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Comment by smcl | Hacker News Reader

Some of these continental orgs are quite flexible about what countries they permit to join. For example Israel is also in Eurovision, but it’s not in Europe. Similarly Australia are part of the Asian Football Confederation rather than Oceania’s Football Confederation (and Israel is a member of UEFA rather than AFC, for obvious reasons)

I don’t think anyone is saying “Australia is part of Europe” with a straight face though :-)

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Saying, no, but feeling, yes. Keating's "Asian Century" version of Australia never took strong cultural hold. Our nearest neighbours PNG & East Timor are ignored except by our NGOs and spies, and few visit Indonesia other than the Bali beach resorts. A brief 1990's spurt in Mandarin teaching in schools is in decline, with European languages remaining the most popular. Australia is still by far the most Eurocentric of the post-WW2 immigration nations. And it's literally the whitest, which is why it's been the destination of choice for so many South Africans since the 1990s.

This is changing to some extent with demographics (immigration from China and India, and some generational change). But surprisingly slowly and shallowly. Few Australians know much about Asia, or even the Pacific, let alone feel theirselves to be part of it.

I wasn't suggesting it was part of Asia, rather highlighting that it was not unusual for Australia or indeed other countries to be part of continental organizations (Israel/UEFA and Aus/AFC/Eurovision) that are different from the continent they're usually considered to be a constituent of (Israel/ME, Aus/Oceania). Regardless I do not think skin tone should come into it.

My "Asia" comment wasn't really a response to you - it's been a part of internal Australian debate since the 1980's. Keating crowned the 21st the "Asian Century", and claimed Australia should turn towards Asia. My point is that never really bit culturally. Australia is geographically Pacific, economically Asian, and culturally European/American Despite self-perception, there isn't really much non-derivative Australian culture beyond some small Indigenous influence, though we're probably a century behind NZ in that respect.

> I do not think skin tone should come into it

It shouldn't, but it certainly does. Little can be understood about Australia without it (well, ethnicity at least - broader than 'skin tone'). A large part of Australia's Europe-longing comes from a historical fear of China (as a kind of stand in for people of Asiatic ethnicity).

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