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Who said anything about an East Coast of Europe? West Coast of Europe as opposed to THE West Coast, which usually stands for California.
What IS Europe and what ISN'T is irrelevant for my view of Europe. I am good at geography and educated, but again, I am not talking about geography.
The term Eastern Europe meant different things in different eras and contexts. There is not one objective definition.
Nor did I say anything about being rich or developed. That again is irrelevant to my view of Europe. A number of cities outside Europe are more developed than most European cities, Singapore for instance. Chinese cities are also catching up fast or already overtaking. But that's irrelevant to my point.
I don't live in a village, but in a big city. People here are as educated as anywhere in Europe.
Greeks are Greeks. While old Greece was very important for Europe, it is a small, unimportant country today, a shadow of its former self.
I don't have to like every culture and people. What an absurd idea. I like people who match my views and values, who speak the same or similar languages and have a similar culture, people who are compatible with me, no matter where they are from. That's why I feel close to Brazilians and not to Russians or Scandinavians.
Your "personal view" sounds very selfish and xenophobic. Saying Europe ends at Germany is just odd. I can hear such talk only on Stormfront or at Neofascist meetings. Of course I only saw those on videos. I think you are not Portuguese or you live in the (still very xenophobic and racist) US and are influenced by non-Portuguese culture. Right? Perhaps your West Coast is that of Ireland? Doubtfully French or Norwegian. Also to mention South America, Africa, Australia, Canada have West Coast as well as Puerto Rico and your Slave Master Angola (Africa). Yes, Angola is the boss of Portugal today. Portuguese corrupt government is begging for money from its former colony Angola nowadays. Greece small insignificant country today, but not for me, yet Portugal is the same population size same economy, same insignificant and small country today as well, but not the money that matters. At least to me. I don't care about rich countries such as the overpriced Suisse or robotic acting Germany. The West Coast of Angola is very likely to be the next "Europe" for you.
Stating Poland is not Europe (between words) is not going to earn you respect from anyone except perhaps Stormfront nazis (nothing to do with holocaust here). And I am pro-European and anti migrant, but not to the extent of being xenophobic. Such people usually slipout to write Slaves instead of Slavs. Statement Europe ends with Germany is xenophobic no matter how you try to put it.
Your "personal view" sounds very selfish and xenophobic. Saying Europe ends at Germany is just odd. I can hear such talk only on Stormfront or at Neofascist meetings. Of course I only saw those on videos. I think you are not Portuguese or you live in the (still very xenophobic and racist) US and are influenced by non-Portuguese culture. Right? Perhaps your West Coast is that of Ireland? Doubtfully French or Norwegian. Also to mention South America, Africa, Australia, Canada have West Coast as well as Puerto Rico and your Slave Master Angola (Africa). Yes, Angola is the boss of Portugal today. Portuguese corrupt government is begging for money from its former colony Angola nowadays. Greece small insignificant country today, but not for me, yet Portugal is the same population size same economy, same insignificant and small country today as well, but not the money that matters. At least to me. I don't care about rich countries such as the overpriced Suisse or robotic acting Germany. The West Coast of Angola is very likely to be the next "Europe" for you.
Stating Poland is not Europe (between words) is not going to earn you respect from anyone except perhaps Stormfront nazis (nothing to do with holocaust here). And I am pro-European and anti migrant, but not to the extent of being xenophobic. Such people usually slipout to write Slaves instead of Slavs. Statement Europe ends with Germany is xenophobic no matter how you try to put it.
There is nothing xenophobic or egoistic about my view. After all, I am a foreigner myself here in Portugal, and I don't mind all the Brazilians and Africans here, who are also foreigners. Xenophobia refers to immigrants in one's own country, not to liking countries and people elsewhere. After all, xenophobia is the dislike or fear of foreigners. But people only are foreigners abroad, not at home. In other words, I don't do anything against immigrants from Russia or Poland here in Portugal, regardless of whether I consider them Europeans or not.
I just don't share your notion that I should like every culture and people. Far from it, like with people, some I like and some I don't like.
The rest of what you wrote is so odd on many fronts, including the Stormfront, which you seem to know a lot more about than I do.
Seems like the Portuguese have more in common with Italians than Spanish.
Actually not, the Portuguese and the Spanish are basically the same people, they were united as one entity even before the Romans and during the roman time up until 16th century. In the 17th century they almost became one nation again. Even today nearly 80% of the Portuguese would love to become one nation with Spain.
As far as the Italians, you are being too general, the southern Italians that is the Calabrese, the Napoletani and the Sicilians would also in my opinion would like to become one nation with Spain again. The Spanish really took good care of them, the Spanish helped them build up their banking system and brought lots of industry. After the so call "independence" by Garibaldi everything went downhill. The northern Italians with the aid of the world order of the time, raided the southern Italian banks and completely dismantled their industry and took it north.
Nope. The Portuguese and Spaniards are clearly different peoples, not just culturally, but also genetically. Haplogroups don't lie. In terms of genes the Portuguese are indeed closer to Italians. http://i.imgur.com/GLL0M9y.png
Just because two peoples are neighbors, doesn't mean they are the same, quite to the contrary, when they are enemies they often isolate each other and develop separately from each other. That is what happened here as well, for more than a thousand years, with different histories, including colonial histories and the resulting consequences for the populations.
And rest assured, the Portuguese do not want to become one nation with Spain. They never wanted to and for centuries fought wars in order to stay independent. That survey was done among about 4000 people from 10 countries, so it was just a few hundred Portuguese people that were asked, and the result of replies (to whatever the exact question was) was 68%, not 80%.
That self-declared think tank (Elcano Royal Institute) is a rather dubious institution to begin with, an organization promoting Spain's image in the world.
Plus, they are not speaking of one country, but some sort of political union (like for instance the EU or the former Soviet Union, where each country was/is also separate). Naturally the two countries have more common interests than say Portugal and Denmark, which is not on the Iberian Peninsula.
But the idea that Portugal wants to become one country with Spain is nothing but some Spaniards' wet dream. Spain has always had an eye on Portugal. Spain has not even returned Olivença to Portugal, 200 years after it agreed to do so by signing the treaty of Vienna.
During the Iberian Union 400 years ago the countries/regions remained independent in terms of government etc. And when Habsburg tried to change that, the Portuguese started their independence movement and ultimately wars, which lead to the full restoration of Portugal as an independent nation, something the Portuguese celebrate each year on December 1.
Any Portuguese government that started such a unification project would be ousted by the fiercely patriotic Portuguese population, which on average is not exactly fond of Spaniards.
It is interesting to live here in Portugal. I can't help but notice what little role Spain plays here. Economically there is a lot of import and export between the two countries of course and there are a lot of Spanish tourists at times, but other than that Spain is basically absent, for instance on TV. Our cultural focus is the Portuguese-speaking world, not Spain. Even the English-speaking world is more important in Portugal than neighboring Spain is.
The guy clearly divide & conquer type who wants Europe to remain some divided little countries that are at war with each other and stuck in a feudal system. Portugal satellite TV has Spanish channels, as well as French, German, USAmerican, but there are no Italian channels indeed. Yes, most Portuguese are hateful of Spanish and alot of Portuguese businesses are crooks, but Spaniard businesses are even more crooked as much as I have experienced. The "friendliness" of the folk is only a superficial fake thing, yet the result ends up very mean against you if you're not one of them. You are constantly being "punished" for the little unintentional missteps you make while living in Portugal in many different way refusing service to you evenmedical services! Beware! Imagine having to wait 2 months for a dentist then they call you one day in advance, a lot of time half an hour "in advance" and cancel the appointment wityh no way to reschedule! No joke! Once you ssuccessffully (what's up with all the double consonants? does it make the word more "cool"?) make an appointment and have a temporary filling in you are asked to return in another 2 months but evevbry little tidbit "misstep" such as slightly different tone of your voice or whatnot and you end up living wiht a temporary filling and no dentist repairing it to make it permanent. Or your appointment is cancelled if you refuse to take a crown (as opposed to a veneer).That is criminal. Especially in the South European islands where customer abuse is rampant and the specialist are scarce and are treated like royalty by the sheeplish locals! They are scared! One wrong word and you are punished by the "elite"! Human rights in Iberia are a joke. It's like a Stone Ages all over again. 50% unemployment yet they don't care to give you any service let alone a decent one. Spanish or not!
The guy clearly divide & conquer type who wants Europe to remain some divided little countries that are at war with each other and stuck in a feudal system. Portugal satellite TV has Spanish channels, as well as French, German, USAmerican, but there are no Italian channels indeed. Yes, most Portuguese are hateful of Spanish and alot of Portuguese businesses are crooks, but Spaniard businesses are even more crooked as much as I have experienced. The "friendliness" of the folk is only a superficial fake thing, yet the result ends up very mean against you if you're not one of them. You are constantly being "punished" for the little unintentional missteps you make while living in Portugal in many different way refusing service to you evenmedical services! Beware! Imagine having to wait 2 months for a dentist then they call you one day in advance, a lot of time half an hour "in advance" and cancel the appointment wityh no way to reschedule! No joke! Once you ssuccessffully (what's up with all the double consonants? does it make the word more "cool"?) make an appointment and have a temporary filling in you are asked to return in another 2 months but evevbry little tidbit "misstep" such as slightly different tone of your voice or whatnot and you end up living wiht a temporary filling and no dentist repairing it to make it permanent. Or your appointment is cancelled if you refuse to take a crown (as opposed to a veneer).That is criminal. Especially in the South European islands where customer abuse is rampant and the specialist are scarce and are treated like royalty by the sheeplish locals! They are scared! One wrong word and you are punished by the "elite"! Human rights in Iberia are a joke. It's like a Stone Ages all over again. 50% unemployment yet they don't care to give you any service let alone a decent one. Spanish or not!
What are you talking about if a lot of people don't like you most likely you're doing something they consider rude or they may just consider you odd. If your getting a lot of people being mean to you than you are doing something wrong, they will let you know for sure when your not accepted.
Yes, I am in favor of independent countries, who live side by side peacefully. Both unification and war are the extreme exceptions, the normal state of affairs is independent countries getting along with each other.
No idea what you are rambling about. Portugal has an unemployment rate of 7.8 percent.
There are excellent doctors, no scarcity at all.
I have had many appointments over the years, nothing of what you described has ever happened to me.
The only irritating thing so far was at the immigration office where my official, globally recognized passport photos were not accepted because my head was supposedly too big on them. So I had to rush out of their office in order to take new ones in a photo shop. But they improvised and I did not have to wait when returning. So, I can't complain.
Businesses are full of crooks all over the world, not just in Southern Europe. I suppose that is the unfortunate consequence of the capitalist idea of trying to make as much money as possible.
What are you talking about if a lot of people don't like you most likely you're doing something they consider rude or they may just consider you odd. If your getting a lot of people being mean to you than you are doing something wrong, they will let you know for sure when your not accepted.
Portugal is a very formal country, so it is easy to violate certain unwritten laws one is not aware of. But foreigners are usually forgiven.
I do agree with him to a certain extent, though. People are more extreme. A lot are super friendly and from the heart. But there are also people where clearly the friendliness is only fake. Their true nature comes out in soccer stadiums, on the road, or during any conflict. There is some latent aggression in my view, which might be due to many people never being really sober. People drink so much alcohol, here a bear, here a glass of wine.
All the cases of domestic violence also point at the darker side of people here.
Friendliness is often just formal. If you are not friendly, they accuse you of being mal educado.
Talking bad behind people's back while smiling in their faces is also rather common here.
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