July 11, 2004
ASK ADELE
The Sydney Morning Herald’s Adele Horin helps some European sophisticates understand Australia:
Visitors from Europe have arrived and, after having marvelled at the winter sunshine and extolled the harbour, they ushered me into a cafe, ordered espressos all round, coughed politely, and asked me the question I had been dreading. Would I be so kind as to explain my country's foreign policy?
Being your typical multilingual European sophisticates, they had quickly grasped Australia's sycophantic attachment to the US.
Australians struck them as a refreshingly irreverent lot. Yet as a nation we were America's ... They waved their hands about, grasping for the right word. "Lap-dog?" I suggested.
If they’re so multilingually sophisticated, why do they "wave their hands around grasping for the right word" like common hand-waving word-graspers? These scammers have obviously tricked Adele by using devious accent skills.
Posted by Tim Blair at July 11, 2004 07:01 PMAdele's article shows perfectly how the Australian left derides Australia being "lap dogs" to the US - while simultaneously crawling and genuflecting to the Europeans. Here's the money quote:
"Being your typical multilingual European sophisticates, they had quickly grasped Australia's sycophantic attachment to the US".
Watch out Adele - if you get your tongue any further up their bottoms, you might not be able to get it out.
The item also nicely ignores how the Europeans like to posture and preen against the US - while simultaneously allowing their defences to be underwritten by the Great Satan. You can at least argue that Australia understands that in order to call on the US at some unknown time in the future, we have to provide value now. It's too late to contact your insurance broker when the tidal wave is heading for your house.
Here's a good example of Adele's supposedly nuanced friends' inability to read history:
"Japan is our biggest export market today, and China just bought all our natural gas, and is far too busy making money to make war".
You may have well said in the 1930s - and Australian PM Menzies did - that Japan takes our pig iron, so what do we have to fear from them? The "sophisticated" Europeans don't seem to realise that what's true now may not hold tomorrow. Here's another example:
"Was not Indonesia democratic now and also a good friend of the US?"
As the Indonesians could elect General Wiranto at the next election (remember East Timor, anyone?), some attachment to the US may look prescient in a little while.
Posted by: The Mongrel at July 11, 2004 at 07:52 PMMay be Australia should become a French lapdog, so that she would be protected by the French nuclear umbrella. Leftists are so self-consciously lacked of self-esteem. America is grateful to her allies and would never treat them like little lapdogs. Our cowboy president never told Poland and other smaller countries to "keep their mouths shut", like shutting up whining little lapdogs.
Posted by: ic at July 11, 2004 at 07:56 PMMaybe she can ask her sophisticated lovers of the European way what on earth happened in Kosovo? I mean it was right on their doorstep and what action did the EU take? Diplomatic ataches, speeches, hang wringing etc etc etc and the refugees kept on flowing. That sort of thing gives me confidence in their abilities.
Posted by: Rob at July 11, 2004 at 08:28 PMyes the libs are correct!
Monsieur Chirac - resume those atomic tests in our back yard.
open the gates of Ozzy immigration for those jewish french citizens fleeing Islamic aggression - why allow israel to take them all. Such a little country.
Stop selling Australian wines to the EU now.
(Ever tried to buy some in la belle FRANCE?)
"BONJOUR , avez du vin Australien svp ?"
NON monsieur ! vous etes en France !
Why oh why are Australian libs such as Ms Horin in "awe" of Zeroepean culture?
Why do they have such inferiority complexes when Australia has so much more to offer than Europe which is in the last throes of its past glory ?
God forbid we should ever emulate their suicidal logic born out their sickening intellectual arrogance.
Would someone be so kind as to explain my country's visa policy with regard to smug, condescending, European cock-suckers.
Posted by: Craig Mc at July 11, 2004 at 08:55 PM"Being your typical multilingual European sophisticates, they had quickly grasped Australia's sycophantic attachment to the US".
"Australians struck them as a refreshingly irreverent lot. Yet as a nation we were America's .... Lap-dog."
Maybe, just maybe, those refreshingly irreverent Aussies see alliance with the US as in their best interest. Was it the Portugese or Czech PM who asked last year: "What is a security guaranty from France worth? We remember the '30s."
Posted by: Larry at July 11, 2004 at 10:23 PMWell said indeed mongrel,
Being your typical multilingual European sophisticates
Ah Europe, home of the blind eye to anti-semitism and derision of anything American. Anything else is just so,...,so, ah yes, unsophistocated.
Posted by: nic at July 11, 2004 at 10:52 PM"Being your typical multilingual European sophisticates, they had quickly grasped Australia's sycophantic attachment to the US".
Merely a statement that style triumphs over substance - this is particularly appealing to those who think with their hearts and not their minds, a typical approach of the left.
Posted by: decoy at July 11, 2004 at 10:57 PMLook, Adele's on a good gig here. She gets paid each week to tell the SMH's sought-after AB demographic, the Balmain/Mosman latte socialists, whatever left wing fluff will reinforce their brainwashing. Being AB means you're so much better informed and oh-so-more clued in than the rest of us Great Unwashed. On the other hand, you're utterly insecure about what "the neighbours" think of you. Adele's just engaging in the usual leftie's hand-wringing angst that comes from knowing you have too much financial comfort whilst living amongst a lot of people who haven't.
It's lightweight stuff.
You guys are being awfully hard on the Euro's. They are a wonderful museum.
Posted by: Stacy at July 11, 2004 at 11:03 PMThere's nothing impressive about Europeans being multi lingual. If every Australian state spoke a different language we'd be multi lingual too.
Europe isn't sophisticated, it's insecure and dysfunctional.
Posted by: gaz at July 11, 2004 at 11:35 PMIt's called ``the just word.'' That's the phrase you were looking for.
Posted by: Ron Hardin at July 11, 2004 at 11:55 PMNever have I seen a more pure example of abjection as a sign of love. To degrade oneself and one's own culture as the sign of your affection for another has cowardice written all over it.
Posted by: Hanyu at July 12, 2004 at 12:39 AMStacey:
Europe is a nice museum now but, as it becomes dhimmified, how long will that last. Some younger readers here might well be able to watch the Mona Lisa get the same treatment as the Budda Statues in Afghanistan got.
Multi-lingual sophisticates will cluck their multi-tongues in multi-linguistic impotence.
Posted by: Dean Douthat at July 12, 2004 at 12:41 AM
Foolish Australians, thinking an alliance with the most powerful nation on Earth in the face of an ongoing threat from an implacable enemy that has attacked them both is in their best interest. The Europeans could offer them... uh... uh... approval!
So unsophisticated.
Posted by: Dave S. at July 12, 2004 at 01:49 AMI wonder if any of them were named Vizzini? That's who multi-lingual sophisticates, European or otherwise, remind me of -- especially when assuming an air of intellectual superiority.
Give Horin credit for the realization that finishing the Europinks' sentence with the correct word, "ally", would only have confused them.
Posted by: Paul Zrimsek at July 12, 2004 at 03:09 AM"Australians struck them as a refreshingly irreverent lot."
Yet obviously they believe Australians are irreverent children who don't know what's best for them. Only the sophisticated European elites know what's best for anyone.
How dare Australia make up it's own mind. You must listen to your betters in order to know what's best. Look at the paradise of peace and cooperation the sophisticates of Europe have enjoyed for centuries! If you want to enjoy the same, you'd best listen to what Europe knows is best.
(Of course, when I say Europe, I really mean just France and Germany. They are the only two countries that matter, after all. All the other European countries are guided by France's and Germany's wisdom.)
Posted by: Chris Josephson at July 12, 2004 at 03:20 AMIs anyone else struck by how easily the phrase "your typical multilingual European sophisticates" could be recycled as an insult?
Posted by: PW at July 12, 2004 at 04:07 AMWith sad sycophants like this Adele Horan creature loving them up, I don't wonder that they see Australians as children in need of patronizing pats on the head.
Posted by: Andrea Harris at July 12, 2004 at 04:30 AMDo you Ozzies have your own quaint words for "lick-spittle" "jackbootlicker" or "toady" suitable for this Ms Whore-an? Syncophant is soooooo European, she might consider it a compliment.
Posted by: JorgXMcKie at July 12, 2004 at 04:35 AMEuropeans find Americans and Australians equally perplexing. Americans and Australians understand each other just fine.
I think the reason is that both Australia and America grew up with a frontier. In the frontier, your friends are all you have. They're all you can count on when things go wrong. You stand by your friends, in good times and bad, because it's a matter of personal honor to do so.
There was a really simple answer she could have offered to the question of why Australia has stood by the US: because Australia promised it would do so. You don't turn your back on your mates when they're in trouble.
Problem is, "old" Europeans don't understand that. They don't understand frontier honor. (When it comes to the French, it's not clear they understand "honor" at all.)
I've been damned glad the Australians were there for us. I never took Australian support for granted, but I also never doubted it would be there.
Arguably, it's just as much Australia's war as it is ours. Australia lost proportionally more dead in the Bali attack than we did on 9/11. But that's not the point.
The point is that you stand by your friends.
(Of course, you have to have friends before you can stand by them, and I don't think the French understand "friendship", either.)
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at July 12, 2004 at 05:57 AMI guess that makes Horin an honorary European, SDB. Anyone who thinks the US would hesitate even a moment if Indonesia attacked Australia doesn't understand us AT ALL.
Posted by: Paul Zrimsek at July 12, 2004 at 06:15 AMyesterday they beat up a young Jewish woman with a small child in the paris metro.
they daubed swasticas on her belly and knocked over her pram with the child in still in it.
a young jewish girl taking her baby out for he day.
The gang of algerian/marrocan youths then run away whilst the rest of the passengers looked on.
yes this is certainly a culture for Ms Horin to look up to!
It isn't already?
Well, to the face of people like Adele and the Europeans she fawns over, I meant. I know it's unlikely she'll ever meet any ordinary people in her walks of life, but it would be fun to see her talk about the "sophisticated Europeans" she met recently, and everyone around her starts giggling.
Posted by: PW at July 12, 2004 at 06:48 AMDavo
As I understand it the young woman who was beaten
was not jewish, the attackers just thought that she was.
It means no one is safe and the French better catch that clue.
Posted by: Fred Boness at July 12, 2004 at 10:34 AMOh, I get it now, typical multilingual European sophisticates, is an acronym , just like "caring, understanding, nineties type" describes Adele.
Posted by: nic at July 12, 2004 at 10:40 AMMike H
yes in fact she was not jewish, according to France 2. Her address was in the 16th arrondisement so the aggressors assumed she was jewish. Of course this is the mindset of these scum- anyone from a smart area of Paris must be jewish !
the fact that she was a gentile will likely send a stronger message to the french public and indeed has been picked up by most of the French media.
European culture for all its historic greatness should not be the cause of an Australian "inferiority complex" as this culture brings with it many sick aspects that we are better off without in our great country.
What a moron she is, does she realise that her article is not logical? Eg. why would "sophisticated Europeans" ask her on what Australia's foreign policies are? There are plenty of lefty papers to explain (read indoctrinate) those people.
Posted by: Uropian Sofistikait at July 12, 2004 at 10:59 AMHey, how many of those Euro sophisticates (sophists, more like it) sitting in that cafe left their elderly behind to fry?
Just wondering, as I wave my arms around, searching for the right word.
Eurotrash.
My, my - the word came to me just like that.
Posted by: ilibcc at July 12, 2004 at 10:59 AMNow you have all been had! Picture the scene: you have friends over from Europe (you know the ones, they come to stay in your home for weeks, drink your booze, eat your food, pay exactly nothing and then are sadly unavailable to host you and yours in "Europe") and you haven't seen them for a while. You take them out for coffee (sorry "espressos") and then straight off the bat they say "Now lets get this foreign policy thing straight."
Adele is either a) making it all up or b} has the dopiest, least interesting friends on the planet. Or all of the above. I have "European" friends (aint I grand) and, although armed with facts and figures, not one of the bastards has ever asked me about foreign policy. They have all asked me about immigration to Australia however. Maybe they will get around to criticising Australia after they get their citizenship like we all do.
Also someone said some bad things about Balmain as "latte socialists". Now that's a racist stereotype. I live in Balmain and I'm no socialist and noone I know is. Please distinguish between those who live in Balmain and those who use its many facilities.
Posted by: Allan at July 12, 2004 at 11:26 AM"the US would hesitate even a moment if Indonesia attacked Australia doesn't understand us AT ALL."
Paranoid, xenophobic, still "scared of the chinks". HAHAHAHAHAH
The Yanks would move in to secure the Timor oil fields for Texas and that would be about it.
Posted by: Darp Hau at July 12, 2004 at 01:07 PMHow does being multilingual and sophisticated help one "grasp" sycophantic attachments? Does it have anything to do with passionately frenching the Islamic Republic of Iran, the PRC, and the genocidal Sudan government?
Posted by: c at July 12, 2004 at 01:39 PMHey Adele, I'm multilingual( they speaks lots of languages in Asia you know; Europe hasn't got a monopoly on that) and I like the occasional espresso, so does that make me sophisticated? In which case can I also expect a headjob from you?
Posted by: Freddyboy at July 12, 2004 at 01:52 PMI find amusing.
Sophisticated Euros feel that Americans are fat,
boorish,ignorant oafs.
Of course if an American ultra-oaf agrees with
them, he becomes the Messiah.
Just ask Mickey Moore.
Posted by: fred at July 12, 2004 at 02:35 PMPaul,
Somehow Darp Hau knows the truth! I have family in Houston who secretly has been awarded Iraqi oil sale shares, as has every other Texan. But they're really not supposed to tell or the UN might investigate these illicit oil kickbacks.
Posted by: c at July 12, 2004 at 03:52 PMAnd my Europeans, .... head off into the kind of winter sunshine they'd kill for where they come from.
In a multi-lateral, UN endorsed and altogether more sophisticated way
Posted by: DG at July 12, 2004 at 05:03 PMI'm trilingual (English, German, some Spanish) does that mean I'm double-plus-good in Adele's universe?
Imagine if I spoke Arabic...
(Besides doesn't GWB (gasp) know a little Spanish as well? Sophisticated!)
Look, seriously I've seen Adell's byline in Margot's SMH and have tried on numerous occassions to read her column but I have not been able to get passed her first sentence.Maybe she should move in with those known gesticulators the froggies.Please take P.Garrett with you,he'll fit in nicely.
Posted by: gubbaboy at July 12, 2004 at 07:04 PMArm waving sophisticates, what a load of crappola.Me thinks this be code for Frogeaters.
Posted by: Paulm at July 12, 2004 at 09:35 PMFor the record, sorry Allan. Whilst not all Balmainers are latte socialist (inner-urban high-income Left), unfortunately your Local Council is latte socialist, your State Member is latte socialist and your Federal Member is latte socialist. Factually speaking, at least 50% + 1 of Balmainers feel inclined enough to latte socialists to vote for them over and over.
Posted by: Romeo at July 12, 2004 at 11:12 PM