Tribute topic ;)

[Gabbe]

A thread for you to honour your own country and argue why its best/good/better than others. Let it be a text war, without a flame war
I can start after someone else have started and to be honest I can wait XD since it covers quite a lot, lets have three categories, economy military and land? pretty much describes what a country is...

[patz]

a place i grew up, im familiar with; a place the more i love, the more i hate .

[Omega]

Allrighty, Canada:
We are widely viewed as one of the most peaceful countries in the world. While this is mostly a stereotype, it does remain true that we have never initiated a war, though we are more than happy to help our allies in combat. We see this in how Canada is among the top places for Refuges, as well, pre-american civil war had many blacks migrating to Canada to escape the southern states. While our military can't compare with the US or other large countries, it is still very sizable for a country of only 33 million. Canada's economy, on the other hand, is MUCH better than USA's. We leave our health-care to the provinces, rather than letting a prime minister (the Canadian equivillant of a President) muck it up (and thus, I still have my universal healthcare). The Canadian dollar is roughly very close to the value of the American Dollar, last I saw, at 1.04 CAD = 1 USD.

Our constitution is based upon both the USA's and the British, being a mixture between formal and unformal constitutions, which customized it perfectly to our own country. The government, of course, is a democratic, bi-housed government split between the House of Commons (elected representives) and the Senate (appointed senators).

As for land, we are the second largest country in the world, but of course, as always, size means little. The northern half of the country has little population and is mostly used by the first natives and the military. In fact, the northern third of my province (saskatchewan) is wilderness, with no roads (northern cities are reached via plane) and over 100,000 (one hundred thousand!!!) lakes, with a mixture of boreal forests.

Canada isn't huge on manufacturing, though there is a good amount of that in Ontario. We focus mainly on raw resources, and have some of the largest sources of Petroleum, Uranium, and Potash in the world. While its true that the alberta oilsands are often attacked by under-educated environmentalists who aren't familiar with their workings (hey, at least we didn't fill the Gulf of Mexico with oil!). We also have various gold and other metal mines throughout the country.

Our biggest problem is stereotypes. Not enough people are educated on what Canada is truly like, and thus, they believe that it is some winter wonderland where everyones a lumberjack (and we're okay, sorry, monty python got the best of me) or a fur trader. In truth, if an american came to Canada, odds are, they wouldn't notice much difference, except that Canada can get very patriotic at times, and nearly every store, fast food chain, etc has a canadian maple leaf somewhere (even the Canadian branches of Gold USA!).

Molson Canadian (the beer) "I am Canadian Rant":

Code: [Select]

Hey,
I'm not a lumber jack
Or a fur trader
And I dont live in an igloo
Or eat blubber
Or own a dog sled
And I don't know
Jimmy, Jally or Suzie from Canada
Although I'm sure they're really really nice
I have a Prime Minister not a President
I speak English and French not American
And I pronounce it about not "a-boot"
I can proudly sew my country's flag on my backpack I believe in peackeeping not policing
Diversity not assimilation
And that the beaver is a truley proud and noble animal
A toque is a hat a chesterfield is a couch
And it is prnouced "zed" not "zee" "zed"!
Canada is the 2nd largest landmass!
The 1st nation in hockey!
And the best part of North America!
My name is Joe and I am Canadian!Oh yeah, and we have the best beer in the world.

That, my friends, is Canada. How's your country compare?

[Mark]

Allrighty, Canada:
We are widely viewed as one of the most peaceful countries in the world. While this is mostly a stereotype, it does remain true that we have never initiated a war, though we are more than happy to help our allies in combat. We see this in how Canada is among the top places for Refuges, as well, pre-american civil war had many blacks migrating to Canada to escape the southern states. While our military can't compare with the US or other large countries, it is still very sizable for a country of only 33 million.

Large army for a peaceful nation, huh?  I agree with you in that your nation is quite peaceful.  I can't say America is superior to other western nations, considering the fact that 44 percent of the population believes that the human race and the earth was created 6-10,000 years ago, according to a 2008 Gallup Poll.  America is a very conservative nation, filled with people who shout mantras and abhor critical thinking and non-group activities.  Places in Northern Europe are places that I think are the best.

Rather than respond to your entire argument, which I find to be a good one, though I think the entire exercise is useless, I will say that you seem to be obsessed with stereotypes.  Either it is the rest of the world has some kind of conspiracy to imagine a stereotypical canada (which makes you sound paranoid), or America is the culprit.  Seriously, you should come down here, because you would learn that no one at all has anything to say about you.  To most americans, you don't even exist.  When they do talk about you, they talk about how your RAF helped in the war, or how good your maple syrup is (though I doubt it is economical to import it), or sometimes about how you always make fun of us.  In a nutshell: America (and probably the rest of the world as well) doesn't care about you, doesn't know you exist, doesn't have anything to say about you, or likes you for the small amount of good things it can remember you for doing.  That is it.  None of this is in a disparaging light.  Okay?   

[wyvern]

Government wise the US is doing awful and in my opinion the current president is hopeless as is Congress, our economy in the US is manufacturing and agriculture mostly not sure about raw materials, though our economy is also doing awful currently , I'm sure other people will elaborate on those two topics.
The US military is quite large, we have a big army, navy, and airforce and for some reason are trying to fix things up in every country in the world that doesn't suit our image of government, peace etc, sadly and no offense to anyone, I think this countries basic army is pretty poor in training compared to many other nations, our elite forces are good and well trained. Our equipment is good but because of our budget we are slowing research and weapons production, no more F22 for example. I hope this was informative and not too depressing since I still like the US and actually think quite highly of our army, the only major complaints I'd have is against the government

[Gabbe]

Norway got, quite a large scale for such a small population, our economy is one of the best in the world, thanks to oil, we reign supreme with resources. We are self-sustained with energy and food, Our military may be small because of our small population but the SF is among the strongest in the world. A team of NSs from the US came here and was having a test if they could get into the norwegian special forces, and they all failed. But still, we are secure within NATO. We have also among the highest living standards in the world and expanding. From what i`ve heard from other norwegians we have a "stupid" and "fucked up" governement. If we could use our Uran(ium?) sources found in the mountains, we would have been even richer.

[Omega]

I can't say America is superior to other western nations, considering the fact that 44 percent of the population believes that the human race and the earth was created 6-10,000 years ago, according to a 2008 Gallup Poll.

Wow... I must admit, that is.... Odd... Even as a creationist, I don't believe the earth is that young... Where is this poll (got a link)?

If we could use our Uran(ium?) sources found in the mountains, we would have been even richer.

Uranium. Yeah, you should use it. That's what we do out here. Northern half of the province is the biggest Uranium deposit in the world. Bearing in mind though, that Uranium can be controversal to mine. While the radiation from mining uranium is nearly a minimum, and nobody (here) has ever died from radiation, the main use of Uranium is for nuclear power, which can be a somewhat controversal power source. To my understanding though, France (or one of those countries) uses a lot of Nuclear power, so there would be a good market for it.

Norway's a pretty good country to my understanding (which, unfortunately, isn't that good). Switzerland is the European country I know the best, because I always liked its values of freedom and neutrality, plus, I do all my reports/assignments or whatever on it. It gets to the point of which you begin to know everything about the country.

[Mark]

I can't say America is superior to other western nations, considering the fact that 44 percent of the population believes that the human race and the earth was created 6-10,000 years ago, according to a 2008 Gallup Poll.

Wow... I must admit, that is.... Odd... Even as a creationist, I don't believe the earth is that young... Where is this poll (got a link)?

Here.  And here is another one people would like to look at.  Now, the debate over evolution is no longer a debate, but (thankfully for sanity) most who still doubt it don't say the earth is that young.  Omega, if you want to rekindle the debate, I would happily debunk your claims.  Just not on this topic.  The Off Topic thread is the place to go.

If we could use our Uran(ium?) sources found in the mountains, we would have been even richer.

Uranium. Yeah, you should use it. That's what we do out here. Northern half of the province is the biggest Uranium deposit in the world. Bearing in mind though, that Uranium can be controversal to mine. While the radiation from mining uranium is nearly a minimum, and nobody (here) has ever died from radiation, the main use of Uranium is for nuclear power, which can be a somewhat controversal power source. To my understanding though, France (or one of those countries) uses a lot of Nuclear power, so there would be a good market for it.

Down here, most of our oil comes from you.  France uses a lot of nuclear.  Nuclear is the cleanest of the non-renewable resources, I am pretty sure.  (That is, if you can dispose of the waste efficiently).

[Omega]

Down here, most of our oil comes from you.  France uses a lot of nuclear.  Nuclear is the cleanest of the non-renewable resources, I am pretty sure.  (That is, if you can dispose of the waste efficiently).

Indeed. I, myself, am fine with Nuclear power, though strongly opposed to even the creation of nuclear arms. It is indeed the cleanest of the non-renewable resources. Solar and wind power are far too impractical for major energy sources, while Hydro has limited locations. Of course, the waste, which has no known safe method of disposal, other than just burrying it in the ground, could be a problem...

[Gabbe]

Down here, most of our oil comes from you.  France uses a lot of nuclear.  Nuclear is the cleanest of the non-renewable resources, I am pretty sure.  (That is, if you can dispose of the waste efficiently).

whose? canada or norway? sorry poor understanding

Im fine with nuke power too, and I can argue against the against arguments We have V5 gens now and the chernobyl was with V1 gens.