DOWN UNDER

Think of Australia. What comes to your mind?

The Sydney Opera House. Koala, kangaroo, cassowary and Tasmanian devil. The Sydney Harbour. The Olympics. The Canberra Parliament House. The trams of Melbourne. Bondi Beach. Gold Coast. Blue Mountain. Hunter Valley. Aborigines. Crodocile Dundee. Steve Erwin (killed by a stingray). Russel Crowe. Nicole Kidman. Eric Bana. Kate Blanchett. Heath Ledger (Brokeback Mountain and Batman). Hugh Jackman. Air Supply. Bee Gees.

Just a trivia fact that came to my mind just now. If you turn the map of Australia upside down, it’s somewhat like the map of the continental USA.

Historically, Australia was like a giant Iwahig Penal Colony. In the 18th and 19th centuries the British government sent their convicts to penal colonies in New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania, Western Australia, and Norfolk Island. One-tenth of all convicts transported to Australia were Catholic, and half of these were born in Ireland. Several Irish priests had been transported to New South Wales as convicts. Hold on. Don’t be scandalized yet. They were convicted for their involvement in the 1798 rebellion against British rule. In other words, they were patriots involved in the struggle for freedom for Ireland.

My first time in Australia was with a group of deans of engineering schools that were considered to be Centers of Excellence. The trip was funded by the Philippine Government through the Department of Science and Technology. I chose the Sydney group because my sister and her family were living outside Sydney. Another group went to Melbourne. Two other groups went to the US of A.

We visited the University of New South Wales and the University of Technology. The purpose was not to have a good time but to bring back something that we can apply to our own schools. I was able to confirm one finding of an action research regarding library use. When the library index card cabinet was replaced by a computerized system, the library use skyrocketed. This was in those days when the computerization of the library was just beginning.

I also learned and experienced many other things in Sydney.
On our arrival at Holiday Inn, I went to the front desk to inquire about our address. I couldn’t get what the young man was saying. After the third try, I gave up. I later learned that he was saying: “New South Wales.” So much for the Australian accent. But I did get the hang of it soon.

On my first night in Sydney, I went out of our hotel to take a walk. I was surprised to see the streets almost empty. It was just around 7 or 8pm. Where are the people? I found out that that was the usual thing. Their malls and stores close at 6pm, if I’m not mistaken. I wonder how the stores earn.

Filipinos are scattered all over the world. You find them everywhere. It was not unusual to have met a Filipino family in Sydney who invited us for supper. After supper they brought us around so that we can have an idea how Sydney looked like at night. One place I could not forget was King’s Cross. They pointed to scantily dressed (read: sexy) beautiful women scattered along street corners. You don’t need a PhD to know who they were. But what I didn’t know was that they were really men!

Many Australians seem to like going bare-foot. At noon break I saw a woman take off her shoes and walked across a grass covered park for her lunch. At the outskirts of Sydney where my sister lived, I saw many more Australians walking into stores bare-foot.

Do they go topless in the beaches (the women, that is)? I didn’t see anyone go topless at Bondi Beach. (Well, I didn’t go around looking for them. So I may have missed them.) But I did see two in another beach…but not up close and personal. (And I certainly am not sorry that I wasn’t close enough.)

What I like about Sydney was that it was clean and not congested. I never encountered any rude Australian while I was there. I remember wanting to ride the monorail in the city. I went to one of the stops but didn’t know how to get the ticket from the machine. But someone who saw my predicament was so kind as to approach me and volunteer to assist me.

During the period we were visiting the two universities, I made use of the radio alarm clock of the hotel. At the appointed time, instead of the alarm, the FM radio started playing early morning music. That was OK. But I stopped in my tracks when I heard the host say something. I stopped because I couldn’t believe my ears. Did I hear what I thought I just heard? He was asking his listeners to say over the radio how they were having sex with their boyfriend or girlfriend. And people were calling in as if they were just being asked how they liked their eggs done for breakfast. In Australia Mo Twister would have sounded like a puppy.

Every culture has its good side and its bad side. Every country has its virtues and its vices. St. Paul gives us this practical advice: “Test everything. Hold on to what is good” (1Thess. 5:21). But we need to go one step further. “Cultures are also called to purify themselves of their share in the legacy of sin, embodied in certain prejudices, customs and practices, to enrich themselves with the input of the faith and to enrich the universal Church itself with new expressions and values" (Redemptoris Missio, 52; Slavorum Apostoli, 21; and Toward a Pastoral Approach to Culture, 10).

Especially in this Year of Faith we need to purify our culture (and that includes ourselves) from whatever makes us less credible disciples of Jesus Christ.