[Skybird]

For long time, the Australian Brits tried to be more British than the Brits themselves. That was to be explained by the distance to their home in England, and led to some absurd attempts to make australia look like Britian at home, including the radical extinction of local flora, which simply looks too exotic (I read they payed - and I think they still do - state money for property owners to burn down areas with local flora, it even is mandatory for farmers, they could loose their rights to live on the land and use it for farming and agruclute if they do not comply). This has dramatic consequences for the abailability of natural sweet water ressoruces, becasue it adds to the prpoblem that already are coming due to the heat and the geological structure of the ground, the big porblem is salienation. In another attempt to import dear old Brittany to australia, rabbits and foxes got imported to Australia, so that hunters may have somethign to hunt. The foriegn species exploded in population numbers and kicked the ecological balance pretty much off track.

If people move to foreign places, they feel foreing and try to make this more comfortable to bear by transporting their old known habits and rites with with them, sticking to them to give themselves a feeling of "home". Often this can lead to the colonists sticking more resolut to old habits than their peope at home who meanwhile undergo changes in vogues and modes and habits and rites that do not make it into the colonies, becasue the colonies are too orthodox in their attempt to safeguarding their memory of the old home.

But I think that Austrlia after WWII has slowly started to understand that japan, China and Indonesia are much closer to it and form its neighbourhood, than Britain is. The asian neigjhbours for long time got rejected, and dealed with as trade partners of secionsd class - europe and Engöland were preferred. I think that Australians struggled for decades to overcome this handicap, and fianlly arrive in the place where they already live now since so long. and I think they indeed have understood that Enbgöand is iucz less important for them than finding their place in the community of their close neighbourhood.

seen that way, giving up to accept the British queen as head of australian state, is only logical, and Elizabeth's death is also a good opportunity that almost marks a natural watershed.

Australia formally may be a colony that became independant, but now it is time that it indeed becomes mature as well and understand that it's childhood is over and that the English mama must no longer sing the same long-since known lullabies every evening anymore. australia has certain ecological and economical problems that England and europe can and will not help it to solve, but that it can only adress in close cooperation and trade with it's Asian neighbours. How may not be too eager to enagge in closer relations if they are constantly being rejected or ignored.

It is not healthy if with yor body you are in one place, and with your mind you constantly are in a different place. For Australia I think it is time to bring both together - else the future may prove to be more than Australia can handle.

On the economic and ecologic problems I just hinted at, I refer to the chapter on Australia in Jarred Diamond's outstanding book "Collapse".