That admirable true Aussie spirit

Australian are very well regarded in the world for their good work ethics, easy going nature, friendliness, the "she will be right" attitude and good sense of humour. These qualities, although the way they were delivered many times were new to me, made me feel at home and comfortable when I moved to Australia.

In the last twenty-one years, my love and my admiration just grew for the true Aussie qualities and how Australians approach life. This absolutely does not mean that I am less "Hungarian" than I was or I don't respect and love my birth nation's qualities. Many times I wish, we could mould together the best of these two nations' best but that's a dream. Maybe, some of us will manage to come close to that.

I love working on how our daily mindset influences our view on life, the outcome of our days and activities. I know, how far myself I have come since moving to Down Under. It bothers me to see how even my own countrymen and women behave, talk and treat other people. How pickiness and constant criticism ruins their/our good time. How lack of kindness, lack of smile or lack of gratefulness or appreciation of another person's efforts is present in our contact with people. When I experience this, it makes me embarrassed and makes me apologise after, when I meet those same people again.

Certain individuals behave like they have the right to treat others disrespectfully, like they were born with more privileges and rights but with fewer or no duties. No wonder, people in frustration respond to them with racist-sounding comments and send them back where they or their parents and grandparents came from. I am not defending anyone. However, a whole nation needs to protect the true Aussie values and the true Aussie spirit.

Recent sport events in Wimbledon made me feel embarrassed. The childish and nasty tantrums thrown by our top tennis players like Nick Kyrgios's, bouncing his racket into crowd, picking and commenting on the umpire and displeased with the noise his Aussie supporters made was not Aussie temperament. It rather reminded me of a little boy who absolutely not in charge of his emotions and moods. Swearing and throwing the ball out of court in his frustration shows that he does not have a way of coping with the pressures of a game and he is not in control of his emotions. While his talent is unquestionable, certain aspects of his appearance right at the beginning demonstrated that we are dealing with a unique and strong individual, who needs and wants attention. Unfortunately, he has been attracting lately the wrong type of attention. All those fans, who excitedly followed his every move at the Australian Open, now turned away from him disappointedly. His behaviour even attracted an unfortunate comment from a well-respected olympic star, Dawn Fraser. While that comment came out racist, maybe it was a good thing for our young Kyrgios to realise that he was behaving badly and not making Australians proud. Even the sport is turning away from him.

Similarly, Novak Djokovic was loosing his cool and was yelling for towel at the ball girl in a moment of total destress. Bernard Tomic was not coping better with Wimbledon's pressures either. You could ask, what's going on with our Aussie tennis stars?

While I love sports, always watch the Australian Open, the Olympic Games, especially swimming, I rather do things than watch things on TV. I have a real issue with Australians being so obsessed with sports and with their athletes. I believe their are massively over-paid and elevated to celebrity status. In my opinion they do not contribute to society that much to deserve it, especially when you compare with other areas of our society when it comes to work, pay, respect and contributions.

It bothers me terribly that our TV news and all the newspapers also represent this view. Half the news and the newspapers are sport sections. It would be highly welcome I believe from a big part of our society if sport section would reduce in size and importance, giving way to the Arts, Science and community news.

Normally, I would stay away from expressing my thoughts publicly. However, this incident made me think. I was wondering, why did these incidents upset me so much that I came to write about it on my blog?

I feel that people who have certain privileges in life need to live up to that position. They owe society and the people who elevated them to that position to show a good example. Top athletes enjoy a lot of privileges in life. They are celebrities with elevated social status, lifestyle, connections, access to things the average citizen doesn't (for example a team of experts, top health care and special treatments), renumeration equivalent or more than the Prime Minister's and much more. It also proves that wealth and intelligence, especially emotional intelligence has no relations with each other.

When citizens were asked what professions they respect the most, after doctors and military officers came firefighters, scientists, followed by nurses and engineers. When you consider i,t money has nothing to do with it.

Those people who are constantly in the public's eye and unfortunately, due to media attention and our obsession with sports, our athletes, politicians and our celebrities have become the point of attention. These people have become the example of the younger generation, just because there is no better in the media and on Internet. In a way, it is a little sad world for those who don't have real passions and all consuming pastimes that introduces them to celebrities, away from the media attention. Artists, scientists, researchers, explorers and ordinary people who do extraordinary things in life. People who work hard and stay humble to serve the nation and the world. People, who not always earn a fortune or live their lives in the limelight. But they are around us, we just have to open our eyes and view the world with different eyes from how it is being presented to us by the media.

Work hard and stay humble. She will be right, mate!