Cann1bal

Join Date 02/2004

The Differences Between AUS & US

These are just a few of them I have noticed, agree or disagree makes no difference to me

Geographical-
US- Northern Hemisphere
AUS- Sothern Hemisphere

Biological-

US- Has venomous snakes
AUS- Has the top five most venomous snakes in the known world

US- Has Sharkes
AUS- They eat those fuckers, as do I

US- Has deformed children because of a massive drug abuse by pregnant mothers
AUS- Has the platypus

Grammatical-

US- Has Aluminum (Democracy is about tyhe Union not just one so they drop the one i)
AUS- Has Aluminium (They believe in individuality and the right to speak ones mind, they dont need an admendment for that)

US- Has so many variations upon pronuciation of one word it is hard to understand certain people not from your region
AUS- Pretty much all sound the same (ie coherent)

US- Thinks they are better than everyone so they dub the English they speak as American English
AUS- Know they are better and dont give a shit and therefore dont rename it anything.

Educational-

US- Created Truency laws to keep students in school because the educatinal system literally has went down hill.
AUS- Encourages students to learn at their won pace. To my Knowledge I know of no truency laws that have been drafted to keep students in school, they suprisenly go willinly (if any aussie find ledgislation stating otherwise please make note of it in comment Thanks you.)

US- Rides the big yellow dog to school
AUS- Rides roos to school (cause we're primitive like that)

Health Care-

US- Even if you have insurence you still pay our ass and wait in the docotors office room up to 3 hours.
AUS- Public medical care is free paid for by the government, the only medical not paid for is private hospitals and private doctor, though if an indivudal has health insurance, 80-90% will be paid of the bill. You dont have to wait that long in a doctors office.

US- Is destroying what welfare it has.
AUS- Has over 50+ types to help less fortunate individuals with cost etc.

Geological-

US- Has mountains, deserts, forest, lakes, beaches etc.
AUS- Has all that plus a rainforest or two ( and Yes AUS does get snow).

US- Has to make reefs to help save natural habitates.
AUS- Has a natural large reef (Great Barrier Reef etc) And also creates them to improve the ecosystem.

Historical-

US- People of good standing came over and then over the centuries has fostered a large dangerous crime rate resulting in the over filling of criminals. Not to mention, more than one city in America is on the list of the most Dangerous Cities In The World.
AUS- Had Prisoners brought over from England and through the centuries has yet to have a large crime rate. Go figure.

US- Started a few wars.
AUS- Hasn't started any.

US- Desimated the native people living there resulting in the Indian Wars (look it up mates, its not a pretty thing) and pushed then out of their natural homes and in some cases calling for tribal genocide.
AUS- Settled well with the aboriginals though still some prejustice remains but is at a minimal.

Cinema-

US- Has to import actors/actresses because of the obvious lack of talent inside the states themselves (few acceptions)
AUS- Has to export because most American actors/actresses suck (Lets face the music Gladiator would not be the film it is today had Brad Pitt played lead).

Us- Actors have to have voice coaches to play regional accents etc, which by the way they suck at.
AUS- Just need to speak in a slightly retarded manner and they have nailed the American accent.

Governmental-

US- Democracy, where the people are the puppets
AUS- Common Wealth, where the Prime Minister is the puppet.

US- Has a spiraling massing debt
AUS- Has a large surplus

US-
AUS-
(These two have been left off at the suggestion of Mark (Muggaz)

Have At It Mates

Thomas (Honorary Queenslander

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There is the temperate rainforest on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state.

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Draginol

Join Date 03/2001

+137

Not bad for a country founded by criminals. .

How about this:

US: So self-assured that its its own biggest critic

AUS: So insecure that they have to write articles talking about how great they are compared to the US.

Strangely enough, when other countries try to compare how great they are, they don't compare themselves with say Australia. They compare themselves with the US. Why is that?

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Not to rain on your parade - Russell Crowe is a Kiwi - yes he's been claimed as an Australian for years (as have Mel Gibson, Naomi Watts, Crowded House etc) and yes he's married to an Australian actress who's dad used to ork on playschool - but he's still a Kiwi - however we still have very fine exports - take Anthony Lapaglia for one example or Hugh Jackman.

Sharks doesn't have an E.

Noone has ever ridden a "roo" to school - infact I caught a bus every day. (but it was big and yellow)

I don't know if you've ever been to Australia or just because you're dating an Australian you're saying this but no - We have a lot of problems with our healthcare system - not many places are bulk billing to medicare anymore so a 15 minute consulation will cost the average Aussie $45 ($35 if they have a healthcare card)
The truency wards in hospitals (ie after hours emergency) in QLD in particular SUCK (I live in QLD have all my life) there's alot of debate going on about our health care system especially since it's an election year.
On two separate occassions in the last few years I've had to spend abit of time at a public hospital - one morning saturday I was skipping down a street and i kicked my shoe off and fell on my foot - we drove around looking for a doctor but had to go to the hospital - we sat in the foyer for an hour? (tegan if u read this back me up) before the first inial consulation where they gave me a wheelchair to sit in (previously I was carried in by a couple of friends) and some panadol and took some xrays.
About 4:30? say 5hours after we got there I was called into the other room where tegan and i sat waiting for another half an hour - when a doctor finally saw us she proded and pulled my foot then told me it was just badly bruised and to go home. and I could walk on it - it would be good for it. (it was 5:30pm)

2 days later (monday afternoon) I got a phonecall from the hospital asking as to come back because my x-ray had been reviewed and infact my foot was broken (i'd been walking on it for 2days)
Got to the hospital sat for about 20minutes got taken into another room another 10minutes or so they did another examination said that indeed I had cracked my fifth metarsal and I would need a half cast and crutches and a Wednesday I had to go back to the hospital to get a full cast. When I went back 6 weeks later to get it off they told me I had 3 bones in my foot cracked not the one they thought.

Yeah our health system rox! Gee the USA must be really bad.

The second time - same hospital I had a suspected miscarriage - I was 7weeks pregnant had only found out about it the week before was just coming to terms with it when I found blood - I don't even think I noticed how much was there because it was blood I just panicked went straight to the hospital - was there 15minutes before someone talked to us - gave me a pad told me to monitor the loss and gave me a panadol and I went back out into the Triage to wait.
(it was about 6pm when I first noticed) About 10pm a resident took me to change into a hospital gown took a sample to find out if I was still pregnant and did a yucky scrape thing of the blood then sent back into the triage to wait for the results.
I got home after 1am - I was still pregnant - they think it was just spotting - go have an unltrasound on monday.
MOre waiting in that same hospital.

*FYI - I had Elana in December - full term 391/2 wks --she's 6months now*

Yeah sure Thomas we have GREAT heathcare system don't have to wait to long!!

ALso - have you noticed that Heath Ledger and Russell Crowe NEVER change their accent - whether it's Roman Centurian, Civil War Soldier, 14th Century Knight, Brilliant Mathematician --- they all have that Australian (kiwi) twang.

And what have platypus and heroin babies got to do with one another - we actually have alot of drugg addicted alcohol affected babies in Australia too.

Funny - I was always told that the Government in US was the puppet...

"settled well with the aboriginies" - I wouldn't say that to an Aboriginie Thomas --- Haven't you ever heard of the "stolen generation" the "sorry" debate, the whole thing about tribal land etc

I find the lack of pride you have for your country weird - Lack of talent - look at the oscars - few exceptions - who would you say - I'd say Katherine Hepburn, Spencer Tracey, Tom Hanks, Sean Penn, Meryl Streep (worst depiction of an aussie did u see that a dingo ate my baby movie), Julia Roberts, Ellen Burstyn, Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman, Susan Sarandon, Robin Wright Penn (she was in my favourite movie princess bride)
i could go on!!!! YES Australia has exported talent - but it's only because they can not get noticed on Australian television by anyone in Hollywood because noone in America has ever seen Home & Away, Neighbours, Blue Heelers and the other dramas that are the launching point for all Australian stars.

I Love Australia - I wouldn't live anywhere else for more then a few years - but I recognise we have problems and other places have better ways (I've been told that Canada has the best healthcare system in the world - I don't know if its true)
but without being derogetry there's no nice way to say it - but I think Australia could stand it if you were so far up it's butt.

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Sorry - I didn't realise that comment was so long

And I apologise for my last comment - I haven't been drinking but I guess my truth filter wasn't working - Sorry.

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Draginol

Join Date 03/2001

+137

Canada's healthcare is abominable.

For me, the best measure of how nice a place is to live is by its per capita GDP. Australia's is $26k. USA's $36k.

US healthcare is quite good if you have insurance and pretty much everyone in the US does (i.e. ~85% of people). I don't wait half an hour for my doctor and I don't pay anything for my prescriptions or doctor visits and neither do most other people.

That's not to say that I think Australia is bad. I think it's an awesome country. I just think most of the items in this article weren't particularly well thought out. For example, Australia is the only government in the world to have successfully commited genocide (there are no pure blood tazmanians anymore for instance). Anyone claiming that Australia has treated its native population well is..to put it kindly, misinformed. The whole article is basically trolling.

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AUS: So insecure that they have to write articles talking about how great they are compared to the US.

Brad, you are right in some respects - Australia does have somewhat of an inferiority complex when it comes to the US... I still argue our country is much better than yours though

As for your GDP being $10k above ours... I would attribute that solely to profesional sports stars and hollywood...

Tom - I told you this would happen didn't I?

BAM!!!

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Draginol

Join Date 03/2001

+137

But I thought all the good sports stars and celebreties were Australian...

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Yeah - our GDP is actually $16k per year... Russel Crowe and Heath Ledger lift it by the $10k

BAM!!!

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Draginol,

US: So self-assured that its its own biggest critic

I would disagree with this one.....It's just Americans dont hear much of what the rest of the world is saying.....to quote Little_whip:

Independent. Europeans recognize that the world doesnt end at their borders, and as a result, ive learned more about whats going on in the world than i EVER would have watching american tv news. Typical 30 minute american "news" broadcast breaks down like this...10 minutes spent telling you whats coming up later in the broadcast, 5 minutes bragging about their weather forcasting equipment, 10 minutes of trite celebrity trivia, 3 minutes of sports, and maybe 2 minutes of actual news.

But surely your lack of waiting time and your free prescriptions are paid for either by your health insurance or your taxes or (most probably) a combination of both.

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Brad~ One, Im not Aussie, Im American. Two, I live in Texas, you know where everything is bigger and this doesnt disclude our egos either

Trina~As for Crowe being a kiwi, I knew that quite well, and I still see him as aussie as I think most of the global villiage does as well.

Excuss the mispelling, I wrote this all out free hand and then typed it in the box the next day, so some spelling may be off.

I am sorry for your unfortunate occurrences, maybe it's because of all the medical data that I have went over with my GF, was pointed at individual with Ovarial Cancer, and Liver Tumors, but hey then again it could be me. But I appreciate you pointin out that about the broken foot and spoting.

For the accent, maybe its me just being so accustomed to the aussie accent, who knows, though I will say this I have done my utmost to ride myself of the "redneck" accent so often associated with Texas, and last I heard I was doing quite well of it not being too noticable at all.

For the cinema, actually I think a few actor and actresses did actually get noticed off of day time tv, could be wrong but I do believe there were a few.

And its quite alright about your post being so long, I dont mind in the least. I quite enjoy long post.

Brad~Thanks for the whole trolling thing, I find it humorous to say the least.

.

Mark~ Indeed you did say this would happen, but then again its a new challenge for me.

Gerry~ Thanks for commenting mate, and Little whip has points of the US News etc. I also think America isnt really conserned with the world really unless it affects them in some way, be it global conflicts etc, if in some small way if it affects a intrest, then they are going to take notice.

For everyone that commented, even if some of you displayed some things I disagreed with just a little bit, thanks for posting them anyway.

Thomas

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I have a question.

Have you ever been to Australia? I'm just curious to know if you're basing your conclusions on first-hand information.

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Have you ever been to Australia? I'm just curious to know if you're basing your conclusions on first-hand information.

I doubt it, he seems to be a self loathing dreamer. He gets himself an Australian 'Internet Girlfriend' and suddenly he is a world renown expert on the place.

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because noone in America has ever seen Home & Away, Neighbours

not true at all trina (ok, I will admit--I'm a huge exception to the rule!)--I am a huge Home and Away fan, and can even settle into a good episode of Neighbours now and again...and I'm very happy to repor that while I was in England in April I read that Neighbours is going to be picked up on US tv.

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Draginol

Join Date 03/2001

+137

But surely your lack of waiting time and your free prescriptions are paid for either by your health insurance or your taxes or (most probably) a combination of both.

Of course. Are you implying that Australia's health care is paid for by magic elves or something? Health care is always paid for by SOMEONE. In this case, my employer.

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Draginol

Join Date 03/2001

+137

Most of the news I see is not about Michigan. That is despite its population being in the same league as Australia.

Europeans consider themselves "worldly" because a German knows what's happening in France or in a former colony. It's no different wherever you go. There's less than two dozen million Australians. Of course most of their news is going to be about what's happening elsewhere.

I doubt the average European is any more informed on what's happening in say Japan than the average American, for instance.

The problem with Europeans and Australians when they do their news rants is that they are doing an apples and oranges comparison. The typical European country has less than 10% the population of the United States and even less its GDP. More things happen in the US than in Europe -- whether that be in business, science, technology, foreign policy, entertainment, etc.

Spare me the "listening to the foreign news". The BBC world service has time to cover Cricket scores in India. I've had this debate hundreds of times over the years and I've never been able to get someoen to provide a relevant example of REAL news that is not picked up in the US that was covered in Europe or Australia. Feel free to take the challenge.

America bashing is certainly an amusing passtime. I like taking part myself. But when you get to the brass tacks of it, the US is the world's leading information provider by far. Next time you're on Google or Yahoo or CNN or MSNBC or wherever, ask yourself, what country does this service come from? Yet somehow these sources of information are inferior to the BBC or some other state provided news source.

Try this excercise too: Go to news.bbc.co.uk. What do you see? Just glancing it's top story is CIA chief quits, Iraqi news, , hell Michael Moore is on the freaking home page of News.bbc.co.uk. Yea, we Americans are missing a lot. Of course, Tunisia oposition leader being jailed may not show up on the front page of CNN but that's not exactly earth shattering.

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Draginol,

Of course. Are you implying that Australia's health care is paid for by magic elves or something? Health care is always paid for by SOMEONE. In this case, my employer.

Of course not, but it was you not I that said that you pay nothing for prescriptions.

America bashing is certainly an amusing passtime.

I am not sure if this was aimed at my comment about America not hearing much of what the rest of the world is saying. It is not America bashing and never was meant to be. Phoenixboi wrote a fairly scathing critique of America called 'How the rest of the world views America' where he talked about America not listening to the rest of the world, to which I replied:

Just a point on perspective. When I was in New Zealand last year they made much the same claim about us here in Australia that you make about the US. i.e. that we never report anything about NZ. It led me to conclude that the larger and more powerful a country is then the less it reports about other smaller and 'weaker' countries.

I feel this is for several reasons: firstly there is a certain attitude that anything that happens there is not newsworthy; secondly countries that are larger and more powerful than you are may have an influence on you and so it is newsworthy, smaller countries usually do not have much of an influence on you; finally larger countries generate more news in themselves because there is more going on internally as well as externally under there influence.

I am not necessarily disagreeing with you that the US need to wake up to the rest of the world but we do need to keep this attitude in perspective otherwise it could just end up as a chip on the shoulder reaction.

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God, I love America, you freaks!!!

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I love Hugh Jackman!

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US: So self-assured that its its own biggest critic
AUS: So insecure that they have to write articles talking about how great they are compared to the US.

Speaking of insecure:

Just scratch out Australia in all of the sentences (except the rainforest part), and add Canada.

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God, I love America, you freaks!!!

Why not put up some facts ar argue an issue instead of abusing people.

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Funny article, maybe ill move to Australia someday. Anyway let me add one of my own from the philippines.

US- Has venomous snakes
AUS- Has the top five most venomous snakes in the known world
PHIL- Has the best recipe for all types of snakes.

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I still want to know if the author has actually been to Australia or not and is speaking from first-hand experience.

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Hell, I'm from Texas so I don't know what ya'll are talkin' about...

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Well Dharma, to clearify for your curiousity... Yes I have been to Aus, I spent a year there... does that help you.

And Edmund... that was a good one

Thomas

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