Very interesting. Thanks for posting that.
Then again, how many of the forcible rapes are simply not reported offically? I know of a case where someone was raped in a dentist’s chair, and their relatives severely beat up the THING that did that, b/c they were so soft on crime…It was never reported, but it did happen.
Also, since the pub culture tends to be a bit more “Yah Dudish” (stereotypical fratboy) you’d have more drink fueled incidents.
That’s an interesting expression; I kind of get the fur coat part but am not entirely getting the no panties…
In my many travels to Canada I have found the cities to be beautiful and the people generally very friendly. However the retail clerks and the French part have a less than stellar reputation, which I have not yet personally investigated.
This. And not just economically. The US is a big big place, and very diverse- you’ll find a place to live happily if you know who “your people” are and can find them.
Definitely. What crime and travesties there are get endless media play, as well as being drama fodder for fictional TV shows, and are so exaggerated in the minds of those watching too much TV. Even inner cities aren’t the shoot em up spectacles that they once were.
The one thing that worries me about the UK is the recent trend towards a police state. Even in the US after 9/11 with the various losses to rights from the Patriot Act, etc, it still feels like the UK is surpassing us with their cameras everywhere, and trying to collect DNA from non criminal children, etc.
I don’t really see that. It’s a relatively new country, so you don’t see as great a preponderance of hundred years old architecture everywhere. And some areas do seem to be taken over by strip malls. But your average neighborhood is fairly nice.
The health care does suck. I guess if you have good insurance, we do have quicker service and more access to fancy schmancy medical equipment. But if you have no insurance or crappy insurance it can be a huge hassle or easily bankrupt you. And even with good insurance, there’s a lot of red tape for things and they will try and screw you. And you have to wade through a lot of incompetent doctors to find one that’s decent.
Surprisingly, given our religious diversity and the extent to which religious freedom was an integral part of the founding of our country and constitution, the US seems to take it’s religion over seriously, and right wing Christians seem to have an undue influence in schools and government.
I’d say the best part about the US is the relative security of our human rights compared to other countries, even most progressive nations, and even after the 9/11 Bush nonsense.
But I’m sure that applies on both sides of the pond. I’d be curious to know the unknowable–how much crime of what kinds goes unreported (or unrecorded by the police) in each country. I’ve heard many times that a lot of violence, both domestic and public, does not get recorded in the UK.
Where have you heard that?
The Met(ropolitan Police, the London police force) have been known to fudge numbers recently- is that what you’re talking about?
No, mostly in books written by Brits, for Brits, on social issues. I have no online cite, just what I’ve read here and there.
I don’t remember if it was a joke or a true story, but I read an anecdote some years back (in Reader’s Digest, perhaps) about a tourist from the UK checking into a hotel in NYC or DC and exclaiming with a mixture of surprise and disappointment, “…and we didn’t see a single gangland shooting during the cab ride from the airport!”
But that’s only the younger generation of internationals.
The older generation thinks America is like Bonanza.
Just send me any enquiries on those topics and I’ll be happy to help out.
Heh. And a yet earlier generation thought America was like James Fenimore Cooper’s novels.
Which I guess it actually was, if you were in the actual sorts of places where he set his novels, and in those times.