British Diplomat's Opinion of Canada

[Johnnny]

can i be knighted by the queen? last i checked she was knighting anyone who recycles there sandels.

 

[Johnnny]

send this to the wreck beach im sure as canadians we can handle these britts. Our grand daddies did after all go over there and help them save themselves from zeee germans

 

[Johnnny]

did you guys know in britian they pay radical muslim terrorists to spread there message of hate against the british people, ill provide a link then its fact

thats impressive

 

[jsiooa]

It is not only the province of Ont ., It is whole Canada that becomes a joke when people allow the government to invade their private life .
You are a one big kinder-garden .

Unbelievable and highly ironic that a person who lives in China says something like this.:laughing9:

 

[Cannuck]

This is a country of squandered potential and gloating over petty achievements is mediocre.

We had the chance to have British culture, French cuisine and American technology and we opted for American culture, British cuisine and French technology.

I posted the OP because I agree with the diplomat. We do tend to celebrate mediocrity. Can anybody say King of Kensington...or how about Rene Simard.

 

[AnnaG]

Not sensitive really. Just pointing out directions.

You do know greenhouses have elevated levels of CO2.;-)

Directions. That's cool.

I know one greenhouse does. I'll have to research greenhouses that aren't open-air now.

 

[Spade]

Britain - a nation quite despondent without empire and class. Pity!

 

[AnnaG]

Do you know what nirvana is?

I've done research now and then. It seems to be inferred more than described and is only vaguely defined. Basically I gathered it is the freedom from reincarnation, freedom from worldly matters, and is known as "Enlightenment" by Buddhists.

(be careful not to injure your brain cells)

I think you should be the one to follow your own advice. I'm in no danger of injury.

 

[AnnaG]

Uh huh, you post some pics of an unmanned submersible,

No-one else in the world is as good at deep sea stuff as Canada so far.

the lame-ass Canadarm (Canadians really have to get over that--Canada got the gig instead of someone else, hardly the rocket science that got it up there)

You build one, then, Lameass.

and ref a Wiki site of Canadians that have done something worthy of mention.

What have YOU done, except shoot your mouth off?

If this were a tiny third world country, I would agree with you but that is not the case. This is a country of squandered potential and gloating over petty achievements is mediocre.

So says you. And as I don't give a crap about what some Brit says about Canada, the same applies for you.




Yeah well life is too short to squander it on plainness.

Wars start precisely because people take the passive (or 'plain') approach and allow arrogant, self-interested fools to run the country. Who do you think got us into the Afghanistan mess we're presently in (at the insistence of our gimp-master to the South)?

"Plain" in this context does not = "down to earth." You're confusing clarity of mind with lack of thought. People tend to take the easy way out, that doesn't make it right. Down to earth = seeing things for what they are and when they need changing, acting accordingly. Canada has consistently failed to do that to the point that today, its status as a sovereign state is in question (a disastrous situation that doesn't seem to phase Canadians).

People in Morgan's position don't say things because they can't "really think of anything good to say." The statement was seriously meant to indicate mediocrity--he was referring to the population as a whole, not a small group of intellectuals, artists, politicians, scientists and otherwise above-average Canadians (note I'm not using 'above-average' in the elitist sense; I firmly believe that all people can achieve great things, if they choose to and circumstances allow for it).

I would venture to guess that he was expressing dismay that is common in Britain and other European countries concerning Canada. A country with so much potential that has achieved so very little given it's advantages is hardly something to be proud of.

The criticism is precisely that Canadians do showboat their culture. The implication is that Canada is mediocre and tries to cover that up with a bloated, artificially nationalist culture full of real live heroes and heroins.

Canada has a responsibility to be more; at the very least be the sum of its parts, which it falls far short of. Accept it or not, that is the reality.[/quote]Canada could be better, I agree. So could any other country. Big deal. And your "reality" is only your opinion, apparently.

 

[AnnaG]

What a pile of bloated crap..... what that brit was doing, was being an asshole. Plain and simple. The same thing some pretentious american polititions do. It has nothing to do with facts and everything to do with his own percieved self importance.

Ever watch "Yes, Minister" and "Yes, Prime Minister"? It was the Brits making fun of their own government. The difference being, it was intetionally made to be funny. I think this "diplomat" was being serious. lol

 

[china]

Long live Canada
China In China.

 

[AnnaG]

Hey, I have loads of pics I can post.
Here's a few:

 

[Toro]

I'd really like to read it but I can't see anything and it says I have to register to see links.

 

[AnnaG]

I'd really like to read it but I can't see anything and it says I have to register to see links.

Here you go, Toro.
It's not really news. More like mildly interesting comedy.

The Associated Press
Date: Sunday Oct. 18, 2009 10:17 PM ET
LONDON — It's not exactly diplomatic -- details of what British ambassadors really think about their foreign hosts were disclosed Sunday following the release of a series of frank, and sometimes outright rude, letters to London from embassies around the world.
Nigerians are maddening, Nicaraguans often dishonest, Canadians deeply unimpressive and Thai's commonly lewd, British diplomats claim in notes sent to Britain's Foreign Office over the last five decades.
The letters, disclosed to the BBC under Freedom of Information laws, also reveal how diplomats were bored by endless rounds of cocktail parties, and exasperated by the British government's failure to shake off its stuffy image overseas.
Until 2006, ambassadors retiring from their post or moving country traditionally sent a valedictory dispatch to London, offering their candid personal assessment of the country in which they had served.
In a 1967 memo, Roger Pinsent, Britain's outgoing ambassador to Nicaragua, was scathing in his criticism.
"There is, I fear, no question that the average Nicaraguan is one of the most dishonest, unreliable, violent and alcoholic of the Latin Americans," Pinsent wrote.
Two years later, David Hunt -- then high commissioner to Nigeria -- said the West African country's leaders had "a maddening habit of always choosing the course of action which will do the maximum damage to their own interests."
"Africans as a whole are not only not averse to cutting off their nose to spite their face; they regard such an operation as a triumph of cosmetic surgery," Hunt claimed in his letter.
Lord Moran, high commissioner in Ottawa, Canada, between 1981 and 1984, claimed Canadians had limited talents.
"Anyone who is even moderately good at what they do -- in literature, the theatre, skiing or whatever -- tends to become a national figure. And anyone who stands out at all from the crowd tends to be praised to the skies and given the Order of Canada at once," Moran wrote in his letter, according to files released to the BBC.
Anthony Rumbold, Britain's ambassador to Thailand from 1965 to 1967, mocked his hosts for an apparent lack of culture. "They have no literature, no painting and only a very odd kind of music; their sculpture, ceramics and dancing are borrowed from others, and their architecture is monotonous and interior decoration hideous," Rumbold wrote.
"Nobody can deny that gambling and golf are the chief pleasures of the rich, and that licentiousness is the main pleasure of them all," he said.
Other diplomats used their letters to criticize British bureaucracy, and the sometimes dull world of international relations.
"One of the great failures of the diplomatic service has been its inability to cast off its image as bowler-hatted, pinstriped and chinless with a fondness for champagne," David Gore-Booth wrote in 1999, as he prepared to leave a posting in Delhi.
"Indeed cocktail parties are death as, I am sure 99 per cent of diplomatic service colleagues would agree," Gore-Booth wrote, bemoaning the countless receptions ambassadors are expected to host, or attend.
The Foreign Office ended the tradition of valedictory letters in 2006, after a message from Ivor Roberts -- Britain's departing ambassador to Italy -- was leaked to the media.
Roberts criticized the ministry's management culture, and fondness for buzzwords. "Can it be that in wading through the plethora of business plans, capability reviews ... and other excrescences of the management age, we have indeed forgotten what diplomacy is all about," he wrote.

 

[Andem]

I'd really like to read it but I can't see anything and it says I have to register to see links.

It's fixed now.

 

[AnnaG]

It's fixed now.

haha I beatcha to it.

 

[LikelyGuy]

The article is much ado about nothing. I read it yesterday and just took it for what it is. Snobby Brits.

Snobby Brits. Self aggrandizing Canucks, those awful Hondurans, etc. ad nauseam.

READ IT HERE... Slow news days, a diplomats words escaped after 25 years. I so, so much agree, VanIsle, that this is... "A TEMPEST (No, The Tempest) IN A TEAPOT".

Night all.

 

[barney]

Canada could be better, I agree. So could any other country. Big deal. And your "reality" is only your opinion, apparently.

What?! Most countries are highly disadvantaged in some way or another. It's considered an achievement if they don't lose a chunk of their population to malaria for God's sake!

The USA and Canada are two extremely privileged states. The former has exploited that and become the boss, the latter...not so much.

Sure it's my opinion, it just happens to coincide with reality.

 

[barney]

We had the chance to have British culture, French cuisine and American technology and we opted for American culture, British cuisine and French technology.

Oh please, that was clearly lacking in wit, humour and subtle brilliance.

(Checked online; couldn't find that quote anywhere. Source?)

 

[china]

We had the chance to have British culture, French cuisine and American technology and we opted for American culture, British cuisine and French technology.

That,s the problem ;not enough brains (I was going to say patriotism but that is not a Canadian favorite) to make something uniquely Canadian ( now the Check jets),always bickering who is no.1 ,blaming others . What a country .... still have hope though .