Is it realy like this in usa?

[happy daze john in oz]

David Mason, Poet Laureate of Colorado

There's a lot to admire about Australia , especially
if you're a visiting American, says David Mason.
More often than you might expect, Australian friends
patiently listening to me enthuse about their country
have said,''We need outsiders like you to remind us
what we have.'' So here it is - a small presumptuous
list of what one foreigner admires in Oz.
1. Health care.
I know the controversies, but basic national health
care is a gift.In America , medical expenses are a
leading cause of bankruptcy.The drug companies
dominate politics and advertising. Obama is being
crucified for taking halting baby steps towards sanity.
You can't turn on the telly without hours of drug
advertisements - something I have never yet seen here.
And your emphasis on prevention - making cigarettes
less accessible, for one - is a model.
2. Food.
Yes, we have great food in America too, especially
in the big cities. But your bread is less sweet, your
lamb is cheaper, and your supermarket vegetables
and fruits are fresher than ours. Too often in my country
America , an apple is a ball of pulp as big as your face.
The dainty Pink Lady apples of Oz are the juiciest I've had.
And don't get me started on coffee. In American small
towns it tastes like water flavoured with burnt dirt,
but the smallest shop in the smallest town in Oz can
make a first-rate latte. I love your ubiquitous bakeries,
and your hot-cross buns. Shall I go on?
3. Language.
How do you do it?
The rhyming slang and Aboriginal place names are
like magic spells. Words that seem vaguely English
yet also resemble an argot from another planet.
I love the way institutional names get turned
into diminutives - Vinnie's and Salvos - and
absolutely nothing's sacred. Everything is an
opportunity for word games and everyone has
a nickname. Lingo makes the world go round.
It's the spontaneous wit of the people that tickles
me most. Late one night at a barbie my new mate
Suds remarked: ''Nothing's the same since 24-7.''
Amen to that.

4. Free-to-air TV.
In Oz, you buy a TV, plug it in and watch some
of the best programming I've ever seen - uncensored.
In America , you can't get diddly-squat without
paying a cable or satellite company heavy fees.
In Oz a few channels make it hard to choose.
In America , you've got 400 channels
and nothing to watch.
5. Small shops.
Outside the big cities in America corporations
have nearly erased them. Identical malls with
identical restaurants serving inferior food.
Except for geography, it's hard to tell one American
town from another. The ''take-away'' culture here
in Australia is wonderful. The human encounters
are real - people love to stir, and stories get told.
The curries here are to die for. And you don't
have to tip!

6. Free camping.
We used to have this too, and I guess it's still free
when you backpack miles away from the roads.
But I love the fact that in Oz everyone owns the
shoreline and in many places you can pull up a
camper van and stare at the sea for weeks. I love
the ''primitive'' and independent camp-grounds,
the life out-of-doors. The few idiots who leave
their stubbies and rubbish behind in these
pristine places ought to be transported in chains
to the penal colonies.

7. Religion.
In America , it's everywhere - especially where it's not
supposed to be, like politics. I imagine you have your
Pharisees too, making a big public show of devotion,
but I have yet to meet one here.

8. Roads.
Peak hour aside, I've found travel on your roads pure
heaven. My country's ''Freeways'' are crowded,
crumbling, insanely knotted with looping overpasses - it's
like racing homicidal maniacs on fraying spaghetti! I've
driven the Hume Highway without stress, and I love
the Princes Highway when it's two lanes. Ninety minutes
south of Bateman's Bay I was sorry to see one billboard
for a McDonald's. It's blocking a lovely paddock view.
Someone should remove the MacDonald's Billboard.

9. Real multiculturalism.
I know there are tensions, just like anywhere else,
but I love the distinctiveness of your communities
and the way you publicly acknowledge the Aboriginal
past. Recently, too, I spent quality time with the
Melbourne Greeks, and was gratified both by their
devotion to their own great language and culture and
their openness to an Afghan lunch.

10. Fewer guns.
You had Port Arthur in 1996 and got real in response.
America replicates such massacres several times a year
and nothing changes.Why? Our religion of individual
rights makes the good of the community an impossible
dream. Instead of mateship we have ''It's mine and
nobody else's''. We talk a great game about freedom,
but too often live in fear. There's more to say - your
kaleidoscopic birds, your perfumed bush in springtime,
your vast beaches. These are just a few of the blessings
that make Australia a rarity. Of course, it's not paradise -
nowhere is - but I love it here. No need to wave flags like
the Americans, and add to the world's windiness.
Just value in Australia what you have here
and don't give it away.

[Rodney Mills]

John,

I agree with a heck of a lot of what the person or persons wrote. My wife and I lived in Oz, six months out of the year for thirteen years. We had a camper. We drove all around Australia from Cairns back to Cairns via the Isa highway route, and we were married by the Uniting Church of Australia in Tennant creek N.T., and spent our honeymoon out on the desert from Alice, traveling by camels. Another holiday we went again from Cairns to Tennant creek, down the track to Melbourne then over to Tassie with our camper via ferry and toured around then returned back to Cairns. We have been into the interior looking at opals in Coober Pedy, dug for Sapphires in Sapphire and Emeralds in Emerald Queensland. We have over 200 dives logged on the Reef, so we can say we have well and truly done the G,B.R. and been there, done that and own the T-shirt. Our E-Mail, password, and log-in are all in Ozzie speak, and my bloody boat is called the Fair Dinkum and I have the fighting kangaroos painted on the sides. I was made an honorary sergeant of the Queensland police (I have my stripes and cap badge sewn onto my swag, so no mongrel will nick it at the airport. So that's my bona fides for being a true blue, dinky dye (sp.?), far dinkum, banana bender from Queensland.

So do I agree with your post? probably 50-60%. Oz. and the U.S. are roughly the same size. We've got 360 million inhabitants, so there's not too many empty beaches like 8 mile beach in Port Douglas Qnld. or 40 mile beach (empty) in S.A. or the great big empty beach called the Red Centre. The other 40 or 50%, who cares! You have a lovely country, the Ozzies made us two septics very welcome for the six and a half years we lived there, but it was time to come home.

Would I live permanently in Oz.?. Not as It was when I went there first back 52 and 53 on the Port boats, but yes when we were camping, diving, hiking and generally playing around. Would I today? No. We have a lovely home on the banks of a canal, not fifteen feet from our dining room or our bedroom, and its paid for. No bills, medical insurance, and medical care from Doctor/Professors at one of the most respected medical teaching universities going, and lovely weather to boot. So you couldn't get me out of here with a hook and chain.

Sure the U.S. has problems but so does the Lucky Country. I won't mention them or I'll start another brouhaha, just be satisfied that this true blue nephew of my Uncle Sam figures it to be 55% correct, and that my wife and I would kill for a Port Douglas Mocha meat pie.

Cheers, Rodney (or Rodders as I was called in Oz.).

[Doc Vernon]

Well just my small input here and that is what I have always said

No matter where you decided to make your Bed,home is what you make of the situation!

It took me quite a long time to get used to this Country,and I missed my Home but now I am settled,also have a great Home in the lovely Mountains (OK we have our probs here too LOL) Fires!! But as others no debts except for the normal things ,Home is fully ours Car is also ours paid in full etc ,so what more can we ask for!

Too blerry old to change now anyway !
But we love this place and don't think would change much even if we did have Motza Bucks!

So to all just be Happy where you have laid down,that is life,some stay put,others travel on!
Cheers
Enjoy life! Too short not to!

[Captain Kong]

I fetched up on a lee shore in Boltonistan and cannot get off the reef. My own fault, Misread the symbols on the chart.
That is why I do my world tour every year. just to get away from it..
So envy you who have found your particular paradise.
I have another home in Fleetwood , right on the waters edge on the quayside. can see the boats etc. so not too bad
Just the cold weather is all.
Cheers
Brian.

[happy daze john in oz]

Well Roders you sure had a good time and good luck to you for it.

Yes every country has it's problems and for some residents more than others. But we must each make what we can of the situation. It is niot so much where you live but rather how you live that is the key to happiness.