Tall Poppy Syndrome !

Today has the making of one of those days, the kind of day when you learn, experience, marvel and ponder at so many new things that at the end you think to yourself "Huh! its 5 hrs since it all started? hmmm!".

Too tired/unfocussed to read about distributed database design, I decided to take a course in TAL( Technology Assisted Learning ). It has always been such fun whether its techincal or non-technical courses I take. The whole fun for me is in taking the Pre-test and the Post-Test( as you know my addiction to marks and grades ). Today I wanted to keep it light and chose courses on cross-cultural sensitivisim: UK and then went on to Australia. Boy, for UK, I scored Pre(75%) and Post(100%), for Australia, I scored an embarassing Pre(35%) and Post(100%). There was this one question to pick which is an australian characteristics, and one of the options, tall poppy syndrome, was the correct answer and I started to find out more about it and boy, I got to experience the Australia. Strange, I never cared much for Australia before today.

When my hot favorite, wikipedia had a very complex explanation, I went to my old faithful, google :-) and got to visit some interesting sites.

Over all, this is what the Tall Poppy Syndrome is all about

Tall poppies : successful people
Tall poppy syndrome : the tendency to criticize successful people

Australians often say that their society suffers from 'tall poppy syndrome'; in other words, success is treated as something that should be cut down to size rather than admired or emulated.

Following is from tallpoppysyndrome.blogspot.com
In Australia, a tall poppy is a successful person or achiever who, as a result, is the target of jealousy and grudging remarks. The goal is to make everyone the same, but the result is no one strives to be great or believes that change is possible. This contains my thoughts on being a foreigner in Australia.( The blogger is a Canadian)
The tall poppy syndrome refers to the behavioural trait of Australians to cut down those who are 'superior' to them. It is used to explain why most politicians, some academics, and the occasional millionaire, command a level of community admiration inferior to that of a toilet cleaner.

From, Nicole Beatty, Dailey Telegraph Friday September 29 , 2000
"Australians love an underdog. We love people who are humble, down to earth, almost embarrassed by their own successes. We love Ian Thorpe, who is not only a decent young man, but who can just get on with the job without all the pomp and ceremony that Americans love to employ. We love Susie O'Neil, sweet, quiet, hard-working. Michael Diamond - could you possibly see a more humble person than this?
We don't boo Yanks because we think they are better than us. We boo yanks because they think they are better than us."

Interesting websites:
http://www.convictcreations.com/culture/poppy.htm
http://www.koalanet.com.au/australian-slang.html
http://www.anecdotage.com

Anyway, my reason for exhilaration was that I got to explore the "Down Under" which apparently I had not before and which is full of interesting history.

For the matter I have not even read a book written by an Australian.
Should amend that situation soon :-)

BTW, I dont know why Australians need to think its their society which has this syndrome, each and every society has this. I think I have exhibted this too in some instances. Not proud of it, but the truth is I have. When a classmate got 1st reank I said is becuase she goes to 9 tutions over all :-). Taht aside, isnt it human nature to find fault in a person who is a celebrity whatever the field may be? Well ofcourse there are some who command our highest respects by virtue of their actions, but some dont again by virtue of their pwn actions. We praise Bill Gates when he donates billions to charity and we critize him when he makes billions by crushing competition. Well I dont yet understand how much the australian had grudge and does not emulate the tall poppies, but I will find it hard that one, let alone a society does not desire to be better, being from a culture where we are thought to emulate success, right from our childhood.

Anyway, will understand eventually..cant learn about a civilization in a day can I...so thats it for now...so long mate!