GTC7 wrote: ↑Fri Jul 27, 2018 1:29 pm I heard a story about sailor who grew up in a small town harbor, had the chance to sail all over the world, and by the time he could work no longer he came to the conclusion that understood his harbor better than he ever had before.

StroppyChops wrote: ↑Fri Jul 27, 2018 12:25 pm Another perspective is this - wherever you go, wherever you choose to stay, the common factor is going to be YOU. Changing countries won't change you (well, the core you) and won't give you a better or worse life if you're not in tune with and able to love yourself. I think it's fair to say that many expats are running from or to something. Not sure if that's relevant in your case, but hey, words on forums are free!

Some may run, others slowly bury their heads in different sand. And some merely avoid, or find a less uncomfortable place to be in their own company

that genius wrote: ↑Fri Jul 27, 2018 7:16 am I'm staying. Home sucks. Moving to another place, go through all the same adapting, another culture change. Nah. Whatever happens, happens.

KoW gets boring

StroppyChops wrote: ↑Thu Jul 26, 2018 6:48 pm

GTC7 wrote: ↑Thu Jul 26, 2018 6:44 pm Continuing to feel guilty about where I was born as opposed to other people is going to get me nowhere.

Yeah, if you're doing that, stop. Feeling guilty of itself won't change anything, and is what NGOs who get rich on the child-sponsorship gravy train use to extract your $40 a month.

However, if you recognise that you won the birth lottery by being born in a developed country, and that puts you in a position to not only be the master of your own destiny but also give a hand up to individuals that didn't win the lottery, you can change the world. Maybe not for everyone, but for one person. Or two. Or a village. And it doesn't equate to cash handouts. In fact, handing out cash does more damage than good.

/soapbox

Well said, Soapy

GTC7 wrote: ↑Fri Jul 27, 2018 1:29 pmProblem is, I still don't know if I want to go back, as I feel like America has become somewhat the laughing stock of the world recently.

Jeez man.

I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that if you were suddenly stricken down with leukemia you'd have your snowflaky ass at Cedars-Sinai pretty damn quick.

And I highly doubt you'd be laying in your hospital bed wringing your hands about which countries were laughing at the US.

Pull your head out of your ass man.

I'm disappointed in my Country at times but I'm never ashamed to be from America. It is the country of my birth and out of respect for my grandfather who hauled his ass out of the frigid waters off of Normandy on D-day, I wouldn't want to call the Country he tried to elevate, an embarrassment or be ashamed of it.

The US is a large and powerful Country...economically, militarily, politically, etc. It has to make difficult decisions on the global stage and sometimes it does not get it right...sometimes tragically so. But those are the stakes when you are at the head of the table.

It's easy to get down on the US. Especially on this forum. But don't let the unending diatribe of a handful of Kiwis, Aussies and dipshit Saffers sway your feelings.

Just my two cents and not to be misconstrued as an opening for continued debate /rant.

I would say most people on this forum who get down on the US are members of that country not as you say, other nationals.

Yorr one hundred riel thoughts are accepted.

PS Please stop your dollar from plummeting mine down and let it lift a bit to maybe .85c. Orkun cherran

And then once you are cured you are bankrupt and homeless. Surviving on doughnuts with no dollars

charlie

violet wrote: ↑Fri Jul 27, 2018 1:57 pm

StroppyChops wrote: ↑Fri Jul 27, 2018 12:25 pm Another perspective is this - wherever you go, wherever you choose to stay, the common factor is going to be YOU. Changing countries won't change you (well, the core you) and won't give you a better or worse life if you're not in tune with and able to love yourself. I think it's fair to say that many expats are running from or to something. Not sure if that's relevant in your case, but hey, words on forums are free!

Some may run, others slowly bury their heads in different sand. And some merely avoid, or find a less uncomfortable place to be in their own company

Or as more simply stated in the 60's, "Wherever you go there you are."

My opinion of America has less to do about Trump and what people on the forum say (I just joined, I don't know many people here), and more to do with the general state of millennials that I see. I can understand the sentiment of the times of yesteryear, the brave men and women who were involved in WW2 (I know, I'm proud of my family, military background and all), or those that built America into what it is today...but those values are what I precisely don't see so much of in Americans these days.

The America where thinking big or doing something grand like shooting for the moon is something I can get behind. Anything is possible, shoot for the stars and if you miss, you're still in space, etc. Now all I hear is how pathetic millennials are pretty much everything, and that excellence and ambition has taken a backseat. Professional video gamers, Instagram models, youtubers, tinder, Netflix binge watches, & porn are front and center of the money train, while I don't see else anything positive or worth while being promoted seriously. It's all nonsense, superficial, hollow, consumerist, selfish, destructive and complete shit if you ask me.

I understand how Americans can feel that shitting on America gets old really fast, and I get that. But times change, and I think it's naive to think that those days aren't long gone, and every metric seems to show it. Test scores are down, aptitude tests are down, elite military enrollment is in a recruitment crisis because so few people are fit enough to pass the physical, America is the laughing stock in more ways than one, not just politically. It's very difficult to argue there isn't a sharp decline in the quality of modern day American people now.

On the positive side though, I don't think this is irreversible, and I believe the change can come from within. I'm proud to be me, not because I'm an American, but because I am proud to be what America used to represent God *meaning a Godly life*, Family, and Country (and before you jump on me, I mean being an upright citizen so that the country you live in is a better place than you left it). I think far too many people equate being American is some ticket to free respect, and that's backwards. People should be proud to be good people, and if their country seems to largely represent those same ideals, then they can claim to be proud Americans.

That's why I'm not a proud American, I am a proud person, and I happen to be American.