Post #2 - Australia & Oceania

New medal to recognise efforts in disasters


Julia Gillard, Prime Minister of Australia is reported to have requested to the Queen that a new medal be included in the honors system of Australia. This new medal would honor those individuals that showed outstanding heroism or effort during periods of natural disasters. Gillard, who is waiting for approval for the inclusion of the honor, plans to have these people honored by Australia Day next year. Gillard had visited the flood-damaged regions of the east the day before and feels that the timing is right to incorporate this new idea. ''I thought this was the right place in the nation to make a very special announcement about how we will honour in the future those who have done such courageous things, such selfless things during these dark and difficult days," says Gillard. Seemingly enough, recent events in eastern Australia are the primary fire for the change. 


I think that the section on population and settlement beginning on page 637 is a relating topic to the article geographically. As the article mentions, the idea for the award or honor exists because of the recent flooding events on the East coast of the country. This section of the text focuses on why the majority of settlers populated these areas from it's first settling. If settlers hadn't clustered toward the coast as much, this flooding issues wouldn't have affected so many of Australia's residents.


 How Souths snared one of game's best forwards for a mere $1million 


The article above describes how an English athlete immigrated to Australia to play an unmentioned sport for less money than he would have in England. Most notably, Sam Burgess is being paid less money than other Australian players, although he is described as the best existing player at his position. The article describes a lot of the monetary issues involving this new player in depth, as well as even some of the residential benefits that he'll be receiving with his contract. The main idea, however, is that this English immigrant will be pain only 1 million dollars during the contract. So if Sam Burgess is being paid less than other players that he's better than, why is he coming to Australia to play? The answer is simple: he likes Australia and wanted to live here! Apparently there are other incentives to the change of team and country besides the money. 


This article relates to the section entitled 'Multicultural Australia' on pages 645 to 647 and 'European Colonization' on page 640. In this section, it talks about the cultural diversity in the region and the specific groups that make up the majority. European immigrants have established themselves as the dominant group to date. Because of the rich history of European immigration to Australia, it should be no surprise or irregularity that an English athlete chooses to move to Australia. It's almost like an American moving states. The cultural differences aren't so much different, rather there's a renewal of a cultural and physical experience.