Do you love your country ?

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Levo
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Re: Do you love your country ?

Postby Levo » 2015-01-19, 22:43

If I had the money and didn't have to work full time/had way more spare time, Hungary would be an awesome place to be in, in my opinion :)

I think then I would be close to "loving" my country.

But this way, I'd say, I kind of like Hungary, and I could like it better, given some better circumstances.

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Re: Do you love your country ?

Postby Ciarán12 » 2015-01-19, 22:56

I love/feel proud of my culture (the nice parts, anyway), and I like and feel a sense of belonging to the landscape and the particular history that my culture has gone through based on its location on the island of Ireland, and I am glad that the Irish as an ethnic group govern their own sovereign state rather than being governed by a system dominated by another ethnic group, but none of that means that I like, say, the government that happens to be in power right now, or the policies it endorses, or even some of the more widely held cultural attitudes of the people of the country. So I like the "ethnic" stuff, but dislike the politics.

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Re: Do you love your country ?

Postby TeneReef » 2015-01-20, 8:26

Levo wrote:If I had the money and didn't have to work full time/had way more spare time, Hungary would be an awesome place to be in, in my opinion :)

I think then I would be close to "loving" my country.

But this way, I'd say, I kind of like Hungary, and I could like it better, given some better circumstances.


I love the Hungarian food, Balaton and Budapest.
And Barcs too, for its affordable shopping and pools. :)
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Re: Do you love your country ?

Postby Ashucky » 2015-01-24, 13:58

I like my country in terms of its landscape, and I despise it in terms of economy and politics, and generally don't like it in terms of society and social norms and everything else that come with that. I do like the part of the country I live in, that's Western Slovenia, and more specifically Istria, the rest of the country can suck it for all I care. (I'm all in favour of re-establishing the Venetian republic ...)

I do like the European Union, though. It has its problems atm but I hope they'll be resolved soon enough. And I plan to leave the country and move to Sweden, hopefully, so I just hope the EU lasts till then.
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Re: Do you love your country ?

Postby Levo » 2015-01-27, 10:18

TeneReef wrote:
Levo wrote:If I had the money and didn't have to work full time/had way more spare time, Hungary would be an awesome place to be in, in my opinion :)

I think then I would be close to "loving" my country.

But this way, I'd say, I kind of like Hungary, and I could like it better, given some better circumstances.


I love the Hungarian food, Balaton and Budapest.
And Barcs too, for its affordable shopping and pools. :)


Barcs! :D It is great to hear such.
Close to the Croatian border.

Balaton and Budapest indeed have a lot to offer.
Last time, when I went to Slovenia, I met a Croatian boy on the train and he told me about some remote parts of Croatia which don't belong to the most popular places of the country, but worth a visit.
I wish I visited Croatia once for real. Must have a lot of nice places, with a similar cultural background as ours.

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Re: Do you love your country ?

Postby suklaa » 2016-10-01, 18:28

I was reminded that today *was the National Day of my country of origin. :ohwell:

*time difference
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Re: Do you love your country ?

Postby hayoshan » 2016-10-06, 19:34

I have very mixed feelings for China as my home country. Nature is sooo beautiful and most Chinese people are nice, I like them more than most Uyghurs as they ashame me. People from other countries make big efforts to press that not all Uyghurs support terrorists, but they don't know, they just make lucky guess from common sense. Of course we all don't support the terrorists but sadly the sad reality is that few oppose them. Nationalists attack democracy activists even more than the communists! It's sad but is better to be under China, than independent, because without Chinese oppression would be extreme Islamic oppression. I love the nature of all countries including China, and other minorities people are very nice. So there, I love my country, but I also love other countries all the same.
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Re: Do you love your country ?

Postby Akihiro » 2016-12-24, 13:57

Of course, I am! I am Japanese, and I love my country, Japan, though it has been westernized so much I'm afraid people, especially young people, tend to forget how good their own country is as they focus more on how wonderful western culture ( dresses, songs, TV programs and so on ) is. I really don't like it, but that's the way it is now in Japan. What about those who comment on this thread? Do yo think your country keeps its own tradition firmly or is it influeced a lot by the culture of the other countries to the extent that people look to that country?

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Re: Do you love your country ?

Postby Prowler » 2017-01-03, 0:37

Well, what can I say? I was born and raised here. No point overthinking it. I am what I am as my passport and my ID say. That's all there needs to be said. Can't say I have an identity crisis as far as nationality goes, even though I don't care about many elements of this culture. Then again, I'm not required to like codfish and red wine just because I was born here. I'm an individual first of all. And for the record, I also consider myself European, even though I dislike the way EU is being handled.

Akihiro wrote:Of course, I am! I am Japanese, and I love my country, Japan, though it has been westernized so much I'm afraid people, especially young people, tend to forget how good their own country is as they focus more on how wonderful western culture ( dresses, songs, TV programs and so on ) is. I really don't like it, but that's the way it is now in Japan. What about those who comment on this thread? Do yo think your country keeps its own tradition firmly or is it influeced a lot by the culture of the other countries to the extent that people look to that country?

European countries are all fairly close to each other. Greece is "closer" to Portugal than, let's say, India is to China in terms of culture, society, etc.

External influences? Like I dunno, people watching American tv shows and listening to their songs? As long as the worst things about American society don't infect us it's cool. Although I really dislike how Halloween and Black Friday have become things here in this decade.

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Re: Do you love your country ?

Postby Johanna » 2017-01-04, 16:27

Prowler wrote:Although I really dislike how Halloween and Black Friday have become things here in this decade.

Importing Halloween was a conscious decision by the retail industry, they just wanted to be able to sell more junk during a time of year when they previously didn't have a reason to; there's a 3-month gap between the crayfish parties of August and the start of Christmas season after all.

Black Friday on the other hand I don't even think they wanted. I mean, around that time of year you used to be able to raise prices and people would still buy stuff since you can't exactly wait until after Christmas to buy Christmas presents. But, globalization forced their hand and they had to implement a Black Friday sale in order to compete with American and British webshops.
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Re: Do you love your country ?

Postby xBlackHeartx » 2017-03-09, 5:54

I hate my country. Its constantly starting pointless wars and killing millions of innocent people while the media bashes on other countries that murder their own citizens. How is America any better? This country kills more people than any other probably, its just not obvious to natives since virtually all of it is abroad.

And of course this country tolerates bigotry. You can't be arrested or punished or anything for openly being a white-supremacist or a neo-nazi. Hell, my high school had a copy of Mein Kampf in it. Granted, few Americans are white-supremacists today, and I highly doubt that book got read much, but that's beside the point. Look at the struggle for gay rights in this country. My own home state is fighting against the federal government solely because the people in charge don't want LGBT people tolerated. And another state is actively fighting against the federal law that requires all the states to allow same-sex marriage. And of course there's the recent up-rising of misogyny in this country. And of course my bullshit country re-elected Mussolini who as we speak is trying to bankrupt the country to build a wall along the southern border, kick all the Muslims out of this country, and god knows what else he has planned.

This country's been declining for nearly 2 decades now. First there was the economy collapsing in the early-mid 2000s during Bush's reign. And then the economy got worse when the whole world fell into a recession. I mean, look at what Russia did with Georgia. They wouldn't have been allowed to get away with that, if the US was still in a position to do anything about it. And now we have a complete flipping idiot sitting in the white house who wants to return this nation to what it was 100 years ago. A land that promised equality to all, but denied it to anyone who wasn't white, male, and heterosexual.

All I can see coming from my country is hatred and death. I can't even begin to imagine how anyone could see anything positive about my country.

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Re: Do you love your country ?

Postby linguoboy » 2017-03-09, 15:23

xBlackHeartx wrote:Hell, my high school had a copy of Mein Kampf in it.

I'm not sure why this, in itself, is a bad thing.

xBlackHeartx wrote:All I can see coming from my country is hatred and death. I can't even begin to imagine how anyone could see anything positive about my country.

I'm seeing an upsurge in activism and engagement. One of my college friends is running for public office. It's only library board for her village (pop. 52,000), but it could be just the start. Other friends are getting organised, joining or founding groups to work for positive change, volunteering, and donating. Everyone seems to know their representatives' numbers these days from calling them every week over the latest shitty proposed law or cabinet nomination. A friend on Facebook remarked today that he hardly sees gym selfies or food pics any more, everyone's too busy sharing news articles and calls to action.

So if you can't see anything positive in this ugly time, perhaps you need to consider who you're spending your time around.
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Re: Do you love your country ?

Postby Babbsagg » 2017-03-09, 17:48

I used to hate it as a teenager, but later understood that there are much worse places to live in. I still disliked some things, but was overall rather indifferent. That has changed in recent times though. While half the west moves towards authoritarianism, Germany is resisting it fairly strongly, and that's one thing I really like about it. I've even seen it being called a bastion of liberal democracy these days.

I always wanted to move to the UK in the future, but now I guess that's off the table. On one hand, it may just not be possible, on the other, after what happened in the UK and how it has changed, I'm not so sure anymore if I even want to live there. Guess Germany isn't so bad after all.
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Re: Do you love your country ?

Postby linguoboy » 2017-03-09, 17:51

Babbsagg wrote:I always wanted to move to the UK in the future, but now I guess that's off the table. On one hand, it may just not be possible, on the other, after what happened in the UK and how it has changed, I'm not so sure anymore if I even want to live there. Guess Germany isn't so bad after all.

Maybe after it collapses you can be in the vanguard of the European stabilisation initiative.
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Re: Do you love your country ?

Postby Babbsagg » 2017-03-09, 20:46

Let's just hope we can afford development aid to the UK in the near future
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Re: Do you love your country ?

Postby Multiturquoise » 2018-05-11, 12:45

TomBecker wrote:Are you proud of your country and culture ?

I am an Israeli so obviously I despise my country and wish I was born somewhere else . I am ashamed of being born here . I feel that everyone who was born in Israel is worthless because of Israel's problematic image and genocidal policies.

All I do is admiring other nations and their peoples because I know they don't have the same problems as I do . I love Canada , Germany , Australia, France , Norway , South Korea and Slovenia . I always imagine how beautiful life could be if I was born in any of those countries and especially Germany , Canada and Australia. Israel is just a lame excuse for a country. Why would anyone love an individual who represents a country that occupies and kills Palestinians ? Impossible .


I'm doing the same for my country.

I'm from Turkey and the one and only thing I can say is that I'm ashamed of being born here. I don't accept Turkey as my country because of the genocide committed against Armenians by the Ottoman Empire and also the mass killing of Kurds by the present-day country of Turkey.

My country is nothing other than an Islamic bloodsucker. So why would anyone love an individual who represents a country that occupies and kills innocent Syrians and Kurds; and also committed genocides against Armenians and Greeks in the past?

Turkey's relationships with most countries have soured due to Erdogan's Islamic policies.
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Re: Do you love your country ?

Postby KatyP » 2018-08-24, 19:19

I love my country with an unconditional love, but one that isn't blind to all of its faults. My country has a lot of negative things going on right now that are bringing out some of the worst in people, but some of the best in others. We've had our fair share of dark moments in our history (and now), but I love the US for what I know it can be. We're still growing and maturing. I know the US gets a lot of hate but we're still working on it. We're young compared to a lot of other countries and still figuring things out.

One thing that the US has in abundance is hate. I'm not going to contribute any. All love, man.

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Re: Do you love your country ?

Postby Aurinĭa » 2018-08-25, 20:55

KatyP wrote:We're still growing and maturing. (...) We're young compared to a lot of other countries and still figuring things out.

But the US is not a young country, is it? The US declared itself independent in 1776, which is almost 250 years ago. The Civil War ended in 1865, and in the more than 150 years since then there have been no major wars in the continental US that had a severe impact on the state structure and/or necessitated the rebuilding of a lot of the infrastructure of the country.

The US is not young in the absolute sense, nor in the relative sense compared to many other countries.

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Re: Do you love your country ?

Postby vijayjohn » 2018-08-26, 3:03

I think I partially agree with both of you. On the one hand, it strikes me as a bit odd to say that the US is "still figuring things out" because IME this is what people say about countries that gained their independence within the last hundred years and where the standard of living is low, not about the most powerful country in the world that has barely ever seen a foreign invasion in its history as an independent country despite having invaded plenty of other countries itself. On the other hand, I think it's worth bearing in mind that the vast majority of people who make up the population of the US today are descended from people who didn't even exist here 400 years ago, so I think you could say the US is young in that it does not have a long history behind it in the same way that most countries do.

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Re: Do you love your country ?

Postby md0 » 2018-08-26, 4:06

the vast majority of people who make up the population of the US today are descended from people who didn't even exist here 400 years ago, so I think you could say the US is young in that it does not have a long history behind it in the same way that most countries do.


Does any of us know where our ancestors were 400 years ago? :hmm:
Personally, I would feel that 3 generations in a place is as good as having been there forever.
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