i’d like to be every race, so I can see how they perceive things..

Turkish, Italian, Japanese, Finnish, etc and etc

I currently live in the desert, its over 100F here.

Based on the CIA world fact book 2002, China’s GDP is much higher than that of Japans, its 6 trillion vs 3.55 trillion.

Richest as in the country’s economic power, or GDP, or as in living standards? Both can be really differnet.. Israel has a lower GDP than many countires in the middle east, but it has a higher living standard than many of them.

since the guys here already posted the living standards section.. as a total economic power

its something like..

1. US
2. China
3. Japan

I don’t think the Kalash are that unique Greek-culture wise.. the Tajiks consider themselves descendants of Alexander as well as numerous other ethnicities living between India to Iran. Sanskrit it self has much in common with ancient Greek.

Originally posted by skythe
That’s not true, the Arab nations of North Africa also recognize themselves as African nations and are very active on African forums and organizations. Foremost among these is Lybia, which for over a decade now has been a leader in promoting Pan-African causes, Kaddafi using his oil money to promote projects across the continent.
As for military intervention, since Egpyt and other Arab nations took a role in the Biafran war, there’s no reason that they shouldn’t take part in events only a little farther away in Liberia.

Agreed, these days many of the north african countries bar Egypthave been looking south than to the gulf. For years now Ghadaffi wears african dress more often these days and even withdrew from the Arab league earlier this year.

I’m surprised this article made it into Forbes.. but anyways.. this article does alot of very broad interpretations..especially classifying Europeans as a whole, since each european country has differing social and political systems/values. And that there is one of the flaws of the arguements.. alot of assumptions.

some points i like to make out..

Second, anti-Americanism is a function of cultural racism. An astonishingly high proportion of European elites know very little about U.S. history or culture and even deny that they have a separate existence apart from their European roots.

This goes bothways.. I don’t expect any country to know alot about many other countries.. you can find this anywhere..i don’t expect many Americans to know much about certain so and so countries while i don’t expect any european, asian, african etc to know anything well about so and so country. I’ve seen it all when I’ve went travelling.. ignorance is universal.

It is this feature that intellectuals–especially in Europe–find embittering. They know they must genuflect to democracy as a system. They cannot openly admit that an entire people–especially one comprising nearly 300 million, who enjoy all the freedoms

the ideals of democracy and freedom are very vague and differ from one to the others interpretation. Plato claims that a democracy is stage of a decaying republic. Ultimately it comes down to what freedoms a country values. Obviously if you give ultimate freedom, it would lead to anarchy.. so a country needs laws to control certain freedoms from being abused. After all in the US you can’t freely taunt your gun at some one and claim freedom of speech and right to bear arms.

Other countries value certain freedoms while controlling others.. Libya for example gives everyone the right to housing..meaning every house must have running water and electricity and everyone is entitled to housing..while on the other hand they control elements of free speech. Likewise in the US you can have free speech but there’s no right to free healthcare such as Canada or housing like Libya. Finland would probably come closest to a pure democracy as people directly vote on issues and leaders.

Also the ideas of democracy might not mean it leads to the best prosperity or happiness.. areas like Tibet and Bhutan live in rustic societies but researchers have shown that they are happier living as they have.

Third, European elites tend to look at Americans as a subcivilized mass, whose function is to be obedient consumers in a system run by big business. The role of competition in U.S. economic life–and in every other aspect of life–is ignored, because competition is something Continental Europeans like to keep to a minimum and under careful control.

they keep mentioning everything as one entity,….who exactly are they referring to, they fail to mention if these actions represent a majority or a minority.. and any other statistical informatoin to come up with such a conclusion.

everything from the 1960s 😀