Thread "The 2008 Beijing Olympics - Proud Of Your Country?" in forum "Comic Talk and General Discussion *"

Posted at 11:08AM, Aug. 19, 2008

So…unless you have a grouping of things in front of you, then you shouldn't feel pride for your nation? Why can't you have pride in your nation with how representatives are doing in one particular thing since it's a part of the collective things to feel proud about?

All I am saying is that I would rather choose to feel pride in something such as a strong school system, than the amount of medals my country wins. I suppose if you want me to put it bluntly, then yes I would look at my country collectively, than its scores at a sports event.

But having competing countries taking tests and exams and whoever gets a higher score and gets gold for learnin's doesn't make for entertaining television.

I am amazed that there is such a lack of patriotism among those who have posted. I am not an athelete but I am blown away by what these men and women can and have done representing there country. Hearing stories of American citizens who instead of America they choose to represent the country of their families's nationality gives me such hope for this world community. Its not that they hate America its that they are proud where they came from and choose to represent the country of their roots. That definitely means a lot to them but the country they are playing for.

I guess the lack of patriotism has more to the cynical and apathetic morose which seems to be hip now a days.

Posted at 3:08PM, Aug. 19, 2008

I guess I'll have to be the SUPER PATRIOTIC ONE! WOo!

I love the Olympics, and if i could i would paint the American Flag on my body and run around the Birds Nest Stadium!(Beijing :)

I love watching michael phelps and all the other countries competing against one another. :) Its also fun to watch table tennis and Diving. I really don't know why i like the olympics so much… it just gives me a surge of patriotism for my own country and I am happy when I see other countries kick butt! Err, what I mean is that i am happy whenever anyone wins. yeah, well im gonna go and watch the olympics so more…

Posted at 5:08PM, Aug. 19, 2008

Ohman, I love the Olympics. I only care about sports during the Olympics.

I know sometimes [okay, a lot of times] sports can be overrated, but the work these people put into their sport is amazing. I'm on my uni's track team, so I have a bit of a taste of how hard they work at what they do. @_@

I do get a little sad when they don't show the smaller countries competing. For a lot of them, just getting to the Olympics is the big thing, regardless if they medal or not.

Posted at 8:08PM, Aug. 20, 2008

I am amazed that there is such a lack of patriotism among those who have posted. I am not an athelete but I am blown away by what these men and women can and have done representing there country. Hearing stories of American citizens who instead of America they choose to represent the country of their families's nationality gives me such hope for this world community. Its not that they hate America its that they are proud where they came from and choose to represent the country of their roots. That definitely means a lot to them but the country they are playing for.

I guess the lack of patriotism has more to the cynical and apathetic morose which seems to be hip now a days.

Well said, Midge. Well said…

Chris Kaman, American-born basketball player…Yet claimed dual citizenship and is playing with the Germans. I think that's WAY cool! The Armenian guy who was wrestling for Sweden? Strange - but cool anyway (Scracthing my head).

The Olympics are political, that's true…and for some of these young cats, that aspect might be boring. Still, based on the average age of the people in this community, you'd think they'd be excited watching athletes their age become rock stars in the name of sports and national pride.

Heck, I even thought the BMX races were pretty cool!

Posted at 8:08PM, Aug. 20, 2008

I dunno man, I think it's just that arty type people don't tend go for sporting events too much. :)

Some do, most don't.

Posted at 4:08PM, Aug. 21, 2008

… I guess the lack of patriotism has more to the cynical and apathetic morose which seems to be hip now a days.

Awesome. For the first time in my life, I'm hip! :)

Considering the actual definition for patriotism is "My country is always right, no matter what", then … yeah. I'm not patriotic. I am, however, a better American for it.

Posted at 10:08AM, Aug. 22, 2008

… I guess the lack of patriotism has more to do with the cynical and apathetic morose which seems to be hip now a days.
Awesome. For the first time in my life, I'm hip! :)

Considering the actual definition for patriotism is "My country is always right, no matter what", then … yeah. I'm not patriotic. I am, however, a better American for it.

patriotism=devoted love, support, and defense of one's country; national loyalty.
Glad to see the American school system is still providing that gold winning learnin's! ;)

Posted at 8:08PM, Aug. 22, 2008

patriotism=devoted love, support, and defense of one's country; national loyalty.
Glad to see the American school system is still providing that gold winning learnin's! ;)

Sorry for paraphrasing. Next time I'll just copy/paste the dictionary term like you did. That takes a lot of learnin's indeed…

devoted
– adjective
zealous or ardent in attachment, loyalty, or affection

Posted at 9:08PM, Aug. 22, 2008

Well right now there's a first happening for my country. The handball championship is coming to a close and my country is facing fighting for the gold. If we win it would be the first time that Iceland has won a gold medal on the Olympics. EVER!

I have to admit that in that scenario. Even as my country participates every time and we watch countries like Russia, China and the states take home hundreds of these thing every time. Getting that one gold would be something to be proud of.

Well wish us luck.

Posted at 12:08PM, Aug. 23, 2008

patriotism=devoted love, support, and defense of one's country; national loyalty.
Glad to see the American school system is still providing that gold winning learnin's! ;)
Sorry for paraphrasing. Next time I'll just copy/paste the dictionary term like you did. That takes a lot of learnin's indeed…

devoted
– adjective
zealous or ardent in attachment, loyalty, or affection

yup, guess yous be right.
I enjoy slippery slope logic.

Posted at 12:08PM, Aug. 23, 2008

Well right now there's a first happening for my country. The handball championship is coming to a close and my country is facing fighting for the gold. If we win it would be the first time that Iceland has won a gold medal on the Olympics. EVER!

That's what I like to se! Countries who don't win much actually winning! Stuff these over-fed behemoths, watching China, the U.S. etc win is dull, with such a large population base to pic their sportspeople from and so much funding it would be amazing if they didn't win so much.

Posted at 5:08PM, Aug. 24, 2008

Well… We didn't win the finals. France got to take home the gold this time. But it's still another silver under our belt. Last silver we got was in 1956. It was in triple jump and get this, the Icelander who got it, set the world record in triple jump while doing so and that obviously put him in the lead. However someone else after him jumped even further than him, broke the record mere minutes after him and thus he had to settle with silver. Still it made him a national hero. He was called "The Silver man" throughout his life.

Interestingly enough the story was published in the Times. A headline story to boot. Apparently they thought it was neat that such a small country could get this far.

Frontpage and article.

Posted at 1:08AM, Aug. 25, 2008

I'm really proud of team GB, we did so much better than what we planned for, and hopefully this is a stepping stone for when the games come to london.
We may not have gotten the huge amount of medals like china or the US but in the sports we did get them in we dominated, like the cycling and rowing. It's a shame we can't do track and feild that well.

Posted at 6:08AM, Aug. 25, 2008

Kenya owns the tracks. We had the Olympics on at work while they were doing the 100 meters, 200m, 500, 1km, 5km, the mens, the womens and so on and so on and it was like Kenya was winning half of these things.

Posted at 3:08PM, Aug. 25, 2008

Well, since everyone up here in the North Pole exceeds the wieght limit for the Olympics, I can't say anything about my country. So until some of us loose about 1800 pounds, I have nothing to be proud about.

Posted at 5:08PM, Aug. 25, 2008

I'm really proud of team GB, we did so much better than what we planned for, and hopefully this is a stepping stone for when the games come to london.
We may not have gotten the huge amount of medals like china or the US but in the sports we did get them in we dominated, like the cycling and rowing. It's a shame we can't do track and feild that well.

You know, I was pretty impressed with GB too. You had a few bright sports where I didn't think you wee represented (i.e. gymnastics and diving). But the sprinters? That really tall guyon the team was quite nice with his on the track.

Kenya owns the tracks. We had the Olympics on at work while they were doing the 100 meters, 200m, 500, 1km, 5km, the mens, the womens and so on and so on and it was like Kenya was winning half of these things.

When the Winter Olympics rolls around, you will definitely have much to brag about, man.

Kenya? Maybe in long distance, but Jamaica rocked the house in sprinting. Shutting down the US in a major way!

Well, since everyone up here in the North Pole exceeds the wieght limit for the Olympics, I can't say anything about my country. So until some of us loose about 1800 pounds, I have nothing to be proud about

Cheer up, kid. There's always the Winter Olympics for you too - or sumo wrestling…or even weightlifting.

North Pole? North Pole, ALASKA right?

Posted at 10:08PM, Aug. 25, 2008

When the Winter Olympics rolls around, you will definitely have much to brag about, man.

In all seriousness though. Iceland's not that into winter sports.

I think this is why.

Posted at 3:08PM, Aug. 26, 2008

North Pole? North Pole, ALASKA right?

I'm a walrus, what do you think?

Posted at 10:08AM, Aug. 27, 2008

We (because I am in fact the entire UK Olympic team) managed to accumulate more medals in the games than any other time in the last century. Sounds good but I'm not sure what to make of it other than 'woo?'
Looking forward to watching London completely balls-up 2012. Should be a laugh. Vaguely patriotic.

Posted at 12:08AM, Aug. 28, 2008

We (because I am in fact the entire UK Olympic team) managed to accumulate more medals in the games than any other time in the last century. Sounds good but I'm not sure what to make of it other than 'woo?'
Looking forward to watching London completely balls-up 2012. Should be a laugh. Vaguely patriotic.

Why wait for 2012? Just watch our eight-minute slot at the closing ceremony and you can start enjoying it now!

Also vaguely patriotic. But, you know … in that dry, self-deprecating kind of way that only we Brits can successfully pull off. (Did we get a gold for that?!)

Posted at 3:08PM, Aug. 28, 2008

There was an article on the BBC news (I think) site that was interesting, rather than medal counts it showed some charts ranking countries on medals per population, and number of athletes sent vs medals won, etc. There were some interesting results there. One country only sent 2 athletes and each one won a medal (or one of them won both). Even the smaller countries can excel at some thing, vs huge countries like the US trying to get in on everything…

Posted at 8:08PM, Aug. 28, 2008

Yeah trust me. The Icelandic media. Excels in figuring out our rank per population. Apparently that one silver made us the third best country in the Olympics. Well… technically it was 12 silvers since it is a group sport.

Well anyways. When the guys came home the only word that can describe it is… WOW!

50.000 people came to great them including me. I know that doesn't sound much to you but that 1/6 of the entire national population. You think about 1/6 of your population located at the same spot. It was great fun. We were singing and dancing there was this big act where the team was introduced one by one and we had a huge singalong.

Here I found a pretty low quality cell phone cam movie but that's the best I could find. The guy took a picture of the thickets concentration of people where I happened to be actually but there were allot more people that that. The song we're all singing in the end is a catchy tune that's the unofficial themesong for Icelandic handball. The chorus is roughly translated: We'll do the best we can and then some. It sounds like it's just the speakers but trust me everyone was singing. That blasted phone must not have been able to pick it up.

Posted at 9:08PM, Aug. 28, 2008

I'm very much into sports specially team-sports. In my case I have mixed feelings because Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory but we can have Sport autonomy which means that we can have our own delegation such events (olympics, Panam, ect ect) but I also root for U.S.

I do feel the innocence of the sports is lost and sometimes there are many reasons than patriotism to compete but I indulge myself and pretend everything it's done for the love of the country and goodwill.

UPDATE: I'm really bummed the US Men's Soccer team is out of the dance so early. Now I gotta pull for Cameroon!

I love soccer and I was rooting for the US soccer team, they almost made it against Nigeria. At least they did well against Guatemala on the world cup classifying last week.