What makes you proud of your country?

VanRoust, yes I am essentially of Serbian ethnicity, and proud of it. You know though I have had nice dreams about being other ethnicities. As a young teenager I would dream of being a Frenchman like Claude Monet, a fantastic artist traveling at a steady pace, making romance in beautiful landscapes... You know my Serbian friend and I once pretended to be French to impress the girls... when we went out, we told girls we were French and then spoke to each other in Serbian with our best French accent. My friend seemed to pull it off quite well... Though with disappointment and in more somber moods I can still quite easily become Van Gogh and dream about cutting my ear off to send to the girl... At my misanthropic best I am a Swedish metal singer spitting on humanity.
 
:shocked:...Are you serious?

And yes, Monet was a genius, a lot of painters make me proud of my country: Renoir, Cézanne (the real father of the "cubism"), Rousseau (aka "le douanier"), Delacroix, Degas, Manet, Gauguin, Toulouse-Lautrec, etc...

But for me the greatests was Italian :mad:
 
Well my friend, you're very wrong... There are so many thing you as a German should be proud of...
 
I'm not really proud of Canada. It seems from 1867 onwards there is this underlaying obsession of keeping quebec inside the union either forcefully or make it politically impossible for it to leave. Case in point the FLQ crisis in the late 1960's, a couple of overnationlist quebecois kill a british diplomat and held a canadian politican hostage then Ottawa sends in the entire army to patrol the streets. I guess the rationale is if quebec leaves the differences separating English Canada and America would be so small it there wouldn't even be a need to have two countries.

Another example is how only recently that Ottawa has given aborginal peoples self-governing rights to their lands like the Tlicho. Of course there are people who tell me at least there still are aboriginal peoples in canada unlike the states who hunted and killed. If the aboriginal people didn't live in the northern regions of canada and the land was more hospitable for settlement the exact same thing would have happened to them aswell.

This is probably why there is an "identity" crisis in canadian social sphere where people usually say their ethnic background as a form of identification rather than their national identity as canadians.

Well, sorry my countryman, but I AM PROUD CANADIAN...
 
My parents come from so many different places, and jet I would never change my Vojvodina for anything. I guess home is where the heart is, not where your ancestors come form.

I love the mentality, we are good hosts, we eat good, although not very healthy food, we take things with ease and do everything slowly. It is my life philosophy as well, although I appreciate when I meet someone totally different.

As far as I know- Vojvodina is the northern part of Serbia?
 
I am proud about my country because of : Novak Djokovic ,and team sports except football, Medieval and ancient history ( Vincha first culture in world that used metal -coper, Sarmatia one of Great empires, Tzar Dusan , king Mihailo Višević ) , Nikola Tesla ( man that alowed electricity to be carried on great distances , invented remote control), Mihailo Pupin(invented lot of important things for Telecomunications ), Ivo Andrić ( Nobel prize winer for literature ) ,... It should be known that Nikola Tesla was living in Croatia that was then part of Austro-Hungary , but he was Serb , and Ivo Andrić was Croatian but lived in Bosnia and Serbia , but I dont see Croats and Serbs are so many diferent , except religion so we both should be proud on these humans
 
Also there is lot of reasons to be proud on Germany ( I was born there) , lets just mention Bach , Wagner , Mozzart ,... Amazing history ( they make two wars in last 100 years against whole world , and survive , that shows they exeptional strenght , remember Otton I who stoped Magyar raids on west Europe , remember Theutonic Knight Order ,remember Holly Roman Empire, ... ) ;Benz and other car manufacturers ,...
 
Also there is lot of reasons to be proud on Germany ( I was born there) , lets just mention Bach , Wagner , Mozzart ,... Amazing history ( they make two wars in last 100 years against whole world , and survive , that shows they exeptional strenght , remember Otton I who stoped Magyar raids on west Europe , remember Theutonic Knight Order ,remember Holly Roman Empire, ... ) ;Benz and other car manufacturers ,...

I love German culture, but my bold above wouldn't normally make it into most people's lists for reasons to be proud of Germany... although I have enjoyed reading about the history of the HRE, it was often a mess and not exactly always on the right side of history.

By the way, cool info about Serbia, makes me realize that I know too little about that country. And you say you're in Cape Verde now, and have also lived in Bosnia? You've lived a lot of places! Have anything good to say about Bosnia and Cape Verde?
 
I love German culture, but my bold above wouldn't normally make it into most people's lists for reasons to be proud of Germany... although I have enjoyed reading about the history of the HRE, it was often a mess and not exactly always on the right side of history.

By the way, cool info about Serbia, makes me realize that I know too little about that country. And you say you're in Cape Verde now, and have also lived in Bosnia? You've lived a lot of places! Have anything good to say about Bosnia and Cape Verde?
Well I have oppinion that humans alway have some kind of mask over they faces , and only times they remove that mask is in battle and in bed . Solely surviving such a great battles shows streinght of German nation ,and they almoust won against whole world - and that I consider a great ting , for same reason I consider Napoleon , Caesar , Hitler , Charlemagne , Stallin , ... great rullers ( evill or god is another question ) .
Well any state make a mistaces , and I dont believe there is god or bad side of history only interes of state .
I have a lot of god to say about Bosnia : for me Sarajevo is one of most beautifull cities in world ( that I have see) , not so much because of buildings , but because of specific spirit, slower , relaxed way of life . My favorite music is Bosnian sevdalinke , especially Safet Isović . I love multiculturalism of Bosnia - Muslims , Ortodox, Jews and Catholics in one place for last 5 centuries , aldo it vas severly destroyed during II WW , and last war ( 1992-1995) . Ivo Andrić that I was allready mention was born and spend his youth in Bosnia, so his ancestors are from Bosnia , I would mention one more very god writer from Bosnia Meša Selimović . Bosnians are less warlike and most helpfull peoples of all Balkans. Most beautifull girls I ever have seen were from Banja Luka . I love Herzegovina because ancestors of my father come from there ,...
I am new to Cape Verde , and I spend a lot of time abroad ( east North Africa) , but I can say they girls are very beautifull -creole ( they inherethed beautifull eyes from Portugal girls ) . It is very fast growing economy , one of the best states to live in Africa , aldo there is some poverty to . Beautifull ocean and hotels . Music is mixed Portugues and African and I like Portugal music ( fado ). Languages are realy dificult for me both Kreol and Portugues , aldo I know some Latin , and few words of Italian and Spanish .
Thanks for answering
 
3000 years old statehood
Unique ancient alphabet
Unique archaic language
1500 years old literature
Amazing nature
 
For Georgia I would also add unique cousin . One Georgian recently made me meal called ciplyona tabaka ( something like that ,I am not shore how to write it ), and I realy liked it . And it was first time I tried meal with tobacco in it
 
* The History (except the slavery).
* Our "Golden Age(s)".
* Things we invented, example; CD, DVD, Yachts, Microscopes, Telescopes, The Stock Market, Submarines, etc..
* The way we actually build half of our country out of the ocean, and that we prevent the water from coming back there.
* Our Anthem, not only the music but especially the songtext.

Basically the history was the only good part, nowdays the country has lost it's status from being strong and powerfull.
People don't take us seriously anymore and our language is laughable.
 
I agree with one of the earliest posts; it is difficult to be proud of some things I have absolutely nothing to do with.
For instance, some people say, in soccer, I am pround of my team because they won the cup. Ok but given that this very person was drinking beer and eating chips at the very moment that team did the winning, i dont think he has much to be proud of.

Also I noticed, pride or nationalism is often a reaction to some kind of outside agression. For instance, I am French and I live in New York. Never really thought about being proud or not about being French... until 2003 and the Irak invasion. Then suddenly in the media, everyone started to bash the French and point the finger at us: "These rats, cowards, wicked faggots..." these are only a few of the insults I could read every day in daily press. Then of course I became overnight the biggest nationalist, pride of everything from France, from the beret to the bagette, Napoleon, Maurice Chevalier and even (why not?) our pitiful politicians.
The same way goes the other way around; When my wife (an American) comes to France and she hears American bashing, immediately you raises the flag. That's natural I think.
 
Well bertrand, I don't know where the France bashing in the UK and the USA comes from. I guess it's the notion that those countries lack culture. A lack of self esteem. At least, France was very active in the struggle of the Americans become independent.

I also read the words "surrender monkeys" back then. Well, it's very easy to say that when you're living on an island.
Russia fought the Nazi's fiercely, and lost 20 million people.

And anyway, world war II was a direct consequence of world war I.

And that history is easy to understand.
Regarding the PROVOKED war of Germany against France in 1870.
When Germany wanted to support Austria in a war against Serbia and Russia, they feared the French would attack them from the west side. Therefore their plan was to pacify France in a preemptive strike.
The British intervention was the cause that it became a long bloody war in the trenches.
It became even worse when the Americans joined in after a very long period of hesitation.
But it's a fact that they were tricked into the war by the British.
The Dutch didn't want to raise any gun in support of the British, because of the Boer War in South Africa.
And there wasn't any interest of supporting Belgium or France either.
 
at the end of the day all these wars were the game of a few aristocrats playing chess in smoke filled rooms with nice cigars, and the pour dude that had to hold the gun and walk in the mud had no real understanding of all this. See... being from Alsace, my great great grandfather was called in the French army in 1870, his son was called in the German Army in 1914 and the son of his son (my grand father) was called in the French army in 1939 AND in the German army in 1943....

So all in all I will simply summarize my point with one of my grandfather's quote:
"I much prefer it when France and Germany exchange handshakes rather than bullet shots"
 
"If you dont respect your nation , you dont respect your clan ( if you even know which clan is yours ) , if you dont respect your clan you dont respect your familly , if you dont respect your familly , you dont respect yourself , and if you dont respect yourself , then son you are in serious problem , and you would be eaten by beasts of this world . We could close our eyes and pretend it is not the case , but this world is world of beasts , and you could ( and should) survive only in pack . " One realy wise man said me something like that when I was a child , and that is bigest truth I encountered so far .
I also believe 95% of mans and womans shouldnt ever go to war , because you cant make a god soldier out of worker , soldier need to be trained whole life, and if worker die in war you would sufer economicaly . Thats way I believe feudal system was the best.
 
I respect my nation, i respect my clan, I respect my family and I respect myself, so I'm not sure what you mean with this.
Talking about soldiers and their sacrifice, I am sure that a proud Russian whose country lost 20 million men in the last war knows what I'm talking about...
 
My nation loosed 1/4 of population ( 1 million ) in that war. If Europe hasnt exploited colonies she would never be developed as she is today , if Russia hasnt exploited nations of Siberia ( and East Europe after WW II ) she would never be what she is . What was your point when you speacked against the wars , except comunistic propaganda ?
 
For Georgia I would also add unique cousin . One Georgian recently made me meal called ciplyona tabaka ( something like that ,I am not shore how to write it ), and I realy liked it . And it was first time I tried meal with tobacco in it

:):) Good point, thanks! Glad you've tried some of Georgian dishes. Although in Tabaka Chicken there is no tobacco :) the name comes from the special pan they use to make that dish :)
 

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