Lamaan Whyte's AustraliaA personal view by Lamaan Whyte, author of this site. Australia is the most important country in the world. It is also the most beautiful country in the world. Not that I'm biased or anything; the fact that it also my home is mere coincidence.  I was born in Melbourne, a city of about 3 million people which you can find at the bottom right hand corner of the map above. But now I live in Darwin, which is at the upper middle edge of the map. Melbourne is so far South that sometimes the Southern Lights (Aurora Australis) can be seen; Darwin, by contrast, is so far North that the Equator is just a hop, step and a splash away. Australia is a very modern country, with many tall buildings, lots of casinos for people with gambling addictions, and more environmental problems than you could poke a stick at. Some problems, like rabbits and cane toads, we have imported from other countries of the world; other problems, like salt poisoning and the over-use of what little remains of our useful farming land, are home-grown inventions. One of the key features of my homeland is its size. It is one of the largest countries in the world, only slightly smaller in areathan the United States of America, or all the countries of Europe put together. It is also one of the smallest countries of the world, with a mere 20 million people to its name. Some people say that this is because we leave the breeding to our rabbits, which are certainly not shy about being numerous. Others say that this is because our landscape is almost all desert - and where it is not actually desert, it is just doesn'thave much water. The result is that most Australians live huddled in a few cities on the coastal fringes, especially in the South Eastern corner of the continent. This makes us one of the most urbanized country in the world, second only to city-states such as Monaco and Singapore. Australians consider they live in a 'lucky country', with three major thingsto be proud of. Firstly, there are political institutions to be proud of. Officially, Australia is a monarchy, with the Queen of England as our monarch. In practice, we govern ourselves by ourselves so thoroughly that many Australians think it is time to dispose of the monarchy and to admit that we are already, in effect, a republic. The only touble is that nobody can agree on how to choose a president. The politicians will only accept a president chosen by themselves; the public will accept nobody chosen by a politician. The result is a stand-off, and the Queen reigns supreme. Which brings us to our first point of pride: that we are all so calm about it. A second source of pride is our great and glorious military tradition. Many countries besides Australia have glorious military traditions, but few have any quite like ours. In Australia, our greatest military moment, according to popular opinion, was undoubtedly Gallipolli, a First World War attempt to invade Turkey, which ended in a resounding military defeat. Meanwhile, our most famous, best loved soldier was Corporal Simpson, who, together with his faithful donkey, braved bullets and shellfire at Gallipolli to rescue the wounded. Every year, on Anzac Day, the 24th of April, thousands of Australians travel to Turkey to honour the grave of this lowly soldier who died nearly 100 years ago. Other countries may have their great commanders and conquerors, but we take pride in the great Simpson and his noble donkey. Finally, Australians take pride in their sense of 'a fair go'; in playing fair, and giving aid to one's mates. This is a tradition that stems from long experience in battling a harsh environment, and in realizing that survival depends on everybody helping each other. The result is a double-edged blessing. On the one hand, Australians are (at least in their own eyes) very open-handed and generous to those in need. On the other hand, they sometimes set unfairly high standards for people in need. Thus they give high honour to 'the battler' (the honest person who struggles hard to earn a living, even if unsuccessfully, without ever complaining or asking for help), while despising the 'bludger' (a person who asks for help) as somebody who seeks to take unfair advantage of his neighbour's generousity. (If you choose to read this thinking about the treatment accorded to illegal immigrants by Australian authorities in recent years, I won't be surprised.) Next:
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