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Originally posted by torque
Re: Australia "we don't suffer fools easily. "
Yahoo Serious. We suffered him, but not much.
1) puts taxes on imported steal
-> it's the revenge game between the EU and the US. Natural protection taxes to protect your own economy. EU and Asian countries do this as well!
2) puts taxes on imported agricultural products; let the poor countries die!
-> the EU gives millions of money to farmers...and later pays them compensation as they need to sell their products very very cheap. Why? Too many farmers - kept alive by the EU and double-paid.
3) won't sign the Kyoto deal
-> ok that really sucks!
4) buys pollution percentage from smaller countries
-> again
5) produces more than 50% of the world's weapons
-> okay sucks as well but EU countried brought some quality land mines to africa
6) consumes more than 25% of the world's oil
-> don't know if it's that high but some decent engineering for engines should take place, yes.
7) caused all major war activities in the last 30 years (vietnam, cyprus, iran-iraq, gulf war, bosnia, kosovo, iraq) and many others either directly or indirectly
-> partly true but you can't blame them for Cyprus and Bosnia.
8) supports most dictatorships (pinoset, contras, saddam, indonesia, musaraf, greece 67-74, etc) and corrupted governments (saudi arabia, etc)
-> this assumes that dictatorships are always a bad thing. Saddam wasn't bad, he had maniacs under control. Or still people here that believe that Iraqis can handle freedom?
9) 5% of its population has 90% of the world's wealth
-> now that number, is just wrong.
10) one of the few countries that won't accept the international court of Justice in Hage
-> those who accepted it don't give a f* about it as well it's politics not a fair game fluffy puffy flower world.
11) is the only country to have dropped an atomic weapon in war
-> While I think the 2nd bomb was murder I think the 1st bomb saved more lives that it took. And as one lives counts as much as another the math is easy and so the USA did the right thing, even it's horrific.
12) has more than 36 poor people (living under the minimum wage)
-> 36? Tremendous
13) has the highest percentage of urban killings and rapes
-> Been to South-Africa lately? Or Nigeria? Brazil? Just because stastics don't get it, it doesn't mean it's not happening even more elsewhere.
14) has the largest amount of citizens with debts
-> No, wrong. Britain said some statistics last week.
15) has the highest number of citizens in jails relative to its population
-> this either means that US citizens are:
a) very criminal
b) live under strict law
c) have better law enforcement that other countries
In Germany a lot of people don't have to go to jail as the jails are full and there is no money to build new ones. Cared to visit southern european countries? same thing there, just more extreme. Like Russia? It's one big jail with criminals
16) has one of the highest percentages in school drop outs
-> don't know. But surely their education system could be improved a little.
17) has one of the lowest standards of education
-> hm, comparing with what countries? Switzerland an Luxembourg, or Sweden? That's not fair and it's not correct to compare such different countries. And lowest...no..by no means. Maybe low for western countries and in a statistic where Switzerland is #1 because of all the elite schools..hosting European and US pupils.
18) has one of the largest differences in capital per head amongst the world
-> it is not that extreme
19) has armies in more than 120 countries worldwide
-> so? You should have said they use them for a lot of wrong wars, that's a con.
20) is one of the few countries that has a law that allows the government to put in jail one person without any accusation
-> the government? or the police? Doubt the government can do that.
21) has Guantanamo; violates global signed policies on human rights
-> yea, right, bad
22) demands 1 milion as deposit in order to participate in the elections
-> k, sucks
23) has the highest number of TV channels
-> big country and a lot of sources for information - more a pro, or? Maybe you tried to say they watch a lot tv?
24) has the highest number of school killings
-> we had a lot too
25) the only country to have the privilege of kids passing through gun/metal detectors in schools
-> we have it as well, in some schools.
Are you implying that a blacks arn't US citizens?
The list has no supporting sources or scholarly citations, nothing.
Originally posted by masterp
So to recoup, I am not anti-american or pro-american (I could write a similar list for almost any country), but I wrote it in order to show you that the US is not the great paradise you are saying it is, or the keeper of democracy or anything else. People in power, worldwide, serve their interests first and foremost, and the interest of big leaders (Bush, Chirac, Blair etc) are international...
Originally posted by masterp
Agreed, but that does not make US innocent.
Dictator Papadopoulos was a CIA agent. Kissinger said that the Cyprus files should be kept closed, otherwise there is gonna be havoc.
Dictatorships ARE a bad thing, by definition.
No it's not. Look it up.
You are wrong. US was the one of the founding fathers, but they bailed out when they were about to be prosecuted for war crimes in Bosnia.
Bull#. You've been brainwashed. How can you dare say that instantly killing thousands of people is the right thing?
Relative to the population, that is.
It means that people are very poor, forced to steal and end up in jail.
Comparing with other european countries.
It is. Check it out. Minimum wage is considered 9000 $. There are 36 million people living below that.
It shows that the US plays the big bully.
Yes, with patriot act II, they can jail you for security reasons, without the right of a phone call, a lawyer or your relatives knowing where you are.
TV and materialism have brainwashed them.
Without a doubt. If you are British, then the same goes, in a smaller scale, for your country.
Isn't that a shame? our kids go peacefully to school every day, settling their differences with their fists (in the worst case), but your kids have to ...leave their guns at the door! how much damage can this do to a sensitive kid's heart, I wonder?
Originally posted by SiCkBoY
Personally I would love to see this happen, but in a more productive and fair way. (evil smile)
Pick 10,000 of your elite America and line them up in a big field somewhere on neutral ground, facing 10,000 of Europe�s elite, few choice weapons by each group of men, nothing modern, swords and such like.
Lass I fear the only thing to come from such a venture would be the slaying of 10,000 Americans, mind you, them same 10,000 Americans faced with 10,000 Irish men with no weapons would have the same outcome.
I would love to see the US Army stripped of all its weapons in Iraq at this time, stripping the Iraqis as well, it would make for an interesting battle and interesting end to Americans in Iraq, for they would shred you to bits, just like we would!
Originally posted by FredT
[
Geeeze, take er easy. Did you get a bad load of Vegimite? Seriously though, most people will not act the same way as tehy do ont he boards. Its easy to flame away in cyberspace, but in person is a different matter. That being said, Australia is a killer place to visit and my wife and I hope to go back sometime soon.
BTW, what is the deal with Vegimite?
Originally posted by IstvanChina and Russia are too primitive to attack the US, and the EU will not cooperate with them.
Originally posted by TACHYON
Ok, if China has the capability to attack the US, why havent they done so already? Because they CANNOT!!(but the US has the capability to obliterate it) and risk losing everything.
[edit on 27-8-2004 by TACHYON]
Originally posted by The Vagabond
Originally posted by SiCkBoY
Personally I would love to see this happen, but in a more productive and fair way. (evil smile)
Pick 10,000 of your elite America and line them up in a big field somewhere on neutral ground, facing 10,000 of Europe�s elite, few choice weapons by each group of men, nothing modern, swords and such like.
Lass I fear the only thing to come from such a venture would be the slaying of 10,000 Americans, mind you, them same 10,000 Americans faced with 10,000 Irish men with no weapons would have the same outcome.
I would love to see the US Army stripped of all its weapons in Iraq at this time, stripping the Iraqis as well, it would make for an interesting battle and interesting end to Americans in Iraq, for they would shred you to bits, just like we would!
It would certainly be great fun if we could settle wars with a single simple brawl. No destroying the planet, no 3-5 years of pure hell for every aspect of the nation's life. Just a few thousand of our most socially challenged individuals taking out their childhood vendettas on our enemy's own group of freaks.
There is still one barrier to the world getting even with us though: not all Americans are whiney little brats with starbucks logos on all of their possessions and lots of piercings to rip out. Some of them are large construction workers of Irish lineage, like my brothers and I.
All America needs to do is send out a letter to members of the Carpenters and Operators unions that there is a free trip to vegas open to anyone who has been arrested for an alcohol related offense in the last year.
You tell them to bring the biggest tool they can find from work, (and specify that thier genitals don't count- the sense of humor is pretty uniform with these guys, and the last thing you need is for every last one of your men to show up unarmed.) So now you've got several thousand guys with really big wrenches, hammers, small jack-hammers, torches, and the like. You get em wasted, you rob em blind with loaded dice on the craps table, then you wake em up the next morning and tell em what happened, and blame the enemy.
A few very messy hours later, the enemy will be dead, covered in blood and puke, and almost indistguishable from the American army- unconscious among the corpses from the effects of a hard days fight on the heels of a hard days night.