Originally Posted by lardyl

It's always been like that mate, winners go with cups and cups with winners. World rankings and point scores have been made up in these days of "one upmnaship" to make it more interesting. Saying we're the best in the world and not doing the business on the field when it counts don't cut it. Life's hard eh?

As an England football fan I know all about under-acheivement on the footie field.

Originally Posted by lardyl

haha - just as smart, hard working and self-effacing as the Kiwis think you Aussies are, yeah right.........

Originally Posted by Grizz

After the 1745 rebellion the British government, enthusiastically supported and aided by the Lowland Scots, banned the wearing of Tartan and the Bagpipes in the Highlands, they made every attempt they could, to suppress the culture and history of the Highland clans.

Originally Posted by fish.01

As an Aussie I don't mind if you discuss the bad treatment of Aboriginals. I welcome it. I just don't like the often automatic assumption that none of us care or discuss it and that we all need you to tell us about it before we would notice.

As an Australian I would have had far more discussions about the problems/solutions/issues and would know far more about the topic then you. It has been an ongoing major debate in Australia for my whole life. It's like an 18yo Mormon from Salt Lake City turning up on your doorstep on the other side of the world and offering you all sorts of advice of life - sure, lets talk, but you're going to get far more out of the conversation than me.

Originally Posted by fish.01

Is this divide and conquer tactics?

Originally Posted by fish.01

.....If you watched Australia at the last football world cup you would know that it is entirely possible that we could beat England at the world cup and/or finish higher in the tournament. I'm not going to turn around the next day and say we are better than England and start watching the A League in preference to the EPL.

Originally Posted by lardyl

It's always been like that mate, winners go with cups and cups with winners. World rankings and point scores have been made up in these days of "one upmnaship" to make it more interesting. Saying we're the best in the world and not doing the business on the field when it counts don't cut it. Life's hard eh?

As an England football fan I know all about under-acheivement on the footie field.

Originally Posted by CAN2NZ

The Mormons who come around must be at least 19, and they don't all come from Salt Lake City and their purpose is not to give you advice about life.

Originally Posted by fish.01

Yeah thanks. Do know they don't all live in one city. Have noticed. It was an example - it happened to me and they did try to offer life advice so maybe the training manual needs tweaking.

Originally Posted by THR

You may call it under-achievement, others may call it too high expectations.

Originally Posted by elfman

sorry, I couldn't help but edit your post to make it more historically accurate

long but interesting article:

http://aspen.conncoll.edu/politicsan...ge.cfm?key=600

It would seem that modern Scottish nationalism demands a whitewashing of the role played by the Lowlands, and even parts of the Highlands, in the suppression of the Gaelic way of life.

Originally Posted by lardyl

Or is there some kind of wacky co-incidence going on?

Originally Posted by Mgee

Yes. Even though the population of Finland is smallish by the UK standards, there are more than two people over here

Originally Posted by Mgee

This is once again about making your own culture the universal norm. Stone age from whose perspective? And who defined non-cannibalism as the norm for all cultures? We cannot make our own cultural experience as the norm or the requirement for other cultures and ways of life. There are different factors, different circumstances, different climates that affect the way that a culture evolves.

For example, would you really expect the Inuit (=Eskimos) to have a similar culture as, let's say, the Italians? That they try to grow wine, build with stone? Of course not. Yet by your criteria, they still live in the ice age as they do not conform to the European culture(s). Their culture (beliefs, way of life, eating habits, their numerous words for different snow types etc. etc.) is a direct consequence of living in and adapting to the arctic conditions. Every culture is dependent of its own surroundings and thus the culture's beliefs and habits are directly influenced by it. In that sense we are just like any other animal species: we adapt to our environment and find ways to survive in it and, uniquely for the homo sapiens/religiosus, try to explain the conditions and phenomena surrounding us through belief systems and religions. It would have made very little sense for the Maori to develop an European style culture, belief system and habits as they never lived in Europe, nor does their culture have the same evolutionary history. Their culture (beliefs, habits, language etc.) adapted to the world they lived in and evolved accordingly, and thus they cannot be judged by our standards or through the history of our culture.

And when it comes to cannibalism: a Hindu acquaintance of mine was horrified about us Christians eating the body and and drinking the blood of our god -even symbolically. There are numerous things in Western European culture that horrify other cultures and contravene their norms, so we really are not in a position to judge anyone else's cultures, and even less in the position of raising our culture above the other cultures. Doing so is cultural imperialism/colonialism/racism that in the course of history has lead to the oppression and eradication of numerous indigenous cultures around the world.