Country stereotypes, the financial crisis and world leaders

[Lewin]

Hi Guys,
I started this topic because the shoutbox was getting kind of cramped.
The topic is very broad, and if it becomes a bit off topic then don't worry, that's the idea.
Just following on from what has been written in the shout box:

every austrailan has been bitten by a dangerous snake

LOL! Never heard that one before!
Still, whilst I haven't been bitten I've certainly seen a few in the wild. (we live on a farm)

dutch people are wearing their wood-shoes

Well my sister came back from a holiday in The Netherlands with a pair of wooden shoes... Stupid idea if you ask me...

such idiots who call you "hitler" in the multiplayer games just because you have a GER in your nickname

Do people really? I thought we'd moved on from that...

BUt even if you just think a little bit, you will notice that all these facts aren't true

But they do all have truthful origins, it's just that people like to exaggerate things a little bit, and not move on from what has passed.
People judge a country or society by it's extremists, not by the ordinary people who live there.

A few things to add to your list:
- Everybody in the middle east is a terrorist
- Everyone in Russia has radioactive poisoning
- Everyone in Alabama (state in USA) is married to their cousin
- People in France are stuck up snobs with curly mustaches eating pastry.

And, whilst some people in those places may be like that, the vast majority are not and we should not judge people like that.

On the subject of world leaders:

Last year Australia had a prime minister (John Howard) quite like George Bush who refused to sign the Kyoto protocol, (we and the US were about the only ones) brought in stupid laws (mainly about terrorism) and, in general sucked up to George Bush. But thankfully we got rid of him and the current prime minister (Kevin Rudd) is ok. We have now signed Kyoto, but we're still a long way behind the rest of the world, which annoys me.

@Wpnfire: I guess you'd be going for Obama then? (if it's not a too personal question) I think he sounds better than McCain, but I don't know a lot about US politics. (I have enough trouble keeping up with our own)

As for the American stereotype, well you hear some scary stuff on the radio/TV. I remember a reporter interviewing random American people about the election, and lots of the people said that Obama is a Muslim, (which he isn't) and they didn't want terrorists leading there country.
How scary is that?
While you are trying to change the stereotype many America people are simply reinforcing it.

Oh yeah and it is absolutely our fault for Global Warming. Everybody else goes alternative energy, and our President vetos any bill that does not support, say, or suggest, stopping financing of God damn Oil

Well, until this year Australia hadn't signed Kyoto/passed any bills about climate change, so your weren't the only ones who were dragging the chain.

All this is making me think: The worlds in a really bad way, isn't it? I think the real problem behind all these issues (oil, climate change, wars, refugees, poverty, etc.) is over population. There are far more people in the world than we can support, and our population is still growing! I think all countries should have a limit on the number of children you can have, (like China does) although that can lead to even bigger ethical problems. (like abortion)
And yet we keep driving our cars, burn fossil fuels, having lots of children and pretending nothing bad will ever happen. How much will it take for people to realize that we have a major problem on our hands, which we cannot continue to ignore.

It makes me really angry when I heard people says stuff like: "Climate change hasn't been proven" or "There's lots of oil left..." (yeah, enough for the next 20 years or so!)
Although most of this stuff will only really become an issue when all of us are very old, it will be a problem for our children to deal will.

Depressing isn't it?
Lewin.
P.S. You have GOT TO WATCH THIS: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6r1IcY1pv0
Wpnfire you should find this especially amusing. It's an Australian TV show, they just interviewed random Americans. Let me know what you think...

[Wpnfire]

- Everybody in the middle east is a terrorist

Do you know that everything that happened in the Bible happened in Iraq? Fact.
Ok you can't ask random people on the street. People who are on the street are not the people who are going to run our country. I couldn't stop laughing when that guy put the pin for North Korea in Australia.(woah ALMOST spelled Australia wrong) I think it was hilarious that you rigged the map.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0D4uAW_3Gjg&feature=related
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
That's David Lettermen, he's a comedian that tells the news but he makes it funny. John McCain and Barrack Obama have been on his show so it's pretty good.

Anyways, I'm watching the vice presidential debate and Palin is getting her ass handed to her. She won't answer an....wait sorry I forgot. We are basically the only country that has a President, everybody else has a PM or Dictator. Forget it. Oh yeah Lewin that thing about Obama being Muslim, it was pure fiction. Ok just putting this out there, President George Bush is a f*gg*t. We basically haven't had anybody in office for the last 8 years. Seriously nothing has been done. All that was done is we had a paper weight sitting on the veto button. No bills were passed and we became famous for our legendary nothing-will-be-done-from-these-useless-meetings, meetings....>_> Oh yeah and we still haven't signed Kyoto even though we have freaking hydrogen cars. You know I'm in Debate class in school, and the subject this year is Alternative Energy sources (how predictable :roll: ) and it's very hard to win when you're trying to support a plan XD. Because Bush will just veto anything. Oh and to be perfectly honest, I didn't honestly know that we are affecting other countries. I keep forgetting that well I mean I guess we are America, so I guess we are pretty powerful. It's like America is firing a giant shotgun and other countries are getting caught in the recoil. The only thing our country seems to be doing too well is shooting down terrorists, (a surge), and...uhh that's it. That's all that I can think of.

[Merchator]

Just a short statement of myself...

Merchator wrote:
every austrailan has been bitten by a dangerous snake

LOL! Never heard that one before! Wink
Still, whilst I haven't been bitten I've certainly seen a few in the wild. (we live on a farm)

Well, I know some people who told that to me Okay, it's not common that people are saying that, but this words just apperared in my mind so I wrote them down here.
I am also remembering you telling me that people asked you "Have you ever been bitten by an poisenous animal?"

Merchator wrote:
such idiots who call you "hitler" in the multiplayer games just because you have a GER in your nickname

Do people really? I thought we'd moved on from that...

It's not always "hitler", they are also calling you "na zi". But this depends on the people you are talking to. Some of them won't talk to you and are just calling you bad names. But the MOST! don't care about this. What a luck
Germany has got a dark, dark past. I know many old people how doesen't want to talk about this "past" because of the cruel of this time.
OH, the funny thing is when people call you a "na zi" you have to be at least a 70-year-old man. "na zi" is an expression of the followship of hitler at this time. People who starts beeing a na zi today are called "neo-na zis". But no one calls you a neo na zi. I guess the most people don't know this fact.

I hope in about 100 years this past will be "forgotten" (okay, it will never be, but at least people hopefully stop thinking about it then). Caesar ruled Europe, Napoleon Bonaparte ruled Europe, Hitler ruled Europe. But who nowday says : "Italy attacked our country" or "France has killed many of my friends"? The time heals the wounds

Hope you understand me.

Okay, now I start to read the rest of the posts here...

[The Dark Lord]

Let me clarify my statement about America.

Quite a long time ago, I knew it was only a predujice of people who say that American people only care about their own lives and don't know anything of the rest of the world.
But because of the tv I changed my mind. I've seen so many people who don't know that Paris is in France (one said Paris is a country itself). And a video on youtube made it worse and worse. I'm speaking of this one: http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=fJuNgBkloFE

Of course, I know, they cut out all clever people who gave the right answers... But hey, if you put a flag in Australia and think it is France or something (I know they put the name of the country in it, but still), you are really stupid. And watch the man around 2:57 talking about North Korea and South Korea! I have no words for it.
Go to the biggest shopping mall in America, search for a woman with five or more shopping bags and her man's credit card, and ask her something about the world... Her answer will probably be frightening.

European history is large, and therefore I'd say that anyone would at least know something about it. Especially about countries like the UK, France, Germany, and perhaps Spain, Portugal and The Netherlands as well. What is the USA? The USA is a mix from European people and only few natives!

And as you guys already said, Bush made it worse and worse! I read that America is responsible for 20% of the Co2! And that stupid man only uses his veto so the American people don't have to pay more tax so they vote for him...

Please don't tell me the average American isn't like that, because I know it. But it's still frightening.

[Wpnfire]

I do not understand this. I mean it's the Law to be educated, and these people act like they did not go to school. EVERYBODY knows that Paris is in France, f**k the people in our country who say otherwise. The fact that we somehow are like best friends with Britain is still a surprise to me. You know? The fact that our country is founded on the basis of High Treason, (which is a capital crime) the fact that we're not bombing each other is almost unheard of. Now here's a good question, does everybody know the capital of The United State of America? I really want to see if this is true...

[The Dark Lord]

Now here's a good question, does everybody know the capital of The United State of America? I really want to see if this is true...

Nope. Many people do, but I think some would say ''New York'' (which has been named to the capital of my country)...

[Lewin]

Do you know that everything that happened in the Bible happened in Iraq? Fact.

Yeah. Ironic isn't it?

Ok you can't ask random people on the street. People who are on the street are not the people who are going to run our country.

Yeah, but I think most of those people are smarter than George Bush.

I couldn't stop laughing when that guy put the pin for North Korea in Australia.(woah ALMOST spelled Australia wrong) I think it was hilarious that you rigged the map.

Heh, "I never realized north Korea was so much bigger than south Korea!" I can't believe he thought Tasmania was south Korea!

That's David Lettermen, he's a comedian that tells the news but he makes it funny. John McCain and Barrack Obama have been on his show so it's pretty good.

Yeah, I've seen him before.

We are basically the only country that has a President, everybody else has a PM or Dictator.

That's not nececarly a bad thing. Personally I think it's silly that the Queen of Britain has absolute power over Australia. I think it would be better if we were a republic.

Oh yeah Lewin that thing about Obama being Muslim, it was pure fiction.

I know, that's what I was saying. And just because he's black most Americans don't trust him.

Oh and to be perfectly honest, I didn't honestly know that we are affecting other countries. I keep forgetting that well I mean I guess we are America, so I guess we are pretty powerful. It's like America is firing a giant shotgun and other countries are getting caught in the recoil. The only thing our country seems to be doing too well is shooting down terrorists, (a surge), and...uhh that's it. That's all that I can think of.

Well, it's not effecting other countries as much as it's effecting America. But still, the US is one of the most powerful nations in the world, and if they have a crisis so does everyone else. After all, America has a huge amount of import/exports, and if that changes it will defiantly effect the rest of the world.

Well, I know some people who told that to me Okay, it's not common that people are saying that, but this words just apperared in my mind so I wrote them down here.
I am also remembering you telling me that people asked you "Have you ever been bitten by an poisenous animal?"

Sorry, you misunderstood me. That sentence was meant to be sarcastic. I hear that kind of thing a lot. I guess I made it a bit too subtle and it must be hard to pick in a second language. (If a German was speaking sarcastically, I doubt I would understand)

It's not always "hitler", they are also calling you "na zi". But this depends on the people you are talking to. Some of them won't talk to you and are just calling you bad names. But the MOST! don't care about this. What a luck
Germany has got a dark, dark past. I know many old people how doesen't want to talk about this "past" because of the cruel of this time.
OH, the funny thing is when people call you a "na zi" you have to be at least a 70-year-old man. "na zi" is an expression of the followship of hitler at this time. People who starts beeing a na zi today are called "neo-na zis". But no one calls you a neo na zi. I guess the most people don't know this fact.

I hope in about 100 years this past will be "forgotten" (okay, it will never be, but at least people hopefully stop thinking about it then). Caesar ruled Europe, Napoleon Bonaparte ruled Europe, Hitler ruled Europe. But who nowday says : "Italy attacked our country" or "France has killed many of my friends"? The time heals the wounds

Wow, I had no idea people still felt so strongly about Germany. I would hardly accosicate modern Germany with Nazi Germany. I certainly hold no grudges. You shouldn't be ashamed of what your ancestors have done, it's not your fault.
No, I have never heard of neo n*z*s, people do not even understand what they are insulting you with!
Well I thought time had already healed the wounds. But I guess it takes longer for some people. And I don't know anybody who died in the war, so I guess it's different for me.
Still, Australia doesn't hate the Turkish for what happened at Gallipoli, I can't understand why people can't just forget it.

And a video on youtube made it worse and worse. I'm speaking of this one: http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=fJuNgBkloFE

Once again, it's The Chaser from Australia!! I didn't think many other people would have watched it, but apparently you have.
Here are some other things they did in America:
- Poll about Iraq
- What Americans think of Muslims (I think America is a very racist country)
- Lesser known Australian landmarks
- 9/11 (see, Americans don't know much about America either, it's not just other countries!)
- Recycled water (not about America, but very funny)
There are lots more, just search.

I'm not posting these to prove that Americans are stupid, I just think The Chaser is funny.

The fact that we somehow are like best friends with Britain is still a surprise to me.

Well Britain and Australia can't afford to be enemies with America, because America is much more powerful. That's why we do everything you say, like going to war in Iraq.

Now here's a good question, does everybody know the capital of The United State of America? I really want to see if this is true...

I think most people do. At least, most Australians do. (can't speak for the rest of the world)

Lewin.

[Wpnfire]

Wpnfire wrote:
Ok you can't ask random people on the street. People who are on the street are not the people who are going to run our country.

Yeah, but I think most of those people are smarter than George Bush.

I can not stop laughing about that one.

I think most people do. At least, most Australians do. (can't speak for the rest of the world)

Nope. Many people do, but I think some would say ''New York'' (which has been named to the capital of my country)....

*cough* *cough* CONTRADICTION (Han oriented) *cough* *cough*

[Categoricus]

Do you know that everything that happened in the Bible happened in Iraq? Fact.

Probably you wanted to say Old Testament. By the way, we are at the topic. I have to definitely tell you my country started to fall when after 940 years polity denied christian convictions, which otherwise never feeded neither inquisiton nor celibacy nor other kinds of fatalism, that only belongs to certain churches not to a way of belief.
These stereotypes stem from theory of materialism that forced sciences to collaborate with its aspect without facts but forgetting facts of negation. Hungary was under socialism for 45 years which was enough for a general brainwashing except for some open minds. Look at fruits of declining never-falling truths in Hungarian education, occupation and streets. My contemporaries here often get to deny communism but rarely get to also deny newly-rising local racism, as in growing them the above-mentioned things became excluded.

@Merchator:
Actually my first influence of Germany (after hearing) was accuracy, and later another information said to me that German people like hurrying their children to live a standalone life, which I must really honour, seeing my 30-year-old baby compatriots. I agree that stereotypes you mentioned are stupidness but unfortunately chauvinism haven't gone off in the world (maybe in Germany it did) because this theory was partially based on occult visions (let me cover names) that are very popular today in another wrapping.

@The Dark Lord
I would never form an opinion about the whole USA for it's a union of states from the beginning. As far as I know judgement of these states may be (even is) different. Lifestyle must be much more different. One the one hand I agree with declaring "nobody may wear pants getting out of trousers" as I heard about one of the states but on the other hand I don't really find it a high gentleness to allow people to choose from electric chair and death of poisoning.
If I once would get to the United States, I would wonder how common people live there. Actually at least 99% of what I know about America today is through idols of pupularity and politics.

@Lewin:
What about hares in Australia? Are they still making as much damage as some years before? And how is water attandance solved these days in the drought-competent states? Both questions are simply from interest since I once had to gather some info about Australia for geography class.

@all:
EDIT: Hope I succeded to correct my spelling or grammatic errors since last night.

[Lewin]

What about hares in Australia? Are they still making as much damage as some years before? And how is water attandance solved these days in the drought-competent states? Both questions are simply from interest since I once had to gather some info about Australia for geography class.

Hares and rabbits (rabbits are more common) are a big problem in Australia, as are lots of pests. (Cane Toads, foxs, goats, deer, etc.) They starve other native species by eating all the grass and they destroy the enviroment by digging burrows. They breed so fast that it is really hard to control them. They released some man-made desieses to kill them, but it only temporarily reduced their population. Most people don't know much about this, but I grew up on a farm.
Drought is a major issue in Australia. Most cities are on water restrictions which means you can't water your garden from the tap and stuff. But around where I live we've been having some spring rain so that's good! But the dams for city water are still only about 50% of their capacity. It's worst for the crop farmers who cannot water enough from the rivers because they are drying up.
The real problem with all this (in my opinion) is population. We cannot continue to expand our population because our enviroment cannot cope with us. This applies for the rest of the world too. I really think that the whole world should aim for a stable population rather than using the old economic system of "growth=good".
I think it's cool that you had to study Australia in geography, I've never had to study Hungary though. (I really don't know much about it)

[Categoricus]

Sorry but this is the time when I first have read the whole topic.

I think it's silly that the Queen of Britain has absolute power over Australia. I think it would be better if we were a republic.

Maybe that situation is silly, still I prefer kingdom vs. republic for the following 3 reasons:

• Hungary was a kingdom for 945 years. (It's a republic today since 1989, the year I was born in, and it was a people's republic from 1945 /officially from 1949/ to 1989.)
• A 4-year mandate is direfully short to push through any plans that worth mentioning.
• A republic builds upon standing up AGAINST something or somebody. In a kingdom (a sheer one, not a "king-log-dom") people can either learn to respect a potency or, if the person who fills it in isn't suitable then to solve problems by going ahead not by rebelling. Demonstration always makes a country stumble but never makes it stand up.
  Politics shouldn't be discussed and affected by people under a certain level of competence. In Hungary there was no universal suffrage in the time of kingdom, thus avoiding useless obstactrions in the life.

@Merchator:
Could you share some information connected to the communist demonstrations in Germany happened some months ago, that I can compare that with the neo-nazi feelings in my country?

The world's in a really bad way, isn't it?

I completely agree with you. Let's analyse this sentence first connected to financial crisis.
I've found it interesting how the meaning of wealth changed in history.

1. For thousands of years, as long as all money had its material escort, richness meant how many animals you had, how large your fields were, and how much product these both gave to you (eggs, milk etc).
2. From the ending of World War I. on, when many governments decided to end up covering all money with gold, money started to be more important regarding wealth than material goods.
3. Nowadays when so much money circulates in the world without material cover, the aspect of being rich turned to considering how much other people owe you.

[Lewin]

Maybe that situation is silly, still I prefer kingdom vs. republic for the following 3 reasons:

I'm not saying I'm against monarchy, (although what we have is a republic with a monarch who does very little) but it seems silly that the queen of the United Kingdom should STILL be our monarch. I reckon either we should have our own or have none. But in actual fact she does nothing for us anyway, (except on very rare occasions) so I guess it doesn't really matter that much.
In some ways monarchy is much better, if you have a good king/queen. With elected government representatives, they just focus on getting re-elected next time rather than really making the country better. And the political parties are trying to get as many people to vote for them as possible, so they end up being all the same, trying to fit everyone's wants. Which basically means they have very weak opinions and do very little so as not to stop some people from voting for them. By trying to please everyone we end up pleasing nobody.
At least, that's how it seems in Australia. Maybe some republics/democracies work well.

[Juba]

Well, what I think about politics?

Few years ago I guess it was quite ok - I wasn't so intrested but you know, you'll hear the news all the time even if you don't want. Nowdays I've lost my faith in politicians - the last straw was the election donations. So (Finnish) politics isn't intresting me so much anymore. Corruption.

[Faritop]

Talk about corrupt government? you should see (and hear) Argentinians politicians, this country is hopeless.