Political discussions and other rants about useless things like culture

[stizzleomnibus]

My comment earlier regarding "what the U.S has done to foreign nations" wasn't so much about the salary increases as it was the vast numerical gulf between the amount of the doubled salaries of corrupt officials and my college drop-out income. The difference is complex, since I have higher living expenses which necessitate a higher wage, but all of that money holds an equivalence on a global level. It just highlights how poor C.R. is all around. I find that unfortunate, as I'm sure that our nations have a lot to offer each other.

Part of the geography issue is the size of our country, both in land mass and diversity. Can you tell me, for example, which U.S. state's fundamentalist school board just struck a blow in the name of Christ, against the teaching of truth* in history? Hint: It's pretty close to you, relatively speaking.

It's a pretty big issue, and I know an awful lot about it. Both in my understanding of the makeup of the state, and it's influence on the national textbook market. I know an awful lot about the regions in my country, their specific issues, and so on. I also know a lot about women around the world, because I am a closet feminist (well, before typing that, anyway). I know a lot about some Mideast nations; others, I've never heard of.

Honestly, I'm occasionally surprised to find out that certain places for which I know the name are actually their own countries, not cities in a nearby well-known nation. (Specifics omitted so as not to sound like a fucking moron.) I actually had a professor last year who was from Mauritania by way of France. I'm like "Mauri-what"? I get that Mauritania is where Moors come from, so I'm somewhat familiar with the country's historical and ethnic relevance; I had just never heard of the country.

*obviously, there's always bias in history, but the profession works pretty hard at finding truth and exploring nuance, rather than blatantly rewriting history 1984 style.

 

[Defiance]

^ C.R. isn't really poor. We have lots of money but (1) it's not administered properly, (2) it's not used and (3) it's sometimes stolen.

E.g., Costa Rica wasn't really affected by the crisis, even if most of the income comes from gringos. But we do make awesome chips for Intel and stuff like that.

No idea which school you mean.

Gringos are very ignorant about geographical matters. They think there're seven continents. Really? I though they were five. Even if it's more of an issue of how you count them, how can you make South America a separate continent? That's stupid.

 

[Villain]

No idea which school you mean.

He's referring to this:

-Villain

 

[Defiance]

Oh yeah I'd heard something about that, but I had no idea that the changes were so huge/stupid. Did these changes pass? And then again, I'm not surprised, since it's Texas.

@ Villain: I love your new avatar! Is it the one from Facebook or whatever, or just some random drawing?

 

[Naglfar]

Basically, religious fundamentalists in TX don't believe in the ideas portion of capitalist democracy. That is, the best ideas win. So they want to rig how we teach schoolchildren, since the hodgepodge of nationalist vomit and religious fundamentalism they call conservatism has not been successful in competing with ideas in high education. They decided to change up the textbooks, and now kids in Texas will be thought that the founding fathers didn't really believe in the separation between church and state, among other things.

Gringos are very ignorant about geographical matters. They think there're seven continents. Really? I though they were five. Even if it's more of an issue of how you count them, how can you make South America a separate continent? That's stupid.

It's all Risk's fault. South America only gives you 2 extra dudes per turn, so we're all programmed to think it's a separate, less productive continent.

 

[Maxim1110]

It's all Risk's fault. South America only gives you 2 extra dudes per turn, so we're all programmed to think it's a separate, less productive continent.

Yeah, and it's harder to defend than Australia, so everyone would rather have that one

But to kinda jump in on the subject: I know quite a lot about geography. For a part I guess it's the education in The Netherlands, since we're a small country involved in trade a lot. The other part is some kind of hobby, I kinda love geography. When I'm bored I can just stare at Google Maps, Google Earth or Google StreetView for hours. I don't know a lot about every country, but of most countries I can almost tell you where they are.

Many US Americans really aren't good at such things. All some of them know is 'Paris' and 'London'. I believe that many even think Europe is a country. Wasn't there some controversy over Sarah Palin who didn't know that Africa was actually a continent and not a country? Things like that make me facepalm...

Also a funny thing is the fact that in American films the villains are usually Europeans, and preferrably Russians or other communists (e.g. Die Hard).

 

[Defiance]

Basically, religious fundamentalists in TX don't believe in the ideas portion of capitalist democracy. That is, the best ideas win. So they want to rig how we teach schoolchildren, since the hodgepodge of nationalist vomit and religious fundamentalism they call conservatism has not been successful in competing with ideas in high education. They decided to change up the textbooks, and now kids in Texas will be thought [taught] that the founding fathers didn't really believe in the separation between church and state, among other things.


It's all Risk's fault. South America only gives you 2 extra dudes per turn, so we're all programmed to think it's a separate, less productive continent.

It's amazing how people still think like this nowadays. Then again, it's Texas. But did this go through? Are they actually teaching this to children?

Risk.

This is how the U.S. Americans see the world:

My personal favourite:

 

[Siren]

This is how the U.S. Americans see the world:

Hahaha, i hadn't seen this before. I love it.

 

[stizzleomnibus]

I hope everyone knows that we're not all like that. Frankly, stereotyping Americans like that is just as bad as the stereotypes attributed the countries on the map (such as the fact that all Europeans are pussies). I had mentioned earlier how stunned I was that someone like Geert Wilders could emerge from so liberal a continent and country; we each have our own national and social embarrassments, but stereotypes are equally wrong in every direction.

 

[Wanderingblade]

I remember a tv show not so long ago where it betrayed the basic inability of quite a few Britons to point out cities in their country.

Ignorance is the order of the day in all countries. I'm not certain whether the fact Americans make the most high profile gaffes on this score is the fact we're all watching so we can laugh about them or the fact their culture does promote a certain degree of ignorance. Probably a little from both columns.

As for this continent thing... I think I was taught that South America and North America are seperate continents. Good geographic sense? Maybe not, but I rarely hear too many people arguing with Europe as a continent when geographically it's just part of Eurasia. Europe is a cultural and political expression. So... I don't see why South America can't be either.

 

[Defiance]

I hope everyone knows that we're not all like that. Frankly, stereotyping Americans like that is just as bad as the stereotypes attributed the countries on the map (such as the fact that all Europeans are pussies). I had mentioned earlier how stunned I was that someone like Geert Wilders could emerge from so liberal a continent and country; we each have our own national and social embarrassments, but stereotypes are equally wrong in every direction.

I know, it's just funny drawing. I actually teach my students that not all gringos are stupid, and that there're certain times that you really can't generalise. The problem is that a lot of kids watch MTV, and obviously the US Americans that appear there are not very bright.

It's like, you know, like, you know, wow.

I beat my students up when they talk like that. Yes, CR is so far behind times that that's still allowed. Just kidding. But we do have Internet thanks to coconuts. Just kidding again.

Anyhow, my point is that, for example, even stizzle didn't know which was Canada's capital. And considering that you/we're neighbours, the least a US American can do is know it. Then again, all Canadians want to be US Americans, right? Right?

I remember a tv show not so long ago where it betrayed the basic inability of quite a few Britons to point out cities in their country.

Ignorance is the order of the day in all countries. I'm not certain whether the fact Americans make the most high profile gaffes on this score is the fact we're all watching so we can laugh about them or the fact their culture does promote a certain degree of ignorance. Probably a little from both columns.

As for this continent thing... I think I was taught that South America and North America are seperate continents. Good geographic sense? Maybe not, but I rarely hear too many people arguing with Europe as a continent when geographically it's just part of Eurasia. Europe is a cultural and political expression. So... I don't see why South America can't be either.

True, I didn't see it that way, but then Central America would be a different continent, and that just doesn't make sense (to me, at least). Perhaps it'd be more accurate to divide America into two sub-continents, North America and Latin America. Perhaps someone (an European, for sure) decided that Europe was another continent due to it's culture, but that the rest are due to geographical differences.

 

[Wanderingblade]

I can see a lot of logic to a North America and Latin America divide.

 

[Defiance]

^ It does make more sense than a North and South division.

 

[Maxim1110]

I remember a tv show not so long ago where it betrayed the basic inability of quite a few Britons to point out cities in their country.

Yeah, we had something like that here too, but then they asked Dutch travellers there current whereabouts. I remember that in one answer someone said that they had just crossed a big river (the Rhine) and they pointed out somewhere in North Africa, thinking the Mediterranean Sea was the big river they just crossed.

Fact is that there are stupid AND smart people everywhere. People generalise are obviously part of the stupid ones.

In other news: the elections here are only one and a half week away, and it's getting quite exciting. The VVD (LibDems) has 33 seats and the Pvda (Labour) 32 in the opinion polls. Live debating with the leaders of most parties is aired almost every day now, and I can already tell my absolute number one in that: Femke Halsema (GroenLinks, socialist environmental party), she's a damn good debater.

Geert Wilders is a complete fail there, simply because in everything someone says he's like "ah, that's Islam's fault" or "if we could only stop the mass-immigration..."

 

[Naglfar]

^ It does make more sense than a North and South division.

To an extent; but Mexico is economically and socially more integrated with the USA in spite of its political and cultural affinity to Latin America. If you put a gun to my head and made me choose, I'd probably include the Caribbean and Mexico as part of North America. Divisions in geography for these purposes are subjective, anyway.

 

[Defiance]

To an extent; but Mexico is economically and socially more integrated with the USA in spite of its political and cultural affinity to Latin America. If you put a gun to my head and made me choose, I'd probably include the Caribbean and Mexico as part of North America. Divisions in geography for these purposes are subjective, anyway.

Really? I would put it as part of Latin America. We'd have to ask a Mexican and see what he thinks.

 

[Naglfar]

Really? I would put it as part of Latin America. We'd have to ask a Mexican and see what he thinks.

Depends which Mexican you ask! Plenty of Mexicans in the US consider themselves American. Some consider themselves occupied people, some are just here for jobs... I'm just saying that the question of where you'd put Mexico is gonna be pretty subjective, because more so than the rest of Central America it's very North American in its economic and social outlook (because of the very large Mexican presence in the US proper).

 

[Defiance]

^ Ah OK now I get you. On another note, I'm glad the deputies here didn't get a salary rise. The bastards. And now they want to spen USD 1 mil. on a fucking boulevard+statue as a tribute to Oscar Arias, of all people. I'll take personal responsibility of destroying said statue.

 

[Defiance]

It'd be very interesting to see a match between North and South Korea. If North loses, then Kim-Jong Il will bomb South Africa and the world will end. All because of football!

I'm rooting for España, Deutschland and England.

 

[Maxim1110]

Well, we've had the elections last wednesday, and I can tell you that the results are rather disastrous, here are the results (in brackets is the change in parliament seats as compared to the last elections:
VVD, Liberals, 31 (+9)
PvdA, Social Democrats, 30 (-2)
CDA, Christian Democrats, 21 (-20)
SP, Socialist, 15 (-10)
GroenLinks, Socialist (environmental), 10 (+3)
D66, Social Democrats, but a bit more liberal than PvdA, 10 (+7)
PVV, Racist Liberals (Wilders' Party), 24 (+15)
CU, Christian Confessionals, 5 (-1)
SGP, Conservative Christians, 2 (0)

Now, these results show that the PVV got way too many votes. And so did the VVD. Both will probably "destroy" the social system which is working so well now. VVD will save money on the poor and have extra advantages for the rich. The PVV can't be in the government I think because a) they will do the same, and b) they're racist, and not only the fact that that is evil, but also that this will cause widespread anger amongs others. I think the SP should have won, but thinking realistic: the PvdA should have won. In the initial counts it was a score of 31-31, but that changed to 31-30 in favour of the VVD later. Furthermore, the leader of the VVD, Mark Rutte, is a 41 year old man who still lives with his mother, and he's supposed to lead the country. God help me...

Now, a coalition must be formed. To form a coalition, they must have at least 76 seats together. There are two coalitions possible:
- VVD, PvdA, D66, GroenLinks: this may seem like a weird one: socialists and liberals in the same coalition, but the reason why people currently think this is possible is because it happened before, in the 1990's. I think this is not possible though, since the VVD and the PvdA are really opposites this time, and both will have to make more compromises than they want to.

-VVD, PVV, CDA: This is probably the most disastrous coalition we could have, but also the most likely one at this moment. Obviously it is disastrous because it contains both the VVD and most important: the PVV. Otherwise, it's just a right-wing government with racist tendencies from the PVV, which is the lasting we need now, or ever. Mark Rutte (VVD) said he wants to have his coalition formed by July 1st, but my society teacher said that's more likely to become July 1st 2011. If this happens, we'll probably gonna be voting within a year again, because this isn't a government that's gonna keep going for a while.

Positive about that is that the PVV will most likely get a lot less votes. On the first day after the elections Wilders showed his trustworthyness: nihil. There currently is a law that gets people a certain amount of money if they retire at the age of 65. Liberal parties like the VVD but also the CDA want to raise this to 67, but the PVV has said this is a "breaking point" for them: they will absolutely NOT do this. Now he's seen the election results, he suddenly changed his mind and he said he want to discuss about raising it anyway. He obviously did this just so he could get into the government together with VVD and CDA. That still doesn't change the fact that he's got way too many votes this time, but I hope it gets less next time.

Plato was right...