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#Post#: 12616--------------------------------------------------
Re: The cool guys
By: NealC Date: February 17, 2019, 4:28 am
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So it seems a couple of weeks among the heathen have
rehabilitated you a bit.
Blacks and Indians. It is a false pride. American slavery
would have ended in the same way British slavery did if the
cotton gin had not been invented. That machine made large scale
cotton production possible but to feed the cotton mills of
Liverpool and Manchester it had to be done at a price that could
compete with the near slave labor of Egypt, and later India.
There was no possibility of similar industry in Canada. It is
easy to feel smug over some moral failure you had no opportunity
to make.
As for the Indians, it is true the Canadians made a big show of
purchasing Indian land and signing treaties for lumber and
mineral rights but most of those (esp on the east coast) were
along the same lines of Peter Minuit's 'purchase' of Manhattan
for $24 in beads and trinkets. The treaties were made with a
people who had no concept of land 'ownership' and contract law
and no idea of the potential numbers of white men who would
eventually show up. The big difference was Canada never had the
intense immigration pressure that pushed American expansion West
and often made Treaties defacto unenforceable even before they
were signed. Once again, it is easy to feel morally superior
when you never really had to make the same moral choices.
Today the land transfers and deeds in Western Canada and
especially British Columbia basically have the equivalent of an
asterisk in each one, as land ownership there is subject to
ongoing negotiation with native tribes who say they were never
compensated for lands their ancestors claimed as their own, even
if they weren't living on it. This is the end result of their
national pride.
#Post#: 12623--------------------------------------------------
Re: The cool guys
By: Susan Date: February 17, 2019, 9:19 am
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I was reading one of those articles on good places to retire
overseas and was surprised to see that Colombia´s national
healthcare system, at #22, ranks above Canada´s, who are ranked
#30 by the WHO. So THAT is the healthcare system that Canadians
are so proud of??? Since when is being #30 such a cause for
pride. (I guess since is it higher than the U.S. ranking. The
U.S. is #37, no doubt for the fact of it being seriously
expensive for everybody and inaccessible for some. If you were
ranking based on cutting edge technology and where you would
want to get treatment if cost were no issue for you, then I bet
the U.S. would be much higher.
#Post#: 12641--------------------------------------------------
Re: The cool guys
By: Alharacas Date: February 17, 2019, 3:51 pm
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Wendy, I have no idea what the WHO measured, but I do know about
Spanish healthcare, which ranks 7th. And it sucks. Big time.
No, I'm not going to claim German healthcare is ideal (actually,
it's far from it), but here, you would never be asked by a
specialist's receptionist - when in acute pain! - to choose
between waiting 6 months for an appointment, and "going
private", i.e. paying cash without being reimbursed.
Nevertheless, this is exactly what happened to a Spanish friend
of mine in Spain, and yes, it's considered normal - in Spain.
Not very amusing anecdote as a side note:
I got so frightened by what I'd seen of Spanish healthcare that
I wanted additional private insurance on top of the obligatory
health insurance everybody gets. It would cost about 200 Euros a
month, they told me. Oookay. Then they show me this fat book
listing all the doctors and hospitals the extra insurance would
cover. So I asked them what was going to happen if I had an
accident. Would I have to tell the ambulance driver - provided I
was able to talk - not to take me to the next hospital, but to
check the book and find one where I'd be getting the extra care
I was paying for? Er - yes.
Oh, and by the way, I was told the very same thing, i.e. either
wait or pay cash, about Belgium (ranks 21st).
#Post#: 12691--------------------------------------------------
Re: The cool guys
By: SHL Date: February 19, 2019, 10:38 pm
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Susan,
That was an interesting statistic you cited. I wish I had read
your comments before I got banned on Quora (temporarily until I
behave myself, of course let the Canadians say whatever they
want). Canada`s national healthcare system ranking below
Columbia’s. That`s hilarious. I would have mentioned it on
Quora.
And, Neal‘s comments were good about the Canadians ripping off
the Indians worse than we did. That would have been a good one
to throw back at them. :)
#Post#: 12770--------------------------------------------------
Re: The cool guys
By: nataliestpete Date: February 22, 2019, 5:07 pm
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The situation has changed dramatically since I was a child.
Russians used to be keen on foreigners from many countries such
as English, Americans, Germans, French and others. It was in
general as well as related to some industries. For example, if a
restaurant hired a foreign chef, it meant to get popularity at
once. Now there are a lot of talented Russians chefs and people
pay attention to other factors than nationalities. However,
massage making by Thai masters are really popular.
Talking about traveling and popular nationalities, in my opinion
it’s something exotic and far from Russia such as Brazil, Japan,
South Africa, etc. This was one of the main reasons why I
visited Brazil recently.
#Post#: 12775--------------------------------------------------
Re: The cool guys
By: NealC Date: February 22, 2019, 6:03 pm
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Tell us about your Brazil trip!
I was in Rio for a few days, a looooong time ago.
#Post#: 12776--------------------------------------------------
Re: The cool guys
By: SHL Date: February 22, 2019, 10:08 pm
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The Brazil trip would be fun to hear about. I ran into a lot of
Brazialians on italki, and they were all really nice people.
They seem to have a keen interest in learning English more than
other languages I noticed, which I assume is due to the tourist
industry. I mentioned once here I was helping one Brazilian guy
because he was a very enthusiastic English learner and would
also send me Skype messages now and then asking me to correct or
comment on a question he had. I explained to him I was no
English teacher and couldn’t cite chapter and verse and explain
English grammar, because I just go by what sounds right. I think
it was Phil who was good with the grammar rules, explaining
“split infinitives”, “phrases verbs” and maybe “phrasal nouns”
or something? I have no clue what any of those things even are.
He checked something I wrote once and said he didn’t see any
split infinitives. I was thinking, “That’s great. I wish I knew
what they were.”
The Brazilian guy I helped was always grateful. He’ll even send
me a hi once in a while on skype. And, he told me all about the
Favalas in Brazil too, which I had read about. I read about them
first on Wikipedia and then on the State Department Website. So
they sounded pretty bad. But, I’m sure the country in general is
beautiful.
This guy really loved a sort of archaic English, probably from
watching too many episodes of Game of Thrones I suppose (which I
think is just more invented English to sound archaic, but it’s
pretty fake because it’s done so that there’s no communication
problems with the audience). His favorite word was “shall.” I
could never get him to stop saying “shall” all the time. I tried
telling him if he just dropped shall from his vocabulary, he’d
be fine because he doesn’t need it. I don’t think there is
really any rule on using “shall” that I’ve ever heard of. It
sounds sort of commanding, like giving orders. “You shall do
this or that”. That’s why you read it in case law, or in
statutory law all the time, but that’s about it.
Anyway, Brazil sounds great. Warm and tropical if you like that.
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