but i was very much surprised that the Dutch goth-metal bands (stuff like Within Temptation, Epica, After Forever and the likes) are incredibly populair there.

Thank god for that, because when the only alternative for quality metal in the US is digging up fossils like Megadeth, that doesnt leave much choice.

Aus Raux sucks btw

ok, since you want to change the subject to metal, I would like to mention that Costa Rica has the most kick a$s metal scene Ive ever scene anywhere. Here is a local band as an example:
http://www.purevolume.com/sightofemptiness

Ive seen Megadeth in concert with Machine Head and Life of Agony, theyre are sort of ok, if your into cheap political comentary and whatnot. Mustaine is one of those guys who is cool, but doesnt quite cut it as hard core for me (he didnt break a sweat the whole concert, was weird seeing him come out with his shirt off for the encore with bone dry skin).

For once why cant we have an intelligent conversation about the corruption that causes world poverty. By making fun of the stupidy of 3rd world nations in a ha ha condescending manner instead of speaking forthright, you are projecting the “ugly american” image which further entrenches the idea that poor people are victims of capitalist oppression and diverts responsibilty away from themselves which they should be taking. In developed 1st world nations we should start holding bussiness accountable for how they do bussiness in 3rd world nations, making sure that loans and mining taxes really are going to public spending and not lining the pockets of corrupt leaders.

All problems of poverty in this world are cause by corruption to varying degrees:

Africa- Im refering to black africa here, most all these countrys are run by ignorant, uneducated bafoons. Were talking 100% corruption, 0% services to the public. Its time we stop being politically correct and start becoming very critical about how these governments function. The poor people in 3rd world nations can no longer plead ignorance and simply hold out their hand for aid. They have to take responsiblity and be held accountable to not allow economic and government corruption.

Asia- Although over population is more an issue in this region, the governents could do a lot better in trying create better services which would allow people to not live as subsistance farmers and force more urbanization.

Latin America- Ive lived in a few latin american countrys and Ive given up trying to urge these people to seek a better life. What they need is a swift kick in the butt to get their house in order. And yes that does mean making fun of them for their stupidy where it applys.

The US of A- Yes even the US should clean house. Its time to stop paying adults with familys the same as what a teenager would earn. The US has a long history of ghetto culture and there is really no reason for a such a rich nation to continue as such

“Less than five miles from Ground Zero sits an International hotbed, the United “Abominations” as it were. Created to prevent wars and promote peace, it failed to address the most dangerous threats facing the world.

The worst hotbed of abomination can be found in Iraq. Its very clear that the US is simply driving that country to ruin to suit its own agenda in that region. How the Iraqi people stand for it I cant fathom.

In a mire of hypocrisy, bribes, kickbacks, and corruption, the UN enables terrorism, and ignores sex crimes by its peacekeepers. The UN is where our so-called allies undermine us, and we pay 22% of their tab to host our enemies here at home.

The US and Europe are the hypocrites who recieve the bribes and kickbacks from corrupt 3rd world leaders.

Ambassadors from dirt-poor countries enjoy luxurious, tax-free Manhattan lifestyles, turning children into sex-slaves and enjoy Diplomatic immunity. It’s a complete and utter disgrace, a blot on the face of humanity, and they get away with it!”

I live in a country where prositution is legal (Costa Rica). I still cant figure out why it should be illegal for a person of age to have sex for money, anti prositution laws only exist to prevent embarrasment of the existance of sexualy fustrated men as far as I can see. Here in Costa Rica it is the foriegners who are guilty of raping children, which is no surprise as I know first hand what a perverted and sick culture the US has.

I think something that gets discounted is the factor of deforestation/urbanization of land. This accounts for a huge and very measurable change in weather patterns. For those of you here who are pilots, you should know the profound effect surface terrain makes on weather patterns. There is also the factor that trees and plantlife consume C02. In my opinion global warming is caused more from deforestations effect on the weather than C02. Another factor is the enormous ammount of air that gets heated at high altitude by jets engines on airliners.

Really, the US is made up of so many cultures its hard for outsiders to understand the complex political makeup. So, PHII maybe you should give them a break………….they condemn what they do not understand! Regardless, if we worked together we could solve many of the worlds problems instead of just pointing fingers all of the time! Which, is pointless and just plan counter productive………really such a waste!:(

I dont think its that difficult to understand what you term as “complex political makeup” resulting from the many cultures of the US. By in large, white skinned people have it easier getting good paying jobs that dark skinned people. Im not blaming that all on white people, when you try and discover the cause of this, the issues do become complex. The fact remains that there is huge differences in standard of living between rich and poor compared to many western european countries. Ive only been to germany, and Ive noticed that they have no poor slum neighborhoods, not even for the Turks that live there. I think the UK accepts a lot more immigrants than other european nations, my impression from what I see on tv and movies is that the situation is better for dark skinned people in the UK than the US.

hey Ben, Nice to see youre still lurking around here also (you remember who I am, right?). I’ll be very curious how you like the US, hope you can send me an email about how it turns out. Its really funny that you would show up on this topic, because the solution to the problems of poverty in this world are in my opinion political, namely the democratic socialist systems of government like you have in your country of Belgium as well as other northwestern european countries like France, Germany, Sweden, Netherlands, etc. Ben, you spend so much time trying to blame the Americas domination of world economics as being bad (it is sort of bad, but europe is no better) that you never spend any time studying how to provide a better alternative. You should really study politics/economics instead of history since that seems to be an area of concern for you.

P2- Like many *certain persons of this world* you have the opinion that everyone is secretly jealous of you and wants to be like you because you are so cool, etc, etc.

Interesting that you think you know me so well……

Have we met in person?

No we havent met. I made my comment on your overall attitude about how you think the world thinks of the USA. And since I had to modify the comment you quoted to get past what is looked on as “insulting” on this forum, its ended up sounding rather dorky and does not get across my original intended message, which is a generalization about US attitude.

response attempt #3

P2- Like many *certain persons of this world* you have the opinion that everyone is secretly jealous of you and wants to be like you because you are so cool, etc, etc. The US is actually a sucky place to live if you are poor. There are people who have to raise families on minimum wage who live hand to mouth and are condemned to a life of hardship. Thats the part of Americas unrestrained free-enterprise system that gets swept under the rug. The prosperity of the US comes from the fact that theyve sent out all their manufacturing work to developing countries and are able to do a higher level of informational type of work. Im not saying the US is wrong for doing that, but thats how it is, and a lot of people in the world are tired of it. But the main problem of world poverty is due to overpopulation. So no matter how poor countries develop, they will always have hungry mouths to feed. And since the US is the only major western country able to accept a large number of immigrants, naturally people want to go to the US.