The popular ABC show Q and A was held in Darwin last Monday evening. Our family was otherwise engaged and did not attend, so I am reliant on the media [ but is that wise ?- see post below].
It seems the show has caused a flurry of score and counter score among many.
To many, Darwin - and by inference, the whole of the NT -is seen a city of yobbo stereotypes, cultural cretins and many worse derogatory terms. It might be laid back, but it sure is not uncultured, uncivilised, nor full of yobbos. We, as a population might enjoy a drink [ it is hot you know], enjoy boating or fishing and water sports [ it is hot you know], and dress down rather than up, day to day [ it is hot you know] but we also are active, culturally aware, and articulate.
Our viewpoint is driven by location and surrounds - with strong links to Asia as well as awareness, concern and tolerance of the local indigenous population. Sometimes we are unable to influence views on these topics, views often held by those with less real knowledge about the issues.
One local ABC reporter got fed up with the piffle being bandied around after the show, and has written an op ed piece for the ABC web site. There are a lot of comments, too!
She is a resident - albeit a relatively newcomer, but the spirit of the piece does hold true.
We do loathe being taken as idiots..........we are not.
While it is the season of the falling mango, long reputed to be the most troppo time of the year, and a highpoint of undesirable behaviour, locals just get on with it, tolerating the weather.........knowing that rain is coming. Elsewhere around the monsooon tropics, this pre wet season time is often the period of holidays......a time when work is less, think Songkran in Thailand in April for example, equivalent to our October/November time. But northern Australia is endowed with an inappropriate calendar schedule, imposed by temperate Australia.
Like anywhere else we have citizen behavioural problems, but we are not unaware of those.
The climate is tough on materials and people and the survivors and locals are coloured by that. Not like the soft latte set of southerners, politicians included, esconsed in their ivy towers.
Even Gurrumul, that great NT musician, is probably better known elsewhere than in Australia.
For more, read it here - http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-10-20/kerrigan-qanda-in-the-nt/3580944
We do not really like being fed drivel by the latte set.
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