Your country

In My Humble Opinion
1

For the past few months I have become a lurker, that is a parasite that adds nothing to the SDMB and enjoys all the benefits. That ends today.-

This is an international board with people all over the world, I thought it would be a great thing just to tell each other things about our countries, irrelevant things, trivia, facts, I don’t care what just tell us what things make your country unique… Of course, I`ll start.-

Argentina`s name comes from the Latin word Argentum (silver) the conquistadores thought that they would find lots of it in my country… they were mistaken.

Our national flower is the Ceibo, although we are the inventors of Tango our national music is called “El Pericon Nacional”.

We have two independence days 25 of May and 9 of july, in the former day we started the revolution (1810), in the latter date (1816) we finally decided to broke with spain.

Our flags is light blue with white and in the middle it has the Inca Sun.

Our capital city is Buenos Aires, also known as “La reina del Plata” or “The Paris of America” (in our arrogance we sometimes call Paris “the Buenos Aires of Europe”).

Pato is our national sport, it is amixture of Polo and football but the most popular sport is , of course football (note to barbarians “soccer”). Our traditional rivals are England and Brazil.

We are worldwide known for our arrogance (at least in Latin America), our meat (you have never tasted a barbacue till you visit Argentina).

The book that represents my country is “Martin Fierro” a long, epic poem about a gaucho (our word for cowboy).

We have one of the world lowest population densities (35 million people in 3 million square kms), and we live literally at the end of the world, in our territory we have all kind of climates.

Who is next?

2

You forgot one of my absolute favorite things about Argentina: Jorge Luis Borges!

I’m not going to babble about the U.S., because there’s enough of that already. I could babble about the four different countries my great-grandparents are from, if you’d rather.

3

Australia. Hmmm…

Population about 19 million.

Capital City Canberra.

Hot, tropical and steamy in the north, and cool to cold in the far south. Desert, mountains, plains, cities, and farmland. Moonsoonal steam and blizzard are a domestic flight apart. Sometimes the place seems like it’s always either on fire or underwater.

Low population density. High rise Hong Kong style apartments and farmhouses whith next door neighbours hours’ drive away. In general though, US-style suburban sprawl.

The land is ancient and beautiful. The nation is young and still evolving. We don’t wrestle crocodiles, and Vegemite does taste good, dammit.

At her best, Australia is beautiful, spiritual, and powerful. At her worst, just another English-speaking, industrialised McNation with tatty roadside attractions.

4

Argentina is also the 8th largest country in the world, land-wise :smiley:

5

I live in Texas.
What? Oh, OK, never mind.

6

UK - I wouldn’t know where to start.

There are better brits than me on thse boards. I just hope they see this thread.

7

I am from India.
Population is alarmingly high with just more than a billion people sharing 3.29 sq million kms.
We are the largest democracy in the world and our national flower is the sunflower and the national bird is peacock.
India is one of the IT superpowers and on the other hand the average annual income is very low.
We are renowed for our cuisine ( believe me there are lots n lots of different types),music and yoga.
Also we make the most number of movies in the world.

8

The Netherlands is more commonly known as Holland. Its abbreviation is NL.
Holland has been around since the early 12th century! It was a part of the Roman Empire. The Kingdom of The Netherlands was formed in 1815.

The Netherlands is bordered on the north and west by the North Sea, on the east by Germany, and on the south by Belgium.
Size: 41,526 sq km (16,033 sq mi), but only 33,939 sq km (13,104 sq mi) is actual land surface! So, 7,587 sq km of Holland is actually under water! *Texas is SIXTEEN AND A HALF times larger than Holland! *

Population: 15,878,304. (2000); The Netherlands has a population density of 382 people per sq km (990 per sq mi). It’s one of the most densely populated countries in the world.

Capitol City: Amsterdam; Population - 731,200

40% of Holland is below sea level.
Highest Point: Vaalserberg 1,053 ft; 321 m above sea level

Lowest Point: Prins Alexanderpolder 23 ft; 7 m below sea level.

Holland has one of the world’s highest population densities yet maintains a high standard of living.

Tidbits: 27% of the land in the Netherlands has been reclaimed from the sea over the past 1000 years.

Fun bits: Marihuana is legal. Prostitutes have their own union, We have a high tolerance level and Amsterdam is the most beautiful city in the world.
We are modest * hehehehe* not.

Rembrandt, van Gogh, Mondriaan and Escher are a few of our famous artists.

The motto of one of our provinces says: ‘Luctor et Emergo’ [I struggle and emerge]

Our food is terrible, our language even more so.

  • This is not nearly enough, but there are more cloggies on this board…*
9

Well, I can talk about India, Spain (my nationality) or Hong Kong (where I live). I’ll pick Hong Kong.

[ul]
[li] Population: 7.2 million (the most densely populated city in the world[/li][li] Was a British territory up until 1997, and it’s now known as Hong Kong SAR (Special Administrative Region). China has agreed not to impose it’s social and economic systems onto Hong Kong for 50 years (well, now 44)[/li][li]Consists of more than 200 islands. Hong Kong island and Kowloon being the main ones[/li][li] Official languages are Cantonese and English[/li][li] One of the most expensive cities in the world[/li][li] Our Chief Executive gets paid more than the US President (read this is the newspaper, no online cite, sorry)[/li][li] We have a crappy flag[/li][li] Arguably the most efficient transport systems in the world. Nothing is more than 30 minutes away[/li][li] We are undergoing a political crisis at the moment.[/li][/ul]