Tomorrow, at the Adelaide Oval, Australian cricket fans will be out in force, wearing the flag as capes, bandannas, boob tubes, or however else takes their fancy. Heaven forbid if anybody should show disrespect to the flag, mind you. Said cricket fans will be wearing the flag just as the crowds of yobs did in December 2005 in Cronulla at the height of the unrest between the so-called 'Australian' and Lebanese communities in Sydney.
Cricket fans or racist louts? (source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/warrenhudson/72304412/in/set-1554165/)
Tens of thousands will gather tomorrow for the annual ritual of tuning into Triple J's "Hottest 100" songs of the previous year, gathering to barbecue and booze throughout the day, again dressed up in flags, clothing with the Australian flag emblazoned across it, replica uniforms of the Australian cricket, rugby - perhaps even hockey - teams. Anything to show just how 'Australian' one is. In a similar fashion, the Big Day Out festivals around the country will be replete with people 'reclaiming' the flag for 'real' Australians.
As I rode around the city today, it was impossible to not notice the number of vehicles with Australian flags attached to them - be it to the antenna, hanging out of the window, or on flagpoles precariously mounted on the bonnet and boot corners. The only other country in which I have ever seen such over the top expressions of 'patriotism' of this manner on cars was in Chile - hardly a world centre of healthy, positive patriotism.
Last week, Croatian 'fans' caused disturbances at the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne. Invariably Australians of Croatian descent, rather than being born in Croatians, the Australian media was quick to condemn the loutish behaviour in which they engaged, highlighting the fact that they were Croatian 'supporters'. However, little is ever made of the sporting allegiances of the Australian 'fans' who are ejected from cricket grounds around the country every summer. Indeed, it is quickly pointed out that such troublemakers are a very small minority and are not reflective of the true cricket 'fan'.
In recent weeks, Australia has been - unfairly, in the opinion of many - been targetted in the Indian media about the allegedly racist nature of the country, following a small number of supposedly racist attacks on Indian nationals living in Melbourne.
No country is devoid of racism and nationalism. Croatia has centuries of nationalistic conflict behind it; India is a caste-based system, in which discrimination is blatant, widespread and perfectly acceptable by societal norms. Is Australia so bad?
Perhaps I am becoming more radical, slipping further left, with my advancing years, but it appears to me that Australia has been sliding further to the right for some years. Perhaps the shift began before the John Howard years in 1996, perhaps it didn't. Either way, having ousted the Coalition in 2007, the right wing party that calls itself Australian Labor Party shifted the centre point for 'left' and 'right' when it came to power, much in the same manner that Tony Blair's 'New Labour' did when it came to power in the United Kingdom in 1997. What once used to be right wing quite often falls well within the philosophy of what is nominally 'left'. Even the Australian Greens were happy to agree to an exchange of preferences with the Citizens Electoral Council for the 2007 Federal election. So much for principles and morals.
The tolerance for overt displays of nationalism that now abound in Australia is generally acceptable (acceptable to the populace, that is) - providing it doesn't bring Australia's international reputation into disrepute. Even when it does, such displays are dismissed as not being representative of the wider Australian population, not being harmful - let alone nationalistic.
Australians have (rightly) a lot to be proud about. The nationalism that now envelopes its National Day and many aspects of its society and culture is not one of those things.
