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Um, so, your supposed to not know simple world geography, but Kardashian BS is fine?

These videos are pretty stupid. Geography is largely irrelevant to most people's lives and therefore qualifies as trivia. It's like asking someone how many bytes are in a kilobyte or how many bits are in a byte except that's actually relevant since knowing those things will help you see past the marketing BS of ISPs and hard drive makers.

Different people know different things and someone isn't automatically "stupid" because they don't know random facts that serve no purpose in their occupations or daily lives.

3 things, I may have mixed them a bit.

1 - past experience specifically with muslim migrants (some may have been refugees) in Europe - overall not great, mostly they consider our social system and political correctness as signs of weakness. They consider themselves superior, the first generation may be grateful for a better life than back home but the second and third generations feel superior to non-muslims (especially jews and atheists, but also christians) and entitled to benefits while hating the secular state. Will the current and future waves accomodate better? This has nothing to do with our imperative to help those in need, it is a practical problem. Also not racist - although I do admit racism and xenophobia are a major problem in many parts of Europe and trouble me very much in my own country. More so than the Vietnamese or Ukrainians or people from the Balkans "these people" organize in clans and tribes and will try to impose their view of the world on us, who organise in tiny families and on facebook. Albanian thugs are well organised but they dont hold the view that everyone else should be an Albanian thug too.

2 - current wave of migrants and refugees - lets assume we are talking only about real Syrians boarding boats in Turkey trying to reach Greek islands and not people from all over north africa trying to reach Italy or anyone else trying to reach the EU (possibly pretending to be Syrian). So we have this exemplary Syrian family which has run away from a war to Turkey. They are safe there, only they have to either stay for a couple of years in a refugee camp before they can try to find work or they have to survive in a grey economy sort of like Mexicans in the USA. They know that if they dont apply for asylum in Turkey and manage to set foot on EU soil they can ask for asylum there and be treated better than in Turkey. So these boat people are actually not running from war to asylum but rather from one asylum to another. They make sure not to stop in Greece or Croatia or Austria or Hungary but head for Germany or Sweden. Mostly I believe they have no idea of political geography but they have mobile phones and friends who have already made the journey and know how to milk the local system. So for purposes of compassion they are refugees and totally need our help but from a clinically economic (yes, materialistic) point of view they are very much migrants. Migrants we feel obliged to help because they are sort of refugees too.

3 - the mass and speed of the exodus means we are stretched to accomodate them and they will later start to passionately hate us because Europe will not be the heaven they expected it to be.
A few thousand refugees every year are no big deal even for a small EU state. Hundreds of thousands will be very difficult to take care of in the entire union. Inviting more is just irresponsible.

The good news is that the real Syrian refugees who make it to Europe will probably be the more resourceful, better educated part of the current wave of incoming people and will be able to take care of themselves fairly quickly by my estimate. Also they are mostly variants of Shia - the less orthodox branch of muslims. I am worried more about future waves than the current one.

Maybe we have messed up a bit but we need to learn from our mistakes, and even Germany is now guarding its borders. It would be better if we were able to guard the Shengen perimeter.
Then if we wanted to save more refugees we could send trains or planes to pick them up in Turkey or Jemen. You know, set up an EU consulate there so they could directly apply for asylum in the EU country of their picking. But we have to make a conscious decision first - how many people from the desolate and failing parts of the world do we want to save over a given time period so that we dont fail ourselves. Are we failing? Ask the jewish families who used to live in Malmo until recently.

It's really not correct to say we're all human and we have a responsibility to care for one another and so forth when so many of the refugees are dangerous, mediaeval fanatics.

It's not that they're predominantly brownish-skinned; it's not that they're poor or uneducated; it's not that they come from some other country, as if geography means anything; it's that they're devout and practising members of a cult of murderous, totalitarian evil. Europe has enough fascists already, we don't want any more.

The compassionate, humanitarian thing to do would be machine gun all the muslims at the border, and welcome the rest of the refugees with open arms. Migration is a human right; some people just aren't human.

Ah ha A man who knows his geography!

I missed the Caribbean, and having played pirates I have no defence.

So about half the problems are due to changes since the film was made, and half were taking liberties to get it to rhyme.

There was an interesting article on the BBC News web site about what constitutes a country... I'll have a quick look and send you the link if I find it.

p.s. Got it http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20131212-bribery-and-brandy-in-a-country-that-doesnt-exist

Transnistria not quite the subject I remembered, but that was the article I was thinking of.

Other than Yugoslavia and Czechslovakia there is the split of Sudan, name changes for Benin/Dahomey, Myanmar/Burma. Many are included as countries that are in fact possessions of other countries. (Puerto Rico, Guam, Bermuda, French Guiana). The Caribean is pointed to as a country but the actual countries of the region are left out mostly (Dominica, St. Kitts & Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, Antigua & Barbuda etc). Like I said in my comment I'm sure this wasn't intended to be an absolutely accurate listing even for 1995 and things were included to make the song work. Gaum is rhymed with San Juan and neither one is a country. What can I say, I'm a trivia player whose strong suit is Geography. And don't get me started on places like South Ossetia, Nagorno Karabakh, Nakhchivan, Transnistria. People can't even agree on how to spell them let alone whether they qualify as independent countries. And I shouldn't forget Somalia, Somaliland and Puntland.

I would love to spend less time thinking about the US and how messed up parts of it are. Unfortunately, I live in a world where that's not possible.

At least until China buys you out, the US is still the biggest influence on the rest of the world.. economically, politically and militarily.

Right now, NZ is part of the TPPA talks that will directly affect the way country is run.

So yeah, I comment on the US.

Besides, this is the 21st century. The people in my life are not decided by anything as archaic as national boundaries or even geography. I have friends and family all over the globe.

And @Mordhaus Norway has
- 6th highest per capita income (US is 10)
- 3rd highest educational attainment (US is 5)
- 5th highest on the anti corruption index (US doesn't even make top 10)
- 10th on environmental health (again, US doesn't make top 10)
- 8th in the "Good country" index (US is 21)
- 7th on Forbes list of "best for business" (US is 18)

On pretty much any ranking you look at, Norway is rated as a great place to live. Objectively, it outperforms the USA on almost every metric. As does NZ and Ireland

The US is actually a great country. It has an amazing natural landscape, has fantastic science and technology and the people are (for the most part) incredibly friendly. But it's held back by its refusal to acknowledge its faults and its frankly appalling political system. You do lots of things extremely well, but self-reflection is not one of them.

I think the problem is ultimately a political one.

There are absolutely social issues in Islam (similar to every religion, but marginally more repressive), but the terrorist angle is there because of geography. Most of the adherents to Islam live in the third world and yeah, they absolutely have genuine, legitimate grievances with the west. Not because we're secular godless infidels, but because of the way we've exploited people.

And these people are exploited by their religious leaders.

Look at Northern Ireland. You had Catholics on one side and Protestants on the other, but because both were Christians, it was framed as a political struggle. If the republicans had been druids or something, then it would be recast as a religious issue.

If most Christians were living in the third world, we'd be looking at the exact same problem. The only reason Christianity is any less problematic than Islam is because it has had to live in an affluent education demographic who increasingly won't put up with it's original treatment of women, homosexuals, etc.

In poorer areas, (southern US, South America, parts of Africa) Christianity is indistinguishable from the Taliban.

Any drone pilot worth his/her salt has done this a few times. Geography is a harsh mistress: don't lose line of sight!

@BoneRemake

Clear violation of official sift decorum
"You are a backwater tinfoil hat wearing twat. it is no secret here that you fit that geography. Fuck off , your stupid bullshit man.. sometimes it is just too much bullshit to take. "

....or simply assholism??

Newt, you should know fucking better and act accordingly if you have it in you to dump your ego in the toilet for a refreshing swim.

I have accepted consequences of my tirades in the past-Trying really hard to play 'NICE' children, got a few years on your "polite' asses as well. Your hate doesn't fool anyone, in fact it seethes with every comment made.

Bothof you continue to ignore or otherwise discount sincere private messages, yet you come out in public to try and destroy my opinions and observations with personal attacks. what's up with that, eh??

Man-up why dontchas?

knee jerk ??

You are a backwater tinfoil hat wearing twat. it is no secret here that you fit that geography. Fuck off , your stupid bullshit man.. sometimes it is just too much bullshit to take.

hhahahahhaa

fuck you man, flat out fuck you. hhahaha god damn lauhing here how oblivious you are.

Why "gay mountain"? I get the "gay" but not the "mountain".
Maybe I just suck at geography...

What statement did you make? All I saw was wishy-washy hand-wavy nonsense without a single verifiable claim.

Our year is shaped by geography and climate, the sun being part of that. Someone who grows up in the Arctic circle will have a very different experience than someone born on the same day in Australia. But even then, they might move.

The idea that "we base our lives on the sun and stars" is bullshit. The sun influences my life only to the extent that the weather does, and it certainly doesn't predetermine any kind of destiny. The stars don't influence my life at all, apart from being pretty to look at and interesting to learn about.