JAFA ...

Aussie - Identity
http://blogs.smh.com.au/travel/archives/2007/03/new_yanks_and_jafas_why_no_one.html

“When I first started travelling, only about 10 years ago, everyone loved an Aussie. You walked into a pub, someone would hear your accent, and clap you on the shoulder and buy you a drink. "G'day," was an acceptable pick-up line.

You'd find yourself the token conversation piece at get-togethers, where you could persuade people that you wrestled kangaroos for a living. Doors magically opened, hassles were incredibly smoothed over, with the help of an Australian accent.

But it's all gone wrong ...Try the old "g'day" line at a pub in London now, and at best you'll get a roll of the eyes, at worst a "piss off jafa".

Posted by Ben Groundwater March 26, 2007 7:59 PM


Ben Groundwater published on the Sydney Morning Herald blog website this very interesting article about the australian identity and reputation throughout the world (see abstract below): New Yanks and jafas: why no one likes Aussies anymore

The article basically deals with some general clichés that Australia might have abroad; for instance, the author of these ideas plays around these new stereotypes, by affirming for example that the australian reputation used to be a better one many years before, that Australian people is now considered abroad as a drunk population using to acting in a stupid way once abroad.

Hence, he is talking about the Australians as JAFA’s (Just another f------ing Australian) and more generally, tends to adopt an ironic point of view about their image. This might be controversed as cynical in his very sarcastic way of speaking: Try the old "g'day" line at a pub in London now, and at best you'll get a roll of the eyes, at worst a "piss off jafa".
As being an international Student myself, I read these lines with a lot of attention and interest. Indeed, unconciously, I found this article so frustrating, but at the same time so ironical, that it couldn’t leave my mind.

Is it the Aussie-Identity-complex or just reality?