Inspired by the America thread, how in your view does your country see itself?
I'll start the ball rolling.
New Zealand
We're a wealthy english-speaking, white-majority, democracy with only 4 million people situated on a bunch of large islands at the south-western end of the pacific (ie. in the middle of nowhere/in the arse-end of the pacific)
We have a strange mindset, sort of like small mans syndrome...being that we're young, small and in the middle of nowhere we don't have as many "acheivements" to crow about as many other nations, but we're intensely proud of what we have done (first to give women the vote and the first to conquer mt everest are favourites), we think nobody even knows we exist and we want to make damned sure everyone does! We're also quite hard on ourselves in almost every way; the all blacks lose, its time for a new captain...the government makes a minor fuckup, some MPs resignation is being called for...etc Its a strange hybrid of pride and self-loathing, really...
We believe that over the past 20 or so years we've been making up our own mind more and more, rather than letting others tell us who we should and shouldn't be friends with...
We like to think of ourselves as being this open and accepting beacon of social harmony, but beneath the surface we're still a bit bigotted...though we are changing; these days racism tends to be directed more at arabs and asians wheras in days gone by its been directed at the native Maori and pacific islanders, and when it is present there is less of it around.
Though we don't think of ourselves as a military nation, war has helped shape our nation and our identity, and we've always given our war veterans quiet respect at the very least. Our equiviliant of the day of remembrance, ANZAC day (a day we share with our Australian brothers and sisters) is less than a week away, April the 25th, so theres a lot of the whole "war thing" at the moment. We believe that our military is among the most skilled in the world, despite its size and lack of equipment. These days its more about humanitarian efforts than blowing shit up...of course a world war will probably change that...we're also a lot more "internationally peaceful" than we used to be. We're far less likely to join in a war than we used to be (we shot stuff in Afghanistan but not in Iraq), but would probably still jump in if one of our friends were to be invaded...
We like to think of ourselves as being "clean and green", and we are in many areas, but others aren't as good as we'd like; we're a farming nation (even now!) and nobody will attack the bad practises of farming unless they're REALLY bad...but then again we are overly hard on ourselves...
We're not really sure of our place in the world; we know we have one, we just don't really know where it is. Still forming our identity I guess.
Your turn
I'll start the ball rolling.
New Zealand
We're a wealthy english-speaking, white-majority, democracy with only 4 million people situated on a bunch of large islands at the south-western end of the pacific (ie. in the middle of nowhere/in the arse-end of the pacific)
We have a strange mindset, sort of like small mans syndrome...being that we're young, small and in the middle of nowhere we don't have as many "acheivements" to crow about as many other nations, but we're intensely proud of what we have done (first to give women the vote and the first to conquer mt everest are favourites), we think nobody even knows we exist and we want to make damned sure everyone does! We're also quite hard on ourselves in almost every way; the all blacks lose, its time for a new captain...the government makes a minor fuckup, some MPs resignation is being called for...etc Its a strange hybrid of pride and self-loathing, really...
We believe that over the past 20 or so years we've been making up our own mind more and more, rather than letting others tell us who we should and shouldn't be friends with...
We like to think of ourselves as being this open and accepting beacon of social harmony, but beneath the surface we're still a bit bigotted...though we are changing; these days racism tends to be directed more at arabs and asians wheras in days gone by its been directed at the native Maori and pacific islanders, and when it is present there is less of it around.
Though we don't think of ourselves as a military nation, war has helped shape our nation and our identity, and we've always given our war veterans quiet respect at the very least. Our equiviliant of the day of remembrance, ANZAC day (a day we share with our Australian brothers and sisters) is less than a week away, April the 25th, so theres a lot of the whole "war thing" at the moment. We believe that our military is among the most skilled in the world, despite its size and lack of equipment. These days its more about humanitarian efforts than blowing shit up...of course a world war will probably change that...we're also a lot more "internationally peaceful" than we used to be. We're far less likely to join in a war than we used to be (we shot stuff in Afghanistan but not in Iraq), but would probably still jump in if one of our friends were to be invaded...
We like to think of ourselves as being "clean and green", and we are in many areas, but others aren't as good as we'd like; we're a farming nation (even now!) and nobody will attack the bad practises of farming unless they're REALLY bad...but then again we are overly hard on ourselves...
We're not really sure of our place in the world; we know we have one, we just don't really know where it is. Still forming our identity I guess.
Your turn
