h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

All countries are good in their one way no one country is better than any other

All countries are a product of a group of misconceptions within an abitrary area of land, bounded by water or imaginary lines. If you live five miles west you must be a completely different person, just like being born in a different month. After all, we all believe in horoscopes, don't we

At the end of the day, the English, Irish, Scots and the Welsh could drink the rest of the world under the table.

Just thought I'd throw my pennyworth in; I'm English and proud of it, but I went to university in Wales and have friends who are Welsh, Scottish and Irish. All this gumf about national stereotyping is just that, gumf, there's no such thing as a typical English/Irish/Welsh/Stots/man any more that there is a typical beer or bread. National stereotyping is just an extension of racism. Its a bit like saying, I hate all ######men, apart from my next door neighbour who's actually a great guy. We have a need to belong to something and we seem to have a need to hate anything we either don't know or don't understand. The same thing can be ssen in religion and football. Religion has more wars and conflicts fought in its name than anything else, but I don't know of any religion that supports killing people. The bottom line is most people in the world would get on great if they actually knew each other, understood each other, and had enough to eat. So stop whinging on about petty cross border differences and start living!

It's not nationality that makes me dislike people, it's that some people are...well, stupid. Whatever flag they're salivating over.

I don't believe in horoscopes.
But then again I'm a Cancerian and we're pretty cynical about those sort of things.

I have many a piss-taking session about the English/Scots divide. You see I'm a Sasanach (basicly an Englishman in Scotland to other readers), and am a student at Edinburgh Uni.
First things first: Edinburgh is one of the coolest places in the world. There is a bit of gripe between the scots and the Yahs (home-counties, posh, mummy bought me a lovely Golf, puffa jacket and mobile phone combo), but the yahs really deserve it.
Edinburgh Scots get the mickey taken out of them by the rest of scotland because its seen as being a bit soft. But hey the rape and mugging rate here is nice and low, and I can live with that.
Anyway there is one thing that may put Scotland ahead of England in the 'who's the best' stakes:
England - pubs close at 11pm,
Scotland - pubs close at 3am.
Now if that don't count then your all mad.

P.S. The English and the Scots may argue with each other, but there's one thing we all agree: there's nothing worse than American tourists.

Now thats a damn good point. But then again there are several advantages to the fact that lovely blonde female scandinavains are compleat lightweight's...

Why is that?

Now then, as A Brit, and an English Brit I'd like to tell Fergy a thing or two! - but I won't stoop. I also hate this close-country rivalry - Scots pointing at English, English pointing at French, USA pointing at Canada - give it a rest!!!! Share and Enjoy!

I am an Englishman and I actually agree, Scots are different to the English and the Welsh as the Welsh are different from the English. Of course we're all different - thats what gives us our nationalities! (or something!) ;o)

I enjoy travelling to all countries though - so share and enjoy! I love Norway and Scotland and USA and South Africa and France and Spain etc etc etc.... (no one left out on purpose - just wait I'll get there eventually!)

definately agree with Fatz - the English have a cunning knack of snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory. Particularly in Sports they claim to have invented - Cricket, Football, Tennis..... etc etc etc - and Bruno's not the only one. Remember Eddie 'the eagle' Edwards? any Wimbledon Tennis player? tee hee........ have you seen the Weather recently?

IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE FUNNY. The original post is written in the form of Hitchhikers guide satire. ferdi is probably English. I found it very funny and wanted to add something, but all this paranoia and arguing has put me off. Trying to defend your nationalities and adding those PC comments is making this site rather boring. You would be better off airing your views/defending your nation in the "All Jocks are Poofs Room" on Yahoo Chat. It is a user room in the regional section. The fact that I mentioned this does not reflect my views at all.

yawn yawn yawn. England's cool. I really wish everyone would stop slagging each other's countries off. I like England.

Hurrah I'm with this guy too!!!!!

so can we leave this definition?

England, a small place next to other small places often mixed up as being one slightly larger place lumped in as being england even though its not, particularly when one of the people in the adjoining places does slightly better at something than someone in an altogether bigger place possibly somewhere different.

OK?

Brilliant Seanie.

Ta!

it is possiple to be warm out doors to smart guy i'm called scott
and i never feel cold in scotland so there

p.s ......

*sneaks in places a christmas kiss on the researchers cheek who has nothing on his/her page to post to (and you know who you are )*
btw......happy holidays to everyone
monsy

Since my original posting I have recieved many messages asking why I am not proud to be British or saying that I should be, I wrote this in reply:


Proud to be British?

You know I never really understood this, to-day people seem to be posing the question "what does it mean to be English, Scottish or whatever?" all the time but the whole question of having an identity based around some geographical area or political zone has puzzled me. When I think about who I am, what i believe, who i identify with the question of what passport I hold or where in the world my mother gave birth to me never figures for a moment. As for the British culture I am supposed to identify with, what is it? I know of none, as far as I can see we are increasingly living under an Americanised world culture, our culture is their culture, is this what I should identify with ? What about the British national character? Well "The British" are a very diverse bunch, for me to identify with them en masse because we share a nationality would mean having Peter Sutcliffe, Margaret Thatcher or other such objectionable characters as part of my personal identity and when I look back through the "great and good" of British history I find not people I identify with but people I too would be arguing against had I lived then. British history does give examples of groups I can empathise with, groups and movements that inspire me but I also find these people and groups of people in other countries too; both now and in the past. There are also things done in the British name that I deplore; the concentration camps in southern Africa, condoning the use of terrible weapons like DU tipped bombs, massacres in Indian, and the operation of the Empire in general to name but a few, how can I call these my history and part of my identity?
I don't even like the concept of countries, countries are artificial creations, constantly changing with the wind even within small islands like our own as economic and political forces change. Wars are invariably fought between differing countries or groups of countries against one or more country; they serve only to divide us and to pit one group against another as political and economic borders on the earth change. What benefit does mankind gain from the continued existence of different groups willing to kill and maim people who are not part of their clan? The only use of terms such as England, Italy or whatever that is useful is for sport or other areas where competition is absolutely vital to it's function and there aren't that many. I can think of no rational reason for the continuation of this state of affairs, we don't need countries, in fact they are a hindrance to our development in areas like limiting environmental damage (think of both the Rio and Kyoto (sp?) summits), the distribution of basic resources like food or advances in health care techniques or life saving drugs (AZT) and in curbing multinational companies like Monsanto or Shell in the world of capitalist "globalisation".
Global problems require global decisions and global action. In the future maybe the formation of supranational political structures around "communities" like the EU or NAFTA for whatever reason will loosen the nostalgic ties people have with the current nationalities and will start people looking for new groups to identify with and feel proud to be a part of. Maybe social forces will bring about huge dramatic changes to how the world functions but whatever development takes place in these areas it is clear to me that mankind's future is not with any nation state. I would argue it is with humanity as a whole, we have more potential together. The more we interact with people from different communities and from different backgrounds the more we will see the similarities we have and splitting people up or defining ourselves by nationality will seem silly, i think this can only be a good and progressive development. And so I have no nationality, no allegiance to any nation state and I look elsewhere for my own identification.