I hate, hate, hate Australia

[Einsty]

So this is an unashamed venting thread, so back away now if you would love to live in Oz or do, and love it.

Short story, back a year after a decade in the UK and am still adjusting, I guess.

Aus has changed a lot, and mostly in ways I don't like. Just want to get a few things off my chest so I can stop muttering and get on with it.

First whinge: service - Australians think they are famed for it, but it is almost universally shit. Unattentive, almost resentful, and clearly beneath the person working in a shop, funky cafe or suburban small business. Want to go elsewhere because they haven't looked at you when serving you, or acknowledged keeping you waiting, brought the wrong order, not brought your order, or overcharged you. They couldn't care less.... And then I keep hearing how dire things are in retail. Any wonder!?

Second whinge: racism. I spent a decade swearing it didn't exist in multicultural Australia. Does it what? I hear curry muncher and noodle all the time.

Anyhow, that is two off my chest - I just feel that Australia is so busy boasting about itself and being self congratulatory that it is failing to realise it has taken it's eye of things that count - like truly world-class childcare and education. Standards are low and I reckon we - because I am now here for good unfortunately - will eventually regret how smug Australians are...

Sorry, came too late to the thread a few weeks ago to but in but have wanted to vent ever since...

[Bubbaluv]

Why stay then?

[therugratref]

I left over 20 years ago and while I love going home to see family and friends I will never go back to live.
I agree with regards to the racism I am still shocked by the things my well educated, professional, family and friends say very casually. Muslimophobia is widespread.
If you are there for good now you have to look for the positives or it will eat you up. When I first commited to not going home I felt almost resentful towards the UK and its "miserable dank greyness" and it made me question my decision. I wrote a list of all the positives (which I still have) and when I got a negative thought I tried to immediatly think of a positive.
Where in Oz are you?

[YoungMotherTubby]

I watched programme recently about Scottish doctor over in Oz and was really shocked at the racism against Aborigines and the conditions they live in. (cramped overcrowding/sometimes no water or electricity in shack,suicide rates, illness and alcoholism and drug addiction)

I have relatives who emigrated over there and quickly began using very negative racist phrases and looked down upon 'blacks'

[thestringcheeseincident]

Yes leave then.
They won't miss you.

Come back to the UK, never any racism here or banking crisis or riots. It's all fantastic.

[sunnydelight]

I think you're clearly living in the wrong place. The education my kids are getting here is vastly superior to either the State or private schools they attended in England (but I'm not British so never thought very highly of the UK education system anyway). I spent 12 years as an equality/diversity trainer and consultant in the UK - please don't try and tell me Australia is better. They are more open about it yes, some times in a WTF way, but if I had a fiver for every time I had to explain to some middle class English person why the word Paki was offensive I would be rich. Listening to them telling me how they would continue using the term as they thought there was nothing wrong with it and of course as it was "their country" they took priority was totally depressing.

My personal experience is that service here is miles better too - try visiting a restaurant in Brighton full of "I'm too beautiful to be here" wait staff. At least here people don't look down their noses at those working in service industries. Most public schools here have before and after school care as the norm, still a very patchy facility in England. Yes, pre-school childcare is expensive but it's really only a consideration for a very small part of your life.

You are clearly unhappy here so why don't you just move back to the UK where, as thestringcheeseincident has said, life is soooo rosy. My three kids (aged 8-18) are just very grateful we moved!

[Einsty]

Oh, I don't know. It will probably be fine in the long run. But it is particularly galling to have spent ten years gushing about the work ethic, low cost of living, sense of equality and fair go, great education, great food, sense of mateship and multiculturalism ... Only to conclude post-major-relocation that it is has all gone backwards ... And I visited regularly came back to visit. I would not be so miffed if there wasn't so much talk about how superior Australia is... It is so cringey...

[SeymoreButts]

Do you have to live somewhere you hate, hate, hate? You only live once.

[Bubbaluv]

Einsty - I've never heard of Australia being famed for service. Countries that are famed for service tend to be countries with v high unemployment and low wages with a strong tipping culture - Australia meets none of those qualifications.

I think you'll get over this BTW. When I moved back to the UK I found fault in everything for the first 6 months or so and then found fault everywhere in Aus when we cam back here. I'm happy now though.

In the mean time how about you try actually doing something about the racist idiots you seem to be hanging out with. Call them on their innapropriate language, challenge their bigotted ideas. Or find some new friends, but don't whinge about it and make derogatory and offensive remarks about an entire country.

[Einsty]

Bubbaluv, I have joined a mentoring project to help young adults with a migrant background get on professionally I participate with bloody-minded determination to prove those attitudes wrong... I too think it will pass... And there is much to love about Australia, which I must do better at focussing on ...

[Bubbaluv]

So can we now say you are "Frustrated with aspects of" rather than "Hate Hate Hate"??


Glad to hear you are being proactive too!

Try not to buy into the English idea that Australians' pride in their country is smug and offensive. It's more like the unconditional love a parent shows their child. Parents don't actually think their child is perfect and most recognize poor behaviour for what it is, but we love them and are proud of them anyway and will happily and genuinely tell others that we have the best little kid EVER!

Anyway, where are you going to go that has wonderful service, amazing education, a tollerant and accepting society without racism etc etc ? May as well enjoy where you are?

[ibon]

Australians pretty much know the service here is rubbish. Online newspaper articles about the retail industry or domestic tourism industry regularly generate hundreds of comments from people who are happy to take their business online or their tourist dollars overseas.

I'm Australian and spent ten years living abroad. Coming home was a huge adjustment. Things had changed a lot in the time I had been away and the cost of living had truly skyrocketed. I had to consciously focus on going out of my way to enjoy things Australia offered me that the country I'd come from didn't. It still took me over a year to stop making constant comparisons.

[esselle]

I hate, hate, hate all of these shitty anti - Australia threads! They are really fucking rude and annoying now.

All filled with negativity and broad generalisations. If you go looking for shit you will find it. But hey how about you rise above it all and start noticing the positives, put happiness and positivity out there and see what you get back.

I really don't think you would be happy anywhere with your attitude the way it is.

[cherrysodalover]

I generally like Ozzies but they do have a certain way somehow that must irritate our self depreciating English sensibility- huge generalisation I know.
We had some Ozzies who invited themselves to stay and they really were the most self absorbed, smug, self congratulatory people i have encountered in some time.My husband and I agreed it was enough to put us off relocating there at any point because the smug factor is just so high.And Oz does have a lot going for it in many ways- for us it is one expensive backwater- i hear the property prices are as hight as London in Melbourne and Sydney.

I know there are some lovely ozzies out there but well you have to love em or leave em really.

[Bubbaluv]

For Einsty - maybe this will help.

Winter

[ClaudiaSchiffer]

How odd these anti Oz threads are. I've been here for 5 yrs and you know what . . . it's not paradise! But hey it gets pretty close at times.

Yup, there is some casual racism . But you know what, call people on it don't just stand there accepting idiots saying idiotic things. I've always found the service to be friendly to the point of irritation. How I long for a grumpy teenager in Miss Selfridge to ignore me.

Hey Cherrysodalover, we had some awful English people to stay last year. But I try not to condemn the whole nationality on their rather thoughtless, ungrateful and selfish behaviour.

Yes there are wonderful things about the UK that I miss, decent newspapers and telly, buildings older than 150yrs. People who just 'get' me, funky clothes.

But you've gotta look on the bright side, right? Australia is where I live, it's where I'm bringing my daughters up and mostly it's great. Keep that attitude turned to positive OP, turn that frown upside down, keep your pecker up, concentrate on the benefits of being here.






Or go back.

[ninedragons]

Well it's not North Korea - you don't need an exit visa, so the solution to your problem is as close as the nearest airport.

Are you quite sure your attitude to service personnel is unimpeachable? I get excellent service here, because I am friendly and up for a chat. If you treat staff like a glorified vending machine, in return you will get poor service.

[WhaohThere]

I agree about the bad service. Shop assistants there, generally, have a superiority complex to the customer.

I think if Australians wouldn't keep trying to tell everyone how great their country was then it wouldn't be so bad. When you are told that all the time then you do have certain expectations. The expectations didn't, sadly, reflect the truth for me.

[Bubbaluv]

I give Einsty one more Summer before she's boasting too.

[saffronwblue]

The Australia that I grew up in suffered from a dreadful Eurocentric cultural cringe. We used to say, eg " quite a good band, for an Australian band."
When I went to Europe I accepted the casually patronising remarks "I've never met an Australian who liked Shakespeare!". My DH went to a posh party in London and was greeted with "An Australian in a suit!".

Those days are over now and that particular bit of world balance has shifted. What may strike British ears as arrogance or self congratulation may just be the refusal to position ourselves as inferior.

I'm sorry that you hate the whole country so much Einsty- you only have one life and I suggest you spend it somewhere that you enjoy. If you have DC's it is dreary for them to listen to Mum being a victim and fulfilling the Whingeing Pom stereotype.

[sunnydelight]

If you want self absorbed smuggery try living in the UK as a non Brit. The assumption of superiority is breathtaking. The number of times I have sat at nice middle class dinner parties wanting to scream "you no longer have a fucking empire, get over it" are many

Everywhere has it's pros and cons. It sucks if you end up living somewhere you don't want to be, don't like it and have no choice. But if you do have a choice either do something to make your current situation more bearable for you or accept you are in the wrong place and move on.

[HerdOfTinyElephants]

How is Einsty fulfilling the Whingeing Pom stereotype when she's Australian?

[BalloonSlayer]

I love Australia but have frequently been shocked at the racism I have heard. My sister is a Brit, obviously, but has lived there for 25 years. She says things casually that - well I won't repeat them! - have horrified me. She has had the same upbringing blah-de-blah as my other sister and I, and is of a very similar character. Neither my living-in-Britain sister or myself would ever come out with things like my Australian sister does in a million years - the only difference between the three of us is where we have lived for the last 25 years.

To add to this - I have posted about this on here before - I was gobsmacked to see golliwogs on sale in Australia. In the Early Learning Centre!

[Bubbaluv]

I think you'd find most Australians just as shocked to see golliwogs!

[saffronwblue]

herdof I know OP is Australian but she is channeling the stereotype! I also know that she is having a vent and probably does not speak like this all the time. I just do think that life is too short to live somewhere you despise.

I don't think racism is part of the fabric of society here the way it is in the UK. Obviously others have the opposite impression. It is in the UK that charming white elderly middle class women have told me that everything was ruined when the blacks were let in.

[SeymoreButts]

In a weird way, reading this thread has made me realise I'm looking forward to going (in about 2 weeks!!) more than I thought I was. I'm pretty anxious about relocating my whole family to Sydney for a few years, but there's nothing on this thread that I haven't experienced in the UK.