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soulgrind

Listed below are comments made by soulgrind between Thursday, 11th June 2009 and Sunday, 29th November 2009.

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Europe's identity crisis 2:07pm on 29 Nov 2009 I won't comment on the issue of newcomers to Europe being required to integrate. However, I find it interesting that Europeans, Americans and Brits (especially) rarely make any attempt to integrate into the societies they go to.

Visit many countries with any serious ex-pat numbers, and you'll usually find a closed community of Brits (*or insert other culture here) who live in ex-pat housing, have ex-pat friends, eat ex-pat food, rarely speak the language, rarely absorb the culture, rarely have local friends, and generally complain about the parts of the local culture that aren't "as good" as they are back in their homeland.

It seems to be ok for US to go to developing countries, complain about their laws and rights, and try to "improve" them by introducing our views of enlightened society. But when the boot is on the other foot, suddenly it's a threat to our culture, or it's an invasion of fundamentalists bent on destroying our society.

Live in another country and campaign for Freedom of the Press, Free Speech, Jury Trials, etc.. = Progress.
Live in another country and campaign for Sharia Law, Islamic trials, etc.. = Disaster.

Personally I'm in favour of the former.. but that's because of my upbringing. It hardly seems fair to deny others the same actions because of their upbringing. (and because they are poor?)
Nick Griffin on Question Time 04:46am on 31 Oct 2009 It's a shame that in it's attempts to justify it's decision (which i don't totally disagree with) the BBC has been forced into defending and legitimising the BNP.

This post came off almost as much as a promotion for the BNP as a defense of question time. "they're a legitimate party". "they have lots of supporters". "lots of people wrote in to support them". etc...

They are an elected party, that's true. But legitimate, that's another question...
Nick Griffin on Question Time 04:14am on 31 Oct 2009 The problem is that question time isn't a serious forum for examining issues, it never has been. As such it played right into the BNP's hands.

The other problem seems to be that the Daily Mail and BNP have somehow convinced us all that there is some kind of "silent majority" that are really thinking these things, but not saying them, or being represented. That's crazy. Nick Griffin isn't really "saying what everyone is really thinking". Only the small group of people thinking that think that.

Seriously, the BNP isn't a real political party, it's simply masquerading as one by jumping on the immigration bandwagon of the tabloids. It's members, meetings and views are still 100% racist gang. Heck, their record label is Great White Records!
Nutt gets the sack 02:41am on 31 Oct 2009 What has always caused confusion has been that it's always been clear that government advice on drugs wasn't based on science or facts, but on fears and keeping tabloid editors happy.

That's the reason most young people have zero faith in the drugs classification system. Dismissing a scientist for clouding the system with facts seems to be a particularly bizare choice.

Possibly this government would be more popular if it had stuck to it's principles and not spent so much time cow-towing to tabloid newspapers.
Why 'adolescent America' has to grow up 2:28pm on 26 Oct 2009 I'll just comment that the main reason many japanese are resistant to the idea of jury trials is that they've seen them in US movies - where they always get subverted. The main reason they have a particular view of certain ethnic minorities is that they've seen the way they act in US movies and dramas.

In short, US pop culture IS america, for much of the world. And that projected image has a big effect on how people react to it.
Not so special? 1:15pm on 24 Sep 2009 The only people who think the UK is still an important power in the world are the ones that never leave the UK. Those who do leave soon discover that the UK's history and quaintness is well known, but it otherwise hardly makes an impact.

We have few well known brands, we've lost all our traditional culture, our economy is very small and isolated. we just fall back on our history, and somehow expect to be at the top.

But you're right that we do have Nukes and 007... but unless we show some selectiveness in how we use them, why should anyone feel the need to butter us up?
Semenya's sex test explained 05:57am on 12 Sep 2009 To be blunt, anyone who thinks racism is a factor in this seems pretty misguided to me.

It's a complex issue, and it should have been handled much more privately, but I totally fail to see how the accusations of race having an effect can be supported.

There have been numerous athletes from africa and of african descent who've been winning golds for decades now, why would racism suddenly come into play to stop this one particular athlete?

Plus, in the past, there have been numerous cases of suspicion, tests and press speculation about blonde white athletes... in particular from the old soviet union. At that time there wasn't the ability to test for complex genetic conditions, but that didn't stop the accusations.

It seems to me that the IOC can't regulate for every type of genetic variation, so as long as she is a woman externally, (and as long as no testosterone abuse or sugery is suspected) she should get the chance to run. Who's to say that numerous female athletes in the past didn't have similar advantages that couldn't be detected at the time?
Can Japan change the climate? 09:03am on 07 Sep 2009 even in japan, the party politics takes precedence over the big issues. As far as i can tell one of Hatoyama's election pledges was also to Remove All Road Tolls.

This was a weird choice, as it'll cost the government trillions of yen, can't be good for the environment, didn't seem that popular with voters, and kinda contradicts all their other statements on the environment and increasing public spending.
Pubs aren't dying - they are evolving 08:53am on 09 Aug 2009 If this is true then it is a REALLY GOOD THING.

Having lived in several other countries it is amazing the difference between british "vertical, pack'em in and carry 'em out" pubs and the rest of the world's attitude to drinking.

Everywhere else "going out for a drink" means sitting down, eating, talking and some drinking. It seems to be only the UK where it means standing at a bar and downing drinks.

My only worry is that recently it's seemed to me that there have been MORE of these kind of standing Bars. Hopefully it's true that the shift has been from Pubs to restaurants/cafes/gastro pubs, and not from Pubs to Bars.

The UK is finally civilising?
Changes to international pages 09:22am on 11 Jun 2009 Not very convenient for british people living overseas.

To be honest there aren't THAT many differences between the two pages, but viewing the international page doesn't give you the same FEEL for what news is big in the UK.

For example, viewing the international news page I'd never have known that the expenses scandal was such a big story, as it only showed up a little. But on the UK homepage it was much more prominent.

I never use the personalised homepage, as i often access from lots of different PCs.. but for me its very useful to be able to switch between views. Sometimes i want an international view.. sometime i want to know what's going on back home.

Not the end of the world, but disappointing...

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