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Siselmo posted:And for something more politically-loaded. It's why following Mexican news is incredibly depressing.
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Jan 6, 2015 21:05
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Kurtofan posted:I'm not sure what Spanish has to do with anything considering that English and Dutch are spoken in Guyana and in Suriname, respectively. That settles it. Argentina back to Spain and Brazil back to Portugal then.
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Jan 6, 2015 21:09
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Pook Good Mook posted:That settles it. Argentina back to Spain and Brazil back to Portugal then. Portugal would kill to just be a Brazilian state.
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Jan 6, 2015 21:10
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Kurtofan posted:I'm not sure what Spanish has to do with anything considering that English and Dutch are spoken in Guyana and in Suriname, respectively.
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Jan 6, 2015 21:10
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I don't even know why decolonialization is a pressing issues with these territories. If the people of French Guyana or Reunion are all in favor of being part of France instead of going independent, then why should anybody be unhappy about it? It's not like there are rival claims to these areas (as far as I know), in contrast to the Falkland Isles or Gibraltar for example.
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Jan 6, 2015 21:27
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Torrannor posted:I don't even know why decolonialization is a pressing issues with these territories. If the people of French Guyana or Reunion are all in favor of being part of France instead of going independent, then why should anybody be unhappy about it? It's not like there are rival claims to these areas (as far as I know), in contrast to the Falkland Isles or Gibraltar for example. 
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Jan 6, 2015 21:31
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Torrannor posted:I don't even know why decolonialization is a pressing issues with these territories. If the people of French Guyana or Reunion are all in favor of being part of France instead of going independent, then why should anybody be unhappy about it? It's not like there are rival claims to these areas (as far as I know), in contrast to the Falkland Isles or Gibraltar for example. Because the UN has deemed geography to be more important than shared history or culture. Seriously, the Special Committee on Decolonization which was formed after WWII when there was honest to God human rights issues to worry about has transformed into a body that advocates for home rule in every circumstance even when the local population seems to have no interest in doing so. See for example their stance on Puerto Rico and formerly (currently?) the Falklands. It's basically just an offshoot of the Human Rights Council and is almost uniformly made up of the members who have a political ax to grind.
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Jan 6, 2015 21:32
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There's a border dispute between Suriname and French Guiana but I don't know much (at all) about it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borders_of_Suriname#Eastern_border but it doesn't seem that big of a deal.
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Jan 6, 2015 21:35
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Torrannor posted:I don't even know why decolonialization is a pressing issues with these territories. If the people of French Guyana or Reunion are all in favor of being part of France instead of going independent, then why should anybody be unhappy about it? It's not like there are rival claims to these areas (as far as I know), in contrast to the Falkland Isles or Gibraltar for example. I mean I think it's a little more complicated than "the people of Guyana are all in favor of being part of France", probably. I could say the same thing about Algeria circa 1950, and it would have similar kernels of truth to it
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Jan 6, 2015 21:41
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icantfindaname posted:I mean I think it's a little more complicated than "the people of Guyana are all in favor of being part of France", probably. I could say the same thing about Algeria circa 1950, and it would have similar kernels of truth to it As long as France gives the people the option of holding a referendum to determine their status if they wish it, I see no problem.
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Jan 6, 2015 21:48
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icantfindaname posted:I mean I think it's a little more complicated than "the people of Guyana are all in favor of being part of France", probably. I could say the same thing about Algeria circa 1950, and it would have similar kernels of truth to it
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Jan 6, 2015 21:49
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Kurtofan posted:I'm not sure what Spanish has to do with anything considering that English and Dutch are spoken in Guyana and in Suriname, respectively. Indeed, the only countries French Guiana borders are Dutch-speaking Suriname and Portuguese-speaking Brazil.
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Jan 6, 2015 22:33
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Yes, it's like a lava lamp.
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Torrannor posted:I don't even know why decolonialization is a pressing issues with these territories. If the people of French Guyana or Reunion are all in favor of being part of France instead of going independent, then why should anybody be unhappy about it? It's not like there are rival claims to these areas (as far as I know), in contrast to the Falkland Isles or Gibraltar for example. Real life version of ~pretty borders~.
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Jan 6, 2015 22:35
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TinTower posted:Pretty much. Decolonisation is basically a story of France going "no, this country thousands of miles away surrounded by Spanish speakers is totally an integral and indivisible part of France" whereas the British Overseas Territories are like "yeah, just don't put loads of taxes on us, thanks". Surinamese and Brazilians must be surprised to find out they've been speaking Spanish this whole time.
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Jan 6, 2015 22:42
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Badger of Basra posted:Portugal would kill to just be a Brazilian state. Didn't that almost happen after the Napoleonic wars? Based on Europa Universalis it's also a solid move.
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Jan 6, 2015 22:58
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a pipe smoking dog posted:Didn't that almost happen after the Napoleonic wars? Based on Europa Universalis it's also a solid move. I don't know how the administration worked, but the Portuguese court did have to move to Rio and they changed from the Kingdom of Portugal to the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil, and the Algarves. One of them didn't feel like going back once Napoleon was defeated and he became the first emperor of Brazil.
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Jan 6, 2015 23:02
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Badger of Basra posted:I don't know how the administration worked, but the Portuguese court did have to move to Rio and they changed from the Kingdom of Portugal to the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil, and the Algarves. One of them didn't feel like going back once Napoleon was defeated and he became the first emperor of Brazil.  When Napoleon invaded, King John VI did the brave thing and fled from Portugal and hid in Brazil. However he really liked Brazil better than Portugal, so decided to just stay there and elevated the colony to a full kingdom along side Portugal and Algarve, and at the behest of several rich Portuguese colonists in Brazil that didn't want to keep having to pay tariffs and taxes when the king lived there. There was a liberal revolution in 1920 in Portugal and nobles thought that this Portuguese United Kingdom was some dumb poo poo and told the king to come back to Lisbon and sign a new constitution that demoted Brazil back to a colony. This didn't go well with the new elevated nobles in Brazilian rich men(note white Portuguese living in Brazil) and had John VI son, Pedro the Regent of Brazil, made Emperor. There was a brief war, that the Portuguese bungled, and in 1822 they became a de facto independent state. Some years later Pedro came back to Portugal during the Liberal and Absolutist civil wars, was briefly King of Portugal then died and the kingdoms were never united again. Electronico6 fucked around with this message at 23:27 on Jan 6, 2015 |
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Jan 6, 2015 23:13
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Siselmo posted:
I'm surprised Chiapas is so peaceful. Has the whole Zapatista thing basically burned out by now? Or is the rest of Mexico really that atrocious?
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Jan 7, 2015 02:53
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The EZLN has not engaged in armed conflict with the government since 1995. It's not really mentioned much but after their initial surprise attack they were thoroughly whipped by the army in the 90s and basically forced into becoming a peaceful political movement. There have been a few violent incidents, but all in all there has been ~100 casualties in the conflict in the last 20 years. Whereas the drug war has seen tens of thousands in the last 10 years. I've traveled through the area and it is quite safe. There are a couple of military checkpoints on the highways and the occasional EZLN sign or flag waving but it's fine. It's also insanely beautiful.
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Jan 7, 2015 03:07
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SeekOtherCandidate posted:I'm surprised Chiapas is so peaceful. Has the whole Zapatista thing basically burned out by now? Or is the rest of Mexico really that atrocious? As the previous poster said, they are still going strong, but more in political/activist sense than an armed one. Also, if you ever get the chance to go to places like Chiapas and Oaxaca, do eeeeet. I went to Oaxaca once when I was around 14 and it is so pretty! Besides, in terms of peace and security, conflicts between cartels and government win over everything (that's why the borders states are orange or higher, for example). I mean, I'm from Tijuana and around ~2008 the situation over here was pretty bad because basically two cartels were fighting for territory controls and shoot-out in the middle of the day were very common (the situation is still bad, but booooy those years were particularly nasty). Military checkpoints are not exclusive to Chiapas, I've seen them here in BC, and in Jalisco and Colima when I visit my relatives. Quantity varies from state to state. Also, checking the map again, it's very sad to see Colima doing so badly. My uncle works over there at road planning and he tells me that things started to get bad once drug cartels began to use Manzanillo a port to circumvent higher security of states like Jalisco (Colima is a teeny state with 600,000 people) and when bad weather and plagues hit the agriculture sector pretty hard (which is especially bad since the state is the main producer of limes and coconuts in the country). tl;dr, Chiapas is doing alright; country overall is 
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Jan 7, 2015 05:09
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San Cristobal is one of my favorite places in the world. Gas prices. Going to decline even further.
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Jan 7, 2015 05:45
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I imagine a lot of the higher prices are due to state carbon taxes.
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Jan 7, 2015 05:51
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Sheng-ji Yang posted:San Cristobal is one of my favorite places in the world. It's pretty cool how you can make out some states due to their gas tax. Green South Carolina, Yellow Georgia, & Orange Florida in the south. Yellow New Jersey standing out next to Orange Pennsylvania and Dark Red New York.
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Jan 7, 2015 05:55
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Star Man posted:I imagine a lot of the higher prices are due to state carbon taxes. California actually has a law requiring any gas sold within their borders have special additives to help mitigate smog and air pollution. Since they're the only ones who require their own unique gas that is more expensive to produce their prices are higher. Though yes, they do also have the highest state tax on gas. That said, California is a case-study in effective pollution mitigation. In the 1970's Los Angeles reached a high-point of about 200+ "red-alert" smog days per year. 2010? 3.
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Jan 7, 2015 06:14
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Sheng-ji Yang posted:San Cristobal is one of my favorite places in the world. Hehe, Americans talking about gas prices is so funny. Here, have a map or two of European gas prices. Links, because you have to hover over them to see actual prices: http://autotraveler.ru/en/spravka/fuel-price-in-europe.html http://www.fuel-prices-europe.info/map-europe.php For comparison, €1.00 per liter = $4.49 per gallon. According to that first link, the average European gas price has dropped to a recent record low of €1.19 / liter = € 5.35 / gallon, while the most expensive countries (Norway, Netherlands and Italy) are around €1.58 / liter = $ 7.10 / gallon. When I visited California 5 years ago I felt like gas is basically free over there.
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Jan 7, 2015 10:17
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Siselmo posted:Greener means most peaceful and pinkish-red means least peaceful (It's from 2013, but most of it still holds true for today)
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Jan 7, 2015 10:22
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Carbon dioxide posted:Hehe, Americans talking about gas prices is so funny.  It's a map of numbers, okay
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Jan 7, 2015 12:34
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Electronico6 posted:white Portuguese Actually I just checked your GDP and debt levels and about that whole white thing...
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Jan 7, 2015 13:33
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Orange Devil posted:Actually I just checked your GDP and debt levels and about that whole white thing... I am assured by these people who were canvassing my neighbourhood recently that the blacks in fact start at Calais.
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Jan 7, 2015 13:35
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Orange Devil posted:Actually I just checked your GDP and debt levels and about that whole white thing... For these last years we've managed to trick those morons in Brussels and Berlin that we were European but I think they're catching up on the ruse.
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Jan 7, 2015 16:16
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3peat posted:Not a map, but an interesting followup to the earlier Belgium vs. Holland discussion Belgians love to save money, and I assume it's mostly savings that are being tracked here. Only thing that surprises me a little is Italy being in fifth place. United States and Germany are quite low, as well.
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Jan 7, 2015 19:11
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Phlegmish posted:Belgians love to save money, and I assume it's mostly savings that are being tracked here. Only thing that surprises me a little is Italy being in fifth place. United States and Germany are quite low, as well. You made me lookup a map: 
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Jan 7, 2015 19:22
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Phlegmish posted:Belgians love to save money, and I assume it's mostly savings that are being tracked here. Only thing that surprises me a little is Italy being in fifth place. United States and Germany are quite low, as well. Italy is not surprising at all  (lol @ Holland) Basically, Italians (and other countries on top of that wealth list) have a culture culture of home ownership, but they also don't like getting into debt or spending money they don't have (this actually hurts the country's economic performance, since people prefer saving instead of engaging in consumerism). Northern Italy is also one of the biggest and wealthiest industrial powerhouses in the world, it's richer than most of Germany for example. On the other hand we have Germany, where people earn more than Italians, but they also prefer renting to buying, and also they tend to spend their money on frivolous stuff like buying the latest BMW or Audi, going into expensive vacations abroad (e.g. to Italy), etc, things that Italians do way less. So things boil down to Italians, French and other southern Europeans are more industrious, responsible and forward thinking while Germans, Dutch and other northern Europeans are more frivolous and irresponsible with their money 
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Jan 7, 2015 20:30
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Noted Northern European countries Chile, Mexico and Turkey.3peat posted:
Probably had to go into debt to afford those driving lessons. The Netherlands is an interesting nation because they're stereotypically 'northern' and 'southern' at the same time. Good infrastructure and love following rules, but also loud, extroverted and financially irresponsible. Basically the opposite of Flemings.
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Jan 7, 2015 20:38
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It's funny, because the Dutch are stereotypically known to be 'stingy'. As a Dutchman with family in Belgium, I can (anecdotally) say that the Flemish are in many regards more 'stingy' than the Dutch. The Dutch do like a good sale, though. Anyway, our government is really weird when it comes to financial advice. On one hand, they keep producing public awareness campaigns about how loans will cost you money and please be careful. On the other, they try to stimulate people into getting loans to buy a house or to pay their studies (especially now that government study financing is being abolished), saying that borrowing money for going to college is fiiiine because it's an investment in your future and you needn't worry and nothing bad could possibly happen.
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Jan 7, 2015 21:03
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Well, there's a huge difference between mortgages and student loans on the one hand, and consumer / credit card loans on the other. So it makes sense to promote the former and discourage the latter.
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Jan 7, 2015 21:10
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Real estate is also outrageously expensive in Italy because there's a lack of it. The result is people living with their parents at least until they are married.
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Jan 7, 2015 21:47
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Riso posted:Real estate is also outrageously expensive in Italy because there's a lack of it. The result is people living with their parents at least until they are married. Same in Sweden, except people take on massive debts instead.
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Jan 7, 2015 21:55
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Cake Smashing Boob posted:Same in Sweden, except people take on massive debts instead. How in the world is real estate scarce in Sweden? It's the size of California with about a 1/3 the population and unlike California isn't half desert. I realize Stockholm is ridiculously expensive and has limited space but if there's a problem with housing availability in Sweden it's not because of geography it's because of where people choose to live. And yes I realize you can't realistically live in the far northern areas but Wiki tells me that 85% of Swedes live in cities. That would be like an American saying that real estate in the USA is too expensive because NYC, LA, and Chicago are pricey.
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Jan 7, 2015 22:18
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Trabisnikof posted:You made me lookup a map: whats the deal with the upper right side of wyoming. edit: oil or gas field? Trench_Rat fucked around with this message at 22:24 on Jan 7, 2015 |
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Jan 7, 2015 22:22
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