Canadian flag on the backback myth

On Wed, 02 Jun 2004 14:43:15 +0000, Xomicron wrote:

Padraig Breathnach wrote in
news
Xomicron wrote:

Padraig Breathnach wrote in
:

Xomicron wrote:

The US is not at war with Afghanistan.

Then its armed forces were not faced by any illegal combatants.

What makes terrorists legal combatant?

What terrorists? Those who were fighting US troops in Afghanistan when
the US was not at war with Afghanistan?

Also known as illegal combatants.

The US troops?

On Wed, 02 Jun 2004 02:14:13 GMT, Don Dickson wrote:

In article oVXuc.45$793.43@newsfe3-gui,
"nick" wrote:

"Xomicron" wrote in messag

I was just wondering, is it really true that most Canadian's believe the
myth that people in the rest of the world will treat them better if they
know they are Canadian.

Don't Americans pretend to be Canadians while travelling to avoid being spat
at and abused?



A few years ago while I was in Scotland we visited one of the fishing ports on
the east coast. All of the fishing boats were flying at least one Canadian flag
because that was just after the Canadian gov't had kicked the Spanish off the
Grand Banks for overfishing. Apparently the Spanish fleet had the same
reputation in European waters as well so the Scottish fishermen were happy when
Canada took action that they thought their gov't should have been doing too.

We stayed at B&B's and the biggest apology I ever got was from an owner who
originally thought we were Americans and then realized we were Canadian. The
reservation had been made through a district tourist office earlier in the day
and I guess the person making the reservation said we were American.

This is a common error that most Scots make. We lived in Scotland for
three years and to continuely deal with the problem. One solution that
really worked was when I siad that since I must be Americam then you
must be English. Well the habit of calling us Americans changed abruptly
and they apologised for making the error. On the otherhand once they
knew we were Canadians we were welcomed with open arms.

Many of the
B&B's in both Scotland and Ireland would ask the person making the reservation
where we were from. This gave us the impression that certain nationalities were
less welcome than others.

Perhaps not. In the three yaers we were in Scotland I found on;ly three
Scots who were not interested where we were from. So as we said we were
from Canada they wnated to know if we knew there relative who lived in
Toronto or Vancouver etc, We had a good laugh with our Scottish friends
over that once they realized how big Canada really was.

The Scots are one of the nicest folk we have met in our travels. Once
you have a Scot for a friend you have a friend for life. Cheers

On 2 Jun 2004 05:26:14 GMT, Barney wrote:

"Mark Fagan" had
al.com:

It is merely an announcement to local people that since you are so
much more polite, and might even know a little of their language,
that Canadians are deserving of being treated better!

It could also be that Canadians visiting foreign countries don't refer
to the residents as foreigners and demand they speak english.

I noticed this as well while we were in Germany. WE came across a group
of Americans when one stated, Why don't they speak English?
Unfornately some Americans just can not conceive that in some countries
in the world some if not most of the people there do not spaek English.

They
don't go to a local restaurant and demand food as served at home. They
usualy don't spend the day telling their hosts how things are so much
better at home and try to make up for bad manners with a huge tip.

I recall while we were in London on a cruise on the Thames. There were
Germans speaking very quietly amongst themsleves, Japanese speaking
quitely amonst themselvers and us who were quiet and talking amonst
ourselves and enjoying the atmosphere. Then a family of Americans came
aboard. Everyone on board knew they were Americans beacuse the
Americans made sure everyone knew and boy they were talking loud and
they were actually talking amonst themselves but disturbing everyone
else on board with their loudness..

Of course now some American poster is going to prove my point:

On Wed, 02 Jun 2004 14:25:58 -0500, ANONYMOUSE wrote:



GWB Jr.


who's this "GWB Jr."?

some canadian?

It seems to me, the US is at War against Afghanistan


these united States have not been at war since 1945.

Nice exercise in semantics. The US did not lose a war in Vietnam because
they have decided that technically it was not a war, presumably?

They never invaded Iraq either, right?

Xomicron wrote in message ...

You may hate us but you're still our bitches.

Your ID handle is from some Futurama episode...lame.
When USA is self-sufficient in terms of their
energy demands, yes. Until then, no. Remember what
happened in California and their power problems?
How about last summer, and First Energy of Ohio?

On Wed, 02 Jun 2004 15:16:36 +0000, Barney wrote:


Well my experience found that those who are rude and impolite are
mostly American. I realize only a few can spoil it for others. I
have met Americans in Canada that even refered to this country as a
"third world country"

To be fair though, I suspect Americans stand out for a bunch of reason,
starting with there being more of them.

People may just not notice those who behave. Probably think they are
Canadian :-).

Another issue: surely this sort of observation will bepend upon places and
destinations, and what type of tourism.

BTW, last time I saw obnoxious tourists in a restaurant, in Jasper it was,
they group of overly noisy folks, behaving like in conquered land, was
French. Then, digressing since these are not tourists, there is always a
group of overly loudy elderly Cantonese ladies in the back of the city
bus. Again, if they expected other folks to understand them, they would
probably make themselves less obnoxious too.

Van wrote:

I recall while we were in London on a cruise on the Thames. There were
Germans speaking very quietly amongst themsleves, Japanese speaking
quitely amonst themselvers and us who were quiet and talking amonst
ourselves and enjoying the atmosphere. Then a family of Americans came
aboard. Everyone on board knew they were Americans beacuse the
Americans made sure everyone knew and boy they were talking loud and
they were actually talking amonst themselves but disturbing everyone
else on board with their loudness..

You might make a similar observation of Spanish people and, to an
extent, of Italians. They speak more loudly than some other national
groupings. It's a cultural difference -- not good, not bad, just
different.

Even among Americans, there are regional differences. In some areas,
loud talk is the norm; in other areas, it is not.

--
PB
The return address has been MUNGED

Dave Smith wrote in
:

Xomicron wrote:

A terrorist isn't a terrorist unless it can be proven he/she
attempted to, or otherwise assisted, a crime.
Considering that those who go through with the action almost always
wind up dead, it is moot to charge them after the fact. But when you
enter foreign soil hunting for a 'terrorist'- especially uninvited,
you are committing an act of war.
GWB Jr. even stated that "We are at war against terrorism" (he also
said he was at war against evil, which makes him as fanatic as the
ones he hunts) It seems to me, the US is at War against Afghanistan,
and therefore MUST uphold the Geneva Convention.

The US is not at war with Afghanistan.

Then how do Americans get to determine that the people they are fighting
there are illegal combatants.

The Geneva Convention defines what a legal combatant is.

"Barney" wrote in message
...
"PTRAVEL" had
:

"Barney" wrote in message
...
B had
writtennews:ms5rb0hb1907n1jmbdq6bpl9bi3agu8vbn@4ax .com:



I once had the bad luck to ride in a train for two hours in
front of a loud and ignorant Canadian in Italy. Don't fool
yourself. -----------
Barbara Vaughan

It is embarrassing. Most Canadians feel embarrassed about our
countrymen that do that, but most Americans don't even know how
rude it is.

What an incredibly ridiculous thing to say. How do you know what
"most" Americans do when abroad? How do you even know if they're
Americans.

Because they say they are American!!!!!!!!!!!!!!(Usually the first
thing they say)

Again, how do you extrapolate from that to "most Americans"? I'm an
American, and I don't announce the fact (unless someone asks), nor do I
conduct myself rudely. And my extrapolation, based on the Americans that I
know (which number, I suspect, vastly exceeds those that you know) is that
most Americans are _not_ rude when they travel.



I traveled extensivly and many times with Americans. Most time I
tried to disassociate myself from them but alas! I worked with them
as well.

And I have traveled extensively, and many times with Americans. I can count
on half the fingers of one hand the number of times I've seen identifiable
American tourists acting badly.

Happily, my experience of Candians and Canada has been far more welcoming
and warm than your rather bigoted and xenophobic manner would indicate As I
said previously, your sig says it all.


--
__________________________________________________ ________
"I'm not into name calling. That's best left to the Morons and
Idiots"

Van wrote in
:

They don't go to a local restaurant and demand food as served at home.
They usualy don't spend the day telling their hosts how things are so
much better at home and try to make up for bad manners with a huge tip.

I recall while we were in London on a cruise on the Thames. There were
Germans speaking very quietly amongst themsleves, Japanese speaking
quitely amonst themselvers and us who were quiet and talking amonst
ourselves and enjoying the atmosphere. Then a family of Americans came
aboard. Everyone on board knew they were Americans beacuse the
Americans made sure everyone knew and boy they were talking loud and
they were actually talking amonst themselves but disturbing everyone
else on board with their loudness..

That's a cultural thing. Americans tend to be more outgoing than most
Europeans.