muffy1 said:
First, I'd like to say that JeffandJanet's post made much sense.
Secondly, I'd like to say that Deficient's post is dis-heartening. When Deficient says "what is it that makes you think Canada is so special.....What is this ridiculous attitude you display?" The attitude is called PATRIOTISM and I do not think there is anything ridiculous about displaying love for one's country or being proud of the country in which you live.
Thirdly, Deficient's use of vulgarity......I've often heard the phrase said that vulgarities are for less intelligent people that are incapable of using more intelligent words to express their feelings. I'm sure you are very capable of getting your point across without resorting to such foul language. If you use more appropriate language, I feel others (myself included) might actually take the time to try to understand where you are coming from and might give your opinion some credibility.
I think it's great to hear how everyone loves Canada (or any other country for that matter). People choose to live where they live and if you do not love or are unhappy with where you are living.....it helps to make for a miserable life. I can't imagine not living in a place that I am not proud of or to not be able to declare love for my country. These are the people whom you want to call fellow citizens and whom you want to call future citizens.
I apologise for my vulgarity and you are quite right, I ought to have been capable of making my point perfectly clearly without resorting to it.
I got rather fired up when I wrote all of that.
Having had a few hours to 'sit on it' I still feel the same way (although maybe I might hesitate to call someone else's viewpoint "bollocks"...) and here's why. When people say those kinds of things in the UK I generally think them narrowminded and ignorant.
I think there is much to be loved about the UK, but I know it is not perfect. Many people make a choice to come here, and I am sure they make that choice by weighing it up and considering it on balance - for them the pros outweigh the cons, whatever they find the pros and cons to be. It's true that I don't expect to hear them complain much, if at all, and to hear those people complain to any great extent would almost certainly rub me the wrong way, in the same way that some Canadians have responded to that German guy.
For spouses, I think it is different. For them, the only pro they really need to identify with the UK is the fact that the person they love lives here. Everything else could be awful to them, but if their loved one lives here, that's all that ought to matter. If they want to criticise my country, they are welcome to, because they were never expected to like it. I do not expect their devotion and respect to my country and so it follows for me that I would never suggest they don't deserve a spot here on this soil just because they don't love the country.
I think the reason this all rubs me the wrong way is that I know I am moving to Canada. At the moment, everything I have seen about Canada has made me like it, BUT I cannot possibly know whether it is for me until I get there and plant my feet on that ground permanently. What if I don't like it? What if I have a bad time? By the sounds of it, I cannot articulate that? I have no right to criticise that country? If I have bad things to say about it, I might have people basically telling me to "f*** off home" (it was right there in the March thread btw) and other people telling me I don't deserve to live there, and other people telling me that perhaps I deserve whatever misfortunes I have found myself experiencing. How awful is that?! So perhaps I will dislike it enough to want to leave, and perhaps to do so I need to get myself into the necessary position financially to make that move, but in the meantime I have to stick around and be made to feel like I am STEALING something from other "legit" people who love Canada and desperately want to move there. I am using up precious air and land and resources and everything that could be reserved for those who LOVE Canada? How dare I??? Or something...
You can't tell me that all of that isn't
totally outrageous. I am moving to Canada in good faith, I at least expect to be received that way.
I understand patriotism, and I understand loving one's country. I love mine too, but crikey guys.
JeffandJanet, I genuinely apologise for some of the more offensive ways I expressed myself towards you and I don't blame you if you're not prepared to respectfully consider my opinion as a result. But I nevertheless hope that you can understand some of what I am saying here.
I can absolutely see why that German guy has rubbed a few people up the wrong way but the way people have responded to him, if you take it outside the context of his specific situation and apply those views more generally, it is quite offputting and honestly rather upsetting.
