Don’t shy from what school of hard knocks can teach us

I’M one of the almost 30 per cent of Australians who were not born here, an Australian by choice and no less proud of it than those who were born here.

I love this country and the national character that built it.

My family arrived in 1950 amid the influx of immigrants after WWII, a mixed lot who stepped off a ship or plane in a country that was far removed from their land of birth. Common to us all was a sense of new beginning, an opportunity for a future away from the devastation of war.

WWII had taken its toll and Australia needed a skilled workforce.

Projects such as the Snowy

Mountains Scheme presented those job opportunities and many immigrants took them.

My father, a former chief engineer in the Dutch merchant marines decided differently and went into partnership with my uncle John, a house painter who had arrived here a year earlier. We settled in Brisbane’s suburb of Milton.

The first English words I remember were “s--t another bloody new Australian”. I could have taken offence, but it was true, I was new to this country, so I decided to learn what it was to be an Australian.

I embraced it, quickly learning that we had a unique sense of humour, an irreverent way of expressing ourselves, a characteristic I discovered had no real malice in it.

My friends were a league of nations, including indigenous.

Religious differences were easily overcome by acceptance of the individual. We made it work. We joked about our differences, all of them and equally, never taking them seriously.

It created a level playing field that bonded us.

Most of all, we learnt to agree to disagree.

Many would say that I assimilated. I suppose to a point that is true, but it is also true that some of what we migrants brought to this great country of ours was assimilated as well.

Today we are in danger of losing the very things that made us what we are.

We enact laws or create social boundaries that wrap us in cotton wool to protect us from the slightest perceived offence. Even discussing differences can subject us to social discrimination and castigation.

Are we a mob of sheep that need the dogs to guide our way?

There will always be the individual or minority who take it too far but the rest of us will learn respect for ourselves and others in the school of hard knocks, the best form of education and character building. BOB JANSSEN, GOLD COAST & HINTERLAND BUSINESS ALLIANCE