As awful as the government has been for...well...as long as I can remember, I'm still weirdly proud to be British. My teenage self would kill me for saying this, but I'm patriotic.
Culturally, I think Britain is, and always will be, a world power (CULTURALLY) . SO much literature and poetry and an amazing ability to absorb other languages.
Why do you guys love your countries?
Well I love my country, France, for so many reasons. Mostly because I always go there for holidays so have only good memories. The food, the people, the family, the mountains, etc.
Having spent over half my life in various parts of the UK though, I gotta say that it also has a place in my bosom. These Canadians just ain't British enough (no matter how many times I remind them who their head of state is)
(love you really, Canada)
But hey, how beautiful is the countryside in the North of the UK? I mean... it's full of northerners...but that's the price you pay.
I have amazingly fond memories of having a cheapo holiday in the Dordogne when I was about 10. I was hugely impressed that the cats caught LIZARDS! That was amazing! And it was also astonishingly lovely there. Where did you grow up?
Well, I love my country, Brazil. Oh. Wait. I don't.
It sucks. The government constantly rapes you; 95% the population is ridiculously stupid; prices are outrageous compared to international values; education in general is just left behind and it's hot as hell.
"zOmg, wait dude. You gotz hot chickz and football"
Right. The only problem is that the 'hot chicks' aren't anything more than that and football is just another another way of crapping into the country's development.
What about historical culture?
Hell, even Kipling was hilarious;
Open the old cigar-box, get me a Cuba stout,
For things are running crossways, and Maggie and I are out.
We quarrelled about Havanas--we fought o'er a good cheroot,
And I knew she is exacting, and she says I am a brute.
Open the old cigar-box--let me consider a space;
In the soft blue veil of the vapour musing on Maggie's face.
Maggie is pretty to look at--Maggie's a loving lass,
But the prettiest cheeks must wrinkle, the truest of loves must pass.
There's peace in a Larranaga, there's calm in a Henry Clay;
But the best cigar in an hour is finished and thrown away--
Thrown away for another as perfect and ripe and brown--
But I could not throw away Maggie for fear o' the talk o' the town!
Maggie, my wife at fifty--grey and dour and old--
With never another Maggie to purchase for love or gold!
And the light of Days that have Been the dark of the Days that Are,
And Love's torch stinking and stale, like the butt of a dead cigar--
The butt of a dead cigar you are bound to keep in your pocket--
With never a new one to light tho' it's charred and black to the socket!
Open the old cigar-box--let me consider a while.
Here is a mild Manila--there is a wifely smile.
Which is the better portion--bondage bought with a ring,
Or a harem of dusky beauties, fifty tied in a string?
Counsellors cunning and silent--comforters true and tried,
And never a one of the fifty to sneer at a rival bride?
Thought in the early morning, solace in time of woes,
Peace in the hush of the twilight, balm ere my eyelids close,
This will the fifty give me, asking nought in return,
With only a Suttee's passion--to do their duty and burn.
This will the fifty give me. When they are spent and dead,
Five times other fifties shall be my servants instead.
The furrows of far-off Java, the isles of the Spanish Main,
When they hear my harem is empty will send me my brides again.
I will take no heed to their raiment, nor food for their mouths withal,
So long as the gulls are nesting, so long as the showers fall.
I will scent 'em with best vanilla, with tea will I temper their hides,
And the Moor and the Mormon shall envy who read of the tale of my brides.
For Maggie has written a letter to give me my choice between
The wee little whimpering Love and the great god Nick o' Teen.
And I have been servant of Love for barely a twelvemonth clear,
But I have been Priest of Cabanas a matter of seven year;
And the gloom of my bachelor days is flecked with the cheery light
Of stumps that I burned to Friendship and Pleasure and Work and Fight.
And I turn my eyes to the future that Maggie and I must prove,
But the only light on the marshes is the Will-o'-the-Wisp of Love.
Will it see me safe through my journey or leave me bogged in the mire?
Since a puff of tobacco can cloud it, shall I follow the fitful fire?
Open the old cigar-box--let me consider anew--
Old friends, and who is Maggie that I should abandon you?
A million surplus Maggies are willing to bear the yoke;
And a woman is only a woman, but a good Cigar is a Smoke.
Light me another Cuba--I hold to my first-sworn vows.
If Maggie will have no rival, I'll have no Maggie for Spouse!
This is as much as I'll say for my country.
My country...well...it's a garbage dump.There is NOTHING good about it. Hell I am so embarrassed by it I'm not even going to say it's name, but here's a hint...it start's with B.
Bolivia?
Brazil? (BR HUEHUEHUEHUE)
Boslav? (That's probably a language and not a country)
Is it in Africa?
I think Britain is a pretty good country. It's got a long history that's influenced the world in good(Colonisation) and bad(...Colonisation). Been to other countries like Greece and China which also have a rich history which are still present in their countries. Not proud of being British though. Everywhere has it good and bad parts.
(09-23-2012 02:51 AM)Snake3324 Wrote: [ -> ]Bolivia?
Brazil? (BR HUEHUEHUEHUE)
Boslav? (That's probably a language and not a country)
Is it in Africa?
Nope, none of these and it's in Europe.
Apart from the Conservative,
the immigrants thinking that immigrants are to blame for taking their jobs, skinheads and EDL dicks who think it's their country, extremist Muslims, the crime and people who leach off the benefit system, Britain is a amazing place.
While many of the buildings are still stuck in the 1950's, modern London and places surrounding it are pretty amazing, the fact we can fit about 6.6 million people into such a small place and live with them is amazing, along with the tube system working pretty much 24 seven and being a main transport route, and how we can still share farm land and motorways better than other places is great.
Even though I think Britain is cramped, I still think it's a great country, I was born here and lived here my entire life, and I've seen how it's changed in this short time, and it's great, because of Labour we were doing great, Britain only became this good recently though, I've seen how it was over the past 100 years, and damn, a person like me would not be doing as well as I am now if I was in the 50's or 60's.