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ive been to way more than two US cities. where do you get your facts from? I've been to two STATES. i hope you know that there is a difference between a state and a city. actually, now that i think of it, ive been to three states. that added with the countless hours ive spent researching USA and its cities, and id say i have a pretty good idea of what the US is about.
yes, detroit is known for having been SOMETHING at one point in time because of its car industry etc, but today its nothing but a shadow of what it once was. i said what detroit is KNOWN for today, is its extremely high crime rate.
may i ask, though.. how "colorful" is really detroits history compared to.. well, the history of ANY european city? youre walking out on a thin ledge here trying to defend these americans or whatever it is that youre doing.
history doesnt have everything to do with how great a city is, though. most american cities have downtowns that die in the evenings and the infrastructure is very often really horrible. judging from your posts you dont seem to have ever been to an american city. new york, of course, is a huge exception. the architecture is also not very impressive in most cases.. which i think is what really determines the beauty of a city.
Relax Champ. I don't consider the EU as "One Nation" and I think most of the world would agree.
I was talking about what people had said earlier in the thread. Very few other countries ( not whole groups of countries) can compare to the U.S. in size and when it comes to being able to compare city vs. city or region vs. region. As in New York vs. L.A. or the Southwest vs. Northeast.
I'm sure you'll compare Barcelona to Oslo, but that's two completely different countries.
And of course I understand that Italy is small, but it seems like one of the few countries I can think of where there are big enough differences in the cities to warrant a comparison. ( And in my opinion Italy has a few world class cities unlike a majority of European countries. )
there are not so many things about the EU that makes it less of a country than the US, though. it already has completely open boarders so that you can roam anywhere you want within the union and most of the EU uses one currency - the euro. these two things are IMO some of the main things that define a "nation".
obviously the people of the different countries dont share a whole lot of culture with eachother, but still.. open boarders: freedom to go wherever you wanna go.. use your same currency. IMO these benefits are enough for the EU citizens to not care if the EU is LEGALLY considered a "country" or not. we still get to enjoy all that this place has to offer
i like to say that the countries of EU as like the states of the US, just not as tight together.
anyways, i dont know if Italy is the most diverse country in the EU, as ive never been there.. but wouldnt it make sense that a country like France or Germany was the most diverse one? I mean, they are way bigger than italy. I also think that those two countries have more world class cities than Italy... Rome and Milan are the only italian world class cities that i can think of (with Milan being the most important oneof the two, to many peoples surprise).
as for oslo VS barcelona.. theyre both cities, so they can be compared.. and barcelona wins, hands down.
Can your reading skills really be that bad? Go back and read what I wrote.
The comparison is clearly between the EU now, and the USA at the time of the Articles of Confederation.
OK, so you have no point. We are talking now not back then. EU is a union in name only. People in Scandinavia for example, could care less what happens in Italy. They have nothing in common. Some members of EU don't even have a currency and I still need a passport to go between EU countries like the UK. The point is that EU is quite far from a real union.
there are not so many things about the EU that makes it less of a country than the US, though. it already has completely open boarders so that you can roam anywhere you want within the union and most of the EU uses one currency - the euro. these two things are IMO some of the main things that define a "nation".
The last time I travelled between Sweden and the UK (two member EU nations), I needed to go through passport control. So, your open border point is not quite true. Also, "most" EU countries having the same currency basically dispels your idea of a main thing that define a nation.
Last edited by ChunkyMonkey; 10-22-2009 at 07:20 AM..
there are not so many things about the EU that makes it less of a country than the US, though. it already has completely open boarders so that you can roam anywhere you want within the union and most of the EU uses one currency - the euro. these two things are IMO some of the main things that define a "nation".
obviously the people of the different countries dont share a whole lot of culture with eachother, but still.. open boarders: freedom to go wherever you wanna go.. use your same currency. IMO these benefits are enough for the EU citizens to not care if the EU is LEGALLY considered a "country" or not. we still get to enjoy all that this place has to offer
So, what language do you speak when you visit all these nations?
The EU is nothing like the U.S. A common currency and open borders simplifies trade and travel but the Union has got a long way to go to establish a common European identity. Language, for instance, is a huge barrier.
The EU is nothing like the U.S. A common currency and open borders simplifies trade and travel but the Union has got a long way to go to establish a common European identity. Language, for instance, is a huge barrier.
Yeah.. that's one of the reasons why i'm still here, and not some other place. We all know, in every country, that english would be the answer. But nobody really seems to want to admit it.
The last time I travelled between Sweden and the UK (two member EU nations), I needed to go through passport control. So, your open border point is not quite true. Also, "most" EU countries having the same currency basically dispels your idea of a main thing that define a nation.
yeah, its bad that not all EU countries use the euros. More and more will start using it soon, though, which is good also, the UK is the only country of the EU that you need a passport in order to enter. they dont seem to wanna adapt quite as much as the others (theyre really against the euro, too, for whatever reason).
[quote=Mr. Joshua;11297860]
Quote:
So, what language do you speak when you visit all these nations?
this is another impractical problem of the EU, but it is also some of what makes it such an interesting place. being from outside the US, i am able to speak several languages and i often speak these languages when im travelling abroad.
i know that some EU countries choose to learn french, will some choose to learn german and some spanish.. some of my friends are even taking italian. on top of this, english is becoming more and more a lingua franca within the EU, which i guess is a benefit for everyone in the western world.
in large parts of eastern europe, its still smart to know russian, though. this is the language i will be starting to learn next year.
I see Americans as exceedingly humble. In fact too humble and too apologetic.
S.
You don't view Americans the way the rest of the world does. Most of the world sees Americans as arrogant. They proclaim the US is the greatest country in the world - no debate. It is stated as a fact not as an opinion. Most Americans assume that everyone in the world wants to live there, which is not true.
Humble? Nope. Not in the view of the rest of the world.
Usually the reply to this is 'we don't care what the rest of the world thinks, they're just jealous', which proves the point.
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also, the UK is the only country of the EU that you need a passport in order to enter. they dont seem to wanna adapt quite as much as the others (theyre really against the euro, too, for whatever reason).