Moonlit_Angel
Blue Crack Addict
I was going to say, many Americans are lucky if they can find their own state on a map, let alone any other country.
what's a New Zealand?
So female politicians are just eye candy? Wow. I thought we had moved on from that as a society.
elevated_u2_fan said:Wait, there's a NEW Zealand now?
Out of curiousity, if New Zealand was a British colony, why was it named after a Dutch area? Were the Dutch the first to discover it?
The first Europeans known to have reached New Zealand were Dutch explorer Abel Tasman and his crew in 1642.
lol, seriously. when i tell people my husband is from new zealand, you'd be amazed how many people then later (as in during the same conversation) don't even get the country name right. most think he's from nigeria. yep, he tried to pull that email scam telling me i was being given millions but i won his heart instead!I was going to say, many Americans are lucky if they can find their own state on a map, let alone any other country.
I was going to say, many Americans are lucky if they can find their own state on a map, let alone any other country.
lol, seriously. when i tell people my husband is from new zealand, you'd be amazed how many people then later (as in during the same conversation) don't even get the country name right. most think he's from nigeria. yep, he tried to pull that email scam telling me i was being given millions but i won his heart instead!
everyone else says whatever country they can think of beginning with an n, usually the netherlands. don't even get me started on where people guess it is on a map...
"I personally believe the U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, uh, some, uh...people out there in our nation don't have maps, and, uh, I believe that our education like such as South Africa and, uh, the Iraq everywhere like, such as and...I believe that they should, our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S., err, uh, should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future for our...
Axver said:A strange mythical land of savages with healthcare.
Best post in the thread.
Plus Paul Ryan has clearly not read a single sentence of New Zealand history. If you want a country founded on ideas - Wakefieldianism being foremost - then there's one (South Australia would count too if it were a country). I suppose it's too much to hope somebody might hit him around the head with a copy of Miles Fairburn's The Ideal Society and Its Enemies.
We want to celebrate this country, a great, great, country. America. And not just a country, I come from a great country, Ireland, and as great a country as it is it's not an idea. America is not just a country, it's an idea."
Bono, July 6, 2011 Chicago
But America is more than just a place…it’s an idea. It’s the only country founded on an idea.
Our rights come from nature and God, not government. We promise equal opportunity, not equal outcomes. This idea is founded on the principles of liberty, freedom, free enterprise, self-determination and government by consent of the governed.”
-- Paul Ryan
That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved;
lol, seriously. when i tell people my husband is from new zealand, you'd be amazed how many people then later (as in during the same conversation) don't even get the country name right. most think he's from nigeria. yep, he tried to pull that email scam telling me i was being given millions but i won his heart instead!
everyone else says whatever country they can think of beginning with an n, usually the netherlands. don't even get me started on where people guess it is on a map...
Guys...guys. Have you considered maps for everyone as the solution to this problem?
Let me ask you Axver since you would know better than anyone, does Bono give this speech everywhere?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbQFXFGe_4Q
In Auckland is it, "New Zealand is not just a country, it's an idea"? If not it seems like, to be consistent, you should mock Bono just as hard as Rep. Ryan.
I originally only wanted to highlight that Ryan was echoing our favorite frontman but now I guess I'll have to go further.
What is that American idea? Well, let me finish and quote Paul Ryan's thought.
"Our rights come from nature and God, not government. We promise equal opportunity, not equal outcomes." Well, that's the "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights... statement in our Declaration of Independence. In other words, we are ruled not by a social hierarchy (the British monarchy) but by nature and consent of the governed.
Not founded on blood or soil but the creed that the individual's sovereignty be recognized, not the government's. Exceptional indeed.
As to Wakefieldianism, not claiming to know very much about New Zealand's political history but--America's first act as a country was to fire a king. Again from the Declaration of Independence.
Correct me if I'm wrong but the New Zealand idea, chiefly masterminded by Edward Gibbon Wakefield, was... let's join the British Empire.
We fired a king, you hired one. And I don't say that to disparage your country in anyway. I'd love to visit sometime and all the New Zealanders I've met, granted they're all race drivers, are great folks. You'll just have to be more specific about the New Zealand idea I guess.
Out of curiousity, if New Zealand was a British colony, why was it named after a Dutch area? Were the Dutch the first to discover it?
lol, seriously. when i tell people my husband is from new zealand, you'd be amazed how many people then later (as in during the same conversation) don't even get the country name right. most think he's from nigeria. yep, he tried to pull that email scam telling me i was being given millions but i won his heart instead!
everyone else says whatever country they can think of beginning with an n, usually the netherlands. don't even get me started on where people guess it is on a map...
Is it better than Old Zealand?
In Auckland is it, "New Zealand is not just a country, it's an idea"? If not it seems like, to be consistent, you should mock Bono just as hard as Rep. Ryan.
Another guy tried to convince me that New Zealand is north of Australia. I don't know if he was confusing New Zealand with New Guinea or if he was just dumb and couldn't fathom a colder country being to the south of a warmer one.
I was going to say, many Americans are lucky if they can find their own state on a map, let alone any other country.
Guys...guys. Have you considered maps for everyone as the solution to this problem?
When I was in the US, I thought mentioning Lord of the Rings would do the trick. Initially it did. People were all "oh yeah, I've heard of there! Saw the movies!"
Let me ask you Axver since you would know better than anyone, does Bono give this speech everywhere?
In Auckland is it, "New Zealand is not just a country, it's an idea"? If not it seems like, to be consistent, you should mock Bono just as hard as Rep. Ryan.
Not founded on blood or soil but the creed that the individual's sovereignty be recognized, not the government's. Exceptional indeed.
As to Wakefieldianism, not claiming to know very much about New Zealand's political history
but--America's first act as a country was to fire a king. Again from the Declaration of Independence.
Correct me if I'm wrong but the New Zealand idea, chiefly masterminded by Edward Gibbon Wakefield, was... let's join the British Empire.
We fired a king, you hired one.
Many Americans are lucky if they even know how many U.S. states there are.
Please tell me they did not go on to ask you about hobbits.
So, no, we didn't hire a king. Couldn't have anyway, since the British monarch at the time was Queen Victoria.
Thanks Axver and BoMac for researching!
what are you, some kind of socialist?
We did see a kangaroo in our court the other day (major shock, I live in suburbia, about 30 mins drive from the nearest mountain range), so that did fulfill a stereotype.
Oh dear, one's enough!!Bono also regularly says "The world needs more Canadas" every time he is here.
You will also note that Ryan said that the US was the only country based on an idea. Which is not what I've heard Bono say.
... said trainee taught us that the US has 52 states. :facepalm: