What’s wrong with Australia? That was the question posted recently on Quora.com, and it attracted some interesting replies.
As an Aussie myself, I guess I’m expected to say that there is nothing wrong with Australia. But that would be untrue. It’s just that the faults I find are not necessarily the ones others find.
An Indian living in Melbourne is obviously going to have a different perspective to an Australian who is living abroad. And even those in the latter category would disagree among themselves. Some expats see their homelands with rose-coloured glasses, while others can’t wait for a chance to say whey they’re glad they “escaped”..
The Quora conversation includes complaints about the weather, claims of racism and homophobia, the cost of living, internet access and speeds, the quality of television shows, and the creatures that “want to kill you”.
Some random excerpts:
“There are tales of people getting hopelessly lost once they leave the populated parts.”
“The weather here [in Melbourne] is completely insane – just this week, we’ve had 41C one day and 22C and pouring rain another day.”
“Cost of living is high – but this is also compensated by having decent medical, disabled, senior support systems.”
“Australia has a very ‘blokey’ culture, so domestic violence is still very common and often dismissed as ‘boys will be boys’.”
“Australians can be really blunt. I love this fact about Australians, but it may rub you the wrong way at first.”
“Housing is expensive whether you rent or buy. Healthy fresh food, fruit and veg are expensive but junk food is cheap – hence rapidly growing obesity rates and type 2 diabetes.”
“Exalting sport over everything else, to the detriment of anything else. The irony of it all is that we’re really not that good at it anyway.”
“Poor investment and development of public transport and cycling infrastructure.”
“Kangaroos on the road you drive especially early morning or midnight. They can damage your car that much you never expected.”
To be fair, a lot of people also mentioned the good aspects of life in Australia. As one contributor said: “Overall I like Australia and think it’s in the top 5 or so countries, as the only problems with Australia are mostly shared by other countries too.”
I’m interested in knowing what others think.
