Yep, you’re probably right. Basques are very nationalistic, so much so that when my cu?ados travel outside of Euskadi, like to Madrid for instance, they say they’re going ?en el extranjero?. Also when asked about the differences between northerners and southerners, people say that stereotypically northerners are cold and ?cerrados?, whereas southerners are warmer, friendlier though ?not trustworthy? according to people here. I’ve never spent a considerable time in the South or anywhere other than here so I have no idea if there’s any truth to that. Is there that same perception where you live too?
Yes and about putting people on the spot I’ve noticed that a lot too.

Let me tell you living in Puerto rico most of my life i understand somehow the Basque but el Pais Vasco is not a Free state like Puerto rico is. Puerto rico is more autonomous than Basque Country neverthless allot of Puertoricans like me want puerto rico to become the 51 state but the majority want to keep the commonwealth union with country like characteristics. But the truth is that if Puerto rico wasn’t U.S we will be starving as another latin american 3er world country and the Basque the same without Spain they will hungry too…...

I don’t think the Basques would be “starving” or “hungry” without Spain.  On the contrary, the Basque Country is home to a disproportionately high share of the Spanish state’s profitable industries, has lower unemployment, and pays more taxes to central government per head than most other areas. If Euskadi was an independent country, it would be one of the richest in Europe. That, along with language and culture, is a major reason for the Basques’ inclination towards independence.

MartCross - 11 October 2007 01:12 PM

I don’t think the Basques would be “starving” or “hungry” without Spain.  On the contrary, the Basque Country is home to a disproportionately high share of the Spanish state’s profitable industries, has lower unemployment, and pays more taxes to central government per head than most other areas. If Euskadi was an independent country, it would be one of the richest in Europe. That, along with language and culture, is a major reason for the Basques’ inclination towards independence.

IT WAS A SEPERATE COUNTRY! Long before we started to realize the world was bigger then our back garden, these people travellled the world! Go to wales ( in England) and talk basque: people understand you. WOW!

Yeah, well it’s had various levels of autonomy over the years like many other parts of the continent and indeed different parts of Spain, and the (largely Basque-speaking) Kingdom of Navarra was around before there even was a Spain. Wales isn’t in England, by the way, it’s another country within the UK, and Welsh-speaking people don’t understand Basque - the two languages are not even distantly related. However, in the Spanish Civil War many Basque children were evacuated to Wales for safety, so maybe they taught their language to a few of their host families….

parabolicfrolic - 11 May 2007 09:55 PM

Why is it suddenly acceptable to cast a dim view on a person, a perfect stranger no less, simply because they are from a nation with who’s political policies you disagree? It would be unthinkable to suddenly start lecturing Japanese tourists in Barcelona or Sevilla about attrocities Imperial Japan made in the Phillipines during the Second World War; or to Chinese businessmen in Madrid about human rights violations made today in their country.  Why is it that 5 seconds earlier when I was believed to be American, I was met with cold looks but now that I am not, it ok to warmly deride American culture, and far more dusgustingly, all Americans themselves.

Because in a democracy, the “political policies” of the government of the country are supported by it’s people. Who voted George W Bush into office? Twice? The American People! So who do we have to blame for his policies? The American people of course. Now you can’t say, that “well they didn’t know what to expect when they voted him in”. Sure, maybe the first time? But, the second time?

If Americans didn’t agree with the Neo-cons and Bush, they could have kicked him out. But, they didn’t. So?

If the war in Iraq was going well and if the Americans were kicking ass, you can bet Bush’s rating would be well over 50%. The only reason he is not popular now is because they are losing and America doesn’t like losers.

rokipatel - 05 October 2007 07:15 PM

. Part of his success and he taught me America is the only country in the world that provides you with the right enviroment for people to reach their dreams. Now you might be very complaisant about the way of Spanish living and a i concord because the atmosphere is very relax here but it really bothers me the amount of ignorant comments from Spaniards and Europeans about America . My Father Died in 2000 i was a Engineered by trade and i was already in Real State and developing in Puerto rico i decided that year to move to Miami were i was able to Capitalize on the Real State Boom than now is Bursting. I appreciate the opportunities America give to other nations and being very well documented and traveled i have been able to uncover allot of Myths and America is still the best country in the World for a person to reach its dreams and develop.

Your flag waving and patriotism is nauseating. You constantly tell us how great America is and how you can’t trust anything in Europe. If you love America and think it is the best country in the world and Europe is so bad, I suggest you move back there. You will be much happier.

Adrian - 15 October 2007 06:19 PM

Because in a democracy, the “political policies” of the government of the country are supported by it’s people. Who voted George W Bush into office? Twice? The American People! So who do we have to blame for his policies? The American people of course. Now you can’t say, that “well they didn’t know what to expect when they voted him in”. Sure, maybe the first time? But, the second time?

If Americans didn’t agree with the Neo-cons and Bush, they could have kicked him out. But, they didn’t. So?

If the war in Iraq was going well and if the Americans were kicking ass, you can bet Bush’s rating would be well over 50%. The only reason he is not popular now is because they are losing and America doesn’t like losers.

Adrian - 15 October 2007 06:31 PM

Your flag waving and patriotism is nauseating. You constantly tell us how great America is and how you can’t trust anything in Europe. If you love America and think it is the best country in the world and Europe is so bad, I suggest you move back there. You will be much happier.

Amen, brother!
I couldn’t agree more.
I really don’t understand from what kind of frustration all this flag waving sprouts. Clearly the message is clear, they would really want to be somewhere else. I don’t know with what hopes they came here, but obviously the dreams got shattered. Or is it because not everyone is hailing in THE AMERICANS? Sorry, dude. You’re just one of the many, many, nations in the world.

I’ll stop now, before i get another slap on the wrist 😉

Oh, one thing: Rokipatel, how would the police in the USA react to me driving around without a valid drivers license?

This Forum is for Expats and the topic is about Americans in Spain not Europeans in Europe? Yankeegirl and i have different views regarding America but we have allot similarities in our Experiences in Spain. If posting our opinions is Flag Waving you are mistaken. There are many things about Spain that i love and i have post them in other parts of this forum. But my friend reality is reality and that is something anyone here can’t change America is the Worlds only superpower Economically and militarily and it is true that American Diplomacy has not been the best and there allot of American Haters!!!! that does not change the reality that American still leads. Look this week Nobel prices on Economics, Science, Peace are won by Americans!!! does that tell you something how fertile the ground is across the pound. Allot of us did not vote for Bush and now all Europeans think all Americans are like Bush. It is so Naive that America worlds Oldest Democracy beacon pluralism we all think alike. I think i do have a right by blood to be in Spain because my family comes from here but if you are saying go back to wonderful america and leave Europe by right i do that in my own terms but neverthless after this Experience passes by i would go back to America probably join the more than 15-20 million European Nationals that work in the U.S.

rokipatel - 15 October 2007 10:10 PM

This Forum is for Expats and the topic is about Americans in Spain not Europeans in Europe?

And neither is it about how great America is, which is what you keep repeating in your sickening posts.

But my friend reality is reality and that is something anyone here can’t change America is the Worlds only superpower Economically and militarily and it is true that American Diplomacy has not been the best and there allot of American Haters!!!! that does not change the reality that American still leads.

Leads what? In survey after survey, America lags behind other countries in it’s quality of life. The “richest country in the world”, yet your president does not have the decency to provide health insurance to children. This same moron spends trillions of dollars murdering innocent Iraq children.

Quote:
“The United Nations has released its annual report this week, ranking the quality of life for 177 countries of the world. For six consecutive years, Norway has taken first place. With a population of only about 4.5 million, it is one of the most oil-rich-per-capita nations in the world, giving the society large amounts of wealth to lavish upon its citizens in education and social services.

Iceland, Australia, Ireland and Sweden are ranked as the second through fifth best places to live, with Canada, Japan and the United States at six, seven and eight.”

With all it’s wealth, the United Staes rank’s EIGHTH in quality of life. Hardly the best country in the world by any measure.

Allot of us did not vote for Bush and now all Europeans think all Americans are like Bush. It is so Naive that America worlds Oldest Democracy beacon pluralism we all think alike.

Yes, and a A LOT of americans DID vote for Bush. In fact , the MAJORITY of Americans voted for him.

Another Quote:
Bush received about 51 percent of the votes cast (62 million votes), making him the first presidential candidate to win a majority of the popular vote since his father George H. W. Bush in the presidential election of 1988. The 62 million votes cast for Bush were the most individual votes cast for anyone in history,.

This was in 2004, after the Americans had plenty of time to learn about Bush and his policies.

So, who is responsibe for the actions of the American goverment? Not, us, but YOU, the American people. And if that causes you to be judged and questioned everytime you travel abroad. Well, that is just the price you are going to have to pay.

If you want to change that, instead of sitting on your butt in Puerto Banus and complaining how Americans are misjudged maybe you need to go back and do something about it. Btw, I am sure nobody cares how much your little car costs as you seem to think. The marina in Puerto Banus is full of Bentleys and 10 Million Euro yachts, so don’t flatter yoursellf. Europeans are not in awe of your money.

Can this thread die already?
In no way is anything going to get resolved here, i?ve seen too many of these spam traps only causing greeve.

Admin: Lock and forget?

I may not agree with rokipatel’s views, but there’s a civil way to express that without being insulting. I thought Europeans were better than this? Your kind of prejudice and hate talk is exactly what’s wrong with the world and makes you no better than anybody else. Your posts on this thread plainly illustrate why it was created.

I completely agree with you like i said i agree to disagree and without showing Facts the use anti-american hateful propaganda without accurate information and causes a frustration that then causes this kind of very deep Envious behavior torse Americans….

Como dice el refran dime con quien andas y te dire quien eres!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Excuse me, I’m a newcomer here looking for information on perhaps retiring in Spain.
Seems I’ve come to the wrong place though. I’ve Never, never read such a negitive bunch of hateful bullpucky in all my days.

I AM SPANIARD

and the truth that the things that I have read, mainly of the author of this thread, it is as we say in my country, ” para orinar y no echar gota ” (for to urinate and not to toss drop) 
 
I would like to request to many foreigners that when you refer to the spaniards you leave the generalizations. It is that I don’t know that will have my country that all the bad one is exalted, as if it was something only and exclusive of Spain, and now countries as the United States of Vietnam or the Europe of the two world wars come to give lessons of moral to the spaniards

The author of the thread speak of racism in Spain. The matter has a lot of jest, because she is american, and the blacks achieved their freedom 150 years ago, but until some decades ago they were not allowed to enter to public places, transport, was pursued and and they were hung of the trees, and this when they didn’t finish in a blaze. And it continues there being racism, and a great racism (and the police of New York, of this knows a lot) 
 
I ask to the author of this thread…do you have seen some manifestation of the Ku Klux Klan in Spain? Or Aryan Nations? Or National Vanguard? Because all these groups (and some more than I forget) they are racist groups of your country, United States. There, the racism seems something institutionalized, and you come with the big mouth speaking of if in Spain there is racism. If that there is, but that you say it, coming of where your you come, I ask you for forgiveness, but in my country this has a name: hypocrisy

Do you say that people laugh at your accent…But all the people, or only some people? Because some people, not are all people, I think! And maybe if I went to England, Canada or United States, to me I would spend the same thing. I like to some people, to other no, people that would laugh of my accent, and people to which he would like and would wake up curiosity…or is it that in Spain for you only there is defects, and in your countries only are virtues? I ask, because it is that at the end, you finish insulting . You and those that say as you in this thread

I know the case of a english boy that arrived in Spain, he learned spanish, he has many friends and he will make their own company. To know our language made him easier to get used to our country, to discover more things and to like him as he would like its own land

But what one cannot make is to go to a country, and mainly to go to a country to stay to live in that country, and not to learn nor the language of that country. I don’t imagine living in England, Canada or United States and not knowing nor drop of english, because besides acting with prepotency, never I would know to the people, nor culturally nor emotionally. And this would be a great step that would avoid me many prejudices and false moral judgement to the people of my welcome country

I don’t imagine living in England, Canada, United States, Australia or any country of english language without knowing nor drop of english, and always with spaniards. I don’t imagine it, because it would be a boring and insipid life, at least for me

Try not to generalize that there is of everything in Spain, because here we are not perfect, but the world neither is DisneyWorld

A proverb: you can see a straw in the eye of the neighbor, but you are unable to see the beam in your eye