How Not To Be Australian

In 1979 my parents were given orders from THQ to relocate to Hong Kong. We were a family of 5, my mother was pregnant, and my father was a qualified social worker and teacher. I was 3 and a half. Hong Kong became our base for the next 8 years and we travelled throughout Asia, serving God's call within the The Salvation Army. Our journey was, without question, amazing. I look back on it even now, as the father of three, and a Soldier of the current day Army, and marvel at how fortunate I was to have lived in such an amazingly diverse way. We most certainly experienced other times which were traumatic beyond description, which no one should ever have to endure, but live through them we did, and blessed by them we have been.
After our initial posting in Hong Kong we lived for a variety of periods all over the Asian Pacific. Beginning in Shanghai, with a population of just under 10 million people, we pressed forward to Delhi, with over 13 million, then Bombay, which boasted its 18 million residents, followed by Sri Lanka, which brimmed with over 19 million people, the Philippines, with 38 million people, and finally landing in Australia, with an estimated population of 17 million people; spread sparsely over an entire continent. We arrived at Tullamarine Airport at 2am on a Tuesday morning. A small greeting committee took us to our new residence in Blackburn South, in the quiet back-end of Inala Retirement Village. My brothers, sister and I woke before the sun had risen then next morning. The first recollection I had was joking with my older brother that refrigerators were most likely not needed because it was so cold. We had never experienced temperatures much below 25 Deg C in our lives. It was about 5 Deg that morning and we were perplexed that we could see our own breath. When it became light enough to see out the foggy windows we gathered a football from the tea chest that contained all of our belongings and we ventured into the yard with one purpose in mind - to play with 'the children'. In the third world there was and still is no shortage of children. They are literally everywhere you look. Day and night, town or country; no short supply. What we experienced, however, was not like anything we'd ever dreamed of. If you had told us that the rapture had come during the night and that we were the only ones left behind, I would have believed it. There we stood in a street, full of houses, cars parked on either side of the street, letter boxes in every yard, all the signs that humans had been there at some point in history, but not a soul to back it up. The silence was terrifying. Our ears were literally ringing from having always heard anything but the low, deep hum of traffic 24 hours a day and we had no idea what to say or think.
Later that day our grandparents arrived, and they bought us lunch. In certain places within Asia we had lived in it was our experience that the locals would have quite literally eaten anything that crossed their path, and thus, so would we. We had eaten some of the most extraordinary things conceived including intestine, snake, chicken feet, eyeballs and things that defy description that might have had some sort of animal in it... Nothing so repugnant had ever befouled God's green earth that we wouldn't have, or hadn't already, tried to eat it. My loving grandmother served up a boiled hunk of corned beef, boiled potatoes and peas. It was as though we'd been served slices or hot wet rubber... no rich gravy, no spices, just the basic building blocks for a real meal, with the flavour boiled out of them, and then served separately from one another. Our first encounter with sandwiches later that day made us suspect infanticide when we discovered that their contents were black... we suspected some sort of cleaning product had been mistaken for a conserve.
In the 20 years since I have reflected many times on what I have become as an 'Australian'. By the tender age of 10 I had been blessed with the life experience of a man , and still had so many more adventures to have. In trying to sum up what it means to be 'Australian' I have concluded that it is easier to outline what it is to not be Australian. In my experience Australia is not like the rest of the world. It does not have hostile border neighbours. This is not normal by global standards. India/Pakistan, Iraq/Iran, Nth Korea/Sth Korea and on and on it goes. Australians can vote for whoever they wish without any fear for their safety. this is not the case in dozens of countries, including the US, Russia, Numerous African Countries and more. Australian women have almost the same rights as men. I am not convinced yet they are given every privilege as a man, but compared with the third of the world who embrace faiths that suppress women, we do alright. Australia does not have drugs in the epidemic proportions that other countries do. Sure, we have drugs and the evil they bring, but in comparison to the million or so children under 10 who will die from overdose in Brazil in 2007, the fight seems a little more 'fair'. Australia is not flooded with guns daily over vast, unprotected borders, such as Europe, Russia, Asia and just about every African country where a bribe can be suggested. We do not have wave after wave of innocent immigrants fleeing hostile military forces over our boarder on foot, as do cross the Rio Grand every night from Mexico to the USA, From African Country to African Country and so forth. Our health care system is less inclined to let someone die from a very simple disease, after walking miles on foot to the only hospital, simply because they don't own $175 to pay for the needle, the drug and the bed to cure the illness. This actually happens in African countries on an HOURLY basis... We are unique.
The sad part about all of this is that I have not seen much evidence that Australians, particularly Anglo Saxon Salvationists, are aware of what we have, or what it could become. The role of The Salvation Army has always been to transform lives. It's simple. Booth said 'go fetch em', but do we? Jesus said 'If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not', but are we doing the works of God in a way that recruits 'Others' through undeniable dedication to the only truth that exists? To be Australian does not entitle us to rest in this glorious setting of paradise. Adam and Ever were similarly honoured with a garden of Rest, but their rest led to complacence, and saw them exiled into the wilderness. An Officer in the Melbourne Central division was recently made custodian of a new facility for his Corps. When being told of the good news a key Officer in this Territory he was told directly - 'Do not get comfortable. This is a beginning, not a promised land'. I stand by that. This country offers us a voice of authority, and global power. As Australians we need to actively bless other countries with riches we have in excess proportions. We need to fight to the death for those in our own midsts who have less, suffer more, seek love and look to us for leadership. Do not become comfortable as an Australian or we may lose all that being Australian is.