Monday, May 26, 2008

AUSTRALIAN VALUES AND BELIEFS...






A belief is the certainty feeling on the meaning of something. It is a personal affirmation that we considered true. In the same idea, values are the states to which the people give importance like success, security, love, happiness, etc. If we analice what are the differences and similarities between beliefs and values, we would conclude that there are more the similar aspects that they have than differences. For example, australians have very strong beliefs which are reinforced by the tenets of the country's society. In other hand australians values are composed by respect women, democracy and diverse cultures and tolerance. If you compare their social values and beliefs many similarities appear.

Respect is one of the most important values in Australia, however this value has a deep relation with their social beliefs. Australian beliefs in loyal fraternity, equality and friendship. Australians have a deep respect for a wide diversity of European cultures such as English and American. "We also have Muslims here. It's quite strange. It's a bit like your eccentric aunt come to visit the family for a few days and she's still there two years later. You can't help wondering when she's going to go home so you can relax and be normal again", said Dr. Gyorgy Scrinis, research associate in the Globalism Institute at RMIT University. The respect is combined by a equality and friendly society.


About tolerance, Australia is an extremely tolerant country. In other research, Dr. Gyorgy says "We tolerate homosexuals. We just don't like them in our churches and we don't want them getting married or having equal rights. But we do tolerate their deviant practices as long as we can avoid thinking about them. Of course we know that same sex attracted people can have a hard time". In this case, we would be compare tolerance value with non discrimination belief finding a significant similarity in the feeling on the meaning of something and the states to which the people give importance.


Australia is a perfect example of how values and beliefs can share the same meaning, it depends on the strong personal and individual ideas that people have to feel around the general society. Maybe we would look for differences both values and beliefs considering several cultures which we can find in other countries however in a nation, feelins and thinkings in general are the same. We can conclude that will be strange to thinking an ethical society without strong values and beliefs.



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