scorcing thoughts

the australian summer makes you feel like a piece of turd. you are damp and sticky, and the flies follow you around all the time. its like they are playing tag on you ... there is always at least one fly wherever you go. you keep trying to get it away, but it never does. you keep trying to do something about it, like trying to swat the pesky buggers. that makes you a frantic piece of turd. but a piece of turd is still a piece of turd, whether still or moving about.
the locals "celebrate" the heat, soaking in the sun and then cooling down with a few cold ones (or more than a few during the festive period). as for me, i just try to keep cool, and get cooler every time i pop another one.
the question here is .. whom do we categorise as locals? the people who have lived on this land for many generations? the people who migrated here from a cold country far away a couple of generations ago? the people who came from neighbouring countries and have australian citizenship after the prerequisite years? the young blokes who came on a student visas and then assumed citizenship? or the people who only speak english?
as the country continues to open its door to migrants, it grapples with new and different ideologies, cultures, languages, habits. problems arise when someone "new" refuses to adopt the culture here, or when someone already here refuses to accept new cultures that plonk into the country. but there never seems to be a big problem, because everything will be made to look ok superficially. as long as everyone is polite. we can always bitch about things when we turn a corner.
lots to think about as we welcome 2010, at least for some of us who think things need to change a little...