The Ugly Australian?

Say it ain't so. Are Australians travelling abroad getting the same reputation as the Ugly Americans? Ben Groundwater thinks so, and he's got an interesting post on the Sydney Morning Herald's travel blog this week. He says that Aussies in Europe are now being tagged "New Yanks." He points to overexposure, jealousy, and involvement in the Iraq war as possible reasons for the change. Well, kind of sounds like America.

While the changing reputation of Aussies may be going on in Europe or Asia, I haven't gotten a sense of that happening in the U.S. But maybe that's disturbing in its own right: the Aussies are becoming just like us. I hope not. Not because I'm a self-loathing American, far from it. But it's the differences from the States that makes Australia such a great place to visit. Why sit on a plane for 20 hours if you are just going to end up landing in "antipodal America"?