About
Dead Roo is a left wing group blog discussing Australian politics and society.
Once upon a time this blog was called F-ck Skippy, but the name caused all sorts of trouble with firewalls and the like, so we changed it to Dead Roo.
Why was the blog called F-ck Skippy?
“The name comes from the 1960s children’s television show, Skippy the Bush Kangaroo.
In our minds Skippy is the great representative of traditional “Australian values”, of a traditional Australia, where everyone was white, straight, and voted conservative.
“Skippy … typified Australia’s [nauseating] monoculture prior to the 1970s” - Wikipedia
Rebecca and I started this blog in a time when both our major parties engaged in a disgusting bidding war over “Australian values”, our government had rejected it’s token commitments to multiculturalism and reconciliation, and refugees too poor to afford air fares were locked up in camps in the desert.
F u c k Skippy just seemed like the perfect name. “
Donations
Hosting the DeadRoo will cost nearly $150 to renew in November. If you enjoy reading this blog and would like to chip in a dollar or two, your generosity would make maintaining the Dead Roo a little bit easier.
Comments
Comment from John Humphreys
Time: February 23, 2007, 1:56 pm
I’m curious about your opinion of traditional Korean (or any other non-western) culture? If in Korea would you site have been called “f-ck kimchi”? Interestingly, the Korean left take the opposite approach and is very nationalistic.
Comment from Kieran
Time: February 23, 2007, 2:38 pm
The original choice of “f-ck skippy” was soley related to the debate in Australia about “Australian values” and this notion of “UnAustralian”.
I’m not sure who or what kimchi is, and I know next to nothing about Korean culture, so I’m not sure how I would choose to market an economically collectivist and socially permissive (ie, Australian left) point of view in Korea.
Comment from John S.
Time: February 23, 2007, 2:48 pm
Kimchi - hot pickled cabbage eaten with almost every meal in Korea. Not sure why Korea relates to the “about” page, but Kimchi is pretty tasty for something made by a bunch of slanty-eyes (my father’s term, not mine).
Comment from John Humphreys
Time: February 26, 2007, 3:28 pm
Any vegetable, but mostly cabbage.
The point was that it is one of those stereotypical Korean things that people use to define “koreaness”.
My sub-point was that it wouldn’t take long in Korea before you realised that attacking their cliche national icons is in fairly poor taste. You’d probably get branded a racist. And if I did it, then the standard “Australian left” would probably brand me a racist too.
Comment from Kieran
Time: February 27, 2007, 8:11 pm
I feel that as an Australian attacking those cliche’s of national identity is perfectly legitimate political expression.
If I were a Korean attacking Korean nationalism, perhaps I would say fuck vegitables, especially cabbage.
But I’m not. I’m an Australian (*chokes*) attacking Australia’s sacred cows.
Comment from Rhett
Time: March 11, 2007, 4:12 pm
refugees too poor to afford air fares were locked up in camps in the desert.
My understanding is most boat people catch planes to indonesia from their country and then buy passage on a boat across the ocean - average price US$10K.
ie your statement is false.
Comment from Kieran
Time: March 11, 2007, 6:43 pm
Your understanding is false.
It’s a common myth about refugees, propagated by certain anti-immigration segments in our society in order to discredit them.
I direct your attention to this document by the Edmund Rice centre for Social Justice.
Comment from Greg Naylor
Time: June 17, 2007, 9:33 am
Maybe “It’s UnAustralian!” should be spelled “It’s unaUStralian”
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