Stereotype Thread

[ACN45trooper]

Off topic : In reference to the above comments I will like to conclude it as an example of typical stereotype and yes Colombia is more than that. ACN45Trooper you forgot to mention football and a few others but let's move the discussion somewhere else and not go off topic and maybe create .....like a "Stereotype Thread". What do you say?

Well, as Golden Dragon Suggested it, here it is:

Stereotype Thread: Countries

I will Start:

Colombia

World wide Colombia is nowadays 4 things:

-Coffee: In my opinion (and not because national pride), Colombia has the sweetest and most delicious coffee in the world, in fact, a lot of things of our culture turn around Coffee, specially in the "Coffee Triangle" a region in western Colombia.

-Violence: After the "Bogotazo"( the murder of Jorge Eliecer Gaitan) violence in Colombia started to grow, first with "carteles" (Remember Pablo Escobar?) in the 80's-90's,n and then with "armed groups" such as guerrilla, FARC, paramilitars, etc.

-Drugs Traffic: With violence and a disorganized government, comes this, Colombia is World famous because of the drug traffic, that's why other countries relate us with Coca, Marihuana, and other Weeds.

-Soccer: A recent thing, the Colombia Team, after 16 of wait, will gonna bright in the 2014 WC, like it did in 1990.

[Golden Dragon]

like it did in 1990

Twas the time of Andres Escobar and others. So now my turn :-

India

Well India might be famous for these things :-

-Population: Ah...n ow this is something nobody can ignore. It seems that no matter which group we identify as a minority, it is actually bigger than the majority of some countries.

-Poverty: Well with huge power comes huge responsibility and so with huge population comes huge poverty. Given the portrayal of "Slumdog Millionaire" this stereotype has found a boost largely ignoring the fact that we do have a big working middle class.

-Outsourcing:- This is the issue on which Obama got very angry at us and nowadays it is common for people to think that whoever picks up the customer helpline is an Indian.

-Cricket:- What Football is to England, Cricket is to India not to mention the heat which generates during an India- Pakistan match.

-Kashmir- The piece of land for which both India and Pakistan are ready to fight till the last man. Seriously according to me "Solve this issue and you remove 25% of terrorism from the world"

For now these are the facts which I think mainly constitutes the 'India' stereotype. I invite other members to post their views regarding their own countries or others but please do so in a gentle manner.

[peugeot407]

I don't know if this is about stereotypes as much as it is about real facts, the latter seem to predominate, which is fine, but a bit contradictory to the title of the thread. Especially where football is concerned, Colombia is probably least associated with football out of all South American countries, though it would be difficult to equal any non-European country with the football giants Brazil and Argentina...

Anyway:

The Netherlands

- Our unique policy on softdrugs, which has caused the Netherlands to be the country with the lowest drugs consumption in Europe, and an almost total end to drugs dealers' power.

- Our expertise in water management, particularly with regards to seawalls and the like. There's no place in the world with as many dikes as the Netherlands, not to mention we dammed off a 5000m² part of the North Sea and turned it into a fresh water lake, and built a number of quite remarkable sea defenses at the mouths of the rivers Meuse and Scheldt.

- The immense flatness of our non-Caribbean territory. Our highest point is only 322 metres above sea level, and the next two highest peaks stand only 106 metres tall. More than 50% of the country is less than a metre above sea level, and the difference between the coastal average height and inland average height is less than twenty metres.

- Our rich colonial history. Despite our relatively small population, in the 19th century the Netherlands had the third largest colonial empire in the world, second only to those of Britain and France. We colonised all of Indonesia (arguably the second best country on earth to colonise, after India), a noticeable part of the Caribbean and Guyana, and going further back in our colonial history, also South Africa, Ceylon, Tasmania, much of what's now the East Coast of the Thirteen Colonies and an important part of coastal Brazil.

- Our rudeness. Just thought I'd stick it on; if you wish to meet people who have decent social skills, don't go to the Netherlands.


peugeot407

[ACN45trooper]

like it did in 1990

Twas the time of Andres Escobar and others. So now my turn :-.

Pablo Escobar, curiously, Andres is my name.

In fact, Bolivia and sometimes Colombia are also qualified "Poor", but is not an important fact world wide about Colombia.

[ACN45trooper]

I don't know if this is about stereotypes as much as it is about real facts, the latter seem to predominate, which is fine, but a bit contradictory to the title of the thread. Especially where football is concerned, Colombia is probably least associated with football out of all South American countries, though it would be difficult to equal any non-European country with the football giants Brazil and Argentina...

In fact, I put it because GD suggested it and because we want to become a stereotype.

- Our rudeness. Just thought I'd stick it on; if you wish to meet people who have decent social skills, don't go to the Netherlands.

You're a nice guy to me, Robert. At least more than Hoop or Tahattus.

[Golden Dragon]

Pablo Escobar,

Thanks for the correction.

Especially where football is concerned, Colombia is probably least associated with football out of all South American countries

I know this but curiously I have found Colombia's name creep up in discussions of Football. I believe this is due to their 1990 stint and my father did become a great fan of them after that albeit for a short time but given the fact that when a group of Bengali men meet over at tea all they can discuss about is Politics and Football I think the whole of Latin America is considered as great for Football.

- Our rudeness. Just thought I'd stick it on; if you wish to meet people who have decent social skills, don't go to the Netherlands.

Then my friend they have one big exception and that would be......... You.  

[AOE_Fan]

Robert, you forgot the wooden clogs and windmills.  

[chris17]

And the homosexual marriages, if I could add. If I am not totally mistaken, I believe that the Netherlands was the first country -in Europe, at least- which allowed this. Still, I might be wrong.

[peugeot407]

Indeed. That's not very special anymore though, a large part of Europe now allows same-sex marriage, and more are fortunately on the way there.

Windmills and clogs are both excessively stereotypical, but not thát prevalent... Clogs, even in their heyday, were an item of footwear only worn by some farmers, and these days nobody wears them (though some do wear a leather adaptation), and while we do have a fair few windmills, their numbers are in no way excessive or very noteworthy, and frankly, the vast majority of them is in North Holland, the other eleven provinces have rather few of them.


peugeot407

[Persian_Fusilier]

Is Colombia football team goalkeeper still Faryd Mondragón?

Persia

History: Persia is the one of oldest nation in the world, there were a people who live in Persia Plateau in 3200–2700 BCE, after them Aryans pligrimate to Persia in 678–550 BCE.

Resistance: Persia raided many times (Greeks, Arabs, Mongols, ...) and its regions completely captured by enemies but after all standing up in firm again

Cultures: Persia have many traditional ceremonies like (Nourooz , Suri , Yalda , ...)

Wrestle: I don't mean WWE or something like this, i meant old wrestle that also available in Olympic.

Geopolitical Location: that's why anyone want to capture this place.

Celebrities: Many great Peots, Scholars and leaders come from Persia.

[ACN45trooper]

Is Colombia football team goalkeeper still Faryd Mondragón?

Yup. You forgot talking about what happened in Iran in the 70's.

[peugeot407]

I can understand his point in not mentioning that. Before 1979, there was a great Persian empire that could be counted among the most respectable countries in the world, nowadays there's the brutally dictatorial theocracy of "Iran" that leads the world in ignorance and stupidity. If I were a Persian, I wouldn't want to associate myself with the latter either. Certain things are just too horrific to be counted as part of a country's history; take Nazi Germany, most people would view it as a separate country to current Germany, not because the country actually changed, but because the atrocities of Nazi Germany were so awful that it would be almost inhumane to consider it part of the history of the current nation of Germany.

@Arsalan: I wouldn't call the Macedonian conquest a "raid" to be honest, the Seleucid dynasty that followed Alexander ruled a legit Persian Empire, despite being Greek in origin. The same goes for the Ilkhanate... The Arab conquest was different of course, because Persia didn't retain its independence but was made part of the larger Caliphate, but the name "raid" wouldn't be any more appropriate there.


peugeot407

[ACN45trooper]

I can understand his point in not mentioning that. Before 1979, there was a great Persian empire that could be counted among the most respectable countries in the world, nowadays there's the brutally dictatorial theocracy of "Iran" that leads the world in ignorance and stupidity. If I were a Persian, I wouldn't want to associate myself with the latter either. Certain things are just too horrific to be counted as part of a country's history; take Nazi Germany, most people would view it as a separate country to current Germany, not because the country actually changed, but because the atrocities of Nazi Germany were so awful that it would be almost inhumane to consider it part of the history of the current nation of Germany.

Oh, sorry, don't feel bad Arsalan. I was just curious why don't you mentioned it.

[Hoop Thrower]

Robert, you forgot the wooden clogs and windmills.  

Is it bad that I thought exactly the same while I was reading Robert's post?

Now that there's some new users here who haven't been involved in the community for so much time I wonder, what do you relate Chile to usually? I truly come to a blank whenever I try to think some kind of stereotype from us...

[Golden Dragon]

Peugeot I think what you are referring is certainly one of the most stereotypical viewpoints about Iran. Iran doesn't lead the world in ignorance. It is one of the countries with the highest research output now and after 1979 many things do seem to have progressed quite well there but yes of course there is corruption, the government's agressive nature and our Uncle Sam's continuos nose digging (no offense intended but if one looks at the figures half of all terrorism originated because of this nose digging thing of US) and of course the mind controller of people 'THE MEDIA'. It is one of the strongest tools out there. Also remember vinifriss, the Persia obsessed guy and his anger over 300. Well to some extent his anger was justified but he didnot consider one thing and that was 'viewpoints'. To the Greek it was an honourable stand indeed but from the Persian viewpoint it wasn't and he was considering that only. My point is it is the portrayal of media indeed which is one of the main reasons of stereotypes. Given that most of American media portray Iran as an enemy (much like the Indians & Pakistani media do to each other's countries) it is not surprising to find such stereotypes there. But from a neutral point of view it will be wise to say although Iran has progressed a lot it has not done so much in the political arena.


Hoop Thrower:

First thing that comes in mind is long & thin.

[peugeot407]

I can stick with my previous analogy then, because Nazi Germany was also highly technologically advanced, but that doesn't make it any less of a despicable country.

The propaganda machine isn't exactly one-sided though; the ayatollahs and their puppet presidents call everything they don't like "Western imperialism" or "Zionism", without regard to the subject of their bigotry. I'm a fairly well-thinking kind of chap, and I take everything coming from the US with a pinch of salt, but "Iran" really is plunging new depths when it comes to spreading hatred and actively promoting violence in the Middle East.

@Hoop: In Dutch, the country Chile and the fruit/vegetable/spice chili are both spelled 'Chili", so you can probably imagine what most Dutch people think of (lacking any more serious stereotypes); Chile is even shaped vaguely like a chili pepper. :p


peugeot407

[Golden Dragon]

Peugeot: That is exactly what I meant with my references to the Indian & Pakistani media though no one can deny that there are some truths to both sides (US and Iran) of the story which is masked by layers, toppings and spices.Let's move to other stereotypes then. I find this discussion pretty informative.

Hoop Thrower: I was thinking does Chile really produces any chilli and can you tell me more about the origins of its name.

[ACN45trooper]

Hoop:

Long and thin, it's flag, mountains, a long coast, O'Higgins, Easter island, and finally..... German Garmendia from "Hola soy German"

[Persian_Fusilier]

@Robert: thats good to know Robert that understand me. btw Iran and US try to make their relation better. and please do not continue talk about Iran politics thats why i did not insist that in my sterotype about Persia, because they may block this site in my region and there will be just problems for me... thanks all.

[Maestrosanti]

Lets see...

Argentina

-Football (Soccer): Argentina is known for havig really good football players (Messi, Higuaín, Agüero, Dí María)
-Falkland war: When people say "Argentina" one automatically thinks of our conflict with the UK.
-Arrogance: Argentines are said to be really arrogant and individualistics.
-Meat: Not because I´m argentine, but our meat is the best in the world.
-Relaxed people: I only have heard this once, from a German guy I met at english classes.

Anything else you could say about us?

[peugeot407]

I like Argentina, but if Kirchner keeps on her current path, you are heading into a dictatorship once again...


peugeot407

[Persian_Fusilier]

But i heard Argentina has one of angriest football fans in world....

[peugeot407]

Oh, but Arsalan, "anger" and "football fan" are synonymous...


peugeot407

[Pepp]

Hmm, the first time I heard there is something named woman dictatorship...

[Persian_Fusilier]

Sure, you cant recognize their celebration from anger behaviors but Robert , AFC Ajax in Netherland has one of best fans in world's clubs. hasn't it?

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