I live in USA and we're famous for being rich, arrogant, and for destroying anyone who might strip us of the first two.

Okay, well, one bad thing about the U.S., obviously, is it is so well-known, a lot of what I will tell you, you may already know. But here goes anyway.

According to the Census Department the current population of the United States of America is 293 million people.

There has been a huge wave of immigration the last few years, and 1 out of every 10 Americans is foreign-born.

68% of the population is non-Hispanic white, 12% of the population is African-American, 13% is Hispanic, 4% is Asian, about 3% is made of other ethnic groups. Forgive me if this information is not exactly correct, these are from the last figures I heard.

There is no official language. English is the language of business, education, government, and the great majority of the media though. Spanish is also very widely spoken, about 10% of the population speaks it. There are Spanish-language Television networks, like Telemundo and Univision. Spanish is becoming more and more common here, and if my memory serves me right a couple of years ago a Spanish-language toothpaste commercial was shown with the Superbowl. I believe this was the first time a Spanish adverisement was shown with an English-language program.

So Spanish is becoming bit by bit more common in the USA. Unfortunately, there is a lot of xenophobia, and many many Anglos are hostile to Spanish from my experience. I am a Spanish enthusiast myself, I'm Anglo but I speak(well I am still learning) Spanish. I think we should go bi-lingual but that is another topic.

Football is the most popular sport here. It is played with an oval-shaped ball, with pads on and helmets. I can't really tell you the specifics of the rules, as I do not watch it, I don't like it at all.

Other popular sports include Baseball, Basketball, and to a lesser extent Hockey.

Movies are very popular, and as you already know Hollywood is the center of the American movie industry. There are four major English-language national television networks, ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox. UPN and the WB are smaller networks. Music is very popular. The big types of music here are rock, pop, and rap/hiphop. Country and R&B also have large followings. Other types of music were born here, like Jazz, Blues, and Bluegrass.

Our government has 3 branches, Executive, Legislative, and Judicial. Executive is headed by the President who is both Head of State and Head of Government. The Legislative is Congress, which is made up of the Senate(100 seats, every state has 2), and the House of Representitives, made of 435 seats, based on population. The judicial is headed by the Supreme Court, which has 9 seats that are appointed by the President for life.

Of course there are 50 states, and 1 Federal district. The capital is Washington, D.C.

The most populous state is California, which has 35 million people. Texas is second with 21 million, and New York third with 19 million.

The southeast is humid, with lots of foliage, it falls under the Geographical category of 'Subtropical wet'. The northeast is cold and has less dense foliage(i think, never been there). The Mid-West has a lot of plaines, as does the central area of the country. The southwest is desert, and the West is rocky and semi-arid. There is a major mountain range in the west, the Rocky Mountains, and another large range in the east, the Appalachian mountains. The Mississippi river is very long, going vertically up and down the country, seperating the East from the West. Alaska's climate is similar to Norway and Sweden. And Hawaii of course has a tropical climate.

Good things about us are ingenuity, optimism, and a strong belief in freedom. Bad things are greed, arrogance, and apathy.
EDIT: Forgot our history lol. The Spanish established the earliest settlements in the early 1500's, in what is now California and New Mexico. Spanish settlements were also in the Southeast before the British arrived, such as Santa Elena in whats now South Carolina. Numerous settlements were established independently by Puritans(a conservative religious group) from Britain in the Northeast, but these quickly came under British authority. The Continental Congress was established in 1746(I think), which allowed the Colonies some self-government. In the 1750's, the Sons of Liberty(a pro-independence group) was established, and in 1775 the Revolutionary war against Britain broke out. The Declaration of Indepence was signed and ratified in July of 1776.
The war ended in 1781, and Britain recognized our independence in 1783 with the Treaty of Paris. We at first had the Articles of Confederation, but this was ineffective so we held a Constitutional convention in 1787, and adopted our current form of government in 1789. George Washington was our first President. The Louisiana purchase in 1802 significantly expanded our terrority, as we bought French Louisiana(it included several current day states). In 1846-1848 we had the Mexican-American war, in which Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, California, and part of Wyoming were gained from Mexico. Later the Gadsden purchase got more territory from Mexico.
In 1861-1865 we had a bloody civil war over states' rights after several southern states succeeded from the union and formed the Confederate States of America. The Union won, and the Southern states re-joined the country. Slavery was abolished. In the 1880's Alaska was purchased from Russia, and in the 1890's we invaded Hawaii, overthrew the Queen, and made it a territory, and later a state.
Of course I'm sure you are familiar with our modern history, like World War II and so on.

i cant i think tin man covered everthing it was too long so i didn't read it but all i can say is we are run by a crazy maniac who is running for president again and his opponet isn't any better lets just hope vader wins

i cant i think tin man covered everthing it was too long so i didn't read it but all i can say is we are run by a crazy maniac who is running for president again and his opponet isn't any better lets just hope vader wins

I am from "America Jr." a.k.a. Canada. It is, I believe, the second largest country in the world (after Russia). We have the longest coastline in the world. The landscape ranges from the flat praries of Saskatchewan to the mountains of British Columbia.

Canada's official languages are English and French. Approxiamtely 1 in 3 Canadians is fluent in French (French-Canadian is slightly different from European French). Our English is more like that spoken in England than in the US (we spell colour and neighbour).

Canada's population is approximately 28 million, about 90% of which is within 200 miles of the Canada-USA border. I believe that 1 in 10 Canadians was born in another country.

Our currency is the dollar, much like the States, and 100 cents=1 dollar. However we use dollar coins called "loonies" rather than bills. We pay 7% tax on everything, but some provinces, such as Ontario, pay an additional 8%.

Our modern culture is heavily influenced by Americans. Nearly all the music we listen to and all the movies we watch comes from the states. Our national sport is lacrosse, but ice hockey is far more popular.

Our government is defined as a constitutional monarchy, though the Queen (of England, who is our monarch) is regarded only as a figurehead and has little, if any, power. We have a Prime Minister, though his power is not nearly what the President of the US has.

Anyone who feels they could do a good job of going through England is more than welcome to.

If no-one has done it by the time I get up in the morning I'll do it myself

TheTinMan2005 Wrote: I'm Anglo but I speak(well I am still learning) Spanish. I think we should go bi-lingual but that is another topic. .

yeah, is fun to be Bi-lingual!

you don't know how much fun it is to Insult people in English and Spanish!! LOL, JK!

anyway back on topic, the US is a great country, the best thing about it is the freedom, that's what makes it great, IMO.

I live in a country ran by a guy who has the intelligence of a bag of hair.

TheDoctor Wrote: I am from "America Jr." a.k.a. Canada.

I do NOT like that name.It seems very degrading to us.So what,we live the same ways,shit like that.I have nothing agaist the U.S. I just hate when Canada is called that,insulting to me.We have taken countless things from you(sports and stuff like that),and you from us.Some Americans dont like Canadians,some Canadians feel the same way.It seems like an arrogant thing to do,for an American to call Canada "America Jr.",pisses me off in a big way.Like I mentioned before,you have taken stuff like sports from us too(not just that,others too.Just an example) so does that give us the right to call you "Canada Jr."?NO it does not.Whoever came up with the name,in my mind was most likely an arrogant bastard.

No offense to anyone reading this,just speaking my mind.

Rabid_Wolverine Wrote: TheDoctor Wrote: I am from "America Jr." a.k.a. Canada. I do NOT like that name.It seems very degrading to us.So what,we live the same ways,shit like that.I have nothing agaist the U.S. I just hate when Canada is called that,insulting to me.We have taken countless things from you(sports and stuff like that),and you from us.Some Americans dont like Canadians,some Canadians feel the same way.It seems like an arrogant thing to do,for an American to call Canada "America Jr.",pisses me off in a big way.Like I mentioned before,you have taken stuff like sports from us too(not just that,others too.Just an example) so does that give us the right to call you "Canada Jr."?NO it does not.Whoever came up with the name,in my mind was most likely an arrogant bastard. No offense to anyone reading this,just speaking my mind.

relax, its not your fault you live in America Jr.

OOOO Canada Thedoctor
Canada is ahh umm good and ummm cooland sometimes cold and not always and we dot live in iglues but for a better one just read thedoctores

All I can say is...I live in the United States...a country where you have the freedom to do most things other countries wont let you do. The united States is widely diverse, like a rain forest, as it contains many different people of all races and all ethnic backgrounds. We have a big economy, although most of the things we have in the U.S is imported from other countries. I am happy to live in America...although I know in my heart that America faces rough times ahead..and that living in any country will be safer than america. American culture is aslo diverse, because many things in American life is a mixture of all other Cultures. The only thing I dont like about my country is Illegal Immigrants. Where I live, almost 65% of people are illegal immigrants, drug dealers, or thugs.

I doubt anybody is going to actually read this, here goes.

New Zealand. Great country. I'd say there would be few countries in the world in which you wake up in the morning and actually think "i'm lucky to live here". Geographically, it's quite volcanic, because a major faultline runs down the middle of the country. NZ also has it's plains, it's mountains etc, it's a bit of a mismash...but the parts that aren't volcanic rock, are very green.
It's too small to get picked on by terrorists, but just big enough to be recognized by people (with a little help from a certain movie trilogy of course). No dangerous creatures, aside from one species of spider, whose bite isn't lethal anyway (i was biten last year. which is a rare occurance). Our dollar is shit, but it isn't too bad for a small country with a population of 4 million. I could go on about the country, but the culture is more interesting...or boring, depending on how you look at it, and is what sets us apart from Aussie (which NZ'ers are largely the same as. Our countries have often been seriously suggested to merge into one, and/or share the same dollar.)

The culture and history is as rich as you want, with "Aotearoa" (the land of the long white cloud) being originally inhabited by Maori before it was colonized by Europeans (actually it was originally inhabited by Moriori, but the Maori waltzed in and ate them, heh. Btw, Maori came to NZ from "hawaiki", but nobody is sure where this is exactly. A modern day Maori prophet belives this is was some place around mexico...but this same guy thinks he is the son of God too). It's traditionally quite a religious a culture with a lot of value placed on nature, but it can also be quite fierce, with the tales of wars being very violent (i guess it's sort of comparable to the native american culture in some aspects).

You may have seen or heard of the "haka" (which is essentially a war dance, or challenge, and can often be seen before various sports events, particularly international events). You may be surprised to learn that the meaning behiend the words of the "waiata" (or song/chant) that goes along with this intimidating tradition, is actually quite cowerdly. Basicly, it's about a Maori hiding from a European settler, who was trying to kill him, and the Maori cheif hid in a potato pit. I don't really remember what the rest of it means, but i'm sure it isn't as interesting as that excerpt.
(I forgot to mention this, but obviously the maori have their own language, which is slowly dying, though a lot of maori still speak it today)

Uh, i think i kinda started to ramble there i little, but i think you all get the point. I could go on about the country itself some more, but i'm lazy (a virtue commonly displayed by a lot of kiwi's...which by the way is our national symbol, as it is a endangered species ).

Scorpianskullfatality Wrote: All I can say is...I live in the United States...a country where you have the freedom to do most things other countries wont let you do. The united States is widely diverse, like a rain forest, as it contains many different people of all races and all ethnic backgrounds. We have a big economy, although most of the things we have in the U.S is imported from other countries. I am happy to live in America...although I know in my heart that America faces rough times ahead..and that living in any country will be safer than america. American culture is aslo diverse, because many things in American life is a mixture of all other Cultures. The only thing I dont like about my country is Illegal Immigrants. Where I live, almost 65% of people are illegal immigrants, drug dealers, or thugs.

I am sorry to hear that you don't like Immigrants, but if you study history the only non-immigrants were the Native of Americans(if my history is correct even they cross Alaska from the tip that connects it with the Russia) the only difference between you and the new immagrants is that your ancestors came first! I am not trying to offend you by any means, I respect your opinion, just find it kind of racist to say that you don't like Immigrants, when you know that back in the 1700's "Piligrams" came to America, for the same reasons that immigrants are coming today. I am sorry if I offend anyone by giving my opinion.

BTW not all the immigrants are drug dealers, thief, etc.

Well, since most people have already talked about the US I have decided to discuss about the country I was formally from which is Portugal. Portugal...well, it's self explanatory. It's part of Europe and all of Europe pretty much look the same. Um...ofcourse about 90% of people who leave in Portugal are portuguese but for the past few year alot of Africans and Anglions (Angola) have been immigrating in Portugal. Portugal is full of mountains more towards the north and towards the South you will notice alot more beaches and such. The capital, Lisbon, is nothing like New York since it's such a old town. Castles are scattered all over Portugal and that is about all I have to say about Portugal Oh yea, out next door neighbor is Spain and we got the Azores Islands.

Hmmmm.... how can I put this.....USA is @#$% up!!!!

SubScorpTile Wrote: Rabid_Wolverine Wrote: TheDoctor Wrote: I am from "America Jr." a.k.a. Canada. I do NOT like that name.It seems very degrading to us.So what,we live the same ways,shit like that.I have nothing agaist the U.S. I just hate when Canada is called that,insulting to me.We have taken countless things from you(sports and stuff like that),and you from us.Some Americans dont like Canadians,some Canadians feel the same way.It seems like an arrogant thing to do,for an American to call Canada "America Jr.",pisses me off in a big way.Like I mentioned before,you have taken stuff like sports from us too(not just that,others too.Just an example) so does that give us the right to call you "Canada Jr."?NO it does not.Whoever came up with the name,in my mind was most likely an arrogant bastard. No offense to anyone reading this,just speaking my mind. relax, its not your fault you live in America Jr.

Not my fault?How,you act like I cant move right now.I have been to the U.S. many times (live right across the border from Buffalo) and I prefer Canada.Especially with all the shit thats going on in the U.S.I find Canada to be a very safe place,comfortable.Just I ask one thing...please dont try to piss me off.I could get very defensive and say stupid shit I dont mean.Thats something I dont want to do.I like it in the U.S.,but better in Canada,no big deal.

Well i haven't spent alot of time in my country. I left when i was a year old. But i visited Afghanistan in 1999. So ill do my best to cover everything:

If u dont know my country(Iam sure u Have heard in the news atleast) its Afghanistan. Afghanistan is one of the oldest countries in Asia, next to Japan, China and Mongolia. Afghanistan was ruled by the Persian Empire during the Acient times. The Persian Empire slowly lost its terrotories to the Mongols.
Afghanistan became a fully independant nation on August 19, 1919 from UK control over Afghan foreign affairs. Afghanistan is an Islamic nation. Sunni Muslim 80%, Shi'a Muslim 19%, other 1%(Hindu). The Languages spoken are Pashtu (official) 35%, Afghan Persian (Dari) 50%, Turkic languages (primarily Uzbek and Turkmen) 11%, 30 minor languages (primarily Balochi and Pashai) 4%, much bilingualism. I only know how to Speak Pashtu and Persian. Afghanistan is in Southern Asia, north and west of Pakistan, east of Iran. Its land bounaries include:
China 76 km, Iran 936 km, Pakistan 2,430 km, Tajikistan 1,206 km, Turkmenistan 744 km, Uzbekistan 137 km. The land area is approximately 647,500 sq km (slightly smaller than Texas). The cliamte can be extremly harsh in the South due to an arid to semiarid climate. Towards the North it can get very cold. The terrian is mostly rugged mountains, plains in north and southwest. The Afghan Hound is only found in Afghanistan and no where else. There is a healthy population of Snow Leopards in the Mountain Ranges of "Hindu Kush".

People tend to confuse alot of things about Afghanistan. For example, Osama is NOT from Afghanistan but from Yemen.

Afghanistan has been in an ever struggling war for 27 years. Its population is about 28.5 million. The Capital is Kabul. It has 32 provinces. The famous area of Tora Bora (where American troops fought the Taliban) means "Black Sugar". The Taliban(who i hate with a passion) are to blame for the war that ravaged Afghanistan for many years.

Afghanistan and Russia dont have a friendly history. Afghanistan and Pakistan dont get along that well. Pakistan, after WW2, was given a part of Afghanistan....Thanks to England and America.

Many think Afghans hate Americans cause of what has happened......but we consider them as allies cause they liberated Afghanistan from the rule of the Taliban.

Afghanistan actully has 2 flags. The one on this site isnt the "offical" one. This flag is from the times when Afghanistan was under the rule of the Taliban. The offical flag is Black, Red and Green with a gold emblem centered on the red band . Black standing for the Dark days that the counrty has faced. Red standing for the Lives lost. Green Standing for the peacful days that we used to have. Afghanistan is a Transitional country. Afghanistan has a King and a Prisident.

Well thats about it...as if right now i live in Toronto Canada and i grew up here. I consider toronto more of my home town than Kabul cause ive been here almost all my life.

PS- not EVERYONE from Afghanistan is a terrorist

Thank you all for your interesting responses.

Oh and Rabid_Wolverine, I'm sure SST was just joking. You kind of walked into the trap with open eyes :).

VQ

TheTinMan2005 Wrote: Okay, well, one bad thing about the U.S., obviously, is it is so well-known, a lot of what I will tell you, you may already know. But here goes anyway. According to the Census Department the current population of the United States of America is 293 million people. There has been a huge wave of immigration the last few years, and 1 out of every 10 Americans is foreign-born. 68% of the population is non-Hispanic white, 12% of the population is African-American, 13% is Hispanic, 4% is Asian, about 3% is made of other ethnic groups. Forgive me if this information is not exactly correct, these are from the last figures I heard. There is no official language. English is the language of business, education, government, and the great majority of the media though. Spanish is also very widely spoken, about 10% of the population speaks it. There are Spanish-language Television networks, like Telemundo and Univision. Spanish is becoming more and more common here, and if my memory serves me right a couple of years ago a Spanish-language toothpaste commercial was shown with the Superbowl. I believe this was the first time a Spanish adverisement was shown with an English-language program. So Spanish is becoming bit by bit more common in the USA. Unfortunately, there is a lot of xenophobia, and many many Anglos are hostile to Spanish from my experience. I am a Spanish enthusiast myself, I'm Anglo but I speak(well I am still learning) Spanish. I think we should go bi-lingual but that is another topic. Football is the most popular sport here. It is played with an oval-shaped ball, with pads on and helmets. I can't really tell you the specifics of the rules, as I do not watch it, I don't like it at all. Other popular sports include Baseball, Basketball, and to a lesser extent Hockey. Movies are very popular, and as you already know Hollywood is the center of the American movie industry. There are four major English-language national television networks, ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox. UPN and the WB are smaller networks. Music is very popular. The big types of music here are rock, pop, and rap/hiphop. Country and R&B also have large followings. Other types of music were born here, like Jazz, Blues, and Bluegrass. Our government has 3 branches, Executive, Legislative, and Judicial. Executive is headed by the President who is both Head of State and Head of Government. The Legislative is Congress, which is made up of the Senate(100 seats, every state has 2), and the House of Representitives, made of 435 seats, based on population. The judicial is headed by the Supreme Court, which has 9 seats that are appointed by the President for life. Of course there are 50 states, and 1 Federal district. The capital is Washington, D.C. The most populous state is California, which has 35 million people. Texas is second with 21 million, and New York third with 19 million. The southeast is humid, with lots of foliage, it falls under the Geographical category of 'Subtropical wet'. The northeast is cold and has less dense foliage(i think, never been there). The Mid-West has a lot of plaines, as does the central area of the country. The southwest is desert, and the West is rocky and semi-arid. There is a major mountain range in the west, the Rocky Mountains, and another large range in the east, the Appalachian mountains. The Mississippi river is very long, going vertically up and down the country, seperating the East from the West. Alaska's climate is similar to Norway and Sweden. And Hawaii of course has a tropical climate. Good things about us are ingenuity, optimism, and a strong belief in freedom. Bad things are greed, arrogance, and apathy. EDIT: Forgot our history lol. The Spanish established the earliest settlements in the early 1500's, in what is now California and New Mexico. Spanish settlements were also in the Southeast before the British arrived, such as Santa Elena in whats now South Carolina. Numerous settlements were established independently by Puritans(a conservative religious group) from Britain in the Northeast, but these quickly came under British authority. The Continental Congress was established in 1746(I think), which allowed the Colonies some self-government. In the 1750's, the Sons of Liberty(a pro-independence group) was established, and in 1775 the Revolutionary war against Britain broke out. The Declaration of Indepence was signed and ratified in July of 1776. The war ended in 1781, and Britain recognized our independence in 1783 with the Treaty of Paris. We at first had the Articles of Confederation, but this was ineffective so we held a Constitutional convention in 1787, and adopted our current form of government in 1789. George Washington was our first President. The Louisiana purchase in 1802 significantly expanded our terrority, as we bought French Louisiana(it included several current day states). In 1846-1848 we had the Mexican-American war, in which Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, California, and part of Wyoming were gained from Mexico. Later the Gadsden purchase got more territory from Mexico. In 1861-1865 we had a bloody civil war over states' rights after several southern states succeeded from the union and formed the Confederate States of America. The Union won, and the Southern states re-joined the country. Slavery was abolished. In the 1880's Alaska was purchased from Russia, and in the 1890's we invaded Hawaii, overthrew the Queen, and made it a territory, and later a state. Of course I'm sure you are familiar with our modern history, like World War II and so on.

you forgot to mention the asshole we have in the white house now!! i cant wait till he loses the election and hopefully dies of cancer!! (prays to God) please God, give george bush cancer of the tongue so that hed shut the hell up and so hed starve to death...

the other portuguese dude talked about the landscape of Portugal, I'll talk about the people, let's see

70% is white people that was born in Portugal

25% is african, that fled from their countries due to wars (angola, Mozambique, etc etc), 50% of these 25% were born in Portugal

4% is ucranian/russian, etc, people from all those countries that were part of URSS and are doctors, engeniers (sp?) in their countries but come here to work in roadworks and construction sites...

1% is a mix of all other ethnicities (sp?), mostly chinese that open restaurants and little stores to sell their products...

these numbers are all made by me, so they're not to be trusted

now, most of the portuguese people live in little villages up in the north, or down south, with less than 100 people each, and they're all about 50+ yrs old, those people are kinda "excluded" from society, cause they live in remote places that are far from everything, some of them don't even know we are a democracy right now, they think we still have kings and things like that...

then we have lisbon, the capital, it's not very much developed, like new york and the main capitals of europe, but it's evolving slowly, lisbon is mostly a business city, in the weekends we don't see much movement in the streets

I don't really love my country, especially because of the close minded people (90%) that live here, I would prefer to live in the US cause I prefer big cities where I can find everything I want...maybe it's just a stupid 17 year old thought lol

it's all vain queur

Well both of my countries speak spanish.....

One is communist (Cuba)

The other is known for its anchor in the drug ring(Colombia)

Basically, Im a communist drug dealer

Savior Wrote: Well both of my countries speak spanish..... One is communist (Cuba) The other is known for its anchor in the drug ring(Colombia) Basically, Im a communist drug dealer

i wish we(america) would assassinate Fidel Castro, i think he was just as bad as saddam hussein...

chainzofmisery Wrote: i wish we(america) would assassinate Fidel Castro, i think he was just as bad as saddam hussein...

Hard to resist replying...

But anyway. Please no flaming or getting too much politics involved in this thread, thx. :p

Cheers,
VQ