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I don't care if it's the United States, Canada, the Netherlands, Finland, Mexico, Brazil or any of the other 90+ countries who visit here. Tell everyone why you love the place you live.

This thread comes spinning off of one of the other threads where we were talking military stuff and I chanced on this on YouTube. After watching an entire rap video - and I HATE rap - I just had to post it.



Semper Fi.

I love the USA because we're all mutts here. Yea, we have our problems, but the mixture of everyone's beliefs, creeds, traditions, and history makes for an interesting melting pot!

I love the U.S. (even with its flaws) mainly with any of my "blood" countries (my heritage) I would never have the freedom or ability to do anything in those country as I would have here in the U.S.

I love America because it allows me to hate America without punishment.

(and no, I'm not saying that I hate it. I just like that I have that option)

I like it.

I don't understand patriotism. I could not love a country.

I like traveling to different states--being in the same country and experiencing vastly different climates and cultures. And also what Soliloquy said.

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I'm proud of being American as an extension of being proud of my family. They left Germany/Russia where they were the poorest of the poor and moved here and made lives for themselves. I am proud of that. That is why I am proud to be American not German or Russian because my family chose to leave those countries and come here and become something new. I celebrate that newness.

My proudest American moment every year is when we win the Hot Dog eating contest. Fuck off Kobayashi.

I'm happy to be a Canadian, but as I've made clear here before, I identify primarily as a Newfoundlander.

We are an island settled by accident. When the first fishermen came here, the law was that they had to return to England, and not stay the winter. Eventually some defied the law stayed behind to look after the communities they had built here. This island is harsh. There are harder places, but Newfoundland is harder than most. And when my ancestors had to pour in so much effort just to build a house here, or to eke out a living on our meager soil and rough seas, how could they be made to leave?

As for my Canadian pride ... when we entered Canadian confederation we were a poor, poor nation. For decades we were the poorest province in Canada, but we benefited from the goodwill of the rest of the country, installing infrastructure and upgrading our quality of life. Today, we are getting an opportunity to pay it back. In the downswing of much of the mainland economy, the Newfoundland economy has actually continued it's pre-downswing growth. For the first time since we joined Confederation, we are paying into the equalization payments. Yes, we still have to deal with stereotypes and jokes, and some days it's enough for me to renounce my Canadian identity altogether, but at the end of the day there aren't many better things one can call themselves but 'Canadian.'

The only one I can think of offhand is 'Newfoundlander.'

I have a great deal of regional pride as well. I love being Cajun. I wish I knew French so I could talk to my grandpa in the language he knew first.

I don't love a land or a politician, but I do love our American Constitution, our Bill of Rights, I love how everyone of every kind mixes and meshes here. I believe in an ideal which I'm now mature enough to see doesn't exist, but I still believe in it, and so despite Gasbandit's gasbaggery, I do get more angry with the U.S. doing something wrong than anywhere else, because I feel we should be setting an example, as Woodrow Wilson once said.

Let's see now... pristine nature, relaxed attitude towards nudity, functional political system, weird but tasty foods, wacky holidays, certain level of badassitude in history... I like it here

Asking a Belgian why he loves his country is a bit strange right now with our governement falling for the second time in two years http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63L1VN20100422 over the disputes between the Flemish and the Walloons and many of our people are rooting for the fall of Belgium but nevertheless I still love it.

I love living in a country with a rich historical background and walking/studying in cities that are almost a 1000 years old. I love that it's only a maximum of 3 hours to drive to get out of the country in every direction you go (provided the traffic isn't jammed at that moment) and I love that the things we are known for in the whole world are food (Belgian waffles, Brussels sprouts, Belgian chocolate and probably other stuff) and drinks (who doesn't enjoy a Belgian beer?). I also love that the people are able to laugh at themselves quite a bit.

Belgium is a fascinating country to me. I wish I understood the whole Flemish/Walloon history better. It's tragic that you folks are having so much trouble, though

Rob King said:

Belgium is a fascinating country to me. I wish I understood the whole Flemish/Walloon history better. It's tragic that you folks are having so much trouble, though

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I think it has manly become a political problem though explaining that in English or even in Dutch could take me a whole day, of it 10 million inhabitants there is only a small percent who actively advocate the split, the rest are quite fed up by the problem. On an individual level I don't see many people having problems with the other side it's just the way the country is structured that's cosing many problems I feel. I like to think that when there could be a split there will be plenty of people who will go out in the streets and there will be a massive demonstration against it before it would even happen.

Belgium is actually the primary model I've been looking at while constructing a country for a story I'm working on. I wanted to give the nation a mixed English/German heritage, and I didn't want things to look too cushy, so it sort of makes sense to me.

Xiaofang Nuren said:

I like it.

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I love the whole world
It's such a brilliant place
Boom-de-ah-da, boom-de-ah-da

The history of my family name started in the United States (New York City actually). Since my great-grandparents immigrated hear every generation has bettered themselves beyond where they started.

We live in a country based around the idea that every person is capable of anything if they have the drive, determination, and a little luck.

Some of the shit people get up to in this country is complete fucking bullshit. And I can take the piss out of it without getting carted away.

AMERICA FUCK YEAH.



Edit: Plus, it's like, so diverse and stuff.

---------- Post added at 06:01 AM ---------- Previous post was at 05:56 AM ----------

North_Ranger said:

relaxed attitude towards nudity

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Oh yeah, we gotta work on that one.

As biardo said, it is quite difficult to be proud of being Belgian right now since our country is failing due to petty political disputes.

If it were not for those shitheads ruining it and Brussels becoming more and more like Teheran, this country would be awesome tho.

People are friendly, foods and beers = THE AWESOME and incredible music scene.

I'll be honest. I'm not a patriot. The Netherlands is a nice country, but I wouldn't want to pick it over anything else. It's crowded and boring and people complain a lot about everything. However, we do have a relaxed attitude towards marijuana and alcohol which I think is excellent. Not because I'm a junk but I think demonizing that kind of stuff just serves to escalate the problem. That said, we do have our bingedrinkers and weed-addicts among the youth which I suppose is the consequence of people being too relaxed, but hey, not everything can be cool.

Also herrings. I love me some herrings.

I'm surprised no one had brought up Sam the Eagle yet.

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I would die to defend my home, my motherland, a country so many people think isn't a country at all.

bhamv3 said:

I would die to defend my home, my motherland, a country so many people think isn't a country at all.

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Narnia?

Gusto said:

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Yes.

My country is pretty great... it's the people that ruin it...

Oldie, I know.

Ugh, I know it's petty, but seeing people just dressing in half assed serges really bothers me.

It's not petty... I feel the sam way about people doing it with Dress Blues

I feel the same way about toques.

It's still blizzarding outside right now.

I reserve the right to toque up!

bhamv3 said:

I would die to defend my home, my motherland, a country so many people think isn't a country at all.

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Taiwan, right?

I've been taking an increased interest in unrecognized states in recent months. Taiwan is the really weird one. It seems indisputable that it's a functioning nation-state, and yet it doesn't get recognized because of the political dick-waving that China loves to do.

Somaliland as well, actually. There you have a reasonably functional country which isn't recognized by anyone because Somalia is still a member of the Arab League, despite not having any functioning structure or control over it's territory.