What is the biggest contradiction in your country?

Currently I'm so pleased with the Rugby World Cup, and how sporting events like this always bring out a patriotic spirit.
It seems that almost everybody in South Africa has bought their Chinese-made Springbok shirt -legally or on the black market (both are controlled by the same people anyway).

But even as we witness the sporting spirit, the ANC Youth League boss Julius Malema (known for his extravagant lifestyle, and currently facing corruption charges) has declared economic "war" on the white minority.
www.jacarandafm.com...

What is the biggest irony and contradiction in your country?

reply to post by halfoldman


In America its 18 years old to take a gun and put a bullet into someone's head but 21 years old to have your first sip of alcohol. If that's what you call a contradiction, there ya go my friend lol.

In Britain, it's the whites talking and acting like blacks for me.

reply to post by halfoldman


Explanation: S&F!

Repesentative Democracy [aka special interests] versus Fair Go Mate!

Personal Disclosure: The 2nd biggest is that Australia is totally currently in bed with China economically but is still shining the USA on! Its a bizzaro love triangle!

Oz = you can have sex at 16yo but have to be 18yo to watch/buy porn

We have a fantastic Constitution, but our government uses it as toilet paper.

In the UK you are allowed to join the army when you are 16, but you can't buy Call of Duty until you are 18.

It is against the law to take money that isn't yours... unless you're a banker or a politician.

You cannot spend money you don't have... unless you're the Federal Government.

Which reminds me, is usury still a sin?

Why is nobody protesting the banks?
I mean, not even old grumpy face Fred Phelps.

Has the biggest sin of almost 2000 years now been demoted?

What about the adverts for big fuel-guzzling cars and other unnecessary materialistic crap that we see on television every day?
Isn't that totally against sanctimonious calls to conserve everything?

America is known as the land of the free yet it imprisons more people per capita than any other country.

Nearly the whole world got literate and intelligent off the back of Scottish Enlightenment yet the streets here are filled with NEDs (non-educate delinquents).

Well I know its a bit of a cop-out, but I'd like to let Mr. Kurt Vonnegut do the talking instead of me. He said it better than I ever could, and his quote below should be in this thread:

America is the wealthiest nation on Earth, but its people are mainly poor, and poor Americans are urged to hate themselves. To quote the American humorist Kin Hubbard, “It ain’t no disgrace to be poor, but it might as well be.” It is in fact a crime for an American to be poor, even though America is a nation of poor. Every other nation has folk traditions of men who were poor but extremely wise and virtuous, and therefore more estimable than anyone with power and gold. No such tales are told by the American poor. They mock themselves and glorify their betters...

Americans, like human beings everywhere, believe many things that are obviously untrue. Their most destructive untruth is that it is very easy for any American to make money. They will not acknowledge how in fact hard money is to come by, and, therefore, those who have no money blame and blame and blame themselves. This inward blame has been a treasure for the rich and powerful, who have had to do less for their poor, publicly and privately, than any other ruling class since, say Napoleonic times. Many novelties have come from America. The most startling of these, a thing without precedent, is a mass of undignified poor. They do not love one another because they do not love themselves.

-Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five

reply to post by Partygirl


That's an excellent quote and doesn't just apply to the Americans, it also applies to the NED and the Chav.