Why you love/hate your country?

[-Skykanden-]

Ok so this is a topic to talk about the country in which you live, maybe its not as everyone thinks that it is so I would like to let us know about it, you would say wikipedia knows it, but well right now I would like to see what people thinks. (don't make it too long )

Spain:
Well I like spain because of weather and people, we have nice warm weather maybe too warm in the south but in Catalonia where I live its ok.
Lot of people think that Spanish are like Mexicans and I don't really know that man, I mean just the language but the food and culture is really different.
Spain has made some errors in history and started going down and down when the great imperium fell, we are not as rich as the other EU countries (excepting portugal, greece and italy)but we don't have any problems so its ok living there.
I invite you to come to the mediterranean side I live in Barcelona so if you are thinking of comig please make me know about it.

[Ragnaros]

damn! was just thinking about such a thread to start! two different people got the same idea at one time nice

so...

Russian Federation:
well, at first i wanted to say some words about the country it was before (USSR, right)
all at all i hate USSR cause it ruined so much lifes... I was born in 1992, it crushed in 1991 so im a lucky guy I think

Actually, I can say that the USSR is still here – most of the CIS authorities came directly from its “Communist” Party or other institutions (for example, Putin came from its secret ‘state security’). The problem is that the CIS countries maintained many of the negative things I listed while loosing completely the positive things.

The USSR had a pseudo-communist totalitarian regime that would get harsher or softer from one state secretary to another.

The positive things about it:
1. It used to build and developed a lot of industries in all of its regions
2. It used to build roads and maintain them
3. It provided people with free education and medical services
4. It used to build a lot of houses and provided people with apartments
5. It supported professional unions and institutions working in the fields of sports, arts and education, as well as science
6. It had effective policies supporting different regions with qualified personnel

Negative things:
1. Any individual could be persecuted, imprisoned and killed by the regime without any reasons - all kinds of grave crimes could lead to many years of imprisonment, but those who disagreed with the regime or were merely suspected in this, would die in prisons or get executed in 90% of cases [through systematic repressions]
2. The USSR's state apparatus was absolutely incomparable in its bureaucracy and corruption
3. The people living in the USSR got used to the fact that the state should decide everything for them and now that's a century old tradition that the people of the exUSSR - their descendants - don't even dare to struggle for their rights and for transparency of their governments
4. The USSR was not governed by middle-age Caucasian males with higher education - which is unfortunately a common thing about many of the today's countries - it was governed by a series of semi-educated weezers in their 60-80. Also, although they assigned persons representing local ethnic majorities to govern the republics of the USSR, there was always an 'adviser' from Moscow who actually made all significant decisions
5. The main industrial priority of the USSR was all kinds of arms, it was constantly in the state of war, in most cases with its own republics the people of which did not want to be a part of it
6. Any individual was considered a replaceable (and removable) part of the USSR's mechanism - the Party never cared about the lives and well-being of an individual or a group
7. The USSR was effectively spreading the xenophobic ideology based on the idea of supremacy of the USSR people and paranoiac fear of foreign intervention in its internal affairs
8. The people were banned from leaving the USSR because of the 'iron curtain'
9. The regime openly discriminated believers representing all confessions and some ethnic minorities (for example, ethnic Jews, Gypsies/Roma)

Similar regimes: North Korea, China, Cambodia, Cuba, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Belarus

So yep, I dont like the country where I live right now, I dont like Russian government but I LOVE russian people for their extraordinarity and my native city, Moscow, for its mix of european & american style of life.

ps: I truly hate people who still think that Stalin was the "father of nations" (or any other soviet leader) and that he has done only GEWD things... this is awful especially when your grandma of grandpa think so...

[jrgp]

USA

sucks because
-everyone's hellbent on politically correctness
-weird copyright laws
-s**tty drug laws
-government corruption
-partyvans
- v&

I'm moving to Europe as soon as I can.

[MattH]

USA

sucks because
-everyone's hellbent on politically correctness
-weird copyright laws
-s**tty drug laws
-government corruption
-partyvans
- v&

I'm moving to Europe as soon as I can.

I'm mostly with him 

And if I ever travel to Spain it would be to play at stirling airsoft http://stirlingairsoft.com/ (look it up its crazy)

[croat1gamer]

Croatia:

Sucks because
- Well, if a person who is going to go for presidentship says that the independent State of Croatia, aka a Nazi satellite country was a good country, and there are many people who support him, should say enough
-S**tty drug laws (2 years for owning drugs, 1 year for killing a person, LOL)
- Government corruption
- National tolerance is just in small bits

Wins because:
- There are copyright laws, and actually noone cares (more/less)
- Well, there isnt anything else worth mentioning.


Moving to a Nordic country when i can.

[PQ]

The Netherlands:

I love it because:
Most people in the cities are open minded and are chill.
It has a good health care system.
There are barely any annoying homeless/drug-addicts.
The crime rate is very low.
You can just say that you do not believe in god and you are able to belief anything you want (in most places). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVc2ymSfGOU

I hate it because:
People in villages think to know everything about what's happening in the cities and are very closed minded.


Not going to leave, these closed minded people won't scare me away. Will fight to get religion out of education. (every religion) I think you should know what religions are about, but it's incorrect to have a Christian/Islam/Buddhist school.

[p0ppin]

USA

Hate the people who milk the system for all it's worth, just makes life shittier for the people who really do need help.
Hate the people who take what they have for granted, the "lower class" of our country that happen to be 300+ lbs... obviously don't know what real poverty is, but won't miss an opportunity to bitch about their situation.  Eat less, save more you lardbag.

[Twistkill]

Canada

It's more awesomer.

[Eagles_Arrows]

Newspeak will be the new predominant language of the U.S.

[Snow]

Canada

I really love my country for the freedom I have and that it is huge. Too see all of Canada intimately would take many lifetimes, it's that awesome. There are places here which are such beautiful natural wonders, they would put any national geographic picture to shame. (Why national geographic hasn't been up to some of those areas yet.. I can't tell you, but they are missing out.) The nature in this country is so diverse from boreal forests to prairie to desert to tundra.The winters can be hard but incredible as well. I've experienced nights which would be out of fairy tale books - like being in an open field with the northern lights dancing like crazy above you while wolves roam on the horizon or a dance on ice that starts up out of the blue with people skating or dancing around with lanterns. We also have a province so flat, that if you can see your relatives coming down the road to visit you, you have 2 weeks before they arrive.

Despite that there is still some discrimination present within our society, one can live their life and lifestyle without fear of persecution or prosecution. I'm openly bi and happy. We're very proud of our multiculturalism - but most of us do not appreciate foreigners who come to Canada that do not bother learning the English language or worse - not wanting to work and just expecting handouts. We're a nice country and will help you out, but if you come here you should at least participate in society. We have a good healthcare system. Besides the farming industy, our industries are strong and make us one of the global leaders in the world economy.

What I don't like is our flawed political system. Yes, it's a democracy, but it's not proportional. In this country 25% of Canadians support the Green Party (a liberal party with a good agenda), yet they do not have one seat in parliament. In each riding it's whoever the majority votes for, but in a lot of ridings the vote is split between two candidates - one winning by 51%. So, the other 49% don't get represented by anyone. Most Canadians are also not very tuned into politics as they should be. So many elected politicians here do not keep any promise - yet they are in office for years. In my province of Alberta, the oilsands keep on polluting and the oil companies in Canada are like vicious wild dogs running rampant. The government keeps supporting them and also any other large industry. Farming is one industry that has unfortunately suffered from our stupid governments. Rather than supporting small farmers - who would raise happy range (free running outdoor) animals, only large factory farms are really supported. If you can use machines to raise thousands of pigs in a windowless climate controlled barn - feeding them hormones and medicated feed, you can ask for any amount to help you out. Grain farming is worse. Grain is worth a lot of money if you look at how much it takes to make a loaf of bread. Grain growers get less for their product than all the money it took to grow it, so it's a fading industry. Many years ago, the Canadian prairies boasted that we could grow enough grain to feed the world. That was true at the time too, it was possible. Now it's a joke.

Anyway, we'll welcome you Americans that don't want to live in the US anymore. We like you (plus our culture and society is based on US anyway). It may take you a bit to get used to longer winters, but it's so worth it living here. Fresh air and freedom. Mmmm.

[iDante]

The US of A sucks because of people like Glenn Beck, Michael Moore, and Rush Limbaugh. People who are so sure of themselves and how right they are that they forget the actual purpose of democracy.

[MattH]

The US of A sucks because of people like Glenn Beck, Michael Moore, and Rush Limbaugh. People who are so sure of themselves and how right they are that they forget the actual purpose of democracy.

Might I add that America is a republic not a democracy?

[pavliko]

Israel:
A country with many diffrent cultures & religions.
Most of the negative sides are..
1.Climate
2.Horrible Israeli people(marrocans,arabs & african) that act like dicks to europeans and asians.
3.Small country that cannot do anything without sucking all other country dicks and surrounded by arab nations.
4.If you want to live a happy life here or to survive you have to not give a s**t about the country.
5.Messed up cultures.
The positive sides are:
1.There are 2 mil russians here (I went to a private russian school to stay away from everybody else)
2.You can study on some nice high courses for little price.
3.When you live here you notice that you live in a s**tty country and want to move to europe to live a nice & goody life ^___^
Hmm also lived in russia, i have nothing to say because i lived far away in sibir and it was nice.

[Psycho]

Norway:

Supposedly it's ranked the best country to live in, don't know exactly why.

I think the pay is pretty good. I am at the bottom of the payroll ladder, just working as a cashier in a store and I'm making over 21$ an hour.

Negative sides are the winters are long and cold. Norway is a stretchy country so there is a bit difference between the northern and southern parts of it, and I live way up north. Gonna move south soon.

I think Norway is a bit too strict on things like the alcohol policy. Its pretty expensive to buy, and the government controls all liqour sales.
Taxes are also kind of high, but we get (almost) free health care so I don't know.

[Catatonic`]

The US of A sucks because of people like Glenn Beck, Michael Moore, and Rush Limbaugh. People who are so sure of themselves and how right they are that they forget the actual purpose of democracy.

Might I add that America is a republic not a democracy?

..what? the US is a democracy, just with a few twists.

~ jrgp

[iDante]

Might I add that America is a republic not a democracy?

..what? the US is a democracy, just with a few twists.

~ jrgp

Nah MattH is correct. A true democracy means every single person votes on every single subject. Very inefficient, so we've got this whole system of checks and balances to keep our republic "democratic."

[GSx_Major]

Sweden... Great place to live in, and I very much love Stockholm.

Unfortunately the country is taking a turn towards the undemocratic right (lisbon treaty violating our constitution, for example), and gee, as we move away from a more socialist attitude, shit goes to hell. Drug laws are also a bit on the rough side, but the general ignorance regarding the topic is worse. On the plus side, health care, education, etc, is top notch and still essentially free.

[Ragnaros]

anybody Australian here? always wanted to live there

[Mitak]

Burglaria. Bulgaria. Don't like it and I don't wanna make a fake impression by saying it's a great country, because right now it's not...
Look, it was from VIIth century until like XIIIth, while we were spanking Byzantia, but after that, 500 years of Ottoman slavery and another 100 of Russian slavery (still continues) + a breach from the western civilization and USA trend & carreer wannabes... It's really really mouth-to-mouth shit swap here.

Macedonians deny they're actually bulgarians, oppressed by serbian shovinism. A group of bulgarians claim they're turkish because they're muslim... while they're actually only descendants of the forcedly islamised bulgarians.

There's no future for a young person here. Smart and lucky ones move to continue their studies in England, Germany, France. I'm aiming a little more to the north.

There was a saying "the bulgarian doesn't have money for bread, yet he saves for a mercedes". That's what it's like right now.

I'm not even going to honor politicians, because we all know what they're like.
Don't take what I'm saying for too correct, I'm not really socially or historically confident.

[a-4-year-old]

Newspeak will be the new predominant language of the U.S.

We have always been at war with eurasia.

I love the US. Its New Jersey I hate.
Ridiculous laws passed.
Dirty as hell.
All the cool states don't like us.