Isn’t it strange… Notes on Australia
It’s time to note down some cultural impressions I’ve made about Australia; in particular, I will focus on a few things which strike me as somehow strange. Just to clarify, I treat these mainly as rhetorical questions as the reasons are clear enough for most of them.
Isn’t it strange..
- .. that Australia has the biggest houses in the world[1], while simultaneously being the country that most increases the time spent outdoors for expats?[2, 3] With a culture geared towards the outdoors life and a climate to match, why would people need the biggest indoor dwellings in the world?
- .. that Australia has one of the best solar power generation potential in the world[4], yet produces over 80% of its electricity with coal?[5]
- .. that Australia have some of the best-managed and sustainable fisheries in the world[6, 7], plenty of fresh produce and even wine locally available – i.e. a good potential for an ideal Mediterranean diet – but Australians are still among the most obese (if not the most obese) people in the world? [8, 9]
- .. that people in Australia are generally friendlier and more willing to help (my subjective experience, of course) than in Finland, despite Finland scoring quite a bit lower on the Hofstede’s individuality index?[10]
- .. that people consider USA the great “melting pot”, even though only 11% of people in the USA are foreign-born, compared to over 25% in Australia?[11, 12]
Resources
- Australians live in worlds biggest houses
- HSBC: Expat Survey
- HSBC: Offshore offspring
- Desertec Foundation: Australia’s Concentrating Solar Power Potential
- Australian Coal Association: Electricity Production
- Marine Stewardship Council: Certified fisheries
- Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry: Fisheries resource management
- Stewart, S: Australia’s Future ‘Fat Bomb’
- NationMaster: Obesity Statistics
- Geert Hofstede’s cultural dimensions: Finland and Australia
- US Census Bureau: State & Country QuickFacts
- Australian Bureau of statistics: Over one quarter of Australians were born overseas
February 2nd, 2010 at 01:43
On that last point, Sami – I do suspect that Oz has a less rich (more controlled) racial & national mix than the US does – hence the US’s description as a ‘melting pot’.
And I do find it hard to believe that our antipodean cousins are really chubbier than the yanks, on the whole.
February 2nd, 2010 at 02:14
True, the US probably does have a wider ethnic mix. And of course the raw numbers are much bigger, it being a much bigger country population-wise.
February 5th, 2010 at 20:56
Also in terms of “melting pot”, according to ABS in 2008 30% of marriages in Australia that year were between people born in different countries.
http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Products/EB4E8FBE970F4560CA2576200015A2B0?opendocument
Unfortunately, I couldn’t find comparable stats for the US, but according to the US Census in 1992, 2.2% of all married couples were “interracial”.
http://www.census.gov/population/socdemo/race/interractab1.txt
February 15th, 2010 at 18:32
I like this kind of comparisions. In many cases we regard some phenomenon as a unique one when it isn’t and on the other hand don’t see the peculiarities in our own society.
March 30th, 2010 at 00:47
I’ve never really thought of America as a great melting pot (or great anything!) but that is by the by! I think the interesting thing about that stat is that Australia’s population is still very new, hence so many being foreign born. I am the only Australian in my family!