Fair Dinkum Aussie

On this year's Australia Day, I was just one of 78 people from 38 countries who turned up at the council offices of the City of Yarra in order to officially become citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia. The ceremony itself was relatively straightforward, but rather inspiring at the same time, particularly given the extensive rhetoric devoted to supporting the concept of diversity in Australia. While Australia's Liberal party continues to attempt to use immigration and multi-culturalism as a wedge issue, it's nice to see that many value the contributions that Australians (regardless of their origins) have made to the nation.

We celebrated my new citizenship in a traditional Australian manner - a day at the park followed by a few shrimps on the barbie (OK - it wasn't shrimp, but close enough, right).

Centaur

After a search spanning almost 70 years, the wreckage of the Australian hospital ship Centaur, which was sunk in 1943 by a Japanese submarine, has been discovered off the coast of Brisbane.

Cowboys and Indians

The past two years have witnessed rising tensions between Australia's Indian population (particularly in Melbourne) and, well, everyone else, due to what appears to be a trend toward a growing number of violent attacks on Indians. Personally, it's hard to conceive of how one would choose Indians as a population that merits being the target of aggression, but such is life. And of course, the more the media makes of the violence, the more others are tempted to single out Indians. At the moment, it appears that Indians have replaced Muslims as a subpopulation that some feel it is acceptable to discriminate against. I myself have witnessed some of Australia's less progressive youths practicing their Hindi on public transport - but only as a means to insult any Indians they might stumble upon. When bogans are going to the trouble of learning foreign languages just to be assholes, you know you've got a problem.

The backlash has been quick and substantial. Australia has rapidly developed a reputation for being less than welcoming to Indian students, with applications for Australia's educational institutions (which depend upon fees from foreign students) down substantially. There has been almost a 50% decline in applications for Australian higher education from Indian overseas students, and an approximate 25% drop in education visa applications in general. However, there is obviously uncertainty regarding how much of these changes in statistics can be attributed to recent violence vs. policy changes in visa allocations (including a crack down on fraudulent visa applications) not to mention the global financial crisis.

Nevertheless, the situation appears likely to grow worse before it gets better, particularly if the media circus continues to remain in town.

For some of the media stories, go here.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Our Christmas holidays were marked by extremes, meteorologically speaking. We boarded a plane in Melbourne in mid-December on a day where the temperature hit 39C (102F). We then travelled for 24 hours and landed in Hamburg, Germany where the temperature was -5C (23F).

We spent our first few nights in Hamburg in Winterhudeas guests of Pia, where we recovered from our jetlag and caught up with various Hamburg friends of old (e.g., Torbin and the Tanyas). Malia was fitted for some cold weather gear (of which Uta and I were quite jealous), which allowed us to venture out for strolls in Eppendorf , for dinner at Landhaus Walter in the Hamburger Stadtpark, and of course for visits to the Weinachtsmaerkte.
From Hamburg, we headed north to settle in with Buebi and Karin in St. Peter-Ording, just in time for Christmas, dropping in on Wacken to introduce Malia to her Urgrosseltern. St. Peter-Ording was cold, windy and snowy - perfect conditions for a cozy Christmas, something we've missed for the past several years (it's hard to get into a Christmas mood while grilling shrimps outside on the barbie).

Christmas isn't Christmas without plenty of friends and family. Fortunately, during our stay we were joined at various times by Oma & Opa; Katrin & Matthias; Tim, Merit and Nico; Bjoern, Nella, and Finn; Manni and his 'Liebling'; Halli & Kirsten; and Juergen (the insurance dude). We ventured out daily in Dorf, Ording and Bad, although the cool weather kept strolls to a minimum. We also made a day trip to Husum, for a bit of shopping, although Schmidt proved to be a rather difficult department store to navigate, particularly with a stroller. New Years was spent nestled comfortably into the Dittmer homestead eating tasty morsels and watching the spectacle at the Brandenburg Gate unfold on television (everyone there looked realy, really cold).

The return trip was a test of patience and a battle against the elements. Our flight from Hamburg to London was delayed for an hour, and our subsequent flight out of London was delayed by several hours while we waited on board for the plane to be de-iced not once, but twice. Fortunately, we managed to make our connection in Singapore, but or luggage didn't. Nevertheless, we were happy to be back in the land of warmth and blue skies, although we arrived back just in time for a classic Melbourne heat wave, with temperatures heading into the upper 30s (upper 90s F) to low 40s (100+F). As such, our trip ended much like it began.

Overall, it was an extremely relaxing and rewarding holiday season. The Preston family was treated like royalty, although Malia was, of course, the real star.