Let’s be honest. The days when the Italians, Greeks, Poles, Hungarians, Poms and Chinese all packed up and headed downunder or over yonder bear no resemblance to the current influx of migrants.
The 3 phases of population growth can be loosely tied down to the pre WW1, Post WW2 and the here and now.
Society has changed and societal expectation has shifted from what ‘they can do for us ‘ to ‘what we can do for them.’
This, my friends, is a very very big shift indeed.
Our early settlers came from across the pond, across the great unknown and across hostile and treacherous waters armed with axes, arms and attitude. Those brave souls were driven by the desire to better themselves and found a new society that was not ruled by Politicians or the Monarchy.
And we are the fruit of their labours, their efforts and their Patriotism to their new Country.
The original ‘Founding Fathers’ in America fled Religious persecution. As I said in an earlier post, due to stormy weather, a Nation was born. And it was not the one that the British had envisaged when they financed that voyage on the now famous Mayflower.
Those that abandoned Scotland after the Highland Clearances and headed down under and to Canada and to USA were looking for a place to start again and to rebuild their broken lives.
The Irish, the Chinese, so many from so many backgrounds followed. Gold was discovered and communities were built, Governments elected and homesteads carved out of dust, mud, disease and disorder. Some became rich and some fell to crime and despair. But no one can doubt that each and every one gave it a go.
We saw bushrangers and bad guys, philanthropists and fossickers; we saw all manner of folk taking a ticket in a lottery that saw some win big and some lose all.
After WW1, we saw our soldiers return from overseas and they brought with them the architecture that they had seen, the food that they had eaten, the words that they had learned and the wives that they had married.
During the post World War 2 decades when so many were displaced by the horrors that had impacted on towns, villages and cities throughout the continent, a further wave of migrants headed off. Their skills as tunnel builders, wielders of hammers and forgers of iron were desperately needed.
Each family that stepped off a ship and claimed proudly that they were ready to embrace their new life stepped forward with tenacity, true grit and tremendous ability to work.
And work they did. Bloody hard. They grafted.
Restaurants opened, selling food hitherto unknown to the original migrants in some of the destination Nations.
By the 1970’s we saw our Nations embrace the refugees of the Vietnam War and the turmoil in SE Asia. Those folk came and followed the well established blue print: hard work, contribution and blending in with our melting pot societies.
We had Nations that had been forged out of what some would have considered the dregs of Europe and Asia : those that had nothing to lose but everything to gain.
Our Nations are proof that we can prosper as multi cultural havens that recognise a person’s worth by their character.
But something has gone terribly terribly wrong.
Here we are in 2019, in a world of chaos, division and fear.
We now have migrants who come to demand our generosity and expect us to work to pamper them.
Well, our weak kneed and trough fed Politicians may think that it is fine and dandy, but we, the ancestors of those grafters and crofters, those folk that know what hard ship is and what reaping what you sow means that you have to earn what you get... we don’t take kindly to being shafted by free loaders swanning in and taking our houses, our welfare and our heritage.
No siree.
When those that worked hard to provide the backbone of a Nation see newcomers arrive and tear down the monuments, the traditions and the hard won values of THEIR society, then see those same newcomers feeding on the public teat... well, it is small wonder that tempers start to flare.
We are the children of our countries. We are siblings. And when our Politicians, our media and our enemies seek to embolden migrants to destroy everything that we and our ancestors have worked to create, you are going to have a fight on your hands.
Trump is proof that America is fighting back.
Winston Peters is proof that there are traitors in our midst.
There is an election in a few weeks in Australia. Have the newcomers already taken over?
We shall find out on May 18th.
