daniel_m:`msfe (wild), you can't see any ubiquity amongst western cultures huh? you're truly pathetic. just another holier than thou ultra-liberal eurodisney, too keen to distance himself from everything he regards american, smugly pointing fingers from his little corner of the alps. you might wanna put a check on that nasty little habit -- it's obviously completely clouded your ability to see reality.´ you seem to regard Australia American - i don´t
having actually spent years living in both countries, i can, with all confidence, say that they both share what are commonly known (depending on which remote valley you're from) as "western values" and "western culture". (like, urban australia is a lot more urban american-like than smalltown montana, for example... geddit?)
if you think your indonesian culture is in some way objectively superior, please, tell me about it.. i'll be all ears. lol. yeah right. a pack of musilm (indictment enough) illiterates all trying to screw each other over $2 are gonna offer anything to the world... hahahaha [/QUOTE] Well, and you think you're contributing to an argument? "a pack of musilm (indictment enough) illiterates"? You should have run this through a spell check, you "idit"! I don't know where I am supposed to have said that Indonesia is some sort of a role model for other countries. Malaysia, yes maybe, I am a fan of Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohammed, but Indonesia has to sort out its own internal ethnic problems before it can move forward. And that may take some more centuries, as the example of Australia demonstrates. You don't like "nasi goreng"? So? What do you expect me to say? Do you really believe that Indonesia will start a crusade which will not end until everybody in Australia is a Nasi Goreng adict? Why don't you just go back into Pauline Hanson's fish-n-chip-shop or better even, go to your club, sit in a corner and cry into your beer.
I am always intrigued by the way "westerners" use the term "western culture'. It is as nebulous as the famous "oriental values" that some Asian politicians (eg Lee Kuan Yew) mention when they run out of arguments. If the western culture should be based on religion, or more precisely on christianity, then it should by right be called oriental: if there was a Jesus, he lived in Palestine, far to the East from Europe. And Australia, forgive me, may be "western" in that sense, but whatever culture there is has been brought in by Asian immigrants. That's a simple and undeniable fact, let's face it. Whatever there was before Asian immigration was not Australian, but some melange of British/Irish and other European flotsam. And before the European conquest there was the culture of those people who are now referred to as the "aborigenes". Their culture was to survive under the harshest thinkable conditions, but those European immigrants tried to eradicate them from the face of the earth.
Ahhh, back from vacation and I see you're babbling on as usual, making self-deprecating comments about your "poor foreign devil" self and making statements that only msfe/wild could understand... Well, I don't know how to convince you that I didn't vote for you to get shot. If you don't believe me, too bad, so sad.... I am trembling with fear at the thought of your blowpipe and "spicy" arrows. I bet you use that line a lot with women, don't you, you rascal? I'm sure they too run away screaming with fear at the thought of having one up their backsides.... As far as the Guardian making "excellent reading," you are absolutely right. Whenever I need a good laugh I only have to click on one of msfe's links and presto! I'm laughing as hard as Saddam listening to one of his citizens being tortured to death. As far as my babbling not being inspiring, it is not meant to be. Inspiration cannot come to those with closed minds detached from reality. All that is left to you is numbing reinforcement of your clouded beliefs, which msfe/wild and those like him are only happy to provide. Nasi goreng - delicious!
You need to quantify this statement. Certainly the US does have blood on its hands. But are you suggesting the US is on the same moral plane as Nazi Germany?
Happaboy, Get off your high horse. It might surprise you that most countries in the world have blood on their hands. Why - even uncle sam murdered most of the red Indians (True Americans) for their land. Yesterday Red Indians, today - anywhere where there is oil? So don't hold America up to be the good guy. The fact that people died is enough to class a country as one with blood on it's hands: not the number of people killed. So yes, Uncle Sam is up their with the rest of the murderers in history. I repeat, no country has clean hands or deserves the moral high ground. Is Korea next for invasion by Uncle sam, or will the fact that its' got nuclear weapons( and might fight back) and no oil have a bearing on events? :eek:
the thing is it is NOT a fact, therefore it is COMPLETELY deniable. you really are vying for the award of greatest ignoramous i've ever talked with. how many times do i need to explain to you that you have ZERO understanding of what constitutes culture? your entire argument seems to be " australia doesn't have MY culture (or a culture i like) therefore it has NO culture" too stupid to comment on really. complete and utter bullshit. COMPLET AND UTTER BULLSHIT NON-ENGLISH SPEAKING ORIGINS 1991. (first generation, second generation) Italy 253,332 326,989 (Former) Yugoslavia 160,479 120,671 Greece 136,028 150,913 Viet Nam 121,813 25,105 Germany 111,975 137,621 Netherlands 94,692 139,567 China 77,799 28,580 Philippines(c) 73,144 22,587 Malaysia 71,665 23,103 Lebanon 68,787 67,453 Poland 68,496 53,161 India(c) 60,598 36,801 Hong Kong 57,510 14,330 Malta 53,858 76,588 Sri Lanka(c) 37,263 12,262 Egypt 33,140 29,017 Indonesia 32,688 14,966 Fiji 30,100 11,678 Turkey 27,770 14,659 Hungary 27,046 24,273 Chile 24,042 7,137 Singapore(c) 24,021 9,537 Cyprus 22,031 20,157 Austria 21,586 25,642 Korea 20,383 2,514 out of the total of 3 milion, TWO MILLION are from direct european non-english ancestry. and their numbers also arrived here much sooner than the asian immigration. there goes your BS 'no culture were it not for asians' theory... (unless you want to be officially awarded your HD in Ignorance by claiming that countries like Italy and Greece, for example, have "no culture"... )
that was the british and the spanish... in today's America native americans have tax privileges, land and legal preferences, for example, they have advantages to open casinos no other group in America has.
Does it count that America is the country with greatest individual freedom in the world? A true open society? The most democratic country in the world, notwithstanding the neo-hippy pro-Saddam propaganda in the world media?