The Chat Thread (Read OP)

[Diamat]

It's sort of a fetish among owls. I don't get it either.

[Vaðarholmr]

In June there will be a proper viking camp not far away. I do not know if I'm invited, but I'd love to go.

For a whole week they'll live as historically as possible. No "cheating" after dark with air mattresses or rubber shoes. Archaeologists and Russians and stuff will produce stuff from the forest while there. In that week there will be two days open for visitors. It's not that kind of event. All historical food and conditions. The news said 150 "archaeologists, craftsmen and reenactors" were going.

[Adamat]

Just go and walk around like you belong there

[Diamat]

Just go and walk around like you belong there

That's what I do when I visit nunneries.

[Hobbes]

Nunnery used to mean brothel back in the day.

[Diamat]

Oh yeah?

[PikeStance]

I'm sorta confused about what to do next concerning my future. The year after the next I have three options: USA (no), stay here (maybe), go elsewhere. Australia and Singapore catch my eye, I can go elsewhere in Asia too.
I don't want to go anywhere in Europe though or Europe lite, heck the first world leaves me with a strange feeling. It just seems uncomfortable, I resent how the west is "normal", here in Hong Kong some foreigners live in their foreign-town and their children don't assimilate, actually they never do anywhere in Asia. In Thailand for instance, I don't expect them to become Thai at all but being able to speak some of the language and eat moderately spicy food without screaming would be nice, actually looking at the locals as human beings instead of their personal driver or the guy at the gatepost....heck this feels all like apartheid! In China it is a bit better I hear, Beijing probably has the largest population in terms of numbers of foreigners who know their crap and don't scream when they add half a teaspoon of chili oil to their noodles. Percentage-wise I do not know. (End rant)

Moving on to add some details. Hong Kong has changed a wee bit. The older foreigners are leaving, the old single jaded childless types who got jobs working for the old adminstration who were not above spending less than 10 US dollars on a meal, instead we have a lot of new foreigners who are like the ones in Thailand. They are foreigners living in some casablanca amid a foreign land where they keep to themselves and act above local custom. The locals are merely their servants for their expat lifestyle.

What else can I rant about? Oh, I have to admit something I truly feel and I don't care what you guys think no matter how unpopular this opinion is but here goes...I hate art. No, not art itself but "THE ARTS". Waste of money in my opinion sucking up efficiancy. I dislike certain kinds of regular art too, for one thing I can't stand the name of that statue called "tolerance", I prefer the statue with the words "love" on it, must be several in the world I believe. Furthermore, I don't feel comfortable with the well off crowd after all these years not out of guilt but something else, it just doesn't sit. I think everyone from the west in this world should spend time in a non-western country, ideally Asia and truly learn how to blend in and get by, don't just sit around, I mean there are tons of foreigners in Indonesia who don't even learn the language there, it's Indonesian, it's exceptionally straightforward, they just feel maybe they are above it and the locals should bow to them.

While this is going on, I do feel disappointed in the far east, why couldn't they freaking make all the mathematical, scientific, and philosophical advances the west did? They lost. They got beat.

I lived in in four different countries and taught in a half dozen schools. Most foreign students are exceptionally gifted in speaking a foreign language. Last year a fellow teachers students can not only speak chinese fluently, but read it as well. They were both middle school students.

It it is important to note that many foreigners do not spend that long in foreign countries. They spend 2 or 3 years and either move back home or to another country. This probably explains why them Holden can speak the language and the adults tend not to.

When I lived in Africa is did learn quite a bit of French. I can mostly read stuff here and there. I was learning chinese while in Beijin, but when I moved to Shanghai there are so many expats and chinese that spoke English I go worse not better. The irony is I taught in a all chinese school. In changchun, my now wife sort acted a crutch. She tease me to this day about not being able to speak chinese. I still have the Rosetta stone program that I spent a fortune on. The school here offers Indonesian, but I really suck at it and th teacher was crap. It is hard to learn anything with 20 people in the room to.

I once had a director that said that you have to live in a country for at least 7 years to understand the language and the culture. I think he was right. I lived in China for four years and married a chinese women and I am still learning crap.

Pesonally, i do not think expats are that insulated. I worked with locals and I can tell you they are not really open for friendships. There is always that rare exception. Most are helpful, but not overly inviting. Unless there is ia school sponsored cultural event, you rarely interact with them. As far as treatment of servants; well expats treat them far better than m lst locals.

all things considered, most expats embrace the culture they live in. The fact that a foreigner is unaware of a cultural faux pas is not an indication of selfishness. There are a lot nuances that you do not always understand or remember. You are making a lot of assumptions here.

[Sir Adrian]

In June there will be a proper viking camp not far away. I do not know if I'm invited, but I'd love to go.

For a whole week they'll live as historically as possible. No "cheating" after dark with air mattresses or rubber shoes. Archaeologists and Russians and stuff will produce stuff from the forest while there. In that week there will be two days open for visitors. It's not that kind of event. All historical food and conditions. The news said 150 "archaeologists, craftsmen and reenactors" were going.

Just go there in the proper attire and ask if you can join in, odds are they won't say no. You already eat like a viking and not many people own dane-axes and know how to make horns and stuff. You're about as good a reenactor as you can get without pillaging France and burning down York (which William Wallace totally did, Inkie)

[Påsan]

Alright, I'm gonna shift to another topic here. I just got this email from my university:



As I started reading this, I was like "ok," until I got the the part that said "two hours"!!! What the ! As much as I hate rape and sexual harassment, why the are we being forced to do a two-hour program on this? I can understand that it's preventative, but come on! It's a bit unfair to most people, who are just plain and simply normal, who hate rape, and who hate everything attached with sexual violence. I personally find it insulting, as a man and as a human being who was raised into a moral society. Not to mention that I'm married, have a daughter, and have absolutely no romantic interest in university students. For sake.

Sounds like a produce of the political correctness fad that's been plaguing academia recently. Seen any positive discrimination or voluntary segregation yet? You are after all a white male, and you owe half the world guilt for what your kind has done in the past.

For a whole week they'll live as historically as possible. No "cheating" after dark with air mattresses or rubber shoes. Archaeologists and Russians and stuff will produce stuff from the forest while there. In that week there will be two days open for visitors. It's not that kind of event. All historical food and conditions. The news said 150 "archaeologists, craftsmen and reenactors" were going.

I like how they get random Russians to go along with the archaeologists into the woods to find supplies.

[lolIsuck]

Archaeologists and Russians and stuff will produce stuff from the forest while there.

The idea behind this is that Russians have such a primal way of living that they're the most qualified for this?

[Derpy Hooves]

The idea behind this is that Russians have such a primal way of living that they're the most qualified for this?

Well I have heard that Russians leave the comfort of the cities to go find and eat rocks

[Diamat]

Sounds like a produce of the political correctness fad that's been plaguing academia recently. Seen any positive discrimination or voluntary segregation yet? You are after all a white male, and you owe half the world guilt for what your kind has done in the past.

Yes, PC Principal has arrived. I'm afraid that one day I'll get fired because I pushed the critical thinking of my students too far and offended someone.

And by the way, I'm German, not white. We are our separate race.

[Derpy Hooves]

Sorry, the only separate white races are Hispanics and Arabs

[Påsan]

Yes, PC Principal has arrived. I'm afraid that one day I'll get fired because I pushed the critical thinking of my students too far and offended someone.

And by the way, I'm German, not white. We are our separate race.

No all white men must share the guilt beacuse reasons. My ancestors were farmers yoking under the evil danish collonizers. But that trivial fact does not prevent me from taking personal resposibility for racism in the USA and British/French/German/Duch/Spanish/Portugese collonising crimes. Destroying all of the world except for white people and creating all the problems currently in this patriarcal racist anglo hellhole we are living in. White people are basically more evil orcs and its time we all came to the realization that we are genetically flawed creatures created by melkor.

Race is a real thing and it is very important to talk about it all the time.

[Vaðarholmr]

The idea behind this is that Russians have such a primal way of living that they're the most qualified for this?

That. And Russians always bring good mead.

[Cahoma]

No all white men must share the guilt beacuse reasons. My ancestors were farmers yoking under the evil danish collonizers.

Pffft.. You mean Friendly Danish Cultural Enrichers.

[Hobbes]

Drunk posting thread

[Lord Oda Nobunaga]

Sorry, the only separate white races are Hispanics and Arabs

I mean unless you count Mestizos and Mulatos but I guess they're white to an extent.

Hey it's not like good things didn't come out of colonialism, would Senegal have any infrastructure if not for Louis Faidherbe, would Sudan ban slavery if not for Chinese Gordon, would inner African slaver empires have collapsed if not for the French, would any African country even be able to vote instead of having one tyrant warlord if not for any European institutions? No the answer is no actually.
Besides there were Africans at the time who expressed their opinion: our old institutions failed us but so did the new institutions.
India would have been much the same and because India didn't turn into an immediate cluster they were pretty successful in adapting to the new ways.

[PikeStance]

Sorry, the only separate white races are Hispanics and Arabs

I mean unless you count Mestizos and Mulatos but I guess they're white to an extent.

Race is very much a subjective thing. I generally, would "define it" but in class break down. Genetics does a better job and explaining the differences between peoples across the globe. Nowwadays, race/ racism is used a convenient catch word. Calling someone an ethnocentric doesn't have the same bite has a calling them a racist although in many cases, the person we are speaking "at" are not a distinct race.

Hey it's not like good things didn't come out of colonialism, would Senegal have any infrastructure if not for Louis Faidherbe, would Sudan ban slavery if not for Chinese Gordon, would inner African slaver empires have collapsed if not for the French, would any African country even be able to vote instead of having one tyrant warlord if not for any European institutions? No the answer is no actually.
Besides there were Africans at the time who expressed their opinion: our old institutions failed us but so did the new institutions.

I wouldn't say Africa was better. European colonialism/ imperialism were more concern with extraction of raw materials than development. The French were better ar developing long term infrastructure, but hardly ideal. African society, despite European interventionism. is still largely tribal based. Even in Cote d'Ivoire, the people were very conscientious of a person's tribal heritage. Moreover, political strongmen still dominate Africa today. While some countries have "democracy" it is cheap fascade in practice.

India would have been much the same and because India didn't turn into an immediate cluster they were pretty successful in adapting to the new ways.

India for centuries were perfectly suited. The Emporium of the Indian Ocean Trade. It benefited from the develops in East Africa, the Middle East and China. It was in the forefront of cultural, technological and intellectual develops for centuries. It had the misfortune of having a weak imperial empire coupled with the European discovery of the America and its own emergence to dominance. It laos didn't help that China was large self- sufficient.

[Lord Oda Nobunaga]

Africa was pretty much the same just with the additional benefit that they had European institutions. But European Imperialism basically forced a bunch of people to clump together who would otherwise prefer to kill or avoid each other. When the Europeans left this created a huge power vacuum which reignited the old feuds. But I think Africa at its worse under colonialism was probably WW1 and WW2 (depending on the country) where some legitimately horrible things happened.
That's an interesting perspective "strongmen still dominate Africa today" and for the most part it seems to be the truth. For example by African standards Ghana is truly democratic but according to the UN Ghana is not democratic. That said I think we should worry less about the Democracy Meter and just go with what works and limits the amount of violence/chaos. Though to a great extent most of the African countries would have like no infrastructure at all, I dunno but it seems to mel ike for some areas in Africa colonialism was like a slight bother that they just forgot where as others it was complete intrusion where people got pushed around or straight up everything was different.

India on the other hand I think the Mughals would have totally collapsed anyway as they were being replaced by the Marathas and after about a century the Marathas also collapsed and turned into a sort of federation of warlord states. So they were not really better off either way. I would say had in not been for the British creating the Empire of India/British Raj and forcing them to become one state then modern India might be horrible. Though if the British had left and then India turned into total chaos then I would certainly be on the other end and say that the British caused a cluster in the subcontinent (it was some luck that only Pakistan VS India happened). Without modern technology and institutions I really couldn't see India maintaining itself as one state.