My Country's Better than Your Country

Diz brings up a point that no one outside of myself has ever acknowledged. The same holds true for the slanted statistics of seat belt laws. And speed limits? They are there to keep me from killing you more so than myself. To keep you from being hurt by me. Not necessarily to keep me from getting hurt by me.

But aren't bad eatting, alcohol, hiking, mountain climbing, skiing, smoking, or walking along side a busy street just as costly when you consider the amounts of people who do those activities compaired to people who ride motorcycles?

Where do we stop?

 

I was actually just taking a cynical view rather than trying to express the policy behind helmet laws in Australia!

Diz - it would be interesting to see your figures on that issue of the medical cost of motorcycle accidents. I assumed that helmets protected the rider against death and severe head trauma more than not wearing one.

 

Coming back to the actual topic...
personally, I think, there's nothing wrong with liking your country. It is after all, your "home" country.
If I may quote Johannes Rau, the former german federal president:
"I never want to be a nationalist,but a patriot. A patriot is somebody, who loves his home country, a nationalist is somebody, who condemns the home countries of other people. We want to be a folk of good neighbours, in Europe and in the world."
I think, it is a very good quote. (I hope my rough translation is alright)
Me, I can't say that I love Germany because it isn't "perfect", and I don't think there is actually a perfect country in the world, who has done everything right.
Also, the history in every country wasn't wonderful- even though I really hate it, when people say: "you're a german?-Eek!"
Things have gone wrong,yes.We can never redeem ourselves, yes, and we can never make up for the human sorrow and pain.
But it isn't as if history would make us to lesser people- it's not as if any country would be less worth because of that, i think.

I can say, I like living here and it is my language and so on, but I am not adamant about defending it.
Having prejudices against other nations or countries is wrong, and I respect everyone's country.
You can disagree with the politics of other countries- you can disagree with the politics of your own country- there is nothing wrong with that.
So again, liking your country is alright- but exceeding patriotism is wrong.
We have seen where that can lead to- and the results were catastrophic.
I think, if we respect, that there is no country in the world, that is the "best" or the "worst", we have taken a big step forward.
*Abeja*
P.S: Please don't kill me now , it's just my opinion.
P.P.S: I also think, visiting other countries makes you have less prejudices.
I would really love for example, to see the U.S one day, or Australia...
P.P.S: One last point, before I shut up: I think we should consider, that we aren't only living in countries, but people in one big world, and picking on each other because of little things like that, is simply ridiculous.

I apologize for any spelling or grammar mistakes.

 

A lot of European economies grow faster than 1%, I don't see where you get this idea that Europe doesn't contribute anything to the world. It's blatant self aggrandesizing [...].

But a lot of other countries do have space programs, where did you get the idea the US is the only one with one? Not to mention that the head of the biggest NASA success programs was a former Nazi-scientist. Werner Von Braun? All American baby.

Have you ever even been to Europe? By the way, talking about "Europe" as one entity is so very wrong. You're talking as if the attitudes of people in the Netherlands are equal to those in Italy or Poland.

This is the dumbest argument I've ever seen. :0

Besides, the British played a major role in the development of the GPS, oh, and the acronym GSM, comes from "Groupe Spécial Mobile" all American alright.

I don't think we need to do a contest to see which country has the biggest Penis.

Maybe you need to get out of the USA every once and a while 'cause it doesn't look like you've got a very good grasp about what the rest of the world looks like. =)