List the things you like/dislike about your country/state/city
 

For me it's a country obviously, but if you 'Muricans prefer to talk about your state or city, go for it.

Ireland:
I like that we have a rich musical heritage, that we have beautiful natural scenery that is the envy of the world, and that we have a history of struggling against an implacable oppressor for over 200 years before we finally won our freedom. I like that we're seen as friendly and easygoing, that we can go anywhere in the world and be welcomed, and that we're a small enough country not to be seen as a major threat to anyone.

I dislike the fact that, having fought for our independence we are now basically controlled from Germany, and can't even set our own budgets without asking "Is that all right, Angela?" I dislike that our cost of living is too high, and as I've said on numerous occasions we seem to have one of the worst health systems in the developed world. I dislike the undercurrent of gangland violence that has slowly spread through my country over the last ten or so years, and I dislike all the corruption that goes on everywhere, though of course that's hardly restricted to Ireland.

:laughing: Join the club right behind the new third world.

I'm not sure if I should speak about Syria or Lebanon since I feel like both countries are home to me so I guess I'll just talk about both.
I love the culture and history of both countries and I love the people. I also really love Lebanese food and Arabic music in general. The underground music scene in Lebanon is great and I'm grateful to have had the chance to see so many great musicians in concert over the past few years.

Now on to what I dislike. First and foremost, I hate all the conflict and the wars. I hate how people have to lose their lives over politics. I hate the dictators and the people who are so greedy and hungry for power that they are willing to let their people starve and die. I also really hate how people see this **** on the news and assume all Arabs are barbaric and bloodthirsty savages. Basically, I just want all the fighting to stop and I want to be able to make it out of university alive and get a job and a house and live in peace and then die of old age or a stroke or whatever and I wish to be buried in Aleppo, my hometown but it's under ISIS control right now so who knows. Hopefully they'll get the **** out soon.

The states have such kickin music, mostly because I live here but with our square footage there are millions of dank musicians out there. I enjoy this because I usually enjoy jiving music with musical strangers, especially if they play.

Boring rich people. Moving in and acting like they own SF. Go. ****ing. Home.

Leave.
Right mother****ing now. This is mine. All that is wrong is more than yours but quit bringing that garbage here.

Indiana. Completely embarrassed to live here. The rest of the country sees us as a backward and bigoted state because our legislators and governer didn't listen to the majority and passed some bull**** religious freedom law that's just a thinly veiled attempt to hurt the LGBT community. No one wants it in place.

Country: United States

Pros:
Number 1 military superpower
Comparitively rich vs the rest of the world
Comparitively free/liberal vs the rest of the world
Variety of climates
Massive land mass with plenty of strategically priceless sea ports

Cons:
Confused population
Hostility from rest of the world/haters
Too many fat people
Excessive economic inequality/exploitation for a first world nation
Excessive police/prison industry

City/State: Statesville, North Carolina

Pros:
Cheap as ****
Not too much crime
Friendly native population
Great weather/climate

Cons:
Boring
Backward thinking natives
Residual racial tension
Boring

C(r)ook County has a reputation for being the most corrupt county in the nation. Property, and sales taxes are out of control, murder capitol of the US, grid-locked roads, we have two seasons: Winter, and Road Construction, and lake effect snow can be a bitch, but the music scene here in Chicago is one of the best you'll get anywhere. Buddy Guy's Legends, House Of Blues, Midwest Ampitheatre (formerly "The World Music Theater"), Aragon Ball Room, Congress Theater, Park West, Metro, The Vic, Riviera... so many to list... it's a bit taxing. See? More taxes.

Norway, pros:
Decent economy
Simple electoral process
Well-functioning democracy
Rich cultural heritage
Welfare state

Cons:
Everything is goddamned expensive, man
Our right-leaning government is the bluest we've had since WWII
Our NATO membership makes us America's bitch
When it's not raining, it's snowing
We're **** at respecting the environment, even though we're considered "good" for being a first-world country

you forgot to mention drill

dafuq is "drill"?

Jesus effing christ man, I'm not watching a 40 minute video just to get a simple answer to my question.

Never mind.

:laughing:

Southern California

Pros:
Weather
Diversity
Culture
Tons to do
Great food

Cons:
Expensive
Expensive
Expensive
Expensive
Expensive

Thousand Oaks: the term walking distance doubles as the punchline for a joke.

Puerto Rico

Pros:

Great weather
Friendly people
Curvy women
Patriotic citizens
Rich Culture

Cons:

Reggeaton
Opportunistic & Lazy
Crooked leaders
Bad economy
High crime rate

I luv my country, but we basically live by sucking America's tits.
We don't really feel an attachment to other hispanic cultures except for spaniards and africans cause those are the core ethnicities of our melting pot but in modern times we've tried to model ourselves in America's example.

theres just no cons of Canada sorry everyone

Like: my house was almost on the cover of the new modest mouse album, live right next to that place

Dislike: everything else, mostly the weather and dry climate

If you have time, I'd love to get your insights on the Metal scene in Syria, as it's one of the four countries I'm looking at for "The International Language of Metal" in Metal Month III in October...

Unless the programme "Lillyhammer" lied to me, you've also got the most laidback prisons...
I can see Franco applying for a visa now... :laughing:
Surely Canada is a con of Canada?
:shycouch:

I would be happy to help although I'm not an expert on the topic I'll do my best :) I personally know a lot of Syrian metalheads and Arab metalheads in general even in places like Saudi. A lot of young people live in constant frustration because of the conditions in this part of the world and the oppression and all that sh*t and so of course music is a great distraction/outlet. I personally do not listen to a lot of Arabic metal. I prefer Arabic indie rock, pop, some rap and arab revolution music. A lot of great music came with the Arab Spring.

Here's a list of all the Syrian metal bands from Damascus and Aleppo:

From Damascus:
The Night
Abidetherein
Blackspell
Anarchadia
Absentation
Buried by the Last Tragedy
Dark Promise
Despair
Despond Womb
Ecliptic Dawn
Eulen
Funeral Moonlight
Innzmouth
Laxsid
Netherion
Nokturnal Forest
Sarcophagus

Aleppo:
Chaos
Crescent Moon
Nu.Clear.Dawn
Orion
Theoria

That's all. a lot of those bands probably suck, I have no idea what most of them sound like.
I don't know if this was what you wanted but feel free to ask me anything

I forgot to mention my favourite thing about Syria and that is our gay advertisements




Beautiful.

He could skip that step since it's part of the US. :)

as long as you like living in the tundra

Thanks for that. I had hoped you'd be into metal but hey, thanks anyway. If you happen to talk to any of your mates who are into metal, well Metal Month III ain't happening for six months, so there's time.
:thumb:
Yeah but he'd be too blinded by Puerto Rican booty to realise that...
Anyway, I thought he lived in like DRC or somewhere?

hasn't been cold here since like January. shades and shorts kinda day today

He lives in Minnesota, like Prince.

what temperature is it?

11 (so like 52 F?)

not as bad as i thought i guess

i remember when i lived in rhode island the weather was pretty **** to me. i know the lowest portion of canada is around the same altitude.

well I mean it does get cold but its usually only really bad for like 2 or 3 months. I like the winter season anyway so its a plus for me. and summers by the mountains is unreal. win/win

i wouldn't mind it i guess if i lived by the mountains and could get into the winter sports

where i lived was a decaying industrial ghetto mill town just north of providence. so it was mostly just brick and wood buildings and concrete coated with ice all the time. had a kind of bleak beauty to it in a way but **** the cold day in day out, i'm from florida i can't be ****ed with that ****

I spent some time in Calgary on business and that is one place I would not want to live. Felt like I was in Texas. It was cowboy boots and hats everywhere. And they have rodeos all the time too.

haha let me guess you were there in July?

im moving to Calgary in June most likely and im stoked. 45 min from the rockies is a big selling point for me. But the Stampede is insanely cool (coming from someone whos not into rodeos or country culture at all). The whole city basically shuts down for 2 weeks and everyone just gets loaded and parties. had a blast last year cant wait for it this year.

I am a big fan of Canada.

I was going to post about the UK but no point pretty much everyone will know the good and bad points of living in the UK.

London Pros:
Along with Paris this is where it's at in Europe.
If you get lost ask a foreigner for directions.
We have 5 international airports.
Good array of restaurants.
Great ethnic diversity.
Loads of great parks.
It's so big there are places that I don't even know.

London Cons:
****ing expensive.
When it's not raining, it's raining.
Full of unfriendly gits.
****ty metro system south of the river.
Nightmare commuting.
Gradual eradication of high street shopping.
****ing cockneys.

I live in Georgia and I dislike the weather. There are other annoying things but nothing as bad as the weather. Well, gnats, they are worse, but they come with the miserable weather.

Philadelphia Pros

• Lots of character and history
• Good art and music scenes
• Great restaurants
• Beautiful parks and architecture
• A great place to explore with loads of cool off-the-beaten-path things to see
• The last semi-affordable city in the Northeast
• Fairly easy to get around
• Relapse Records

Philadelphia Cons

• High crime (though better than it used to be)
• Prevailing "I don't give a fuck" attitude (aka "the Philly shrug")
• Unresponsive police and other city services
• Real estate developers who operate above the law
• Streets that look like they've been bombed
• Neighborhoods that look like they've been bombed

Poland
Pros:
tons of culture and history
really, tons, can't swing a dead cat without hitting a museum or a monument or something
relatively inexpensive
Lots of great, open minded people.
Surprisingly tasty food
People are very down to earth
Polish sense of humor is great, as its modern version developed under the communist rule - there was a ministry of censorship back then and artists of all kinds had to really sweat to get through.. which they did. Unfortunately it's too dependent on context to be universal.
Gorgeous women.

Cons:
The catholic church owns half of the country and seems to run it too
there are some "catotaliban" as we call them spoiling everybodys fun and making the country look like it's should be put in the dictionary under the definition of conservative. luckily they are a vocal, but a minority.
the state is .. well, corrupt. And populist.. generally the whole country is still in transition from being a satelite of the soviet union - for example the law system is based on a 50 year old communist law system and while it's been reformed, upgraded etc, it it still in some cases very complicated and unintuitive, stupid even. Like when it says that offending someone's "religious feelings" is something you can go to jail for, but doesn't define what these feelings are exactly...
generally it's getting better, but not fast enough ;)
Another con is, people perceive Poles as thieving simpleton racists, we're the butt of many jokes and stereotypes.. which is somewhat true but isn't as funny as it might seem when it comes around for the 10,000th time. But I guess it's like this for many countries..
And historically, the biggest con is that geographically, we're located smack in the middle between "west" and "east", making Poland one of the most frequent battlegrounds of Europe... And you can see the effects clearly, though I don't wan to turn this into a history lecture ;)