When in Rome…

I EXTEND best wishes for a merry Christmas and happy New Year to everyone and hope we can all look forward to a peaceful 2007.
Christmas Day is a special day for Christians as we celebrate Christ’s birth, but historically also serves as the celebration of solstice in the northern hemisphere.
So for everyone it is the basis for a day of joy.
I can look back over a year that encompassed for me a wonderful overseas trip that I found far more fulfilling and enjoyable than I expected.
The trip meant making friends and confirming existing friendships with people all over the world.
This was an extension of my involvement in the Australian Sister Cities Association and provided the opportunity to see great works of art, hear beautiful music in Italy and Austria, and to see historic buildings and places. Yet, it confirmed my view Australians sell themselves short with what is deemed to be political correctness.
We are changing our culture and customs too often for fear that we might offend people who come to live in Australia at our invitation. They come because of what we have so why change it?
If people come to this country we should welcome them and the addition of their cultures to ours but not replace ours with theirs. If they come to change us and our way of life and challenge our freedom, they are not immigrants, but invaders.
Believe me, when we visit other countries there are no signs of our hosts changing their customs for us.
“When in Rome do as the Romans do.”