Our Romantic View Of Countries: Clearing Up The Confusion

Amazoniac

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Since there are members from all over the world and many misconceptions from people who are outside of the culture and make romanticized assumptions based on what's shown by the media, it would be great to clear those confusions by people who actually live in a given country. From the top of my head there are people here from: Spain, UK, France, Italy, Hungary, Czech Rep., Australia, Canada and just a few from the US.

Anyone?
 

jaa

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Canada is not a eutopian USA. Our politicians are just as ****88 and the people aren't any nicer. The weather is and economy are better in USA. I think this is just as much of Canada being overrated as USA being underated (by non americans anyway). But maybe my romanization of other countries distorts my view of Canada. I've only been employed here.
 

sugar daddy

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I'm from the UK and imho it's rubbish.

lots of restrictions on what you can get and do and the weathers mostly crap.

Add in to that crappy jobs that are hard to get and land/property prices only the already wealthy can consider and you have a very dissatisfied population imho.

although we do have good human rights and nobody is really that poor so it swings and roundabouts!
 
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Amazoniac

Amazoniac

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sugar daddy said:
I'm from the UK and imho it's rubbish.

lots of restrictions on what you can get and do and the weathers mostly crap.

Add in to that crappy jobs that are hard to get and land/property prices only the already wealthy can consider and you have a very dissatisfied population imho.

although we do have good human rights and nobody is really that poor so it swings and roundabouts!

Hanging in a quiet desperation?
 

sugar daddy

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Oh yeah and our political system is as big a joke as the U.S.

No real chance of any meaningful change or anything other than mainstream options voiced.


I'm not desperate at all, I don't think there's any country that's got everything right?
 

Makrosky

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sugar daddy said:
Oh yeah and our political system is as big a joke as the U.S.

No real chance of any meaningful change or anything other than mainstream options voiced.


I'm not desperate at all, I don't think there's any country that's got everything right?

There's nothing in life that has "everything right" IMHO.
 

pboy

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lol!

I live in the US actually....and, ive travelled quite a bit also. I agree theres...many differences in nations but a lot of it is the same. It really depends on which job you have, your family, which little niche you live in and all that. Theres drastic differences even between 2 different parts of one city. Its hard to say a whole nation is good or bad, it all depends on your situation, money, job, ect. I live in texas where its quite hot, and at the peak of winter pushes freezing but doesn't actually snow where I live. Most of the US does get snow and is different, so even here where I live its kind of its own thing, though its still under the umbrella of the US and obviously part of it. Its mostly Hispanic also where I live...not as much as like west texas where Spanish is as common as English, but still its pretty apparent. I remember it was hilarious I was travelling to new York ..or somewhere in northeast with fam growing up and people there didn't know or were confused by the notion of me asking if they had a bean and cheese taco, which where I live is like a staple food for people, and one of my fav's growing up. Someone gave me like a packaged tortilla with canned whole beans in it or..something hilarious to try to appease me at the restaurant. It made me realize how the US is quite diverse. And again...theres a ton of BS here, but I think there is in most nations. I have to say the US in terms of...quality of the heart of people, connection to nature, and peacefulness...is probably one of the lowest in the world in general, at least amongst first world countries. Foreigners have generally a much more calm and ...real? personality. Americans for the most part are just neurotic and filled with the corporate school...work your **** off and get ***t and pollute and make fun of anything natural mentality, and talk about nothing but mainstream media, useless things. Theres many really bad things, but at the same time...the access I have to what I do, althought its not across the board..like I have to really go looking and be highly selective where I go and what I do, there is a narrow window in the US where you can do things not really possible in many places, and if you manage to find a nice little place to live, you can carve out a nice living...but whenever you go out in public or on the roads its going to remind you that 95% of the nation are basically undesirable foolish destructive people. Id have to really travel in my current mindstate to gauge the differences between here and other places. Keep in mind too im only wanting highest standards, so many people are fine with what goes on but I find it unacceptable. Im more like a native American at heart, anything that's not out of heart and in harmony is a problem
 

freal

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What confusions are you trying to clear?

What I really hate is that you cant get any decent supplement anywhere besides only one country in the whole world- USA. What will happen when that market closes???
 

Dutchie

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It always surprises me when I hear,and read,people say that Dutch people are so tall.
Yeah,I can see that they think that about the women in general (myself not included)...but when I walk outside and look at the people,I don't think most men are that taller compared to other countries.
Actually,when I was in The US years ago,I thougth the men/guys over there looked taller,especially when I saw some of the shoesizes that were being sold..:-O (....and in my mind it kinda made sense,with Basketball being one of the national favorite sports.;))
 
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Amazoniac

Amazoniac

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freal said:
What confusions are you trying to clear?
Dutchie said:
It always surprises me when I hear,and read,people say that Dutch people are so tall.
Yeah,I can see that they think that about the women in general (myself not included)...but when I walk outside and look at the people,I don't think most men are that taller compared to other countries.
Actually,when I was in The US years ago,I thougth the men/guys over there looked taller,especially when I saw some of the shoesizes that were being sold..:-O (....and in my mind it kinda made sense,with Basketball being one of the national favorite sports.;))
 

4peatssake

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I love Canada. :canada2

I agree with jaa that our current political leaders are a disaster and have done great harm to our country. I also think and hope that will soon be reversed. :pray

I do think for the most part that Canadians live up to their reputation for being "nice." :)

Most people know very little about Canada and its vastness, particularly the diversity of its ecosystems and people.

Good and/or interesting stuff:

1. Officially bilingual (French-English) but majority are English speaking with majority of French speaking Canadians residing in Quebec, the Atlantic provinces (known as Acadian French) and sparse pockets in Ontario.

2. Canada has three unique tender fruit growing and wine making growing regions, A) the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia, B) the Niagara Region in Ontario and C) the Annapolis Valley in Nova Scotia (Ann Murray hails from here ;) )

3. The Niagara Region produces some great wines, its icewines (grapes frozen on the vine and left to harvest in late December or early January) in particular. Wayne Gretzky and golfer Mike Weir both own a wineries there.

4. World dominance in hockey and curling. :lol: (BTW, I mean ice hockey but we don't call it that.)

Downsides:

1. I think as a people Canadians are lax in their civic responsibilities and ensuring its political leaders are fully and wholly accountable and not operating beyond their particular mandate. Edward Snowden recently told a class of Canadian journalists that Canada has one of the weakest oversights for intelligence gathering. We are no longer the peacekeeping nation we once were known to be. I hold Stephen Harper accountable for the change in our foreign policies. He got in bed with George W. the moment he was elected.

2. Winters are cold. Enough said.
 
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Amazoniac

Amazoniac

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4peatssake said:
Most people know very little about Canada and its vastness, particularly the diversity of its ecosystems and people.

You're right, we do know very little about it. I always suspected that the image of a cold and somehow settled country was incoherent and distorted by the media.
It's also not presented as very populated/crowded in general.
Another aspect that is shown is that it seems more strict with laws and norms than the US.
The reality outside of Vancouver and Toronto is rarely shown, right? Except for turistic places.

How is the food quality and availability in there?

Many members from Canada in here..
 

mt_dreams

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Canada is made up of 5 regions (6 if your include the Eskimo region). The east coast prior to the fishing bust was thriving, but since, has been unable to come afloat. The west coast is of the cascadian mindset which is closer to the mindset of the american north-west (think Portland or Seattle) than it is to the rest of canada. The midland mindset is comparable to texas regarding things like guns, military, religion, big oil, etc. Quebec runs the country and uses English speaking Ontario (Toronto) as it's communication hub to the US & the rest of Canada. Outside of 1 or 2 over-populated cities, most provenience's small communities are spaced out. 80% of the population is European based, with Asia being the second highest continent of ethnicity. My friend whose is in Inuvik right now (think north alaska, but east a couple of hours) just sent me a picture of him catching some rays at midnight, as they are in the middle of 2 months of continuous sun, so the north is pretty crazy.

Organic milk & meat is crazy expensive when compared to the US. Having pockets of different ethnicity in my area, I have access to many possible fruit choices, but it's more pricier than conventional fruit sold in the US. For fruit I usually use the asian markets which sell fresh fruit like lychee, cherimoya's, sapota's, etc for a decent price. There are no good oranges available in Canada, sigh. The attack on raw milk is 10x stronger in Canada than it is in the US.

Like 4peatsake said we don't argue with government enough (outside of Quebec). Most people I know have things too easy to desire fighting for rights. The amount of passive mindset I got from people back when I was ranting & raging over the proposed law to give government access to our bank accounts in the event of a meltdown, was quite eye opening to say the least.

The niceness factor is more of a restraint to speak up than actually being more nice. So we're more polite, not necessarily more nice. I'm pretty sure government uses this to their advantage.
 

tara

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mt_dreams said:
The niceness factor is more of a restraint to speak up than actually being more nice. So we're more polite, not necessarily more nice. I'm pretty sure government uses this to their advantage.

I gather Canadians don't shoot each other at anywhere near the rate that USers do, so whether it's niceness or politeness, it's got something good going for it. :)
 
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Amazoniac

Amazoniac

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The point that pboy made about diversity inside a country is valid, it applies to the majority of big (territory) countries. But there are some generalizations that can be made.
And in case someone's interested in Brazil, here's how things roll here, based on my opinion of course:

It's very abundant in natural resources and that's never been a problem for us. It's a tropical, young and an underdeveloped country. With the typical problems of the 3rd world: parts of poverty, violence, corruption (more than you can think of, in fact what you call corruption in your country probably doesn't not compare to what we witness in here).
Even though what's shown by the media is real, but it's just a tiny (very tiny) part of the story. We do have favelas, famous carnival, and soccer. People are indeed happier because I think brazilians are afraid to question their lifes, because the majority of us would sit and cry if we did that. Se we just find ways to keep going and not think too much about the problems. As an example, I just found out that in the city that I live, the murder rate is 30-something for every 100k, 108 registered (registered!) robbery cases on average per day.

Food:
Like I wrote, abundance. We have all kinds of high quality vegetables all year round, even conventional are above average. Fruits are most of the time ripe and we have so much that we are able to ship them to many countries, they are inspectioned, coated and shipped. We have some reliable coconut producers, that offer extremely high quality products.
Animal products, it depends. Milk depends on where you buy them. From farms they are very good; from supermarkets they are so, so.
Animals are hard to find those that you can really trust. But they really have to put effort in here to raise animals that are not healthy. Even conventional ruminants are mostly grass-fed all over the country. If I'm not wrong, the South of Brazil is one of the main suppliers for Great Lakes gel.
A lot of our products come labeled with an USDA organic certificate because we export a lot.

Weather varies a lot. From north to south there's a big difference. The more you go to the south, more and more development you'll find and it gradually gets colder. But the majority of the country is very warm.

Education is poor in general and there are a lot of social discrepancy. You can walk (literally) a block from buildings which an apt costs millions to a home in a favela that barely have ceiling.
The country is extremely ashamed and discouraged by its politicians, we even have massive protests every time our president gives a nationally broadcasted speech, people grab any metal object and hit them as hard as they can during the entire length of the speech, kinda funny actually.

Ps.: Rio is not that hyped for us. It's not the most important city and it's not our capital either. Our currency is Real, language portuguese and capital city is Brasilia, which is strategically located at the center of the country.
 

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