All you need to know about Finnish language...
- Thread starter Narcisse
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Saying Brazil "isn't that bad" is like saying Iraq "isn't that bad." What is being discussed is all subjective, and regardless of what does or doesn't happen to you, I think using the metrics set out by the UN or other organizations that rank a country's standard or living, etc... Brazil seems like a pretty shit place.
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Indefinite Entity
No offense. I mean, I just checked and you guys are 2 spots under Iran on the Human Development Index :\
None taken, it's nothing but the sad truth, I'm pretty awere this is a shitty place to live...
I was checking now... we're way under Libya! I'm laughing here but I guess I should be crying.... It's even more fucked than I thought...
Did you always live in Canada or you moved there? if so, from where?
I was checking now... we're way under Libya! I'm laughing here but I guess I should be crying.... It's even more fucked than I thought...
Did you always live in Canada or you moved there? if so, from where?
Undefined
Indefinite Entity
I was born here, thank fuck. I'm not sure how immigration is, I know we let a shitload of people in but I don't know how hard it is to get in. And Libya has a fuckload of oil which lets them run their government services more easily so it will help them get higher on the standards I think.
My husband knows some brazilians who lived in Canada, they all say Canada is the best place to go if you want to leave Brazil. They say immigration is fine, if you do something related to culture you're welcome (their words, I haven't checked yet if this is true). According to them, life costs are lower than in Europe, although the country is just as developed (sometimes even more) as European countries. Safety, clean cities, nice people. I guess I've never considered living in Canada because one of this people who lived there is my husband's ex, who broke up with him because he didn't want to live in Canada at the time... I just don't want the same future, but I was being very stupid not considering Canada just because of something that happened over 5 years ago... and I guess I was too blinded in passion for Finland to consider any other place in the globe, but this new fact about norther lights in Canada... it changes everything.
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Indefinite Entity
To be fair you gotta live up north (not along the US border which is where 90% of our population/cities are) to see them. Canada is huge and I think a few provinces can see them up north, the territories can see them easier, if you move to a city in Ontario there's really not much hope to see them. But it's still accessible by bus trip or car if you ever wanted to see it. To be honest if you are hinging your future on whether or not you can see the Aurora Borealis I suggest you rethink this life decision 
My parents live just north of Quebec city, so still pretty southerly, and it's not unheard of to see northern lights. It's not particularly common, and since there's been more construction around their place in the past few years (hence more light pollution) I don't know what the stituation is now. What I find kind of shitty is the high humidity. It makes summer heat above like 25 C seem unbearable and winters feel like - 10000.
Leandro
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Dude...
Comparing Brazil with Iraq is just absurd. The thing about the HDI is true, of course - but that is only half the story. What we do have is a very large disparity in the standards of living between the rich regions and the poor regions.
Example: my state, São Paulo, has a HDI of 0.833. One of the poorest states, Alagoas, has a HDI of 0.677. If you're familiar with Italy and its rich-north/poor south divide, what we have is pretty much the same in a larger scale, for different reasons.
See this map: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Brazilian_States_by_HDI.svg
I know that vikk lives in one of the dark-green states, and I'm willing to bet this girl lives in one of those too. So none of us actually live in any truly impoverished region for which "shitty" would be an apt adjective. So, nope, not that bad. Also, mind the fact that this data is 5 years old, and we've gone a long way since then.
We do have issues of course, and these mainly concern bad public administration. Overtaxing, poor public services, public elementary/high school are a mess, corrupt government officials, etc etc etc. Not everything is ruined, however. The undergraduate courses offered by our public (free) universities are comparable to the best in the world, and in fact, probably better. A happy exception. But is life, on the average, better elsewhere? Probably. Is it worth it to leave, and deal with the hassle of leaving behind friends and family, adapting to a foreign culture, immigration bureaucracy, and the eternal prejudice of people who'd think you're just a whiter hue of Mexican? Probably not.
Inb4 someone calls me a hypocrite because I'm saying that about 3 months short of moving to the US: I'm not moving permanently. After my PhD is over, and maybe a postdoc, I want to come back. Tenure!
Undefined
Indefinite Entity
Dude...
Comparing Brazil with Iraq is just absurd. The thing about the HDI is true, of course - but that is only half the story. What we do have is a very large disparity in the standards of living between the rich regions and the poor regions.
Example: my state, São Paulo, has a HDI of 0.833. One of the poorest states, Alagoas, has a HDI of 0.677. If you're familiar with Italy and its rich-north/poor south divide, what we have is pretty much the same in a larger scale, for different reasons.
See this map: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Brazilian_States_by_HDI.svg
I know that vikk lives in one of the dark-green states, and I'm willing to bet this girl lives in one of those too. So none of us actually live in any truly impoverished region for which "shitty" would be an apt adjective. So, nope, not that bad. Also, mind the fact that this data is 5 years old, and we've gone a long way since then.
We do have issues of course, and these mainly concern bad public administration. Overtaxing, poor public services, public elementary/high school are a mess, corrupt government officials, etc etc etc. Not everything is ruined, however. The undergraduate courses offered by our public (free) universities are comparable to the best in the world, and in fact, probably better. A happy exception. But is life, on the average, better elsewhere? Probably. Is it worth it to leave, and deal with the hassle of leaving behind friends and family, adapting to a foreign culture, immigration bureaucracy, and the eternal prejudice of people who'd think you're just a whiter hue of Mexican? Probably not.
Inb4 someone calls me a hypocrite because I'm saying that about 3 months short of moving to the US: I'm not moving permanently. After my PhD is over, and maybe a postdoc, I want to come back. Tenure!
What I meant with the Iraq comment is there could be a guy from Iraq who hasn't experienced many of the problems that exist there, so he's telling people that it's not a bad place, despite the fact there is some bad thinggs happening in certain areas. Vice versa aplies, a guy from Canada could say how shitty the place is because he had a negative experience, etc
Obviously they're not comparable, I just meant that the overall state of a country can't really be guaged by some anecdotal evidence.
And yes, there is a lot of shit to deal with to leave. Is it worth it? That is up to the individual... like personally I won't put myself in that situation unless it was absolutely necessary, but if I didn't have family, etc like you mentioned it would be more appealing.
Undefined
Indefinite Entity
Leandro
¬¬
Of course it can't be gauged by anecdotal evidence. But, you know - I live here. It's not just anecdotal evidence that ends up in my hands, most of which cannot be accurately conveyed by an index. In fact, each table I checked in the UN website gave different figures for our HDI - this is because the index is completely non-linear and thus does not remain invariant under averaging operations. I find this to be very undesirable, especially in a country where there's considerable regional variation. All in all, the index is just a rule of thumb, and to correctly assess any country's social situation you will need something a lot more detailed.
The problem with the Iraq comparison is that you're more or less tacitly assuming I'm some sort of prince, or that my life is very uncommon. It's not. In fact, if you would read vikk and nicotine's complaints again, you will see that they're either public administration issues (no argument there) or social issues. These are *measurably* not-that-bad in the regions where we live. I vote not to count things like the metal scene or "it's like jersey shore and I just want to punch people in the face". Family issues also don't count, it's not like this is the only country where families have dysfunctional relationships.
That and the fact that we love to complain.
edit: didn't say offset, said exception
The problem with the Iraq comparison is that you're more or less tacitly assuming I'm some sort of prince, or that my life is very uncommon. It's not. In fact, if you would read vikk and nicotine's complaints again, you will see that they're either public administration issues (no argument there) or social issues. These are *measurably* not-that-bad in the regions where we live. I vote not to count things like the metal scene or "it's like jersey shore and I just want to punch people in the face". Family issues also don't count, it's not like this is the only country where families have dysfunctional relationships.
That and the fact that we love to complain.
edit: didn't say offset, said exception
Germany > Schweiz
seriously! though they wouldnt want to be involved in your immigration plans at all anyway
gettin married this young, is that a good idea?
ontopic.....
well nobody can really say how it would be to live in a different country if you havnt been there yet and all you know about it is the wikipedia page
Come on, that's something for you americans: When we had exchange students in school (thats like 6 years ago, these guys were 16/17 I guess) some of them were suriprised that we even have cars and roads here... they were REALLY surprised.
Leandro
¬¬
well nobody can really say how it would be to live in a different country if you havnt been there yet and all you know about it is the wikipedia page
This!
well nobody can really say how it would be to live in a different country if you havnt been there yet and all you know about it is the wikipedia page
How's that even possible?
Snowy
It just happened, we're not going to do all the paper stuff for marriage, that only makes things difficult when we decide to break up... We just lhave been living together for a while (a year and a half I guess). husband/wife is just they way we call each other because we don't really know what would be the proper term
It just happened, we're not going to do all the paper stuff for marriage, that only makes things difficult when we decide to break up... We just lhave been living together for a while (a year and a half I guess). husband/wife is just they way we call each other because we don't really know what would be the proper term
Macharius
Thank you for noticing.
Undefined
Indefinite Entity
I've lived with my girlfriend 5 years and I never even call her my wife haha I think she technically she is my common-law wife by now but fuck that noise.
To be fair you gotta live up north (not along the US border which is where 90% of our population/cities are) to see them. Canada is huge and I think a few provinces can see them up north, the territories can see them easier, if you move to a city in Ontario there's really not much hope to see them. But it's still accessible by bus trip or car if you ever wanted to see it. To be honest if you are hinging your future on whether or not you can see the Aurora Borealis I suggest you rethink this life decision
I assumed that I'd have to travel to see them, but anyway it's nice to know that if I decide to, in a couple of hours I can go and see the lights. or maybe not. I live by the seashore and I never go to the beach, but I like to know the beach is there... Is Canada really the way Michel Moore shows it in Bowling for Columbine?
