In the way of things, most of my Australia trip so far has been inside jumbo jets and offices. But I did get out briefly at lunchtime today in the beautiful, spring sunshine.
Melbourne’s central business district is very American, on a scale more like Boston or San Francisco than New York or even Chicago. It certainly doesn’t bear much resemblance in look or feel to London. One thing was particularly striking to me today. In Britain at this time of year, a very high percentage of people wear poppies in their lapels to commemorate the Armistice. On the news this morning, I saw that Australian prime minister John Howard was in London to lay a wreath at the Cenotaph for Remembrance Day services. But I reckon fewer than 1% of the people I saw today were wearing poppies.
There was one elderly veteran of World War Two, with his row of medals displayed across his chest, selling poppies in Collins Place, a big food court and shopping centre. But no one seemed to be paying any attention.
Even though Australia lost too many men in the First World War (think Gallipoli) as well as the second, I guess European wars seem very far away and rather irrelevant for most people here.
Remembrance Day is hard to remember over here, but Anzac Day is huge. The Anzac story is one of the Austrlian cultural cores.