Your countries

[cipherdecoy]

What in your opinion are the best and worst things about your country?

The best for me are safety and convenience and the worst, an authoritarian government, absence of awe-inspiring nature, and a system that places so much emphasis on education that schools become a kind of creative straightjacket. I'm from Singapore. :smash:

[JBI]

Best thing - health care, multiculturalism (diverse ethnic contribution and culture)
Worst thing - declining standard of living, particularly health care, and Americanization in culture.

[cipherdecoy]

Americanization in culture.

That's interesting. I always thought Canadian culture and American culture were pretty close. I watched a documentary and learned that most Canadians leave their doors unlocked, as opposed to the Americans. Well that's a minor aspect, but it would be nice if you pointed out a particular one that really bugs you.

[Pensive]

Good things: Food, clothing, hospitility for guests in most of the houses, joint-family-system (though in a few cases it can result as a disaster), and also that Pakistanis seem to be friendly people (at making conversation and stuff) to me generally-speaking.

Things I don't like: religious extremism, sexually-repressed society where when you say you are an internet-addict people would automatically assume you only visit communities like orkut and myspace for dating and can't use net for any other purpose, if you talk to someone from opposite-gender there has got to be something fishy about it, people's tendency to follow some traditions whose roots do not lie on any solid logic, law-system, a high level of corruption, feudal system and inflation-rate which is going uphill.

Oh and in good things, I really forgot to mention some really cool stuff such as rikshaws (which are like some interesting swings as well as means of going here and there plus the things you find written behind them can be really interesting to read), winter (though that is more restricted to my birth-city rather than the whole country), grave-yards (the melancholic atmosphere seems very cool to me while passing them, yeah I know I can be pretty nutty about some things) and some small food shops whose food at times in my mother's opinion can be pretty unhygienic when compared to the one cooked at home, but I can't help liking the spices they use. *drools* :p

[Gehenna]

Good thinks: it's a safe country, free education, quite liberal
Bad things: our current prime-minister (whiney baby who can't do anything), current rate of inflation, low wages compared to the prices

ETA: I'm from Slovenia

[sprinks]

Ahh, Australia... Home of the.... kangaroo? I don't know. :p.

Anyhow there might be more but right now:

GOOD THINGS:
Random wildlife. And that random wildlife likes to visit schools. We don't ride kangaroo's to school, but they do come up on to the school grounds!! :D.
The government is a democracy.
Pretty high standard of living.
Fairly good weather, most of the time.
The beaches, there's heaps around the coast. And I mean HEAPS.
The Australian sense of humour :D
Theres some pretty good music that comes out of Australia :D

BAD THINGS:
Flies!!!
The incredible heat in summer (but not in the very south, that gets really cold)
The fact that the country is SO BIG!
We aren't a republic, so the Queen still rules us.
We are a massive island... We have no friends :p. Well, we don't have anyone joined next to us. Not sure if that is good or bad though. Perhaps Australia gets lonely? :lol:
People think we have an accent, but in reality our accent is the LACK of an accent. Barely anyone has one, unless they live out bush.
The Australian habit of shortening things and sticking "O" on the end of names, or "azza" such as "Jonno" or "Shazza". It gets confusing :p
Our Anthem!! No one ever remembers the words, and when they do, they don't say them right, they make up their own version!! :lol:

[Amundsen]

Good? History, safe country

Bad? F...ing politicians, corruption, communistic as.holes, almost NO nationality pride, and more, more (it's sad, we need BIG leader, and I mean BIG)

[aabbcc]

There would certainly be a lot more to write about Italia, but if I were to limit myself to a couple of points on each side only:
Good things: Culture, architecture, ART, lifestyle which is still significantly more "loose" than in most other countries, spaghetti, ART, relatively alright climate deprived of extremes on any side, have I mentioned ART?
Bad things: Traffic which is often insane, the overall 'americanisation' of the culture and lifestyle, national obsession with football, pollution, corruption.

[Captain_Kuchiki]

For the United States:

Good: -George Bush is almost out of here!!! (lol, not to offend Bush supporters)
-You can be whatever you want
-So many attractions like Statue of liberty, mount Rushmore
-Diverse climate and terrain (from Alaska to desert states to tropical Hawaii)

Bad: -Only 2 political parties, not enough diversity there
-People are wasteful about products (broken? don't fix it -- throw it away! kind of thing)
-And other small things

[no_one_knws]

Good thing about hong kong as I think are multiculturalism, safety, convenience, and great city with not so bad country side. Bad thing, expensive english schools, chinese from main land China, HK is small.

[no_one_knws]

Ahh, Australia... Home of the.... kangaroo? I don't know. :p.

Anyhow there might be more but right now:

GOOD THINGS:
Random wildlife. And that random wildlife likes to visit schools. We don't ride kangaroo's to school, but they do come up on to the school grounds!! :D.
The government is a democracy.
Pretty high standard of living.
Fairly good weather, most of the time.
The beaches, there's heaps around the coast. And I mean HEAPS.
The Australian sense of humour :D
Theres some pretty good music that comes out of Australia :D

BAD THINGS:
Flies!!!
The incredible heat in summer (but not in the very south, that gets really cold)
The fact that the country is SO BIG!
We aren't a republic, so the Queen still rules us.
We are a massive island... We have no friends :p. Well, we don't have anyone joined next to us. Not sure if that is good or bad though. Perhaps Australia gets lonely? :lol:
People think we have an accent, but in reality our accent is the LACK of an accent. Barely anyone has one, unless they live out bush.
The Australian habit of shortening things and sticking "O" on the end of names, or "azza" such as "Jonno" or "Shazza". It gets confusing :p
Our Anthem!! No one ever remembers the words, and when they do, they don't say them right, they make up their own version!! :lol:

someday i'll migrate to Australia. =)

[Amundsen]

There would certainly be a lot more to write about Italia, but if I were to limit myself to a couple of points on each side only:
Good things: Culture, architecture, ART, lifestyle which is still significantly more "loose" than in most other countries, spaghetti, ART, relatively alright climate deprived of extremes on any side, have I mentioned ART?
Bad things: Traffic which is often insane, the overall 'americanisation' of the culture and lifestyle, national obsession with football, pollution, corruption.

Very good subscribe. Dear Candy.... I love Red Dwarf:D

[blazeofglory]

All I do not like about Nepal, my country is politics as a matter of fact. Politics is what I hate most or else mine is a wonderful country, a country of surpassing beauty, a country of legends, histories, mythologies.

Nepal is a country of gods, and innocent people. We are primitive in life styles yet we are a little ahead in seeing life, that is we are not too much materialistically bound. We work in close touch with nature.

[EricP]

Good thinks: it's a safe country, free education, quite liberal
Bad things: our current prime-minister (whiney baby who can't do anything), current rate of inflation, low wages compared to the prices

ETA: I'm from Slovenia

You forgot the best thing about your country: Slavoj Žižek! :D

I'm from the United States, so here goes:

Best things: the Bill of Rights and the Constitution.
Worst things: MTV, apathy, NASCAR, country music, fast food, Ann Coulter, racists, homophobes, video games, Gilbert Gottfried, etc.

[Trystan]

Bad: Too much political spin, too much political correctness and right-wing parties that cash in on it. Culturally Britain is rather dead, killed by mass consumerism (i.e. outside of London). The weather is very fickle.

Good: a generally tolerant people (very tolerant compared to other Western nations), free health care, multiculturalism . . . the people aren't all that bad, I suppose. Plus: Fish and chips FTW!

[Dori]

Good: Bill of Rights. Enough said.
Bad: Bureaucracy! Though, I can imagine this is present elsewhere. Oh, and the educational system is lacking.

[Bakiryu]

bad: Dictatorship, lack of civil rights (no freedom of speech OR press), discrimination, lack of food (no Macdonalds or things like that), lack of proper supplies, bad schools, gangs, drugs, prostitutes, dead religion, lack of entertainment (no movies, tvs or malls), sucky government, less than intelligent people, and the heat is killer, killer!
Good: extremely handsome and women, beautiful beaches, great cuisine (from the food we can scrounge up), creativity, beautiful architecture, warm winters, it's just an ascetically beautiful country.

[Niamh]

best thing about ireland; the archaeology, the countryside, most of the people.
The Worst thing about Ireland; Corrupt politicians that dont pay attention to what the people of the country want, and how god damn expensive it is here.

[ex ponto]

Good: Nature (in my province), smiling and kind hearted people, ''We'll take care of it easily''lifestyle (up to a point).
Bad: that same lifestyle, some people that tend to be wild, unreasonable nationalism.
I'm from Serbia.

[novlist*star*]

Bad:
the weather it is tooooooo hoooooot in summer & to cold in winter.Also, the education is toooo bad so I wish to complete my studying in Toronto University..

Good:
the most of people is kindness..

[RoCKiTcZa]

I like this thread. :lol: There are several things which people have found great about my country (and when I say people, unfortunately, that doesn't include insiders, or people who were born within my country), and a few (right--a FEW :rolleyes:) more things that serve as reasons for us citizens to despise our motherland. Based on my estimates (and if what I assume is correct), if I were to list ALL of these down, it would probably take me two years to complete everything: one year listing down the good things and another year working on the bad things. Luckily, I need not spend too much time nor sacrifice very important things (like my studies) to simply enumerate all these. Instead, I will provide you with two very meaningful keywords; and you, in turn, will use your brain.;)

GOOD
Pearl of the Orient Seas

BAD
Corruption.

Draw your own conclusions. :p

[Nostalgie]

For the United States:

Good: -George Bush is almost out of here!!! (lol, not to offend Bush supporters)
-You can be whatever you want
-So many attractions like Statue of liberty, mount Rushmore
-Diverse climate and terrain (from Alaska to desert states to tropical Hawaii)

Bad: -Only 2 political parties, not enough diversity there
-People are wasteful about products (broken? don't fix it -- throw it away! kind of thing)
-And other small things

What he (or she?) said.

I'm originally from Paris, France so I will point out the pros and cons of my homeland.

Good: School system - Extremely high standard of education. Free university (cannot beat that).
Health care - Subsidized all-around. If you need an operation, you needn't worry about owing $30,000. You are cared for.
Gastronomy - The best food is found in France.
Culture - I have traveled to many, many locations around the world, and I must say that IMO, Paris is in the world epicenter for art and literature.

Bad: School system - you choose a vocation in high school and you are stuck with it...
Economy - Think $4.20 / gallon is a high mark in gas prices? Try paying almost $7.00 / gallon. Good thing the major cities have a really good public transportation system. The price of alimentation is high as well and unemployment rate hovers slightly above the 9% mark.

[toni]

BAD
Corruption.

We all hate their politricks.:alien:

[blazeofglory]

The best thing of my country is people and the worst thing is their attitudes that need to be changed.

[stlukesguild]

I must say that IMO, Paris is in the world epicenter for art and literature.

Was. Past-tense.:D

[djy78usa]

My favorite things about the U.S. are the cultural and natural diversity. My least favorite things are the sense of entitlement that many of my countrymen seem to have and our obsession with celebrities.

[Guinivere]

I would say the good thing about living in Germany are the many eco-friendly people. Very bad though is the maddening bureaucracy.

[Amylian]

In Bahrain the Bad things are the Prime Minister, pollution, and high-rates of Cancer. And the Good things are socialism and the people.

Well, it is natural that most of the goverments ,or if not all, are rigid. I only pointed the Prime Minister simply because he is the one who governs us not the king, who cannot read.