer differentiation.
Susan Anderson’s comments are so timely, so cogent, her words should have occupied the editorial space, rather than the other way around. She has said most of what every thinking person believes. Left unsaid is that the ravages of climate change are upon us. NASA came out very recently with the statement that the milestone of 2 degrees C, predicted for 2021 has already been breached this Spring. We’re now hurtling into the unknown with little chance of slowing down Arctic, Greenland, and Antarctic melting, at our own peril. People should stop flying now. Visiting and business should be done through WebEx and Skype. Not that this is enough to put the brakes on, at this point, but at least we should give it a try. After the horrible 9/11 attack in New York City, all airplanes were grounded. Guess what, the air was cleaner than it had been for decades and temperatures went down. A huge carbon footprint was removed. Instead of whining about diminished travel experience, let us focus on new ways to experience life (the human imagination is awesome), and how about trying to savor what we do have, as well as save the human species. It might be too late, but shouldn’t we at least give it our best shot? A good start would be to stop all flying.
Liberals see religion as a reactionary force in society, so it doesn’t matter how “progressive” a church may be, because its authority rests on reactionary principles. (Of course, it doesn’t help that conservatives have been known to abuse this authority for their own ends.) But all governance rests on force and coercion, except the compulsion of civil law is not voluntary. People have to face this reality when space for the numinous is squeezed out. They have no reprieve from the hell of their own making.
1
Sydney is the opposite of New York. The subway is not a sea of misery, the buses are new and sparkling and people on them are fresh and cheerful, in NYC they are all somnambulists. The public transport in Boston and Philadelphia is a mobile museum. The streets and parks are clean, compare Centennial Park with Williambsburg Park which is a garbage tip. The coffee is good everywhere and the prices you see are the prices you pay.
2
Problem is the servo doesn't sell gas, but petrol.
1
Last year, I spent over 3 months in Australia (Perth/Fremantle, Melbourne/Adelaide, Sydney area, Gold Coast/Brisbane, Port Douglas/Great Barrier Reef, Darwin, and the outback, I was surprised to see how closely this country resembled the U.S.. Not just in the natural landscapes and cities/towns, but also in the general culture, economy, politics, industries and technologies.
While both countries are eerily similar in their massive sizes (imagine overlaying the continental U.S. over continental Australia), the population differences are truly worlds apart... the U.S. with now almost 320 million, compared to AU's 22 million (only 2 million more than the state of Florida).
So, while it's true that Australia has pretty much the same things as the U.S., America is highly more complex with with it's development and infrastructure, given it's enormous population and more diverse/multi-raced culture.
While both countries are eerily similar in their massive sizes (imagine overlaying the continental U.S. over continental Australia), the population differences are truly worlds apart... the U.S. with now almost 320 million, compared to AU's 22 million (only 2 million more than the state of Florida).
So, while it's true that Australia has pretty much the same things as the U.S., America is highly more complex with with it's development and infrastructure, given it's enormous population and more diverse/multi-raced culture.
2
Roger, you need to get out of the hotel area. You'll start to notice real differences when you are walking across a park and a flock of cockatoos flies over your head. The birds alone are worth the long flight. Global corporate culture is strangling us, sure. But you will see the same heart-shaped foam in Beijing as well. We and the Aussies are former British colonies and have a long tradition as loyal allies. So there are many similarities. But the differences, though often subtle, are huge
Nice article -- a few thoughts:
a) Unlike the U.S., much of the political mud-slinging in Australia takes place face-to-face during "Question Time", held each day Parliament is in session. These question & answer sessions often can be much more informative & entertaining than our non-stop onslaught of tv ads. (Imagine if "W", Cheney, Condaleezza, & Rummy had been obligated to face up, across a table, & on live television, to the opposition for an hour every day during their misguided, mismanaged wars!);
b) Not quite as certain about Sydney, but if you had been in Melbourne, your cappuccino likely would have been quite superior to the one you had in NYC;
c) Most likely, you would have been looking for some "petrol" rather than "gas" for your outback expedition.
a) Unlike the U.S., much of the political mud-slinging in Australia takes place face-to-face during "Question Time", held each day Parliament is in session. These question & answer sessions often can be much more informative & entertaining than our non-stop onslaught of tv ads. (Imagine if "W", Cheney, Condaleezza, & Rummy had been obligated to face up, across a table, & on live television, to the opposition for an hour every day during their misguided, mismanaged wars!);
b) Not quite as certain about Sydney, but if you had been in Melbourne, your cappuccino likely would have been quite superior to the one you had in NYC;
c) Most likely, you would have been looking for some "petrol" rather than "gas" for your outback expedition.
2
Mr. Cohen, you can find a vastly different life and landscape just by going to any poor area in the United States. Life there is far different.
Of course, what most of those folks aspire to is exactly the life you are describing.
Maybe you didn't go in the right direction. A different world is closer than you think. After all, you went from one former British colony founded by ex-convicts to another similar one. Perhaps you should seek a place with classier antecedents.
Russia, for example.
Of course, what most of those folks aspire to is exactly the life you are describing.
Maybe you didn't go in the right direction. A different world is closer than you think. After all, you went from one former British colony founded by ex-convicts to another similar one. Perhaps you should seek a place with classier antecedents.
Russia, for example.
2
A big challenge in an increasingly globalized world, one in which cultures blend into each other and individual cultures disappear and the cultural platform in common becomes one of consumer society, a world banal, in which people become branded, tattooed by product after product and there is no escape to any other society or wilderness?
It would appear humans have not solved a fundamental problem. Last night I listened to Nikhil Banerjee perform a raga (Indian music) and it was obvious he is a vastly more serious, sober, intelligent man than the average and far from banality. But it is also obvious he was born into a society in which the average cultural platform (Indian culture) is far from perfect--in fact much poverty, etc. exists.
Now the problem seems to be how to design a cultural platform in common which actually does improve on the past, one which overcomes poverty but is not banal, etc. The culture today, and originating in the West, so many despise called consumer society has its positives, its lofty geniuses like the relationship of Nikhil Banerjee to negatives of Indian society, but we humans have not overcome the fundamental problem of society being a structure with inadequate or even negative cultural platform in common out of which relatively few lofty members of society manage to emerge. In fact we probably cannot speak of the process called education having ground unless we solve the problem of a truly healthy cultural platform in common for society.
It would appear humans have not solved a fundamental problem. Last night I listened to Nikhil Banerjee perform a raga (Indian music) and it was obvious he is a vastly more serious, sober, intelligent man than the average and far from banality. But it is also obvious he was born into a society in which the average cultural platform (Indian culture) is far from perfect--in fact much poverty, etc. exists.
Now the problem seems to be how to design a cultural platform in common which actually does improve on the past, one which overcomes poverty but is not banal, etc. The culture today, and originating in the West, so many despise called consumer society has its positives, its lofty geniuses like the relationship of Nikhil Banerjee to negatives of Indian society, but we humans have not overcome the fundamental problem of society being a structure with inadequate or even negative cultural platform in common out of which relatively few lofty members of society manage to emerge. In fact we probably cannot speak of the process called education having ground unless we solve the problem of a truly healthy cultural platform in common for society.
Australia began as a British Empire white penal colony.
America began as a British Empire white colony.
An enduring root of evil empire for any and all who were not colored black and brown by White Anglo-Saxon Protestant colonization and enslavement.
America began as a British Empire white colony.
An enduring root of evil empire for any and all who were not colored black and brown by White Anglo-Saxon Protestant colonization and enslavement.
1
I hate to tell you this but the British also sent convicts to the American colonies. So penals all round.
I love to tell you this but the British sent enslaved Africans to the American colonies who were "a species of property" lesser than any moral degenerate criminal white penal.
The 2.3 million Americans in prison are 25% of the world's total with only 5% of Earthlings. And although they are only 13.2 % of Americans blacks are 40% of the Americans mass incarcerated carefully preserving the colored exception to the 13th Amendment's abolition of "slavery and involuntary servitude".
Slavery was legal in the Americas. The only "penals" that I care about are "black like me".
Roger Cohen has no compassion for nor notice of the 6 million Christian Muslim Arab Palestinian Israeli's living under the dominion of the Israeli Empire by occupation, blockade/siege, exile and 2nd class citizenship by denying their divine natural equal certain unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
The British "royal" house is German. There are more German Americans than there are any other kind of Americans by national ethnic origin or colored "race".
The 2.3 million Americans in prison are 25% of the world's total with only 5% of Earthlings. And although they are only 13.2 % of Americans blacks are 40% of the Americans mass incarcerated carefully preserving the colored exception to the 13th Amendment's abolition of "slavery and involuntary servitude".
Slavery was legal in the Americas. The only "penals" that I care about are "black like me".
Roger Cohen has no compassion for nor notice of the 6 million Christian Muslim Arab Palestinian Israeli's living under the dominion of the Israeli Empire by occupation, blockade/siege, exile and 2nd class citizenship by denying their divine natural equal certain unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
The British "royal" house is German. There are more German Americans than there are any other kind of Americans by national ethnic origin or colored "race".
1
As the Brits would say--Brilliant!
Well Roger like New York Sydney is a world city - very much part of our contemporary, globalised world. Those remarks by Mr Dutton were considered really extreme for here. There have even been calls for him to resign. Australia has over double the US's level of foreign-born. There is racism and xenophobia here as there is everywhere - but there's also a lot of pride at Australia's record of accepting and integrating migrants peacefully. Australians in great numbers (or at least in certain important electorates) just don't like asylum seekers unilaterally deciding to come here by boat. The minister was expressing his dislike of our opposition's intention of doubling our refugee intake if they win government. Those remarks were part of this federal election campaign. It started two weeks ago and will be over in six. And every federal politician in both our house of reps and senate is facing the prospect of electoral oblivion.
More people drink "cafe lattes" rather than "cappuccinos" here. Less froth. Vegemite is great - but only if spread thinly on buttered toast. You buy "petrol" at a "servo". If you ask for "gas" there they'll think you mean a bottle of propane. After getting some petrol go and buy some great Australian wine or craft beer from one of our "drive-in bottle shops". Someone will come to your car and say "What will it be mate?" When you tell them what you want they will say "No worries" and go and get it and bring it to you. Is that different enough for you?
More people drink "cafe lattes" rather than "cappuccinos" here. Less froth. Vegemite is great - but only if spread thinly on buttered toast. You buy "petrol" at a "servo". If you ask for "gas" there they'll think you mean a bottle of propane. After getting some petrol go and buy some great Australian wine or craft beer from one of our "drive-in bottle shops". Someone will come to your car and say "What will it be mate?" When you tell them what you want they will say "No worries" and go and get it and bring it to you. Is that different enough for you?
3
Maybe it's the easiness of things that make it stale. Everything is quick, no real physical challenge. And when there is physical challenge it's in athletic gear, by choice, to prolong good health. Food is served, not caught and cooked. Travel is comfortable, all the comforts at our beck and call--movies, music, a beer, food. To get a physical challenge we manufacture it, go for a hike, or trek to the Outback. Rarely is that challenge foisted upon us. We have lost something in our evolution. An essential connection to earth perhaps. Now it's plastics, and headphones, and wifi, and quick and perfect food. No real challenge in travel. No struggle with land, with gravity. Too easy.
Even Japan is not that foreign if you make an effort to learn something about the life and language.
1
One commentator once observed that Mr. Cohen's articles appear to be written as though sitting in the first-class cabin of an airliner. They come dangerously close to being a parody of the thoughts of an upper-class, successful white man at a certain life stage.
It is interesting to me how many of the columnists of the NYTimes seem to have these characteristics (Gail Collins and Paul Krugman are honorable exceptions).
It is interesting to me how many of the columnists of the NYTimes seem to have these characteristics (Gail Collins and Paul Krugman are honorable exceptions).
2
Ditch the phone -- you really don't need it, you just think you do.
The best thing about loving where you live as I do New York is that you don't have to search for something better or different. Just enjoy where you go and don't compare places because it is the people that make us all the same. So talk, talk, talk to as many as you can and you will come home fulfilled.
2
You need to explore AirBnB!! Renting a room in a locals' house is a wonderful way to get immersed in the culture. We've rented rooms all over the world and have had interesting discussions with the owners -- not to mention tips for living as a local would.
If you want homogeneity, stay at a hotel.
If you want homogeneity, stay at a hotel.
2
Welcome to Australia, mate!
I remember feeling the same sense of impending doom in the early 1990s, when I visited a McDonald’s in London. The House of Many (Many) Stiffs (Westminster Abbey) was still unique, Kensington still was charming, Londoners were still Londoners, but the handwriting clearly was on the wall: by increment the world would be homogenized. Haven’t been to the Abbey lately – does HSBC advertise yet on the actual tomb of St. Edward the Confessor?
Roger thinks he’ll escape inevitability by heading to Australia’s Outback, but what he’ll probably find is the odd aborigine with green hair and ear buds, eyes unfocused as he ponders the lyrics of Isolation Berlin and his uncomfortable situation in a culture that still doesn’t … quite … accept him.
Embrace the uniform horror.
Roger thinks he’ll escape inevitability by heading to Australia’s Outback, but what he’ll probably find is the odd aborigine with green hair and ear buds, eyes unfocused as he ponders the lyrics of Isolation Berlin and his uncomfortable situation in a culture that still doesn’t … quite … accept him.
Embrace the uniform horror.
If you want to escape from America ( and Trump) Australia is not the place to go.
Who gave you that advice?
Who gave you that advice?
6
Drumpf is all over the place.
There is no escape, even in most other places.
But times of election campaigns are periods of lesser intellectual use and will usually end after election has closed.
So there is hope that Drumpf goes away in a few months.
There is no escape, even in most other places.
But times of election campaigns are periods of lesser intellectual use and will usually end after election has closed.
So there is hope that Drumpf goes away in a few months.
Of all the delusions kidnapping our future and enabling nature's revenge, marketing might be the worst.
Marketing has taken us all over. Free isn't free, but people want the goods and don't seem to care their minds have been kidnapped by an out-of-control machine that traces and targets their every click. Reality isn't relevant any more, until, too late to back away and pay attention, all the consequences of waste, exploitation, dumping, and poisoning our once hospitable planet explode into relevance.
We all take cheap abundant energy for granted, but the sources of that energy are toxic, not only in heat-trapping emissions, disrupting our planetary circulation, but in local toxicity, which includes radioactive as well as other forms of toxic waste.
But all we want is more fancier bigger cars, more and fancier computers, more spectacle. Could we slow down and take pleasure in the small natural pleasures of a life well lived? Or do we prefer constant artificial stimulation?
Kids bully their parents for more toys. Parents can't bear to have their children out of reach via cell phone. Teachers despair of getting students' attention. The solution? More electronics, newer electronics, more toxic waste as the circus goes faster and faster and faster.
It is, indeed a Roman circus, distracting from our ability, as a community, to share, solve problems, and survive.
Marketing has taken us all over. Free isn't free, but people want the goods and don't seem to care their minds have been kidnapped by an out-of-control machine that traces and targets their every click. Reality isn't relevant any more, until, too late to back away and pay attention, all the consequences of waste, exploitation, dumping, and poisoning our once hospitable planet explode into relevance.
We all take cheap abundant energy for granted, but the sources of that energy are toxic, not only in heat-trapping emissions, disrupting our planetary circulation, but in local toxicity, which includes radioactive as well as other forms of toxic waste.
But all we want is more fancier bigger cars, more and fancier computers, more spectacle. Could we slow down and take pleasure in the small natural pleasures of a life well lived? Or do we prefer constant artificial stimulation?
Kids bully their parents for more toys. Parents can't bear to have their children out of reach via cell phone. Teachers despair of getting students' attention. The solution? More electronics, newer electronics, more toxic waste as the circus goes faster and faster and faster.
It is, indeed a Roman circus, distracting from our ability, as a community, to share, solve problems, and survive.
31
Susan, I am all for simplicity and nature. But you've never lived in a world without "cheap abundant energy". I have a feeling you would not like it very much.
It's not just the nice computer and "always on" internet access you have enjoyed simply to read this article and post a comment. Or a bunch of plastic kids toys.
It is also being freezing cold in winter...sitting in the dark, no computer because there is no electricity. Because there are rolling blackouts or brownouts. It is being stifling hot in summer (as the environment gets hotter!) -- wretched for anyone elderly, sick, pregnant, etc. -- because there is obviously no air conditioning (it's a giant energy suck).
It's not having a car, and spotty bus service, and having to bicycle everywhere -- in the winter. In Boston. In a blizzard. Or walk, which is great if you are 30 and fit and in good health. Not so good if you are 70, or have bad knees, or need a walker.
It's eating cabbage and potatoes and turnips -- all winter -- 7 months of year up in Boston. Forget about those nice coffee drinks from Starbucks, or imported olive oil or imported cheese or tropical fruit all winter.
It's easy to pontificate about "how everyone should use less energy", without looking at how YOU use energy -- cheap, abundant energy -- you know, the kind that lets you take a HOT shower every day or two, instead of a sponge bath with a bucket of ice cold water once a week.
It's not just the nice computer and "always on" internet access you have enjoyed simply to read this article and post a comment. Or a bunch of plastic kids toys.
It is also being freezing cold in winter...sitting in the dark, no computer because there is no electricity. Because there are rolling blackouts or brownouts. It is being stifling hot in summer (as the environment gets hotter!) -- wretched for anyone elderly, sick, pregnant, etc. -- because there is obviously no air conditioning (it's a giant energy suck).
It's not having a car, and spotty bus service, and having to bicycle everywhere -- in the winter. In Boston. In a blizzard. Or walk, which is great if you are 30 and fit and in good health. Not so good if you are 70, or have bad knees, or need a walker.
It's eating cabbage and potatoes and turnips -- all winter -- 7 months of year up in Boston. Forget about those nice coffee drinks from Starbucks, or imported olive oil or imported cheese or tropical fruit all winter.
It's easy to pontificate about "how everyone should use less energy", without looking at how YOU use energy -- cheap, abundant energy -- you know, the kind that lets you take a HOT shower every day or two, instead of a sponge bath with a bucket of ice cold water once a week.
1
There was a difference you may not have noticed. The waiter who served your "brekkie" was paid at least $16 to $20 an hour, depending upon whether the restaurant owner provided full benefits, the national minimum wage.
Everyone in Australia has health insurance and employers are required to pay 9% of wages into an individual superannuation fund for each worker, which accumulates into a generous retirement asset.
Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth are included in the Top 10 most liveable cities in the world, an impressive achievement for a small country of 28 million.
But Australia has a long term problem called climate change. If you think it's hot and dry there now, just wait.
Everyone in Australia has health insurance and employers are required to pay 9% of wages into an individual superannuation fund for each worker, which accumulates into a generous retirement asset.
Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth are included in the Top 10 most liveable cities in the world, an impressive achievement for a small country of 28 million.
But Australia has a long term problem called climate change. If you think it's hot and dry there now, just wait.
136
Oh, I didn't know climate change only affected Australians.
Yet beyond the surface level, you'll find very little is the same. I would love to see you, Mr. Cohen, guiding your readers through that deeper nuance rather than pointing out the, well, obvious that too many "travellers" or expats will base their experiences on. Sure there are more similarities "nowadays" which is reason for a responsible traveler or expat to explore depth of their host country, beyond the joggers (they are in Myanmar and Niue and Cook Islands, too) and social media (also in these places, if not a bit slower to connect). I now reside in Auckland. It looks a lot like America at times. But the Kiwi mentality, view of the world, value-system is very different indeed. I just arrived in Switzerland to visit family. There's more and more English every time I come back. There are lovely mountains. It's nothing like New Zealand. This evening I will board a flight to Barcelona. There are a few new yoga studios I will visit while there that I just looked up. This is something that was not there when I used to live in Spain. But, you can believe that those Catalanes are no Angelino (I think that's what someone from LA is called?!). I love your writing but this time it seemed to be like something out of The New Zealand Herald. Go back to your depth. It may be your jet-lag affecting you.
4
We live in a world where borders mean less and less every day and will one day mean nothing.
There are the petty, superficial similarities that merely dull the individuality and distinctiveness of each place: Hipsters in Melbourne eat and dress exactly the same as hipsters in Montreal, Moscow or Montevideo; Instagram photos by someone from Dublin look the same as Instagram photos by someone from Denver.
But a borderless world – both metaphorically and literally – also brings with it worrisome consequences. Bad ideas can spread more virulently than before. The ideology of Islamist jihadism can spring up as easily in the suburbs of San Bernardino or the center of Paris as they can in the Pakistani madrassas or the Arabian desert.
Yes, the “world is flat”. We can no longer afford to assume that tragic events are isolated. There are some ideologies that are simply incompatible with civil society and that pose unique dangers to the emergence of a global civilization.
The solution, however, certainly isn’t to elect narcissistic, short-sighted demagogues to the upper echelons of political power. The combination of great power and great stupidity – now, more than ever – is simply terrifying.
As the author Sam Harris notes, “Civil society, on a global scale, is not merely a nice idea; it is essential for the maintenance of civilization.”
There are the petty, superficial similarities that merely dull the individuality and distinctiveness of each place: Hipsters in Melbourne eat and dress exactly the same as hipsters in Montreal, Moscow or Montevideo; Instagram photos by someone from Dublin look the same as Instagram photos by someone from Denver.
But a borderless world – both metaphorically and literally – also brings with it worrisome consequences. Bad ideas can spread more virulently than before. The ideology of Islamist jihadism can spring up as easily in the suburbs of San Bernardino or the center of Paris as they can in the Pakistani madrassas or the Arabian desert.
Yes, the “world is flat”. We can no longer afford to assume that tragic events are isolated. There are some ideologies that are simply incompatible with civil society and that pose unique dangers to the emergence of a global civilization.
The solution, however, certainly isn’t to elect narcissistic, short-sighted demagogues to the upper echelons of political power. The combination of great power and great stupidity – now, more than ever – is simply terrifying.
As the author Sam Harris notes, “Civil society, on a global scale, is not merely a nice idea; it is essential for the maintenance of civilization.”
4
Thanks you Mr. Cohen for this delightful article from Down Under.
The way Australians speak English can really be confusingly funny. I cracked up when a hotel clerk in Sydney said to me 'I'll knock you up at 9am, instead of saying I'll wake you up at such and such a time.
But thanks to Mr. Cohen, I also learned that in the British Commonwealth of Australia the L party is spelled in the American fashion, Labor, and not in the British one, Labour.
The way Australians speak English can really be confusingly funny. I cracked up when a hotel clerk in Sydney said to me 'I'll knock you up at 9am, instead of saying I'll wake you up at such and such a time.
But thanks to Mr. Cohen, I also learned that in the British Commonwealth of Australia the L party is spelled in the American fashion, Labor, and not in the British one, Labour.
1
Er, that means the same thing in Australia, so your clerk might have been a bit forward there. As for politics, it is rather confusing that the conservative party is Liberal and the liberal party is Labor. Go figure.
"Labor" is old English and so are many other American spellings.
@ V I became well aware what 'knock you up' means in Australia.
And yes, it is confusing that the Cons call themselves Liberal.
And yes, it is confusing that the Cons call themselves Liberal.
Dear Mr. Cohen,
Anywhere? Really? The next time you want to get away from it all, book a flight to Magwi, South Sudan near the border of Uganda or Oxonobod, Uzbekistan near the border of Kyrgyzstan. Leave behind all your electronic devices safely locked up at your office. Do not tell anyone where you are going. After you arrive, walk five miles away from the airport in any direction and sit down. Believe me…you will have no sense of déjà vu. If you get bored and want some excitement, start waving that American flag you brought with you.
Anywhere? Really? The next time you want to get away from it all, book a flight to Magwi, South Sudan near the border of Uganda or Oxonobod, Uzbekistan near the border of Kyrgyzstan. Leave behind all your electronic devices safely locked up at your office. Do not tell anyone where you are going. After you arrive, walk five miles away from the airport in any direction and sit down. Believe me…you will have no sense of déjà vu. If you get bored and want some excitement, start waving that American flag you brought with you.
4
Most of us can't do that, but if you want a glimpse of the world that is very different than the US or Europe or Oz....I highly recommend the 2004 documentary "The Long Way Round", about a band of motorcyclists (led by of all people, actor Ewan McGregor) who literally circumnavigate the world, going through the remotest parts of Siberia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Russia before returning to the US via Alaska (yes, it really is just off our front porch!). It is a real eye-opener.
I assure you there are no McDonalds or Walmarts out there. Most of these places have no paved roads.
I assure you there are no McDonalds or Walmarts out there. Most of these places have no paved roads.
1
Aussie like to think of themselves as unique individuals, but they really aren't, thanks to American "culture."
1
We're sorry if our talk about politics is boring you, Mr. Cohen, but we don't all get paid to fly to Australia and ramble about what we did yesterday.
9
You not on only seem to be jealous of those able to fly to far away shores on business paid for by the company, but seem to have overlooked that the Aussies are talking about the politics in the US as much as those in all other advanced nations because of the assent of Il Duce Trumpolini as the leader of our two parties.
1
Cities are Cities Mr Cohen. They are hubs of commerce and even the Silk Road had overlaps in experience.
In 2002 I drove down the Gold Coast to Melbourne from Sydney. It was everything you might imagine. Out of the way fuel stations with nothing but a kettle and instant coffee or a tea bag. Signs that advertised a single McDonald 120 km ahead. Lots of road, albeit lush road without the passing of many over vehicles. Many kangaroos, emu and wombats but very few people.
Most recently I took this drive in 2013. Every little town had their own special cafe serving all manner or coffee, sandwiches and sweets. Every single one advertised WiFi. Shops had sprung up. There were hotels and B&B's everywhere. McDonalds was no longer something special. Every other town had one.
I consider myself fortunate to have experienced some of what Australia had to offer before America stepped in to "fix" it. But there is still a lot of the country left unchanged and open.
It's a gorgeous place with wonderful people. And the people are just as unique as ever in the changing landscape. Leave the cities behind. Talk to them. And for heavens sake, turn off your devices. It's about the people. All about the people.
In 2002 I drove down the Gold Coast to Melbourne from Sydney. It was everything you might imagine. Out of the way fuel stations with nothing but a kettle and instant coffee or a tea bag. Signs that advertised a single McDonald 120 km ahead. Lots of road, albeit lush road without the passing of many over vehicles. Many kangaroos, emu and wombats but very few people.
Most recently I took this drive in 2013. Every little town had their own special cafe serving all manner or coffee, sandwiches and sweets. Every single one advertised WiFi. Shops had sprung up. There were hotels and B&B's everywhere. McDonalds was no longer something special. Every other town had one.
I consider myself fortunate to have experienced some of what Australia had to offer before America stepped in to "fix" it. But there is still a lot of the country left unchanged and open.
It's a gorgeous place with wonderful people. And the people are just as unique as ever in the changing landscape. Leave the cities behind. Talk to them. And for heavens sake, turn off your devices. It's about the people. All about the people.
2
I assure you that "we" did not do ANYTHING to Australia.
Being most European in culture, Australians (who speak English!) like pretty much what Americans like -- they love our TV and movies, they love cellphones and video games, they love McD and malls and coffee shops.
So do many other cultures, even some (like in France) where they are too snobby to admit it. (France is the largest market in the world for McDonalds, after the US.)
Being most European in culture, Australians (who speak English!) like pretty much what Americans like -- they love our TV and movies, they love cellphones and video games, they love McD and malls and coffee shops.
So do many other cultures, even some (like in France) where they are too snobby to admit it. (France is the largest market in the world for McDonalds, after the US.)
1
As always, great column, Roger. Here's my experience: contrary to the claim that "everywhere feels the same," when I cross the border from the US into Canada, I am in fact in a different place which feels different. A change in pronunciation/accent is seemingly slight but actually quite noticeable from someone coming from the US, and jumps out at you. TV is different, people look a little different, the environment isn't quite the same. The food and the stores, despite the purported globalization, still manage to differ slightly. In other words, you immediately know you're not in the US anymore, even if it's an extremely similar neighbo(u)r.
4
We just returned from two weeks near Brisbane, and we're thinking seriously of returning there for good. Yes, the Aussies were talking about U.S. elections: they were absolutely incredulous that the likely choice will be between a narcissistic buffoon and a corrupt kleptocrat. You know that the differences between the countries are stark when you learn that all Australians are required by law to vote, whereas Americans (even Democrats in Democratic primaries) must negotiate numerous and often-hidden laws and regulations to vote.
16
Being required to vote is very undemocratic -- the right TO vote also means the right NOT to vote if that's what you want.
Actually Aussies are obligated to show up at the polls and get a stamp....they do not literally have to fill out a ballot. Also, the fine for not showing up is about $5 (US).
I've been voting now for 44 years, and I assure you that it not just easy and simple and without the slightest barrier -- but I can do it now from HOME and MAIL IT IN weeks early -- how easy is THAT?
Actually Aussies are obligated to show up at the polls and get a stamp....they do not literally have to fill out a ballot. Also, the fine for not showing up is about $5 (US).
I've been voting now for 44 years, and I assure you that it not just easy and simple and without the slightest barrier -- but I can do it now from HOME and MAIL IT IN weeks early -- how easy is THAT?
1
narcissistic buffoon and corrupt kleptocrat. Perfect perfect description - I will quote you.
Another great piece by the Times columnist who most often sees The Big Picture. Corporate America (Corporate World, in other words) wants you connected, device in hand, all the time, so you can be swayed, manipulated, etc. Conform, get with it! They are making it harder and harder to live without devices, The pressure to conform is relentless. This homogenization of the world is a terrible thing. It is damaging our souls.
4
This column reminded me how much I miss Vegemite. Next time I'm on Amazon, I'll have to see if I can order the biggest jar available.
Other than that, Mr Cohen's column contains nothing terribly new. The same observation has been made repeatedly - that the world, or at least the developed world, is becoming increasingly homogenised culturally. I noticed it 35 years ago in Athens, where a fellow traveler took me to eat pizza and then watch a movie in English with Greek subtitles (it was Bob Guccione's Caligula ...). In my last (pre-Katrina) trip to New Orleans, I told a fellow hosteller as we prepared our dinners in the kitchen: 'I came halfway across the country to shop at an A&P and a Walgreens.' One Orleanian told me I shouldn't leave the Big Easy without visiting the Riverwalk Mall. 'Let me get this straight,' I said slowly. 'You are telling a woman from Bergen County, New Jersey - Shopping Mall Heaven - to spend my time in New Orleans in yet another damn mall?!' You can go all over the world just to eat in one McD's after another.
I went to Australia in 1968 to meet my mother's family. The big mistake of my life was not skipping out on my visa when I had the chance.
Other than that, Mr Cohen's column contains nothing terribly new. The same observation has been made repeatedly - that the world, or at least the developed world, is becoming increasingly homogenised culturally. I noticed it 35 years ago in Athens, where a fellow traveler took me to eat pizza and then watch a movie in English with Greek subtitles (it was Bob Guccione's Caligula ...). In my last (pre-Katrina) trip to New Orleans, I told a fellow hosteller as we prepared our dinners in the kitchen: 'I came halfway across the country to shop at an A&P and a Walgreens.' One Orleanian told me I shouldn't leave the Big Easy without visiting the Riverwalk Mall. 'Let me get this straight,' I said slowly. 'You are telling a woman from Bergen County, New Jersey - Shopping Mall Heaven - to spend my time in New Orleans in yet another damn mall?!' You can go all over the world just to eat in one McD's after another.
I went to Australia in 1968 to meet my mother's family. The big mistake of my life was not skipping out on my visa when I had the chance.
2
LOL -- vegemite is a definitely an acquired taste. I had a spoonful of it, years ago, and nearly heaved. (It's some kind of yeast spread; just god awful.)
I agree, the world is pretty homogenized these days. Everybody on their cellphones. But what can you do? Other cultures are not obligated to remain in the 19th century just to amuse Americans.
American export culture -- malls, fast food, smartphones, TV, drugstores -- seem to prove that most people like the same things. Go figure.
Also: if you are Australian on your mother's side, you'd have a significant edge in emigrating -- if that's your desire. But it is very, very expensive to live in Australia and you'd probably have a diminished lifestyle compared to New Jersey.
I agree, the world is pretty homogenized these days. Everybody on their cellphones. But what can you do? Other cultures are not obligated to remain in the 19th century just to amuse Americans.
American export culture -- malls, fast food, smartphones, TV, drugstores -- seem to prove that most people like the same things. Go figure.
Also: if you are Australian on your mother's side, you'd have a significant edge in emigrating -- if that's your desire. But it is very, very expensive to live in Australia and you'd probably have a diminished lifestyle compared to New Jersey.
1
Roger...Put your phone and laptop away and go to one of the great bookstores in Sydney to buy a copy of Bill Bryson's "The Sunburned Country." Order a "flat white" at one of the great independent coffee shops in Sydney, sit down and read Bryson's hilarious and enlightening book, and then use it as a figurative and literal roadmap to plan and execute your adventure and exploration of one of the most fascinating and inspiringly beautiful countries on earth.
14
One of the best travel books ever written. Bryson's take on Australia is fantastic! I must go there - although there must be thousands of creatures waiting to kill me.
Instead of lamenting how similar global-"Western" societies are, you should take solace in the many things Australia does right where America is barely catching up: their ranked (and mandatory) voting system ensures that the broadly most-liked candidate reaches office, not the winner-take-all of a majority of electoral votes; Australia has enormous sprawling cities yet gleefully knits them together with excellent municipal public transportation; the government sees the middle class as an asset to be invested in, not a resource to be plundered.
Also, a newbie tip for your first Vegemite experience: don't forget the butter.
Also, a newbie tip for your first Vegemite experience: don't forget the butter.
63
Australia certainly needs to improve its public transport but we're slowly getting there.
Foreigners eat it like it's Nutella and that is MADNESS!
1
Hope you have time to go to Geelong or over to Burnie and Hobart in Tasmania. Those were my favorite parts of Australia that I had the chance to visit. But the people were delightful everywhere.
As to one comment on the Australian dollar falling, that only matters if one needs to buy foreign goods, and we would all be better off if we bought "at home."
As to one comment on the Australian dollar falling, that only matters if one needs to buy foreign goods, and we would all be better off if we bought "at home."
4
To step outside one's Self, is to experience the reality of Mystery and the essence of spiritual growth.
1
All Mr. Cohen has to do is drive out into the Australian countryside and pay attention to the natural world and he will find that he left home after all.
10
As an American expat in Australia, I feel the need to point out a few more differences between the U.S. and Oz that Mr. Cohen seems to have missed:
- A $15 per hour minimum wage.
- Free, universal medical care, with outcomes superior to those of America
- Strictly limited access to firearms with a rate of gun death a tiny fraction of the United States' and no mass shootings since 1996 before gun restrictions were enacted
- An attitude towards work that treats it as the means to a living, not the meaning of life
- A $15 per hour minimum wage.
- Free, universal medical care, with outcomes superior to those of America
- Strictly limited access to firearms with a rate of gun death a tiny fraction of the United States' and no mass shootings since 1996 before gun restrictions were enacted
- An attitude towards work that treats it as the means to a living, not the meaning of life
206
Also, workers have at least 4 weeks paid holiday per year (some are entitled to more) and we also have something called long service leave: after 10 years continuous service with a company you are entitled to a paid sabbatical of ten weeks. Actually, some companies pay LSL for shorter periods of continuous service - I took mine after 7. It was great.
3
1. That's $15 per hour US -- it is a bit more Aussie dollars, about $16.50. But it doesn't go very far, because EVERYTHING COSTS TWICE AS MUCH down under.
If you earn $7.50 an hour, but a gallon milk costs $3.50....you are not better off to earn $15 but milk now costs $7 a gallon. You've just inflated everything, you are not wealthier.
2. I assure you, health care in Australia is not FREE.
NOTHING IN LIFE IS FREE, certainly not health care. They have a national health system, for which they pay very very high taxes compared to the US (which come right out of that $15 an hour wage).
3. They have BANNED and CONFISCATED all firearms in private hands, with rare exceptions -- by government edict, not a vote of the people -- proving that they have a lot more sheep than previously believed. To quote former PM John Howard (who took away the guns): "Thank GOD we have no Bill of Rights".
They have no mass shootings, because it is a small, wealthy, mostly white island. Guns had nothing to do with that.
5. It's a nice place, and I hope to visit someday, but honestly: nothing is worth giving up the freedom that our Constitution and Bill of Rights give us.
Your mileage may differ.
If you earn $7.50 an hour, but a gallon milk costs $3.50....you are not better off to earn $15 but milk now costs $7 a gallon. You've just inflated everything, you are not wealthier.
2. I assure you, health care in Australia is not FREE.
NOTHING IN LIFE IS FREE, certainly not health care. They have a national health system, for which they pay very very high taxes compared to the US (which come right out of that $15 an hour wage).
3. They have BANNED and CONFISCATED all firearms in private hands, with rare exceptions -- by government edict, not a vote of the people -- proving that they have a lot more sheep than previously believed. To quote former PM John Howard (who took away the guns): "Thank GOD we have no Bill of Rights".
They have no mass shootings, because it is a small, wealthy, mostly white island. Guns had nothing to do with that.
5. It's a nice place, and I hope to visit someday, but honestly: nothing is worth giving up the freedom that our Constitution and Bill of Rights give us.
Your mileage may differ.
1
You rather prove Cohen's point: even in Geelong people read the NY Times.
Well, Mr. Cohen, you're right; we should all head for the "outback" no matter where we find ourselves when we travel.
We, used to living on the ocean coastlines, are not going to see anything new.
In fact, as somebody (a wave scientist), recently said, the coastlines are soon going to be on the ocean floor.
Although it isn't quite outback, I had fun trying to visit all the vineyards in the Hunter Valley & getting pleasantly sloshed.
Or, eating cuy with a family in a not so affluent Lima neighborhood.
Don't bother to try Vegemite. I've tried it for you.
We, used to living on the ocean coastlines, are not going to see anything new.
In fact, as somebody (a wave scientist), recently said, the coastlines are soon going to be on the ocean floor.
Although it isn't quite outback, I had fun trying to visit all the vineyards in the Hunter Valley & getting pleasantly sloshed.
Or, eating cuy with a family in a not so affluent Lima neighborhood.
Don't bother to try Vegemite. I've tried it for you.
3
As someone who has regularly divided my life rotating between living and working in Sydney and Cambridge over recent years, the contrasts are substantial. Far beyond the superficialities of food, fashion and facebook. One way to capture this is to understand that American culture is a 17th Century Lockian tradition of classical liberalism - ruled by market, self-help, and dreams for individual success. Australia, by contrast, reflects an early 19th Century Benthamite culture of egalitarianism, collective goods, and social democracy. Totally different philosophies. Just hang around for longer and you will see that it's deeper than the linguistic contrasts...Also, Australia lacks Amazon but has hundreds of local book shops. Can you imagine?
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1
To this I would add that the party in power in Australia is called the Liberal Party -which does add a good dose of 17th Century classical liberalism (hence its name) and has had affinities with the US Republican Party including part of the current unfortunate and ugly Republican playbook to its party platform.
Social democracy? One better not be of aboriginal descent for any social democracy in australia. Does "collective goods" mean the extraction of coal? The ex prime minister (Tony Abbott) was george bush on steroids. He wanted australia - and I quote "to be the coal supplier of the world". Not quite as pastoral and serene as you would write.
2
This article mirrors my experience living in a little Mexican town during the winter months. I am able to wall of America---no Pizza Huts, no big box stories, few cell phones. The daily routine is the same, but it doesn't seem routine: mornings walking the beach, eating in small restaurants, watching children play soccer in small town squares. For a few months, it sounds corny, but you have those Zen moments of just taking in the total experience of being present.
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Hi Roger, felt similar visiting Texas 2001 November, at first it seemed a bit the same as home, then after one day everything was different. I hope you enjoy Australia it really is the best place in the world. Are you travelling with a guide? I hope so. There are some areas where you best steer clear of.
2
Roger, you had to know that when Everest was crowded with climbers and their debris, that it was for practical purposes, over. Now man looks to the heavens to see where he can go to make it just like where he left. If you're looking for something really, really different, something truly foreign, why not just imagine Donald Trump as president.
3
It's 1990, just after the Berlin Wall fell. The Russians are fleeing Eastern Europe. I'm walking up a steep set of stairs at a train station in the former Yugoslavia. I reach the top of the steps to see an old, withered lady with 90 years of life etched into her face. She's slowing lugging 2 heavy bags and wearing...what else...a Michael Jordan T-shirt. So much for escaping the USA.
2
In the former Soviet Union, a lady with "90 years of life etched into her face) could have been 45 years old.
1
Roger, Here's a solution to your malaise. Fly tourist to Delhi and take a bus for Varanasi. Sleep in a hostel and at dawn have a boatman take you out on the Ganges, Cruise by the burning ghats. Watch the sun rise over the sandbanks across the river. Return to the hostel for some really thick chai. Then head out into the streets as the day is just beginning. There's nothing like this anywhere else. Maybe you did this in the seventies. Times to go again.
6
When my family took road trips to Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, Antietam and the Everglades back in the 50's and early 60's, part of the great adventure was experiencing mom-and-pop motels (whose rooms my Mom always had to check before we could rent one) or stopping at local restaurants that sometimes served local specialties never to be seen anywhere else. No Holiday Inns, no fast food outlets, no convenience store-gas stations with neverending junk food offerings. It was possible to tour the country without once encountering a four-lane road. Heaven. I'm sorry that people taking trips now have little experience of the sharps differences between locales, when the word "furriner" meant a resident of another state rather than a foreign country. So homogenized now. So boring.
3
You can still do it; it takes a bit more work and planning and a LOT more time.
We drove from Ohio to Nebraska last summer, following the "blue highways" going through small towns and villages. It took forever, but it was a very interesting trip and a real look at parts of the US that never make it into the New York Times and their snobby columnists who despise "flyover country".
We drove from Ohio to Nebraska last summer, following the "blue highways" going through small towns and villages. It took forever, but it was a very interesting trip and a real look at parts of the US that never make it into the New York Times and their snobby columnists who despise "flyover country".
1
I lived in Sydney from 1981-1983, and couldn't wait to get my hands on a Herald Tribune or make a trunk call to the states late in the evening to catch up with a friend. I remember watching the Celtics/Lakers finals on a fuzzy channel at 2 in the morning in my tiny flat. I walked around that beautiful harbor city, meeting few Americans and encountering not many tourists. I felt far away. I was far away. The smart phone and ubiquitous travel has destroyed the possibility of reprising that experience.
2
I can remember the same shock of similarity when in Sydney many years ago, at the time of the US bicentennial celebrations in fact. I was totally startled to see this day being hailed almost like an Australian national holiday, with the downtown area decorated with US flags and some type of celebratory activity going on out in the harbor. California seemed only a few miles away across a suddenly shrunken Pacific Ocean.
1
Australians are the colonized Whites of White colonialism. How ironic! These are people of ancestors who were forcefully sent to this far off land, down-under, because they were unwanted, difficult, dissidents, deviants, dysfunctions, convicts and criminals (some just poor petty thieves). Yet, like servants, slaves and stupid colonized people, old White Aussies ended up exterminating the Aborigines, natives of their land who go back 50,000 years, and worshiped Mother England. The same Mother England that rejected them and sent them away. They celebrated Queen's B'day, and even had a Brit dissolve their govt. once.
Aussies also worship America. All their pretty blondes want to be stars in Hollywood. They don't understand the US, the real US, until they come here and realize what America is inside and out. They also realize that Blacks and Browns in the US learn to fight back...much more so than the passivized Aborigines of Australia, who used to walk scared along the wall, with their heads down in fear and shame, with a bottle of whiskey in a brown paper bag, in Canberra when I would watch them, as a Brown immigrant, and never wanted to become them. They were that way because White man stole their land and everything else with it.
But Aussie natural landscape is unique in the world...outside its cities. Mr. Cohen should have gotten out more. Mr. C can also hand over his pen to world traveled, and want-to-travel-more, Brown women like me. He might learn something.
Aussies also worship America. All their pretty blondes want to be stars in Hollywood. They don't understand the US, the real US, until they come here and realize what America is inside and out. They also realize that Blacks and Browns in the US learn to fight back...much more so than the passivized Aborigines of Australia, who used to walk scared along the wall, with their heads down in fear and shame, with a bottle of whiskey in a brown paper bag, in Canberra when I would watch them, as a Brown immigrant, and never wanted to become them. They were that way because White man stole their land and everything else with it.
But Aussie natural landscape is unique in the world...outside its cities. Mr. Cohen should have gotten out more. Mr. C can also hand over his pen to world traveled, and want-to-travel-more, Brown women like me. He might learn something.
You are a brown-skinned woman...named MARK Schaeffer?
Excellent essay, whether you speak of Sydney or Paris.
Get a camper van and drive around avoiding the cities. Avoid camping grounds. The only way to see Australia.
2
Lovely piece. However, I believe they have petrol not gas at the servo.
3
You are in the Anglosphere, Australia is a former British colony. Visit other parts of Asia: Pakistan, India or Indonesia and you will notice cultural differences.
5
You should write in poetry; it has universal appeal but it may escape being homogeneous, as it must, having your personal touch; and that remains unique. Even in the Outback.
G'day mate. Enjoy your time down under. And, yes, people are the same wherever you go thanks to expert marketing.
1
One very important difference: no guns.
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When you make it to the Outback, don't be surprised if the Aboriginals have cellphones too, or at least are wearing Rebok or Natural Balance sneakers.
2
I think you mean New Balance. Natural Balance is cat food. Now, what the heck is Prada?
1
Roger, you're seeing a homogenization of experience through very upper middle class glasses.
Head out to Sydney's Cambelltown to see the multicultural experiment in action, or to the Northern Beaches to see what makes Sydney truly unique. Check out an Australian play at Belvoir, or some Australian art at the Art Gallery of NSW. And of course get out to the Outback...and northern Queensland, maybe to a remote location where Australia's indigenous people can show you around.
The problem is not "the homogenization of experience". The problem is with the blandness that only money can buy.
Head out to Sydney's Cambelltown to see the multicultural experiment in action, or to the Northern Beaches to see what makes Sydney truly unique. Check out an Australian play at Belvoir, or some Australian art at the Art Gallery of NSW. And of course get out to the Outback...and northern Queensland, maybe to a remote location where Australia's indigenous people can show you around.
The problem is not "the homogenization of experience". The problem is with the blandness that only money can buy.
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Try doing it again, Mr. Cohen. But this time, leave your flickering devices behind. And your notions and, concerns and, indeed, your "little universe."
Don't eat or drink where you're comfortable. Don't look for the familiar to sooth you. Don't accept comfort over the tingle of not knowing what's going to happen next.
You can even do all this right here at home. As you said, one can get lost without being somewhere where one has never been merely by leaving one's same-old self behind. Stop conforming.
Don't eat or drink where you're comfortable. Don't look for the familiar to sooth you. Don't accept comfort over the tingle of not knowing what's going to happen next.
You can even do all this right here at home. As you said, one can get lost without being somewhere where one has never been merely by leaving one's same-old self behind. Stop conforming.
22
What we should entertain is the possibility that the globe is becoming engulfed in a new form of totalitarianism, a great deal of which is being peddled under the label of Americanism. Hmmmm, totalitarianism with a "human" face. It kinda makes ya wonder what totalitarianism is.
9
Simple solution: get rid of your Twitter and Facebook accounts, put your phone away during vacations except for family contacts. Oh, your employer requires you to have these since your a journalist? Well, actually your not a journalist, since that profession went extinct with the typewriter, in the our wired world, you're just a Content Provider" like the millions of other bloggers, though I presume the Times is paying you a little better.
As an American, it really is not fair to complain about what we've done to the entire rest of the planet, but at least now you do not have to go to the Outback to get to places that seem like another planet, just take your pick of any of the Red States.
As an American, it really is not fair to complain about what we've done to the entire rest of the planet, but at least now you do not have to go to the Outback to get to places that seem like another planet, just take your pick of any of the Red States.
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Right on! I moved from Jersey City to Atlanta two years ago, somewhat of a mecca of liberalism in a very Red State. Can we talk about culture shock???
In places like Australia, Austria or Germany, illiterate and innumerate migrants are very unlikely to take Australian, Austrian or German jobs. But they are very likely to live of welfare for the rest of their lives and raise a generation of angry, disappointed and possibly disenfranchised children.
We no longer live in a world where an illiterate, able-bodied young man can build a decent life for himself through hard work in a factory or on a farm. These days, most jobs in the developed world require tertiary education, something that is beyond the capacity of most twenty somethings, who have never received a formal education.
As reported by the NYT, about half of all migrants who came to Germany last year will be permanently unemployable. Another 40% might be able to find work within the next five years and only 10% might find work within a year or so. The long and short of it is that in 2016 illegal immigrants are, first and foremost, an economic liability and not an economic blessing as they were in, let's say, 1896 or 1916.
Now, of course, the developed world has to find ways to help those fleeing war and disaster, but unilaterally opening borders will only lead to rising nationalism and xenophobia in the Western world, which isn't helping anyone. Merkel has been a boon for Donald Trump, who is bringing up Germany regularly. Short-sighted humanitarianism often harms more than it helps.
We no longer live in a world where an illiterate, able-bodied young man can build a decent life for himself through hard work in a factory or on a farm. These days, most jobs in the developed world require tertiary education, something that is beyond the capacity of most twenty somethings, who have never received a formal education.
As reported by the NYT, about half of all migrants who came to Germany last year will be permanently unemployable. Another 40% might be able to find work within the next five years and only 10% might find work within a year or so. The long and short of it is that in 2016 illegal immigrants are, first and foremost, an economic liability and not an economic blessing as they were in, let's say, 1896 or 1916.
Now, of course, the developed world has to find ways to help those fleeing war and disaster, but unilaterally opening borders will only lead to rising nationalism and xenophobia in the Western world, which isn't helping anyone. Merkel has been a boon for Donald Trump, who is bringing up Germany regularly. Short-sighted humanitarianism often harms more than it helps.
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Cohen doesn't mention Australia's solution to immigration. Dump all of them in other nearby countries, who are not willing to continue putting up with refugee camps on their soil full of people who strongly desire to get a foothold in a better place.
1
Obviously you've never been to Canada, which has the best immigration system in the world, the best integration of immigrants and the most multicultural, highest ranked for quality of life cities in the world. In Vancouver, where I live, more than 45% of the population was born outside of the country and our unemployment rate is 5.8% Toronto has been labelled the MOST multicultural city in the world - also the safest, by far, of any North American city. So speak for yourself.
1
Yeah, Vancouver and Toronto are so great. Too bad the locals can't even dream of owning a home there anymore.
1
In Australia, "every sentence seems to end with a kind of upward-rising lilt"? Roger's been living in America, and he's never heard uptalk?
If the Aussies eat brekkie, here we eat "bruckfast." And for lunch? Would you like a smug-sounding verbal fry with that?
If the Aussies eat brekkie, here we eat "bruckfast." And for lunch? Would you like a smug-sounding verbal fry with that?
3
Having just returned from 2 weeks in Adelaide I would say go to a city smaller than Sydney for a more close-up experience of the differences. A glaring difference is the lack of population - Australia has approximately the same land mass as the U.S. but while our population is over 330,000,000 people, Australia's is just over 24,000,000. Delightful!
20
Alas, there was a halycon time when WE had a population that was balanced that well with our landmass....and when we could enjoy wide open spaces and affordable living.
That day is long over, thanks to massive immigration (legal AND illegal).
That day is long over, thanks to massive immigration (legal AND illegal).
1
"an economy that has not seen a recession in over 20 years."
You do know that the Aussie dollar fell 30% last year, don't you?
You do know that the Aussie dollar fell 30% last year, don't you?
12
Actually it's twenty-five years. And having a floating dollar has been a big part of the reason for that. And it fell by only about 10% last year by my calculations. A lower Australian dollar would make our exports cost less overseas boosting sales of them. I can assure you quite a few Australians are happy about that. Cheers.
1
In the lefty liberal paradigm, every nation is better off than the US -- has less unemployment and less poverty, more "freebies" like free health care and free college for all -- everyone is happier and healthier and wealthier -- the minimum wage is twice as high, but the cost of living is the same. Of course this is not true, but it satisifed the lefty who hates the US and wants desperately to emigrate....somewhere.
1
Yes it did...and our Minimum Wage is now unfortunately worth only about US$15.
Great article. I find it equally depressing to see the same HSBC ads on every airport jetway worldwide. I find it sad to see old lane houses ripped out and replaced with the 100th mall selling Burberry, Prada and Hermes. I see people wearing ripped jeans in Shanghai, San Francisco and Sydney. Same brands, same style.
The same 100 stores seem to pop up in shopping malls in Beijing, Boston and Brussels. Every boss worldwide wears Hugo, every madamoiselle, xiaojie or lady has an Hermes scarf. Globalization has indeed won but what have we lost in the process?
The same 100 stores seem to pop up in shopping malls in Beijing, Boston and Brussels. Every boss worldwide wears Hugo, every madamoiselle, xiaojie or lady has an Hermes scarf. Globalization has indeed won but what have we lost in the process?
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Burberry, Prada, Hermes, Hugo... WHAT? I, too, recently found myself channeled through several airport duty-free shops, and was left wondering what those names are about. How have I managed to survive until age 66 without ever having owned anything that would even give me a clue. Do people buy useful items, or brands? Is this our great planetary culture, the Crown of Creation?
1
Briliantly written. Thank you.
5
I enjoyed your very insightful column. Would that all the world's people could be fed and educated and able to experience that we are One with all our delightful flavors of place. A world sans war might ensue. I'm not Muslim, but I say Inshallah.
3
Turn off your phone. It's a start. G'day!
22
If you do generic things like drinking cappucino, of COURSE all places will seem the same!
23
You can get lost, and leave a certain amount of your usual life behind if you turn off your devices, stop looking at your twitter feed, don't read the news, and just explore. It helps to be in a place where you don't speak the language but it's not necessary. I do it at home on the weekends with a novel or a movie. Wander around a farmers market or some small town and just unplug.
6
Yes, get out of Sydney and experience the real Australia. It is like tourists very much like you, who come to New York and say they have been to America. Well Mr. Copen, as someone who lived and worked in Oz for 3 years, I experienced Australia, it's kind and caring people from all ovet, hiked in the national parks and enjoyed their warm hospitality. Yup, there is more to Australia than Sydne, just as there is more to America than Brooklyn Heights, and have you even hiked our mountains majesty? Get real, people are people struggling to survive, make a living, providing for their children and caring about the future. Just learn the new language and don't forget to barrack for a cricket team because if you root for them you are a pervert.
15
"Get real, people are people struggling to survive, make a living, providing for their children and caring about the future." It is unreal that Mr. Cohen missed this line and ended up painting an unfortunately facetious portrait of shared humanity.
1
I love to travel, and I swear the world is getting duller. Stay in a hotel almost anywhere and you have the same news on CNN or whatever channel is available, and eat the same omelette and pastry for breakfast. Visit an island and you find rows of large second homes hugging every coastline with a Starbucks down the road. America truly is becoming the dominant culture of the planet, and it's a shame. We're not more interesting than anyone else, just more prosperous and more free. And that is an irresistible song.
4
To the best of my knowledge, there are only 2 Starbucks outlets in Australia - one on Elizabeth St Sydney, the other at Town Hall Station. SBUX packed up & went home. Thankfully a major distinguishing feature between Australia and the US is the former's love of coffee made by proprietors & highly paid baristas in small cafes. My recent visits to NYC, Boston and DC suggest small headway is being made given the queues at Stumptown, Little Collins and our teaching of an Illy franchisee in DC as to how to make "flat white". Look after the HiHello blokes in Bushwick too.
1
Mr Cohen's observations upon arriving in Australia illustrate the danger of hair-trigger reactions to a different culture. Upon my arrival for a long-term residency, I too felt immediately that I had hardly left home. But my early acculturation was largely a process, sometimes awkward, of discovering how great the differences can be under the surface. Here are a few of them:
1. The entire political spectrum of Australia, from the left of the Labor Party to the right wing of the conservatives (confusingly named the "Liberal Party" for traditional reasons) would fit comfortably within the US Democratic party.
2. There is a profound dislike for overly profuse or dramatic self-expression, which makes Australians cringe over much of the American media to which they are heavily exposed.
3. Because of this exposure, they believe that they understand American culture well, but they largely do not.
4. The personal life of a politician is considered out of bounds to the media unless it is seen to have an impact on a politician's job performance.
5. Since Australia is a small although prosperous country, it is much more oriented toward what happens in the rest of the world. Australians travel widely, despite their geographical isolation. They are somewhat contemptuous of the American lack of knowledge of, and indifference to, the rest of the world.
1. The entire political spectrum of Australia, from the left of the Labor Party to the right wing of the conservatives (confusingly named the "Liberal Party" for traditional reasons) would fit comfortably within the US Democratic party.
2. There is a profound dislike for overly profuse or dramatic self-expression, which makes Australians cringe over much of the American media to which they are heavily exposed.
3. Because of this exposure, they believe that they understand American culture well, but they largely do not.
4. The personal life of a politician is considered out of bounds to the media unless it is seen to have an impact on a politician's job performance.
5. Since Australia is a small although prosperous country, it is much more oriented toward what happens in the rest of the world. Australians travel widely, despite their geographical isolation. They are somewhat contemptuous of the American lack of knowledge of, and indifference to, the rest of the world.
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I would suggest that the 56,000,000 foreign born citizens of the US are at least as knowledgeable of the rest of the world as the 28,000,000 Australian citizens. Judging by the number of Aussies who visit the Grand Canyon and Disney World every year, I doubt they are really that contemptuous of America.
That inner city bit of Sydney is, as you say, now completely international- but less polluted with better weather and more beautiful scenery and beaches. And if you head west on the train you will find the other Sydney: First generation Asians (30%) Koreans, Lebanese, Indians, Vietnamese,you name it - but all living in their sectors of town - just like it used to be in Brooklyn, completely multicultural and not that integrated. I would recommend a trip to to the outback and see if you can find some Aboriginals who are living not that differently than they did for thousands of years and wonderfully disinterested in material belongings. Then you feel like you have been somewhere. You can see how so much of our chatter and clutter is so meaningless and how it must have been in the past before technology made it all so boring.
5
Globalization is no folklore.
At one side we are more able to align our cultural and social mindsets, in good and bad. On the other side we can not shield us against people, who are outside of this alignment, and have their own social problems and cultural antics.
There may be just nuances in the 'west', which is represented by a lot of countries. But beyond that there are still a lot of regions that are not like australia or even close.
And you should wonder, if nigeria, somalia, yemen or iraq ever will become like us, if it is a good thing if they do, and what it means for the world if they don't.
We just at the moment get a glimpse of australia is not everywhere.
At one side we are more able to align our cultural and social mindsets, in good and bad. On the other side we can not shield us against people, who are outside of this alignment, and have their own social problems and cultural antics.
There may be just nuances in the 'west', which is represented by a lot of countries. But beyond that there are still a lot of regions that are not like australia or even close.
And you should wonder, if nigeria, somalia, yemen or iraq ever will become like us, if it is a good thing if they do, and what it means for the world if they don't.
We just at the moment get a glimpse of australia is not everywhere.
3
Well done. There are places I've traveled where the biggest impact on me was things that were different that I'd never even considered could be different. Yet Australia was comfortable, in a very American way, even as it was distinct.
I loved the place every time, from Sydney to Darwin and the Outback. I never thought I was still in America, but it was not shocking in small things like some other places had been.
I loved the place every time, from Sydney to Darwin and the Outback. I never thought I was still in America, but it was not shocking in small things like some other places had been.
17
You left out one important point, the Australian National Election campaign is only two months long. The election will be on 2 July. also, unlike here, at least parliament is no where near the state the US Congress is. But, all the issues we see here, immigration, income inequity, social wars, infrastructure, education, health care, LGBT rights, abortion, etc., are also issues there.
Unlike here, there is more civility in how they are discussed and handled. It is not "fair dikum" all the time, but at least Aussies attitude has not sunk to the level it has in the US. Aussie culture is heavily influenced by the US; all you have to do is turn on the "tellie". But, so does British culture. They are far more laid back than Americans, and go about their lives in a far less serious than their American counter parts.
Australia is far from perfect ask anyone who who is an Aborigine or tried to illegally come into the country. Nor are their political parties. The reason for the current election? Lack of confidence in Mr. Turnball, and the Liberal party agenda which is not much different from the GOP. Cut taxes on the wealthy, smaller government and make the less fortunate carry the burden. Though, $15 an hour+ minimum wage or higher lets people survive. Also, housing costs, in Sydney make it more expensive than New York City, thanks to foreign investor speculation.
They do keep an eye on our elections, and do not like they see in either Clinton or Trump.
Unlike here, there is more civility in how they are discussed and handled. It is not "fair dikum" all the time, but at least Aussies attitude has not sunk to the level it has in the US. Aussie culture is heavily influenced by the US; all you have to do is turn on the "tellie". But, so does British culture. They are far more laid back than Americans, and go about their lives in a far less serious than their American counter parts.
Australia is far from perfect ask anyone who who is an Aborigine or tried to illegally come into the country. Nor are their political parties. The reason for the current election? Lack of confidence in Mr. Turnball, and the Liberal party agenda which is not much different from the GOP. Cut taxes on the wealthy, smaller government and make the less fortunate carry the burden. Though, $15 an hour+ minimum wage or higher lets people survive. Also, housing costs, in Sydney make it more expensive than New York City, thanks to foreign investor speculation.
They do keep an eye on our elections, and do not like they see in either Clinton or Trump.
17
The world is indeed shrinking. Humans has always been more the same than different, of course, but our commonality has long been hidden by differences in language and culture. As travel has become easier and more affordable, as technology has made folks in far flung places more aware of what others do and have, similarity has increased.
Surely similarities between the USA and an English speaking part of the United Kingdom are greater than are those between the USA and many other places - and that similarity is not just about language.
Still, I have known travelers to be disappointed by the fact that this or that European city didn't seem as "foreign" as they had thought it would. Others are sad to find that places they had thought more primitive actually have pretty modern cities.
Sadly, a desire to hold onto what is unique often leads to strife. Locals who want to protect "our culture" often view those who are different as a threat to all which they hold dear. Even though their "traditional" culture is likely an evolving thing, even though many of their ethnically identifying citizens may only be a few generations in that place, they cling to what they assume is their centuries old heritage as if any change spells disaster. There is something lost in the increasing similarities around the world, but the genie cannot be put back in the bottle. What we will together become must be more important than what we separately have been.
Surely similarities between the USA and an English speaking part of the United Kingdom are greater than are those between the USA and many other places - and that similarity is not just about language.
Still, I have known travelers to be disappointed by the fact that this or that European city didn't seem as "foreign" as they had thought it would. Others are sad to find that places they had thought more primitive actually have pretty modern cities.
Sadly, a desire to hold onto what is unique often leads to strife. Locals who want to protect "our culture" often view those who are different as a threat to all which they hold dear. Even though their "traditional" culture is likely an evolving thing, even though many of their ethnically identifying citizens may only be a few generations in that place, they cling to what they assume is their centuries old heritage as if any change spells disaster. There is something lost in the increasing similarities around the world, but the genie cannot be put back in the bottle. What we will together become must be more important than what we separately have been.
16
"an English speaking part of the United Kingdom"
What part of the United Kingdom do you think does not speak English?
What part of the United Kingdom do you think does not speak English?
Australia is not part of the United Kingdom. It is, however, still a part of the British Commonwealth of Nations, as is Canada, India, South Africa, et al.
In order to get lost one requires some depth and space around which the fear stricken modern world hardly allows, however homogenised or look-alike it might have turned on surface under the impact of omnipotent technology.
15
A bit like a cricket match between India and Australia.
Beautifully written.
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