What is bad about your country?

Discussion in 'Miscellaneous' started by synth_apparition, Mar 23, 2013.

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  1. In Geography, before I moved classes (i'm in a higher grade now :D), we were learning about what is bad about countries. I've decided that these are what is bad about the UK:
    1. The dole payments are really high. The payment is higher than a job payment, and then people complain 'there's no jobs left'. Yes, immigrants take the jobs, but there's still plenty of high paying ones left in the medical area. I think they should keep the dole, but keep it only for single parents and people who can't work and have nobody to rely on for money.
    2. They can't handle 'bad' weather. Seriously. The snow hasn't been that deep, and they're closing all of the roads, so the teachers can't get to school, thus closing the school. They grit the roads, shovel the snow, and just give up after a few hours. I have several tests that have to be done to help decide what I do my levels in and they keep getting postponed because of these 'adverse' weather conditions >.>
    3. The british monarchy is pointless, and although it's a tradition I think it should be obliterated.
    4. The prime minister comes up with tacky ways of trying to help the economy.
    5. The garages break your car and force you to buy new engines and stuff. Mum had it done to her the other week and the mechanic hasn't lost his job yet.
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  2. I hate how other people hate the US
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  3. I hate how pompous and arrogant the U.S. is.
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  4. I live in Northern Ireland, and oh, do I have quite the list.

    1. The biggest problem is that for the last 300-400 years, Northern Ireland has been seriously divided. This peaked during 1920, 1972 and 1981. The division is between two ethnic groups, British Protestants, who want Northern Ireland to continue a union with Great Britain and are largely conservative, and Irish Catholics, who want Northern Ireland to join the Republic of Ireland down south.

    What happened in the first place was a ton of Protestants came over and started plantations. The Gaelic lords of Ireland had quite loose control over the land, allowing the Kingdom of Britain to take control of it and split it up among the plantation people, the Irish, the churches, and some other people.

    Fast forward a few hundred years, and Ireland comes under so much British influence, it enters into a United Kingdom with Great Britain in 1801, with both countries being in a personal union (under the same monarch) beforehand. Keep going until the start of the twentieth century, and the Irish begin fearing they're losing their culture to the British. Because of this, Irish nationalist movements spring up. They firstly ask for greater autonomy. Then, counter-movements, led by the Protestants, spring up, like the Ulster Volunteer Force.

    The British Government is too nice to the UVF, and the Irish nationalists get really annoyed. In response, during the First World War, a faction within the Irish Volunteer Force takes over Central Dublin in what is known as the Easter Rising. They get shot down by the British Army and the rebel leaders are executed. This really radicalises Irish nationalism, creating Irish republicanism, which seeks full independence.

    So, in 1919, the IVF becomes the Irish Republican Army, and they ignite a war of independence. They win, in negotiations with Great Britain they allow Northern Ireland to opt out and be entitled to govern some of their own affairs.
    After Ireland becomes independent, the radical Irish republicans which dominate the political landscape go about declaring Ireland to be a Catholic nation. In response, Sir James Craig, the first Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, declares Northern Ireland to be a Protestant nation for a Protestant people.

    But that isn't the case. There is a large Catholic minority in Northern Ireland. So Sir James creates an environment of discrimination and apartheid against the Catholics. He has election boundaries drawn so few Catholic candidates can get elected. The Parliament of Northern Ireland has a Protestant majority, meaning the Protestants get their way every single time and oppress the Catholics.

    Then comes the 60s, which sees the arisal of a new Irish Republican Army, now a paramilitary force in Northern Ireland. The UVF evolves into a paramilitary too, and a larger Protestant paramilitary arises, the UDA. The high-intensity bombings eventually causes the Parliament of Northern Ireland to collapse, meaning Northern Ireland's powers of self-governing revert to direct rule under the British Parliament.

    For the next thirty years, we are talking huge loss of life, huge divisions everywhere, the whole works. If you're a Protestant, you can't be friends with a Catholic, and vise versa. Huge walls separate Protestant and Catholic communities to stop them rioting. There are bomb drills in workplaces, shootings, intimidation of communities causing mass exile. Until 1994.

    At that point, the Provisional IRA (the product of an earlier split) agrees to peace talks. In 1998, the Good Friday Agreement is signed. A new parliament is created called the Northern Irish Assembly, where a motion must get a majority with both the Protestants and Catholics to pass. There's a new police force, new law, a lot of new things.

    However, there are still an abundance of loose ends. I have received two death threats for speaking out against burning of Union Jacks on bonfires. There is paramilitary symbolism in my local town, supporting the few small paramilitaries still in existence. Kerbstones are painted the colours of the Union Jack or Irish tricolour depending on whether a community is Protestant or Catholic, and flags are flown from lamp posts. I cannot scroll down my newsfeed without someone posting a status in support of the IRA, I see people with IRA hunger strikers as their profile pictures, I see outright hatred and bigotry everywhere I go. I have been told by my da that I shouldn't express my opinion if I 'value my kneecaps' yet no effort is made to find these people who will destroy my kneecaps for what I think. I am the one who has to keep my mouth shut apparently. The entire political system is sectarian, a solid 91.111% of the seats are held by sectarians, that is 99 out of the 108 seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly. Most of the main political parties are political wings of former paramilitaries. There was a children's play park named after a member of the IRA last year.

    My only hope is the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland, which I am joining. They are the only ones who can clean up this huge mess.

    2. Fuel poverty.
    3. We're in the UK, so our head of state is a monarch.
    4. The education system is hugely flawed. There are essentially Protestant schools and Catholic schools, and our entire education system is biased towards Christianity. At the end of every assembly, we have to pray. Every year, we have to go to a church service to celebrate Easter. You may think the US is arrogant, but damnit, with its secularism, it has good reason to be.
    5. The second most powerful man in the country was in the IRA.
    6. We are heavily reliant on oil and unsustainable lifestyles.
    7. The largest political party is homophobic.
    8. The third largest political party is homophobic.
    9. Marijuana, prostitution, abortion and gay marriage are all illegal, as is the right to distribute information which happens to be a movie, game or song.
    10. We're in the UK. and Cameron wants to pull us all out of the EU.
    11. There is still rioting across the country because a Union Jack was removed from Belfast City Hall. The vote happened in December, the riots have been persistent for the last 4 months, and some of the politicians in the Assembly actually support this.
    12. We use the UK's peasant currency instead of the Eurozone's master race currency.
    13. Everybody wants to believe that we're all as clean as a whistle because Game of Thrones is being made here, when we so clearly are not.
  5. I live in the us and i hate how we have nothing tropical or stuff like rain forests.
    EDIT:I think we do have 1 rain forest but that's all the way across the country.
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  6. I hate that the government officals are stealing our money :(
  7. The Govermet won't pay for private schools
  8. I hate how a lot of other people here in the US say "America is the greatest country."

    It's not. It's definitely not the worst, but not the best either.
    1. There is still a metaphorical wall between the North and South in the US. The cultures between the two sections are so different at times that you might as well be in separate countries. This always ends up making national decisions difficult.
    2. For some reason, gay marriage is still illegal because we have some bigoted morons who oppose this decision.
    3. The US is doing away with privacy as we speak, and nobody is even batting an eye at it.
    4. You can't trust any news media, which isn't as much news, but more entertainment.
    5. We have people who shout this is the greatest country. It's obnoxious and arrogant.
    HylianNinja and PandasEatRamen like this.
  9. Things I hate about the UK:
    1) Like Soul said, the monarchy is a load of crap, its too old fashioned and should have been abolished ages ago
    2) The government isn't great and i don't like any of the parties i think they are all rubbish. Its all lies after lies to get your votes (Insert nick clegg meme here)
    3) The education system is flawed (Well at least in wales) English school have a lot more funding than Welsh schools and my school is the second most underfunded in my county.
    4) British society is messed up these days, with stupid things going on the internet and people just being ignorant
  10. I found a video that related to it, but it contains some "bad" language. It's a pretty interesting one, though I haven't fact-checked it yet. I'm pretty sure it's scripted.

    Again, don't watch this if language offends you.


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  11. 1. I hate that there are people fighting in the Armed Forces who will then come home and tell you they're too afraid to try to get help with anything because they're "Afraid the government will screw them over again."

    2. I hate how crappy the education is over here. All we're ever mostly taught about is stuff in the US. I was 15 before I even knew there was a "Wales" and I didn't learn that until I made a Welsh friend online. I seriously thought growing up that when they were saying "Diana, Princess of Wales" they were saying WHALES. I always wondered to myself who wanted to be Princess of some giant fish?

    I was 17 before I learned there was a country named Georgia. We also were never really taught which continent Iceland and Greenland belong.

    When we're taught about other countries they show us the great stuff, like skyscrapers and office buildings, busy streets and whatnot. They never show us the homeless people, disease and the vendors on the streets selling fish or duck necks and whatnot to raise money for families.

    3. When schools need to cut money in spots they go for everything but sports first. My Spanish class used the same books for several years. Most of the classes I had, only had enough in the budget to buy enough books for 30 students. We then had to use them during the class period and then put them away when finished. Most of my math teachers made up their own worksheets. They lump everyone together so you're in a room of 30 people, those who learn at different paces and have learning disabilities as well.

    4. Bigots, racists, sexists, Westboro Baptist Church etc.

    5. Healthcare is expensive. If you need help due to mental health or poor physical health, it's looked down upon because of so many lazy people. It also means "you're just lazy and don't wanna work."

    6. We're stereotyped as the fattest country ever and deemed lazy.
  12. Yep sounds like something from the USA xD

    Sorry im arrogant Hylian, its the mcdonalds it just gets to my brain :p

    ~~~~
    I live in the United States
    1. government officials wont cut their pay to even a half to help the dept (obviously their selfish and yes i know i dont work but i live in a town that we when someone farts on the other side with in 2 seconds not a lot of places to work)

    2. Lazy people (no not fat ppl, people on food stamps etc. so dont twist my words im talking about the people that say "Oh i dont need a job the government will pay for me to live.")

    Yes I know a lot of people will say, "if you are on food stamps it means u dont want to get a job" but ill have you know my father and I are on food stamps and we still dont get good food we pretty much have to go to a helping shelter place to get fruit and vegetables. Were not lazy my dad is actually disabled/retired and im going to college (community). As for me seeming so poor and able to be on the computer I bought this computer with my own money when I worked full time in highschool. (yes I have had SOMEONE not going to name them that said i shouldnt have a computer if i were so poor)

    Yes the government pays for me to go to college but if they didn't i would be working a 7.25 job all my life because well i just cant afford it.....
  13. I don't like tax but who does?
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  14. Oh and another thing, I hate how people say immigrants are stealing jobs. That is the biggest bullshit I have ever heard. Tell me, are immigrants finding employed people and jumping out and stealing their jobs? NO, they aren't! These people are willing to work, and they get the jobs. The worst part is it isn't even the unemployed who complain about this.
    HylianNinja and britbrit3197 like this.
  15. Sorry but...*facepalm* :p
  16. :( I know. It's so embarrassing.

    But honestly that's how it is. And most people would say "Uh, didn't you read?" The thing is, for the longest time I can remember we were always told to go play outside. I was around 12 before we got our first computer and we didn't have internet for a bit. Most of the time it was like the sterotypical stuff you see in movies. Kids only learned stuff at school, came home and did homework and played until dinner/street lights came on.
    Jimbonothing64 likes this.
  17. Heck she couldnt even count through 100's right xD but i shouldn't be talking im smart but derpy couldn't tell time till i was 15. oh or tie my shoes the proper way i still do that wrong apparently even though it comes out in a bow


  18. Alright, back on topic. This is stuff about your country, not how Panda was an idiot growing up.
    BilboBaggins23 likes this.
  19. Its talking about the Edjumacational system.
    L0tad and PandasEatRamen like this.
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