Justice wrote:
Politics and religion are great subjects for discussion so long as you just keep a civil and respectful tone. I mean, no religion would for instance mean that we couldn't worship Alderbranch on this forum and no politics would result in us not being able to plot about how to conquer the world!

Well the Church of Alderbranch is the offiical forum religion but, unless moderated very strictly, religious threads can quickly get out of hand.

Here are some quotes from different people from different countries on their opinion on Americans:

An Aussie here and yes I have family in the U.S. who have been there for 150 years and they agree with most of what I have to say about Yanks.

1:..up your selves like no other

2:.. if it ain't American its f*cked

3:.. thick as a lump of 4x2 timber

4:.. ignorant of anything out side your state boarders let alone out side the U.S.A.'s boarders

5:.. we are the best ..we make the best..we discovered everything.. we invented everything

6:.. we have the best education... we have the best medical/hospitals .. the best...the best.

These are just a few of the negative things that is front and centre that the rest of the world see's about Americans and it seems that its been the same for quite a long long while .







Uk. It's hard to generalise about an entire country - most Americans I know are very nice people, friendly, hard-working types.



A lot of them are a bit overweight, it's true, and many have some underlying assumptions that America is the greatest country on earth which leads them to be unconsciously arrogant in some ways. And the political system tends to colour perception of the whole country, see also Bowling for Columbine, Inside Job, etc. Plus there seem to be some very one-sided treaties between the uk and us. And the US media sucks - CNN, Fox News, Verizon, Comcast, how is it that they are allowed to survive and completely dominate the entertainment and news landscapes? But you have some beautiful nature, like yellowstone and the grand canyon.



But anyway, nice people, lovely country, shame about the government, the media, and the overly-competitive corporate thought-scape.

can't give an opinion that will cover every citizen of USA. However it seems from what I've read from americans themselves that a lot of them understand very little of anything, while others understand quite a lot. The former give the US a bad name.

The best to stay quite far away from all of them and keeping clear distance to them.

Americans better stay for their own and it is nothing but a risk talking to one of them.









Like most Germans I just go the other way as soon as I see turn up an American.



I have nothing against them but it is better to keep them on a very wide distance and to avoid contacts to them.



Politically we could see that America is used to nuke and bomb all those who dare to have a different opinion.











Well as a American and reading these answers all I can say is that not one here has any idea what goes on here. People from overseas have a tendency to put to much credence into the media and how it wishes to shape the American people. Although we do have our faults and plenty of it, this in no way should shape a opinion of the Americans as a whole. Every country has it's nationalistic attitude but remember most countries don't have 361 million people living in it and those people most of them are from countries that most of you on this website are from. To basically to criticize America you are in a sense criticizing your own country. Just remember one thing this country we call home doesn't have walls to keep people in.



Comments

Well, North Korea have walls to keep people in, I think, and ... ehhh.



Can you tell me another nation in the world that have walls to keep people in ?

Shadow179 wrote:
To basically to criticize America you are in a sense criticizing your own country.

Just speaking for the germans. We're taught from scratch to critisize our own country nonstop. It is very alien to us to have anything like patriotism. If you do, you're almost instantly considered to be a nationalist. Therefore our criticism of the USA is often along the lines: "How can anyone be so noncritical?"

Shadow179 wrote:
Can you tell me another nation in the world that have walls to keep people in ?

Until 1989 eastern europe. Iron curtain, remember? Especially eastern germany.



Otherwise the north korean northern border is not even a korean idea, as far as I know, but rather a chinese express wish, since they don't want to spend that much money on border patrols...

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Korea#Foreign_relations first paragraph.

America is a hard one to just classify in one go indeed.

And lately people are getting more and more annoyed by America.

First.

It is more then true that most of the world is highly annoyed by American meddling policy.

And above all, they are annoyed with American political irrational-ism.

Example:

World trade centre gets bombed by terrorists.

Rightfully so, everybody is angry, logical.

Irrational is, that Bush states: If you are not with us, you are against us.

Wait a minute, what does that mean?! If I am not prepared to bomb country X, I am against you...

Now in figures:

Deaths by terrorism on American soil: 3245 in total (measured over 40 year period till 2008)

Deaths by murder same period: 801961

So that shows that jumping the gun on terrorist being the most evil of all, and deserve an alienation from the rest of the world by the fore mentioning statement, is highly irrational.

Again:

Deaths by terrorism on American soil: 3245 in total (measured over 40 year period till 2008)

Deaths caused by the war on terror: 236000 (added to that can be 6280 U.S. serviceman and woman, measured from 2001 to 2008)

So again that is a perfect show of political irrational-ism.



And it is those kind of policies that alienates the rest of the world from America and even drives some to going as far as to hate America.

Second:

What annoys me is, American denial of being an empire.



From the Oxford dictionary:



Empire

noun



1 an extensive group of states or countries ruled over by a single monarch, an oligarchy, or a sovereign state:

[innames]: the Roman Empire

[massnoun] supreme political power over several countries when exercised by a single authority:

he encouraged the Greeks in their dream of empire in Asia Minor



2 an extensive sphere of activity controlled by one person or group:

the kitchen had once been the school dinner ladies' empire

a large commercial organization owned or controlled by one person or group:

her business empire grew



It is exactly that non-critical attitude mention before.

It baffles me and many others how a people can be so non-critical.

And is also a very very scary attitude to adopt.

It gives rulers of state, a virtual cart-blanc on setting policy and course of government.



After WW1, America was de facto the super power of the world, but the Brits kept the mentality of Empire, and the "delusion" of super power.

Therefore, America kept to the back ground and focussed internally.

[sidenote] And came up with silly policies like prohibition. Imagine that, drinking illegal... and that right after the period known as "the great binge"! Maybe an example of political irrationality?

After WW2, they were the hero democracy. And loved throughout the world. And rightly so!

Ran afoul with Russia, Cold War.

And after all that, finds itself in the same position as the British empire after WW1...

Really? I think so yes.

In many many area's China has surpassed the U.S. by a large margin, large enough to say that China is the leading super power in some sense

And certainly the one with more influence. Just think of the amount of American national debt China owns!

So we are in that same kind of transitional period between WW1 and WW2 in a way.

So it is not entirely unimaginable why America is so harsh in it it's meddling and campaigning throughout the world.

The politics will keep on becoming more irrational and paranoid.

Simply because of the fear of being number two.

From being almighty to number two is hard! Very hard.

Probably even harder then just being conquered outright. This process is slow and, in some areas, only noticeable after the point of no return.



So for now, just bear with it. And if and where possible, try and slow them down in their rhetoric.



Now this is not meant as a flamming post of America.

Just a very short and quick outline of the why people can't get along with America any more.

Sorry for keeping it too short, at least in my opinion it is short, simply because the problem is so very complex and has many many more facets to it.

Me see a need for an "Off-Topic" section for the forums.

Or just forbid whatever could be political.

Cause that kind of discussion always end bad. Always.

You're right, sorry for that one.

It is an impossible discussion, apart from having nothing to do with the game, and always ends with a Nazi post and all falls silent.

Lets keep to spamming pictures of where we live and maybe want to live.

What's with all the America bashing?



As a melting pot of every other species on the planet it brings all the good and bad together in one place. This is their greatest strength. The differing ideas which it has been founded on and which continue to embroil it in the rest of world's affairs are somewhat of a strength/weakness.



nowhere is perfect.



Can we get just back into space?

Actually, if wie could have a rule about leaving politics and Religion outside of These Forums, it would be a Great idea and avoid Lots of headaches.

Diplomacy didn't make it into the first edition for a reason...



... it's bloody hard

Politics and religion are great subjects for discussion so long as you just keep a civil and respectful tone. I mean, no religion would for instance mean that we couldn't worship Alderbranch on this forum and no politics would result in us not being able to plot about how to conquer the world!



Buuuuut as far as I know this particular subject is more about how people view their own country, rather than how they view other people's country. Would for instance be quite interesting to see how folks from the different states and territories in the US view the US, but it might be a bit of wishful thinking for me to hope we'll get that many replies here :-)

Well, it truly looks beautiful!

Quite depends on how reasonable the folks participating are - and a forum with predominantly sci-fi fans should be quite reasonable :-)



But! On topic again. Found this time lapse video of the Faroe Islands today. Quite miss the bad weather in it since that is what I like the most, but even I as a native find this to be quite beautiful. If you get bored, then the most beautiful part is from 3:30, at which point the music also switches over to the more traditional form of the ancient ballad which is being sung.



Here: http://vimeo.com/41357512

Lovely Faroe Islands, seem a "must" to travel. Im from Catalonia, currently living in Barcelona



In Catalonia we have...



the coast with beautiful beaches...







the Pyrenees mountains...







And the inner plains full of fruit trees...







Proud to be catalan, but more proud to be a traveler... and hoping to be a space traveler!!!

Was born here (Scotland)







Moved here @ 25







Landed here @ 31







Love Scotland but the economy/job market is in the toilet, London is a fun place to stay but I couldn't love there. Zurich is just plain awesome.

Hi Guys,



This is my frist post,try and figure out where i am from

That was easy - Portugal! And according to this you are from Porto.



This one will be more difficult. This is the city i've spent my last 5 years:







Anyone?

Yes i am from Portugal



From your pictures i could say it is Portugal also,Lisbon perhaps but no lolol



From the architecture i maybe wrong but some country in east europe

I'd say something like Prague. Well, I moved a lot across the Atlantic, from France to the US a couple times.

Well...I'm an American. That's my hometown, Denver. I love my country, and one day I hope to be in it's Air Force.

I could see the United States being the first to colonize another planet...after all, after 43 years, we are still the only country to put a man on the moon.

Even so, it seems to me that we are cutting back on our space program. For example, the recent retirement of the space shuttle.

Anyway, the Faroe Islands look pretty legit, and I would love to visit there sometime.

Alderbranch wrote:
Please guys, for this topic please stay on topic. Its nice when ppl present their home country.



Here is sweden in a nutshell

So true!

I laughed very much DDDD

mmm... cheesesteak!

Countries, countries, countries... such a peculiar concept. Rarely contain natural borders, we even have different perceptions of the countries we live in, and even might consider ourselves to be earthlings rather than citizens of a nation!



Even so, or exactly for that reason, I find it extremely interesting to hear people talking about "their" country. What's good, what's bad... and pretty pictures. Even if you live or originate from one of the bigger countries we, or at least I, still want to hear what you think about your country rather than just the normal media description.



Considering which forum we are on, it'd also be quite fun to hear how you imagine your country eventually will manage to colonize other planets, asteroids, moons and the likes together or in competition with other countries.



So, I'll start with my "country" Føroyar or the Faroe Islands.- Albeit I live in Scotland at the moment.



The Faroe Islands are located here:





and the islands are placed in this daggerish formation.



The Faroes are a small country technically belonging to the Danish Kingdom. But I advice you not to call us Danish anymore than calling a Scotsman English. If you accidentally say a Faroese is Danish, be prepared to run and run quickly.



There are about 50.000 people in the Faroes, meaning that we are no bigger than an average small city. Still most Faroese dream of one day being an independent country, even though there is some disagreement when it comes to when we should become independent, mainly due to around 5 - 10% of our GDP, depending on how you set up the maths, originating from Danish subsidies. As it is we are more independent than Scotland, but we don't have an army or much of a foreign ministry.



Culturally we are hyperactive compared to our size. We have a metal group called Týr, which likes to remake ancient Faroese folk melodies, here singin one of my favourites Sinklar's vísa. There are those like Orka delving into more experimental rock, more traditional rock/trip hop if you prefer the band called Clickhaze, brilliant folk singers like Hanus G. Johansen, relaxing feel good music like Eyðun og Terji, singer songwriter music like Teitur Lassen or if you are more into emo punk it is The Dreams you want to listen to. At the moment though, I would say that my favourite artists are the doom metal band Hamferð, which is one of my favourite bands even internationally, and Petur Pólson's somewhat alternative rock.



As you might have gathered by now I could go on and on when it comes to Faroese music, we even have our own symphony orchestra. While it might sound strange that 50.000 people produce tons of good quality music it is not quite as incredible as it seems to be. Music lessons are free until you are 20 years old and available to anyone who wants them, many foreign musicians have decided to make the Faroe Islands their home and the fact that we are so few as we are means that everyone who wants to play music gets to play music and has an audience. Even I, playing the tuba, have tried playing with a locally extremely well liked punk band (I hate their music, to be honest) and a pretty popular singer songwriter (the aforementioned Teitur) at the most popular festival up here, the G! Festival, which has gotten very good reviews in for instance Financial Times, The Guardian and Clash. The reason for me playing with two so different groups at a festival is not that I am a top notch professional player. I was just available to play and they needed a tuba player.



Music is far from our only culture, but that is what I find most interesting. When it comes to painting we have some dead painters which were quite good but mostly we haven't moved artistically the last 40 years, so I will refrain from torturing you on that area. Some brilliant actors, some brilliant film makers but mostly mediocre. Guess that is the same in most small societies. The one really interesting thing culturally, apart from music, might be our food. We eat dried fish, half rotten fish, pilot whales, sea birds, half rotten sheep meat, sheep intestines filled with blood and flour, sheep heart, head, liver and pretty much whatever sheep you can think except the marrow and brain due to the possibility of disease.



I probably should mention that Faroese generally are obsessed with football. Personally I hate it and think we are embarrassingly bad at the game, but people insist on mentioning how we "almost" beat Italy, Germany and such, that we beat Scotland sometimes and that we beat Austria when they were champions... 20 years ago. I pretend to be Icelandic whenever the Faroese football team is in the UK.



Politically it is a mess back at home at the moment. Good economic situation compared to other countries, but horrible, horrible politicians making Thatcher look like a left of centre politician. Needless to say, it seems like that situation is about to boil over with the polls showing a huge swing towards the left of centre, the strong unions becoming political again and the left as a whole uniting. Will be quite an exciting time back home the next few months, being as the last poll checking whether people agreed with the policies of that government said that less than 20% of the people agree with the policies.



Pictures - the forum only allows me to post 4 images, so I'll just provide links to the others:







Saksun, one of the more beautiful areas in the Faroes. Easy to get to if you don't mind a bumpy road. Generally our houses don't look like that although even some of the modern ones do have grass on the roof.



http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/03/25/travel/25faroe600.1.jpg



The island out there is called Nólsoy. I would guess around 2/3 of the Faroese can see that island from where they live.







Don't know the name of the tiny islet, but the small island is Tindhólmur and the larger one Vágoy. Tindhólmur features as the hiding place for a fictional power hungry Faroese the childrens' radio used to tell stories about when I was a child.



http://i.ytimg.com/vi/MQjiCEJXiNg/0.jpg



Mind you, the weather is far from always good in the Faroe Islands. Some say there are 4 seasons in a single day. Might begin with sun, then rain, then fog, then snow and then sun again. That particular picture is from one of our frequent winter storms. While it would blow most mainland houses away, we build for the storms so we usually don't have much damage.- However, when I was home this Christmas my uncle and I ended up running into a car and driving away like mad while the roof of a collapsing warehouse was chasing us...







Night is probably the time I like best up here. I once ended up in a village 25 kilometres from home at 2 o clock in the night, was supposed to be in a party but the sky was nice and I felt like biking. Needless to say my mates solemnly declared me to be crazy.



http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd319/mailcmw/getalookatthis/cwglt-080207-faroe-island12.jpg



The origin of the Patursson family. One of the driving forces in the national awakening in the Faroes 80 - 100 years ago.



http://www.photosfan.com/images/faroe-islands-aurora-borealis-over-trshavn-at-nigh1.jpg



Tórshavn at night. Capitol of the Faroes and my home city.





Colonization of Space

As for the conquest of space the Faroese contribution will be simple, yet elegant. We don't have many natural resources, so we will build our ship with a combination of driftwood, wool and sheep intestines (cleaned, of course). We have an abundance of clean natural energy surrounding our islands, however, all of that energy will be spent powering our gaming and TV habits. Actually propelling our spaceship up, up and away will be musicians. In shifts, half of the population shall be playing harmonic tunes being directed by some sort of astro-physicist who constantly does the maths on how we should play in order for the soundwaves to drive us forward. This will fail miserably, but we won't notice it being as we will be caught in the slipstream of Iceland's volcano powered spaceship lifting us up into space. After that we will be discussing whether or not to follow Denmark for a couple of decades, until we notice that all the other humans have left earth long ago and just decide to go back down to the somewhat less crowded planet.

I'm pleased to say that the only international football game I ever attended was in Aberdeen (temporary home of Justice).



It was Scotland vs the Faroe islands and Scotland won!!! Woop woop! Scotland 1 Faroe islands nil!



Please see the above picture of beautiful Aberdeen!



*edit* oh and please visit our wonderful beaches:



http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/north_east/6504431.stm

The hell... What? Radioactive beaches? I like walking down there! Well, that explains how I am able to read while it is dark.



As for the football - did I tell you I really am from Iceland? :-)

Justice wrote:
The hell... What? Radioactive beaches? I like walking down there! Well, that explains how I am able to read while it is dark.



As for the football - did I tell you I really am from Iceland? :-)

Oh well! At least we've still got our special beaches



have you ever been into Aberdeen by train, travelling in from the direction of Inverness? It's a sight to behold. Reminds me of a favela.

abredeen is a grate city

znork wrote:
abredeen is a grate city

Did yo mean a granite city? In all fairness I was born in Aberdeen and during my late teenage/ young adult years lived there for around 5 years. It's not as bad as i'm making it out but it does have a LOT of flaws.

Beautiful landscapes.

Will we have such brilliant art design for close planet views ?

Got a proposal for the Cravers Homeworld:

VieuxChat wrote:
Beautiful landscapes.

Will we have such brilliant art design for close planet views ?

Please guys, for this topic please stay on topic. Its nice when ppl present their home country.



Here is sweden in a nutshell

ill just shere a basic insturicnal video on norwy



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebqdwQzmSHM

Alderbranch wrote:
Here is sweden in a nutshell

lol at what the Americans think you do

Alderbranch wrote:
Please guys, for this topic please stay on topic. Its nice when ppl present their home country.



Here is sweden in a nutshell

Lovely... and the last one is sadly very true... swedes on a buss are insanly philosofic staring out the window

Deyja wrote:
Lovely... and the last one is sadly very true... swedes on a buss are insanly philosofic staring out the window

Not only that. You can save two minutes...

Was born in this country:



Got bored and moved to this country:



Couldn't resist and moved again, to here:



And now I live in this country:





As you see, I don't particularly hold to the idea of "my country is greatest".

I think the whole world is great!

The ideas of nationhood and the importance there of, only comes to mind with me, when thinking of a good passport.

e.g. One that requires the least amount of visa's to travel anywhere in the world.

So far have discovered that a Dutch one is pretty decent, who hates the Dutch?

And that a Japanese one is pretty awesome! 90 Days free in Europe, a minimum of 15 days in ASEAN countries, and a few more perks like that.

As for the Faroe Isle lands, would love to visit.

Planning a trip "home" for next July/August.

Might take a stroll and a small row boat ride and have a look around.

I think your final country choice is the best

Excellent thread! Here is my life, according to foods:

Born here:



Lived here for five years:



Have been here for 15 years:



But always sort of hoped that I could have a meal like this:

Thank you Slowhands: I am hungry now.

What Ronan doesn't bake you a cake everyday ? ><



More seriously....



I come from :





I live here:



Or if you want it a tad more romantic:



From:



To:



Voili-Voilou

Steph'nie wrote:
Thank you Slowhands: I am hungry now.