I had a laugh this morning...

skater I'm pretty sure that the voting thing only applies to Brits (oddly not the rest of the commonwealth?). I was assuming in Jaycees case that he wasn't a Brit as I think he said his parents had english lessons (?), one would hope that wouldn't be necessary for someone from Britain (although watching TV you have to wonder sometimes!)lol.
 
This is an original 'Nationalist' Anthem from early last Century. In authentic voice by a great Australian patriot CJ Dennis. It always brings a smile to my face.

Called 'The Australaise' it is sung to the tune of Onward Christian Soldiers.


Fellers of Australier,
Blokes an' coves an' coots,
Shift yer bloody carcasses,
Move yer bloody boots.
Gird yer bloody loins up,
Get yer bloody gun,
Set the bloody enermy
An' watch the blighters run.

CHORUS:
Get a bloody move on,
Have some bloody sense.
Learn the bloody art of
Self de- bloody -fence.

Have some bloody brains be-
Neath yer bloody lids.
An' swing a bloody sabre
Fer the missus an' the kids.
Chuck supportin' bloody posts,
An' strikin' bloody lights,
Support a bloody- fam'ly an'
Strike fer yer bloody rights.

CHORUS:
Get a bloody move on, etc.

Joy is bloody fleetin',
Life is bloody short.
Wot's the use uv wastin' it
All on bloody sport?
Hitch yer bloody tip-dray
To a bloody star.
Let yer bloody watchword be
"Australi- bloody -ar!"

CHORUS:
Get a bloody move on, etc.

'0w's the bloody nation
Goin' to ixpand
'Lest us bloody blokes an' coves
Lend a bloody 'and?
'Eave yer bloody apathy
Down a bloody chasm;
'Ump yer bloody burden with
Enthusi- bloody -asm.

CHORUS:
Get a bloody move on, etc.

____________

Love the bit:
Joy is bloody fleetin',
Life is bloody short.
Wot's the use uv wastin' it
All on bloody sport?

The other verses are very imperialist but the essence has lasted I think.
(http://www.middlemiss.org/lit/authors/denniscj/backblockother/australaise.html)
 
JulieW
where the bloody hell was that when they were picking the anthem?????:D
I love CJ Dennis. My favourite poet when I was a child (very unPC now lol)
 
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s I'm pretty sure that the voting thing only applies to Brits (oddly not the rest of the commonwealth?).

Applies to some Kiwis too - I think they had to come before the early 1980s - 83 or 84, I think. Didn't need a passport to make the leap across the ditch then, either.
 
Mind you, I remember learning that verse at school, but still can only remember every second or third line.
Me too - we had to learn it all ages ago but we usually just did the first verse. I was in the school band so if you're playing it you have even less reason to learn the words.

I might check if The Child knows it - they don't sing it at presentation nights or so forth but I don't go to assemblies, for all I know they sing it there. They never sung it at her old school. I've caught her making up rude lyrics to the tune of the anthem so I suspect she's learnt it at least once.
 
JoanMC - EVERYTHING is non-pc now!!!

ahh CJ Dennis and the long lost Australian patois. Love it.
I also have a soft spot for 'They're a Weird Mob' (books better, but the movie on DVD is a great one too).

Also very un-PC, especially in Kings abloody Cross!!
 
Do you mean the education department should be ashamed?

You really have no idea. Some children have problems and just DON'T get it. It's not that nothing is being done.
education department and teachers

i'm sorry you are talking about different issue.
i'm not talking 1 or 2 kids, it's virtually half of the 7th grade
 
jaycee that means you were made a citizen at 4 years old. Skater is different as she came here as a child but obviously her parents didn't choose citizenship (as Brits didn't have to) but as an adult she did to pursue her sporting interests. If you are a citizen as a child you don't get a certificate of your own unless you ask for one (which is NOT the same as applying for citizenship, it is just asking for a certificate) in the same way that birth certs aren't issued, but you can request one.

I just would hope that anyone who uses the advantages of living here (medicare etc) would make the commitment to being a citizen of this country. I believe in the political process and doing your duty and voting etc and nothing ticks me more than people who live here, don't vote and then whinge about how things are! that's my little soap box anyway!:D

Obviously if you vote you are already a citizen. so why say you haven't bothered?

I hadn't bothered to get my own certificate. I didnt know Skater was a non citizen, with citizen rights, I thought she was made a citizen as child like I was.

When you guys say British people had citizenship rights without needing to become citizens, does that mean just English or Welsh/Irish/Scottish too?
 
It was not many kids at the school my offspring was at - maybe 1/3 of the school was borderline illiterate and innumerate (is that a word?). On last count there were 9 students and last year there were 18 so not large numbers. The school is closed now from lack of enrolments. A lot of the students are extremely low socioeconomic and transient.

The saddest one had been shunted from her mother - who was having loads of kids with a new boyfriend and couldn't fit them all in the house - over to her father, who decided he hated the brats and left them with *his* mother to bugger off with his girlfriend. Talk about neglected and unwanted. They were roaming the streets barefoot for months looking like they hadn't had their hair cut for literally years before someone rounded them up and pointed out that they lived 1km away from a free school. Another kid couldn't talk and the parents didn't seem to want speech therapy.

The really disturbing thing education wise is that in year 1 or 2 mine read every single book available in the school in the set readers section (as opposed to the freeform library books). So there was nothing for her to read to progress 'officially' and she ended up reading books from the teacher's home collection. How is this possible? Did they seriously have no other kids who had got that high? She can't possibly have got past year 7 so it can't be that. The teachers had to order a whole bunch of new sets of books just for her.

It is a little sad when they do math and mine would get "what's 147 plus 16?" and then a kid 2 years older gets "what is 7 plus 2?"

The school was a really good one. They really lavished attention on the neglected kids, provided breakfasts, lunch, free excursions, discos, events, free toys, extra help etc. A lot of it came out of the teacher's pockets.

Edit: probably explains the screening when we changed schools this year. They were expecting "oh god another kid from THAT school, they're changing because they got booted out, brace for it, frisk them for knives before they come here and make sure they have shoes" and ended up getting the #1 student in the class that made the teacher practically burst her britches with superlatives. Its not the school, its the family environment at home of the students.
 
When you guys say British people had citizenship rights without needing to become citizens, does that mean just English or Welsh/Irish/Scottish too?

Great Britain usually refers to all of Britain ie: England, Scotland & Wales (not sure about Ireland). I am actually Welsh, born in Cardiff Wales.
 
Great Britain usually refers to all of Britain ie: England, Scotland & Wales (not sure about Ireland). I am actually Welsh, born in Cardiff Wales.

Great Britain = England, Wales & Scotland, UK = Great Britain & Northern Ireland.

I'e sometimes seen just "Britain" refer to England & Wales, but I have no idea if that's an official definition or not.
 
Great Britain = England, Wales & Scotland, UK = Great Britain & Northern Ireland.

I'e sometimes seen just "Britain" refer to England & Wales, but I have no idea if that's an official definition or not.

And just for the avoidance of doubt (and there is lots of it around) the Republic of Ireland is absolutely, 100% not part of either the UK or Great Britain.

You could argue it's part of the British Isles, as that's a geographical rather than political term, but if you ever find yourself in a pub with an Irishman, please don't use that term with him!
 
education department and teachers

i'm sorry you are talking about different issue.
i'm not talking 1 or 2 kids, it's virtually half of the 7th grade

THAT is bad. Maybe it's the gene pool.:D:D

I've worked in areas like that.

That's why the union is against league tables (which compare results and assume teachers abilities directly correlate with results).

Obviously a class of kids with doctors for parents will perform better than a class of kids with illiterate parents.

Battler- Dyslexia is not recognised by the Education Department in Australia. There are different schools of thought on the diagnosis.
 
Battler- Dyslexia is not recognised by the Education Department in Australia. There are different schools of thought on the diagnosis.

Having spent a considerable amount of time at school standing in the corner with a bucket on my head, why am I surprised that they sent home all these filthy reports stating I couldn't read and write properly and should pay more attention?

Geez,....I was glad to see that in the rear view mirror.:D
 
THAT is bad. Maybe it's the gene pool.:D:D

I've worked in areas like that.

That's why the union is against league tables (which compare results and assume teachers abilities directly correlate with results).

Obviously a class of kids with doctors for parents will perform better than a class of kids with illiterate parents.

Battler- Dyslexia is not recognised by the Education Department in Australia. There are different schools of thought on the diagnosis.

it's not a bad area

most people are professionals
it's just the whole education system

when i was a kid, we had a huge reading list, we were writing essays on the stuff we read, we were constantly marked on what we read. here it seems, that the reading is optional, they only ask kids to read 10 mins a day
 
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