What Do You Hate About Your Country?

[Goku de la Boca]

We all love where we live (I'm sure) or the country where you were born, but there is always a catch to where somebody lives.

In Canada for example, there is 2 things I absolutely loathe.

1. You need a car to go everywhere.

Taxis are not an option and the public transport is only good from city center to city center. You want to go to the hospital? Get a car. Want to see the new Disney movie at the Theatre? Car. Want to go to a more rural town? Car. I do think we have it better than the USA, but it's still a car country and even if I do learn to drive some day, it just feels like an expensive essential. I feel like it shouldn't be that though. Food, water and shelter are musts, but why can't we just have better transport? Cars shouldn't have to be a need in this world if you have good infrastructure. That is my third world taxi using mind speaking though. I prefer that.

2. The early sunsets.

Thankfully I'm in Toronto so the sunsets aren't as bad as anywhere north of that, but holy fuck. The sun going down at 4:30 PM to 5 PM is depressing. Especially in a suburb like mine where it is quiet at night. On the contrary though, what I love the most is the long day times at summer. I enjoying spending time in Canada the most between May to August. The best thing is I don't even mind the cold that much, but I hate winters because of the early sunsets.

 

Peru

1. The houses.

Thankfully where I stay it is pretty nice, but the poorer districts and most informal areas look like fucking Afghanistan. I love Peru but I wish I had better things to say about it's man-made structures since independence. The Incas with limited skills not involving fibre built way better structures than what we were able to do post colonialism. I think most of that has to do with avoiding taxes in a very informal country.

I do actually want to say the expensive lifestyle in Lima should be an issue, but it really is not. I think that is a testament of how powerful we've kept the economy despite political instability. The most common complaints here are the urban design and crime. The former is talking about how Peru has some of the worst designed cities on earth, which causes a lot of traffic and forcing some use for land to be informal for building. The informality is a problem, but thankfully I don't think the traffic bothers me too much. It is a problem for sure, but the city is so packed together as a result of the way the city was built that is really doesn't have many distances between each other. It really is what time you choose to go where you need to. Well, for me it is not a problem cos I have flexible work times, but for the ones that have to work from 8 AM to 5, they are always in a traffic jam. So it is rich for me to say that. I acknowledge it but in my lifestyle it doesn't bother me.

The crime is self explanatory. It doesn't bother me because I live in the safest district and have never been mugged. In fact, Peru is one of the less violent countries in South America, but that doesn't make it safe. Scams and muggings aren't rare, and yeah regarding what I said about the safest district, you're not safe anywhere without common sense, but I at least can move without much fear. In barrios it is a bit more of a problem.

[Stan]

UK

Racists, bigots, a heavily-corrupted government that has perfected how to stoke division. A lot of doom and gloom in the news. Every. Single. Day. House prices, cost of living, high energy bills, transport costs.  

[Goku de la Boca]

Just now, Stan said:

UK

Racists, bigots, a heavily-corrupted government that has perfected how to stoke division. A lot of doom and gloom in the news. Every. Single. Day. House prices, cost of living, high energy bills, transport costs.  

We have those same issues in Canada with Trudeau, barring the racism and governments that stoke division. The houses in Canada are unaffordable these days even for rent. Since I am not at that stage of my life yet, I don't have it as a complaint but I acknowledge the issue.

Do the early sunsets bother you?

[nudge+]

Lithuania:

I mostly hate how close-minded, conservative, and provincial most of the population is, especially those over 30. Miserable, unfriendly, judgemental, and plain boring.

The weather: mostly gray, cold, wet and windy for most of the year. Just depressing. Cold winters, cool summers, with maybe a month of proper summer weather. 

Fucking supermarkets everywhere, seems that shopping is the main attraction instead of culture and arts.

More so in recent years - cost of living. Wages were always relatively low, but living was still very much affordable. In recent years, it seems like the cost of living increased significantly and largely caught up with Central and Western Europe, while the wages are still behind, with the exception of some specific industries.

 

[Stan]

34 minutes ago, Goku de la Boca said:

Do the early sunsets bother you?

Not at all.

I must admit I found that quite an odd thing to 'hate' compared to other issues that perhaps could be influenced/controlled.

Sometimes the early sunsets here are absolutely beautiful to see on a cloudless-day/evening. Red skies, orange hues, very nice to watch. The area I live in is very quiet but also fairly well-lit, so even if I do go for a walk or go out it's safe. Neighbours are pretty good too which helps. 

[Rucksackfranzose]

The winter: Sunrise between 8 and 9 am- sunset about 5 pm, means it's dark when I start working and it's dark again when I'm done with work. Even in the meantime you don't see a bit of blue sky, because it's always cloudy. Influences my mood in an unconvinient way. Temperature being always around freezing point or below doesn't help neither.

Edited November 24, 2023 by Rucksackfranzose

[Danny]

The weather. The country itself isn’t that bad apart from the fact everyone wants to vote to continually fuck it up, Brexit, Tories, whoever. But the weather is what will drive me away. If we had a nice subtropical weather then I’d be down in Cornwall living life.

[CaaC (John)+]

 

I have lived in 3 countries in my life, born in England, grew up in Australia, and have been living in Scotland for the majority of my life, so I really class myself as a half breed 

England
The attitude of some English people who think they are the best at anything and love to run the Scottish, Welsh, and Irish people down to the ground.

Australia
The heat, I could not stand the heat and I was advised by doctors to move back to the UK because anything (heat) over 20c then I would suffer acute migraine, then the flies, they did my head in on a hot day.

Scotland
The big divide between Edinburgh and Glasgow, more people living around the Glasgow area hate the English, whereas the English class the Scots as Jocks and the Scots class the English as Sassanachs.

I am not racial by any means and get on with anybody but the hatred around the world where countries hate other countries because of the colour of their skin or where they live is sad.

 

[Coma]

8 hours ago, Stan said:

UK

Racists, bigots, a heavily-corrupted government that has perfected how to stoke division. A lot of doom and gloom in the news. Every. Single. Day. House prices, cost of living, high energy bills, transport costs.  

Most of the same stuff applies to the US.

I'd add the constant meddling in other countries foreign affairs by our government and the gun issue.  Just had a shooting at a Walmart about 30 minutes north of me.  Fucking depressing.

[Redcanuck]

The early sunsets in Canada are a downer at first, but I think you get used to them as the winter goes along.  It's daylight savings time that makes them worse, less than 3 weeks ago we turned the clocks back  so it gets dark by 5.  In this day and age, surely we don't need to change the clocks twice a year anymore.

What I don't like about Canada, is its size.  It covers too much of an area to work efficiently as one country ruled by a strong central government.  We are a country of regions, with not a lot in common. Ontario and Quebec determine what happens in this country and the West, the East and the North are undervalued and under represented and it causes a lot of alienation.  I believe that people at a local level should determine how they are governed and in a country the size of Canada that doesn't happen. 

[Spike]

USA

• violence
• CIA interfering with other countries and the FBI interfering with it’s own
• militarised police
• urban planning and redlining
• the institutions really still do hate black people but pretend like they don’t
• cars everywhere
• ugly strip malls and generally ugly architecture
• health system
• consumerism and keeping up with the Jones’ 
• corporate and mom&pop dichotomy 
• tipping
• people are generally in their bubble and don’t open up till they let you into the bubble

Australia

• cost of living
• if isn’t on the coast and south of Brisbane it doesn’t exist
• the psychotic over regulation of some sectors and the blatantly corrupt deregulation of others
• puppet of the USA
• cars everywhere 
• landlords, property devs, and the mining industry have a stranglehold on the economy 
• everything is always a smartarse remark
• housing

[Beelzebub]

Pakistan. Leaving out the governmental aspects

 

– The culture of finding connections, and sweet talk to get anything done or expedite it.

– Peer pressure to get somethings done in life by certain age marriage, kids, house etc but It is reducing with time.

– Shahid Afridi. He's ruining Shaheen also

– Pathetic cinema choice. Bollywood is disproportionately mostly shit and has destroyed the cinematic taste of people. Again changing with time but I would dub mature cinema from the world and make people forcefully watch it. Civilizing those primitive savages. 

– Pollution. Smog has become a big issue in recent years like if we were manufacturing like China it would make sense but wtf ? Though it is a problem in the whole region. 

– Lack of thick forests and low biodiversity for a decent sized country. Even pesky little Estonia has more animals than us. 

[Devil-Dick Willie]

23 hours ago, Stan said:

UK

Racists, bigots, a heavily-corrupted government that has perfected how to stoke division. A lot of doom and gloom in the news. Every. Single. Day. House prices, cost of living, high energy bills, transport costs.  

Australia is all this. Super small minded population too. Weather and geography is nicer here, but you have culture and history and we barely do (and ignore what we do have). 
I hate the Americanization of the nation, Sydney, the drinking, gambling and drugs culture here (it's the worst in the world)

[Spike]

7 hours ago, Devil-Dick Willie said:

Australia is all this. Super small minded population too. Weather and geography is nicer here, but you have culture and history and we barely do (and ignore what we do have). 
I hate the Americanization of the nation, Sydney, the drinking, gambling and drugs culture here (it's the worst in the world)

Sydney is the cocaine usage capital of the world. That’s fucking mental. Australia is also the number one in gambling, for fucks sake out of all the places my family wants to visit Las Vegas. But don’t worry, the Brits also hate themselves and their own culture and history so don’t compliment them too much

Edited November 25, 2023 by Spike

[Spike]

I'd also like to add the isolationist and regionalism bullshit. Why is the country so fundamentally split in half when it comes to sports? Why is it that the unique and native sport of Australia is a considered a 'poofter's game' in half of the country, we can't even be proud of something that is culturally unique because it's from a different state. Why does someone have to be league or aussie rules? Why are they in direct competition with each other,  people don't seem to understand they can like both, it's like religions that are mutually exclusive. And the one sport that is unifying is chopped up and hidden on different channels, why does Cricket Australia sell off TV rights in nonsensical ways? Put that shit on free-to-air, have every game being pumped into every house on Channel 7 or Channel 9, don't do what Rugby Union Australia did and hide their sport for the eyes of private school boys only. For an openly egalitarian culture we sure do hide a lot of classism and regionalism in plain sight.

[Mel81x+]

On 24/11/2023 at 15:18, nudge said:

Lithuania:

I mostly hate how close-minded, conservative, and provincial most of the population is, especially those over 30. Miserable, unfriendly, judgemental, and plain boring.

The weather: mostly gray, cold, wet and windy for most of the year. Just depressing. Cold winters, cool summers, with maybe a month of proper summer weather. 

Fucking supermarkets everywhere, seems that shopping is the main attraction instead of culture and arts.

More so in recent years - cost of living. Wages were always relatively low, but living was still very much affordable. In recent years, it seems like the cost of living increased significantly and largely caught up with Central and Western Europe, while the wages are still behind, with the exception of some specific industries.

 

Surprised you didn't do a list of things where you live now haha.

[nudge+]

1 hour ago, Mel81x said:

Surprised you didn't do a list of things where you live now haha.

That's only because it's not my country...  

[Danny]

On 24/11/2023 at 20:03, Spike said:

USA

• violence
• CIA interfering with other countries and the FBI interfering with it’s own
• militarised police
• urban planning and redlining
• the institutions really still do hate black people but pretend like they don’t
• cars everywhere
• ugly strip malls and generally ugly architecture
• health system
• consumerism and keeping up with the Jones’ 
• corporate and mom&pop dichotomy 
• tipping
• people are generally in their bubble and don’t open up till they let you into the bubble

Australia

• cost of living
• if isn’t on the coast and south of Brisbane it doesn’t exist
• the psychotic over regulation of some sectors and the blatantly corrupt deregulation of others
• puppet of the USA
• cars everywhere 
• landlords, property devs, and the mining industry have a stranglehold on the economy 
• everything is always a smartarse remark
• housing

Whats a Brisbane?

[Hotspur Hannah]

Hate is kind of a strong word as I don’t really hate much of anything about living in what I feel is a pretty good country to live in. I certainly could be living in many that are worse.

That being said, I do think there is a lot of stupid stuff that goes on daily in my country that could be remedied if the leaders of the country would work together better and people of the country would use more common sense.

[MUFC]

Right now the fucking rain.

[Goku de la Boca]

1 minute ago, MUFC said:

Right now the fucking rain.

Come to Lima, we get rain once every 3 years.

[Goku de la Boca]

On 24/11/2023 at 20:32, Beelzebub said:

Pakistan. Leaving out the governmental aspects

 

– The culture of finding connections, and sweet talk to get anything done or expedite it.

– Peer pressure to get somethings done in life by certain age marriage, kids, house etc but It is reducing with time.

– Shahid Afridi. He's ruining Shaheen also

– Pathetic cinema choice. Bollywood is disproportionately mostly shit and has destroyed the cinematic taste of people. Again changing with time but I would dub mature cinema from the world and make people forcefully watch it. Civilizing those primitive savages. 

– Pollution. Smog has become a big issue in recent years like if we were manufacturing like China it would make sense but wtf ? Though it is a problem in the whole region. 

– Lack of thick forests and low biodiversity for a decent sized country. Even pesky little Estonia has more animals than us. 

Peru and Pakistan are twin nations in terms of house appearance.

[Goku de la Boca]

Another thing I dislike about Peru, or rather just Lima as not all cities have this issue.

The summers can be really annoying. The heat isn't that bad, we have similar heat levels to an English heatwave which doesn't touch North American or Australian levels obviously, and since we don't get that sort of heat on most normal years we don't have air-conditioning. So you need to buy your fans in the winter, as most people sell them out quickly in the summer.

Our houses are built a bit better than England's for heat, even the informal ones, but if your fan breaks mid summer and in a heatwave, good luck buying another one.

[Dr. Gonzo]

UK: the government, the media, the low wages, selfish arseholes everywhere, the weather

USA: the government, the media, selfish arseholes everywhere, preventable gun deaths being ignored because "muh guns are my human rights" (I guess this goes to the government)

Pretty similar tbh

[Dan+]

I think the fact home-ownership is almost a pipedream for any youngster earning even an average wage unless they essentially sacrifice their livelihoods or get a big inheritance which is pure chance. Any society where that is the case has failed.