On the United States

>lol the mainland accent. It's so weird, I never got used to it. And I never get used to Traditional Characters used by Taiwanese. Simplified Chinese makes perfect sense. According to my Shanghainese contact, I sound like a mix of a Harbin and Shanxi accent when I speak it - with a touch of a European accent. That's because for the most part my accent is not a Usonian one, its more neutral North American.

Well shanxi is near beijing. In terms of simplified vs traditional, I do prefer traditional, so do most people in my province do.

theories? nah, its how the world works money and power is everything

I wasn't saying that, but I don't really care about how 'bad' China is, you can't really get worse than fucking Guatemala. We all had to be armed. I had an AKS-74U under my bed. Coban, the city I was assigned to, has an average of 3-5 murders a day. Antigua, the other city is full of slums and squatters who have to deal with people "claiming" land and charging them.

I can speak for China since I was there until I was 13 and still go back every summer. I can't speak for France since I only stayed for two months

@Zen_Reaper - I can understand where you are coming from but grow weary from the populous' lamentations (not referring to you or anyone on MO). I was raised Southern Baptist(prefer Buddhist) and lived all over this country due to parents/work/military. I got to sample discrimination and see it alive and well in some places of America against others. I can say here in the west it is more laid back by a stark comparison to the east in many places it seems. The local Buddhist temple is well liked, the Dali Lama even comes to town. Just curious do you tell people you are Buddhist or Atheist? I can see the latter inviting more trouble in some places. No, America is not perfect but it is indeed a great place and has the greatest potential when not squandered. I would not disagree it has lost it's way some but that does not mean it is a lost cause. Defeatist attitudes is what made EU rot enough to drive peoples to this land in the first place. I would prescribe either working to restore balance or move to where you can be in balance. Democracy is not perfect but no form of government is outside of paper-theory. It requires 100% complete participation from everyone all the time. We all know that never happens anywhere. They are pondering mandatory voting because so few turned out to vote in the last election; little over 35%. Power is like a skill or even the body/mind, it is lost to decay if not exercised properly. I have never been to China but would like to see it and have a few online friends there. It has a very old and rich culture and they have learned a few useful things along the way to say the least lol. I do not know what to make of their new leader; kind of a mixed bag of feelings. He is clearing out some corruption but only time will tell if it is to build something good anew or only to install his own controllable corruption. I don't know the local scene enough to make an informed judgement. I have followed their space program some and hope they can become a great future partner in space exploration. I am interested to see how they solve certain technical problems applying their flavor of crafts. I worked for Sharp and tele-worked sometimes in their Tokyo office but have never been to Japan in person lol. I keep up contacts there online. Part of me would love to go live there as I admire their order and self-discipline but dislike the costs of that system. There is a reason the population is taking a nose-dive. If you do not like earthquakes in California I would not go live in Japan, one of the most seismic active places in the world. Their is something about them I do find endearing and it was long before I knew the word anime. Everyone has their ups and downs I guess it is just a matter of which ones you want to live with or change.

It depends. I don't want to be thought of , as one person misunderstood, "So you wear robes at home, say "om" a lot, and worship an obese man-god?" So yeah, depends really. The west doesn't have a bias against theistic Buddhists as much, but as an atheistic one, I kind of have the scorn of many people. I hold zero allegiance to any country. To die for a country is to die for a foolish cause. If a country starts going in a direction I don't like, I will passively resist as best I can and leave when I must. I think I would tolerate the faults of a country if I felt I belong - I don't in the US. I felt like I belonged more in China, by a longshot. I wouldn't mind earthquakes as much, if I didn't have to deal with pollution or insane population density. I have several places in Japan I intend to check out, smaller cities with less foreigners, farther from the coast, so less seismic issues, and full of mountains and nature around them. I like that, far more than what I've experienced. I live close to the mountains in Virginia now, and I love visiting in the summer and fall, especially with my Native American friend. Makes for a fun trip. I'm not interested in staying and trying to fix this country - its not valuable to me. My younger brother is assuming my original role as one of the generational heads, and I am changing my name to a Buddhist name, because I am tormented by my Catholic name daily. It just... isn't who I am.