Escape from Oz
Dec 17th 2009, 8:07 am
#61
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Sep 2009
Location: York, PA, USA
Posts: 856
Re: Escape from Oz
You have good reason to be proud of your country. It was not formed easily and the grit and determination that made it happen is alive and well in the USA today.
Many people that accuse Americans of being insular, have travelled far and wide without really knowing their own country, which is tiny in relation. Sure there are insular and thick yanks but Britain and every country across the globe has the equivalent. Just tell them to f**k off, it's all these folk understand.
Many people that accuse Americans of being insular, have travelled far and wide without really knowing their own country, which is tiny in relation. Sure there are insular and thick yanks but Britain and every country across the globe has the equivalent. Just tell them to f**k off, it's all these folk understand.
Dec 17th 2009, 8:08 am
#62
Crazy Cat Lady
Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 65,493
Re: Escape from Oz
I honestly think the slide started when we joined the EU, suddenly we were part of a bigger picture and we were almost brainwashed into thinking that Britain was a piddly little bit of Europe and nothing to shout about. France had better food apparently, Italy had better men (sounds daft but that's what we were led to believe), etc etc. All Britain had was a few historical buildings and some pretty countryside. Successive governments have pushed this belief further and further and as a result I think these daft programmes found a niche and they have simply reinforced the previous belief.
Dec 17th 2009, 8:26 am
#63
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 371
Re: Escape from Oz
Not at all. I used to like the guy, and I voted for him, but I regretted making that vote. I think he has about as much integrity as Brown and Blair. His popularity is down to under 50% now, so a majority of Americans think he's ineffective as president.
I don't know what it is but it seems like from what my gf tells me with all these magazines and TV shows about life in Florida, Spain, and Australia, it seems the fashionable thing to bash the UK and move abroad. Seriously, more than 1 million Brits live abroad and for a country of 60 million, that's a ridiculously high number. I don't even know if we have that many Americans living abroad. If you guys killed the A Place in the Sun crap and anything related to that, I think you'd have far less moving out. That's my reasoning behind your, not realizing the things they'd miss about the UK before moving out.
Wu chu sayin' son?
That's why I'm proud to be an American. I consider myself to live in a fruitful nation and having things that many people envy, like a warm country with lots of space for a nice house not attached to another. I've gotten into a boxing match on here before about patriotism over in the USA forum and I've been accused by all the Brits over there that I'm a thick insular American. No I think if I manage to visit other countries, that I'd learn to appreciate my own more. And according to a lot of testimony from people I've talked to over the years, both online and immigrants in my town, that I have good reason to be proud of being American. Life's too short to be always feel like you live in a bad country.
I don't know what it is but it seems like from what my gf tells me with all these magazines and TV shows about life in Florida, Spain, and Australia, it seems the fashionable thing to bash the UK and move abroad. Seriously, more than 1 million Brits live abroad and for a country of 60 million, that's a ridiculously high number. I don't even know if we have that many Americans living abroad. If you guys killed the A Place in the Sun crap and anything related to that, I think you'd have far less moving out. That's my reasoning behind your, not realizing the things they'd miss about the UK before moving out.
Wu chu sayin' son?
That's why I'm proud to be an American. I consider myself to live in a fruitful nation and having things that many people envy, like a warm country with lots of space for a nice house not attached to another. I've gotten into a boxing match on here before about patriotism over in the USA forum and I've been accused by all the Brits over there that I'm a thick insular American. No I think if I manage to visit other countries, that I'd learn to appreciate my own more. And according to a lot of testimony from people I've talked to over the years, both online and immigrants in my town, that I have good reason to be proud of being American. Life's too short to be always feel like you live in a bad country.
Dec 17th 2009, 8:55 am
#64
Fighting my corner
Joined: Aug 2005
Location: Adelaide, South Australia
Posts: 11,948
Re: Escape from Oz
Dec 17th 2009, 9:35 am
#65
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Jul 2008
Posts: 300
Re: Escape from Oz
Is there anyone else out there who as recently returned to the UK from Australia, I didn't really like it there , not due to the weather , mainly due to the general attitude to the English by the Australians and the Australian media.
Don't get me wrong not all Aussies have problems with the English , but most appear to look down at the English .
They tend to have a very negative view about my fellow countrymen, all based on the past ?? some Aussies seem to have a two hundred year old memory .
Don't get me wrong not all Aussies have problems with the English , but most appear to look down at the English .
They tend to have a very negative view about my fellow countrymen, all based on the past ?? some Aussies seem to have a two hundred year old memory .
You know, the most common complaint from Australians living in England is that the English look down on them.
It has nothing much to do with history – a great many Australians are either not Anglo-Saxon or have a mix of Anglo-Saxon and other cultures. I have no English blood in me, and couldn’t care less about being part of the ‘Empire’. To a lot of Australians British colonialism means absolutely nothing.
I think this is just something that happens both ways. As an Australian who lived in England for a long time, having English sporting victories rammed down my throat, and being called a 'convict' got really infuriating after about the 1000000th time.
Australians are far from perfect – I can’t stand the country a lot of the time, and the arrogance is growing with each generation – but any jokes about ‘Poms’ are generally in jest, and seeing as Australia is a country of immigrants, do not make the mistake of thinking you are alone in any negative attitudes. My family, for example were excluded from schools and forced to change their names when they moved out here, as being ‘New Australians’ (read, unwelcome European immigrants, much the way the UK does not welcome Eastern Europeans today) was the worst thing they could be.
Dec 17th 2009, 10:53 am
#69
Chan eil aon chà nan gu le
Joined: Feb 2009
Location: On the ning nang nong
Posts: 22,437
Dec 17th 2009, 4:18 pm
#73
A lion in your lap
Joined: Jul 2003
Location: Sparta NJ
Posts: 7,605
Re: Escape from Oz
6.6 million Americans living abroad. That's obviously a lot less as a percentage of the home resident population, but still a lot more than I expected given how much people go on about Americans never travelling.
http://www.transitionsabroad.com/lis..._country.shtml
http://www.transitionsabroad.com/lis..._country.shtml
Dec 17th 2009, 7:28 pm
#74
Officially Bewildered
Joined: Nov 2006
Location: Blue Mountains, NSW
Posts: 5,523
Re: Escape from Oz
I don't understand why Brits don't big up the UK. I don't understand the supposed embarrassment. Why is it considered better to put the country down at all times? I have been asked more than once why Britons don't appreciate their country. I have no answer. I've always considered the country to be wonderful, with a few problems, but in the main they are very few and far between.
The only people you hear being proud of Britain are a small group of people like me, kporte etc and those Expats who realised that the country they migrated too just didn't match up to the UK in any way. Why didn't they realise that before they moved?
The only people you hear being proud of Britain are a small group of people like me, kporte etc and those Expats who realised that the country they migrated too just didn't match up to the UK in any way. Why didn't they realise that before they moved?
Some don't seem to understand that you can come to Australia and love it here too, without the need to run down the UK at the same time. Sometimes I read posts on here and thank God that my experience of Australia has been a thousand times better than theirs. Like you, MP, I haven't been denigrated in any way for being British - its been an irrelevancy.
Dec 18th 2009, 4:59 am
#75
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 646
Re: Escape from Oz
I love the UK and its inhabitants. I love its history, I love its multiculturalism, I love its telly and its music, I love its gritty realism (well, it has a gritty realism in the parts I lived in) and its self deprecating humour. I love the countryside and the sheer breathtaking beauty of its views. We didn't leave the UK because we hated it, we left because I'm sure we have gypsy blood and wanted to experience life Down Under.
Some don't seem to understand that you can come to Australia and love it here too, without the need to run down the UK at the same time. Sometimes I read posts on here and thank God that my experience of Australia has been a thousand times better than theirs. Like you, MP, I haven't been denigrated in any way for being British - its been an irrelevancy.
Some don't seem to understand that you can come to Australia and love it here too, without the need to run down the UK at the same time. Sometimes I read posts on here and thank God that my experience of Australia has been a thousand times better than theirs. Like you, MP, I haven't been denigrated in any way for being British - its been an irrelevancy.
