Flat rates, Flat whites—what Australian broadband can learn from Australian coffee
The power of technology adoption multiplied by new cultural influence via immigration within an urbanised population
Ed. This piece was first published at cityofsound.com on 7 September 2007.
Before moving to Sydney, I’d promised myself that this site wouldn’t become completely overwhelmed with notes on Australia. Yet these are precious moments, when my wide eyes are eating everything up, even more than usual. This is a rare time, first impressions hitting hard — as Dyer said of Lawrence, he would start writing about a place from the train on the way there. The purposeful naïvety of the outsider can be a powerful force Apparently Mark Twain said something about this, though you never know with Mark Twain.
Every day provides a cavalcade of differences, a sensation will be familiar to anyone who has lived in another country. From yoghurt pots to the layout of bus timetables to pub protocol to forms of government, and all points in-between. Even the certainties of death and taxation will be handled differently. Australia, which shares the same language as my native Britain — to some extent — and with it a strong residual cultural influence, is still utterly different. Perhaps it’s…
