Australia's 21st Century

Australia engages with Asia

Although less than a decade old, Australia's third century is shaping up as its century of Asian engagement. Already a few conflicts have emerged, partnerships forged, and culture been transfused both ways. So far, no major events regarding territorial claims have arisen, but they will in the future; most likely over Australian territorial claims in Antarctica with Japanese whaling being the most likely flashpoint.

2000 - Sydney Olympics

As the world has become more globalised, Australia has found itself more closely categorised with Asia when bidding for sporting events. The sharing of time zones means that bids from both Australia and Asia are not readily embraced by European and American business interests. The problem for the eastern hemisphere is that any massive events they stage need to be broadcast in the middle of the western hemisphere's night. While Australia and Asia may be different continents, any unofficial rotation policy of big events categorise them as one and the same.

In the 90s, Sydney bid for the right to host the first Olympics of the new millennium. Its main competitor was Beijing. The two eastern hemisphere cities then argued their respective strengths to the international panel of judges. With little emotive resonance in its convict history, Sydney instead showed its international face and superb natural beauty. Beijing meanwhile, with 5,0000 years of history to draw from, put its culture on display.

To many people's surprise, Sydney won and proceeded to stage the "best ever" games. The success of the games was made that much more stark in comparison to the games that preceded it, and followed it. The Atlanta Olympics in America had been criticised as overly commercial, jingoistic and badly organised. The Athens Olympics had been criticised for being ignored by the hosts.

2001 - The Tampa container ship and refugees

Australia is one of the few countries in the eastern hemisphere not to produce refugees. It is also one of the few countries in the eastern hemisphere to accept them. Australia's willingness to accept refugees can cause friction as it amounts to recognising that a foreign government has violated the human rights of its people. To avoid diplomatic problems, the Australian government spends a great deal of money assessing whether a person is a true refugee or merely an economic migrant using a bogus refugee claim to get into the country.

In 2001, the competing interests of a refugee claim were played out in an international arena when a 20-metre fishing boat containing 369 men, 26 women and 43 children from Afghanistan became stranded in international waters about 140 km north of Australia's Christmas Island. The Norwegian container ship, the MV Tampa, rescued the Afghanis and tried to take them to Christmas Island. As the ship had already passed through the safe country of Indonesia, Australia refused to allow them in. Indonesia refused to allow them to return. Meanwhile, refugee lawyers in Australia, wanting a slice of the money available for assessing contentious refugee claims, commenced media campaigns against the Australian government.

2002 - Bali bombing

In his book, 1984, George Orwell predicted the betrayal of ideals by those who claimed to support them. In 2002, Islamic extremists betrayed the ideals of their religion when they believed that by killing themselves and 202 other people in the process, they would go straight to paradise. Some sections of the Australian media also betrayed their ideals when they created a climate of fear that Australia would become a totalitarian state in retaliation to the bombings.

Fortunately, most Australians were not in fear, nor consumed by hate. They evoked the spirit of the ANZAC legend that places more emphasis on acknowledging the character of the victims, and pays little attention to the evil of the enemy. Typifying the spirit was Peter Hughes, a roofing contractor that was badly injured in the blasts, and Dr Fiona Wood, a plastic surgeon, who treated many of the victims

2004 - Boxing Day tsunami

In the late 90s, there had been some discussion as to whether Australia was part of Asia, or ideologically aligned to Europe and America. In the wake of the 2004 Asian Tsunami, in which 229,866 people died, it seemed that irrespective of where its ideologies lay, Australia had an attitude to Asia that was distinct from most of Europe and the Americas. The Australian government announced it would be giving $1 billion in aid. Australian cricket players volunteered to be part of charity matches aimed at raising relief funds. Privately, Australians dug into their pockets to donate. Using normalised GDP, per capita, Australians gave 42 times more than Americans, 23 times more than British people, and 152 times more than Chinese.

2005 - Cronulla riots

For decades Sydney's beaches have seen friction between Muslim and non-Muslim Australians. The sight of Australian women in bikinis has been offensive to Muslims. The site has been even more offensive when the women have rejected the sexual advances of the Muslim men. Perhaps as a defence mechanism, many Muslim men have made derogatory comments about the women.

In 2005, cultural friction came to a head when two young Australian lifesavers were bashed by a Lebanese gang. In response, a mass demonstration was planned to draw attention to the problem and protest against a decade of police inaction. On December 11, approximately 5,000 people descended upon Cronulla beach for the demonstration. Mixed in were the crowd were some white supremacist groups bearing anti-Lebonese slogans.

During the demonstration, a Lebanese man yelled at the crowd, "I'm going to blow youse all up." The man found himself surrounded, belted with beer cans and beaten. Another Lebanese man was beaten up on a train.

It was the scenes of the two Lebanese men being attacked, and a car being damaged that resulted in the demonstration being labelled a "riot." Strictly speaking, it was no more a riot at all anymore than a student protest can be called a riot.

In retaliation, 40 car-loads of Lebanese came to Cronulla to smash cars, and beat up white people walking down the street. The retaliation continued for the next two weeks.  Bottles, bats, and molotov cocktails became common sights on the streets of the eastern suburbs.

2007 - Japanese whaling in Antarctica

In 2000, the Australian Whale Sanctuary was created within Australia's 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone adjacent to the Australian Antarctic Territory. Under Australian law, hunting whales in the Sanctuary is a serious offence.

In 2007, a fleet of Japanese whaling ships set off to hunt humpback whales in Antarctica, some of which were taken from Australia's waters. In the eyes of the Japanese, Australian law carried no weight as the Antarctic territory does not belong to Australia.

The dispute posed two issues that will be revisited throughout the forthcoming years. One is the integrity of Australia's claim in Antarctica. The other is whether Australia knows enough about various Asian countries to exert any kind of persuasion when disputes arise.

2007 - Australians elect the first western leader that can speak Mandarin

For the past 200 years, the west's cultural transfusion with Asia has tended to be a one-way street. The west talked its political values, and Asia listened. The west opened markets in Asia, and the locals bought the products. The west showcased its culture, and Asia consumed it.

In 2007, Australia elected Kevin Rudd, the first western leader with the ability to speak Putonghua (Mandarin). In the process, Australia took the lead in showing that the dialogue between east and west should be a two-way street. Furthermore, it took Australia some steps towards fulfilling the prophecies of some powerful people around the world. One of these people was Former World Bank chief, James Wolfensohn, who said:

"Australia has a fantastic opportunity to be a bridge between the UK, the US and Europe and Asia, both as it is now and as it will become. As a natural resource provider, as a source of intellectual capital, as an educational resource, we have a hugely important challenge to grab.

Our progress as a nation is not something that can be engineered top-down by Australia Inc. Or by technocratic design. It will arise, albeit imperfectly, from the creativity, dispersed knowledge and diverse choices of individual Australians. Those who crave predictability will be invariably disappointed. That's why the key to truly successful societies is what I've called in the past well-governed flexibility."

Another powerful person was Goh Chok Tong, ex-Singapore president, who said:

"I believe that Australia has a special role in the region. Australia is a developed country rich in natural resources, talented people and technology. Its political and cultural values are Western but the society has a rich Asian mix. Australia enjoys close ties with the US and Europe. Australia is therefore well-placed to serve as another nexus between the West and Asia."

2008 - Bollyline cricket series between Australia and India

 
After the 1932–33 Bodyline cricket tour of Australia, England labelled Australians "sore losers" while Australians labelled England cheats. Trade between the two countries was adversely affected and till this day the series is used to reflect the character of each respective country.

In 2008, another cricket series was used to reflect the character of Australia and another nation. India, the world's most financially powerful cricketing nation duelled with Australia, the undisputed world champions of the game. Needing to survive one over against a part-time bowler in order to save a test match, the Indians lost three wickets in five balls. Not surprisingly, the Indians were emotional regarding their mental disintegration, and blamed everyone from neutral umpires to Australian arrogance for their loss. The Indian cricket board threatened to cancel the tour, Indian fans burnt pictures of Australian players, and Australia's history as a Convict colony was again used to cast dispersions upon the Australian character.  

Professional Australian commentators were also disappointed with the result. Appreciating the boring nature of one Australian victory after another, they had been hoping that India would give a contest. Consequently, the Australian team's jubilance at India's collapse conflicted with their own feelings of disappointment. Some commentators, such as Peter Roebuck, called for the Australian captain to be sacked. Other commentators, such as ex-player Geoff Lawson, criticised Australia's win-at-all-costs mentality. Presumably, the likes of Lawson and Roebuck wanted the Australian cricketers to apply the spirit of backyard cricket. Specifically, lesser players can't be given out first ball, and no fast bowling to the kids or the ladies.

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