Done and done. Well, not modified, but qualified. I know my grandparents would far rather eat Indian, Greek or Chinese than American food on account of their prescience on our air bases.
There's something funny about begrudging your old allies more than your old enemies. But there it is... The principal Bill was making still stands, if we worked in a Chippy to pay our collage bills our grandparents would be proud... the burger bar is a bit much however, as it promotes foreign influences on the land of good old bare chested queen Bodecia. Rule Britania.
My wifes parent's, BTW, don't approve of French, Greek or Italian cuisine either. Seeing these as hostile take over attempts by foreign powers. Where as I see my self as a European citizen, and a cultural child of my home county
before I am British.
Aside to my European citizenship, I am also a world citizen before I am British. I am part of the internet community, before I am British, and I too have friends in both the US and Canada, among many other countries around the world. I'm sure however that even the hardest nosed of them can understand about the views of our grandparents, and I know even my Texan friends understand about rivalries between localities within a single nation. Their views on New Yorkers are far worse than any lack of faith I may have in our National government.
And though they have less respect for their present president than I have for our present, or previous Prime Minister, at least they feel they can hold him, and his senate responsible for the effects their policies have on the people of their nation. I have no such confidence in any branch of our government. I believe they are an elitist group of individuals (career politicians) who have never lived or worked in the real world, who make decisions about the lives of the nations people based on a spreadsheet with no understanding or care for the real effect. A computer could do a better job, and would cost less. I also have no doubt in my mind that the opposition party(s) would make exactly the same decisions based on exactly the same spreadsheet, regardless of how I vote in any coming election.
In the words of my Texan friends "Y'all are f***ed dude... Sersly". My greatest argument with U.S. citizens is that, if they saw how democracy works in the UK, France or many other European nations... not just the eastern ones. It wouldn't be
that which they felt the need to export to the rest of the world. I think some dictatorships have the advantage over some democracies, that at least some "person" is in charge of things, rather than a load of well paid sheep following the dictates of a well oiled machine.
The European Parliament is not a branch of government I, or any other European citizen has much democratic power over. Yet I trust them with my financial, legal and human rights issues far more than my national government. And my local county council is the only place I feel I have any democratic power of vote.
So according to our laws, it is more socially acceptable to rape and kill than to discipline your child or dispose of your house-hold rubbish via publicly available services for which we are so highly taxed. I suppose they would rather he fly tipped his waste?
If we had any control over our government, the council tax which goes into refuse collection would be paid via taxation of manufacturers and distributors on the quantity of packaging they provide with our essential goods. That way we might not
need to over fill our bins. More than that, we wouldn't have to pay twice for a product (said packaging) which passes directly through our hands, with almost no practical benefit to our selves. Once at the checkout, and again in our council tax, and I hear some councils are deciding to charge separately again for any non-recycle refuse they collect from each house-hold. I know the Texan response would be "But they can't do that. That's double taxation, and that ain't allowed." Well, I have come across places where we are triple and quadruple taxed according to their "No double taxation" rules.
Again... "Y'all are skrewd." and my favorite "Why d' y'all put up with that sh**?" like we have any choice in the matter.
Perhaps government accountable to those it governs is more important than democracy, as the two are obviously neither mutually exclusive, nor one in the same thing. Loosing the ability to impeach or take legal action against their President was where the French last fell far foul of an accountable government.
Anyway... my point was that I agree with the idea that we are failing to prepare our children for the real world in their education... but in this country, we have an entirely different method of failing them. We teach them that they are invincible, untouchable and the master of all they see. Simply because they are children.
Of course, once they stop being children, this will all change drastically.
I'm afraid this winds me up rather, because I have, until just recently, been working as an IT Tech and Network Admin in a Secondary School and Sixth Form Collage. (thats ages 11 - 16 and 16 - 18 for those outside the UK Education System. Keystage 3 to 6 and F&HE is our closest representation of the Grade system in the US. We cannot "hold back" a grade... Students progress through the years regardless of whether they can keep up, or are beaning held back by the rest of that year. The only allowance made is that they are banded for each subject into A and B bands where the B band is hoping to just pass, and the A band is expected to actually get a grade worth mentioning in a CV or Resume. In layman's terms.)
found this floating around on the net whatdayathink?
