Re: Culture was Re: [OT] Vietnam and modern combat

From: <warbeads@juno.com>

> There is a _huge_ cultural 
> >gulf
> >between "northern" and "southern" Europeans, and while it isn't quite

> >as
> >cleanly along national borders as the NSL/FSE depicts, it should
> >certainly not be ignored.
> >

> I admit there are cultural differences, just look at East Coast versus
> Left Coast (basically Socialist versus Anarchist <grin>) in the USA. 
The
> differences are just exaggerated for effect in the Tuffleyverse.  IMO.

> But I'll have to take consideration of others' first hand experience
> since I don't see myself out of country (I turned down the chance to
be a
> 'tourist' in S.E.A.  this year already) in this life time.

To see a truly embarressing article in the Grauniad, er, Guardian, have
a look at 
http://aebrain.blogspot.com/2004_05_02_aebrain_archive.html#108367762206
934393

Summary :
A British journalist goes to Alabama, and proceeds to extrapolate "what
the
average American thinks".
So I decided to write about Denmark, and extrapolate "what the average
European thinks".

Australia is incredibly homogenous*, the differences in accent and
language
between, say, Melbourne and Sydney are so minute as to be lost in the
noise.
The difference between the Australian and New Zealand accents is
actually more
pronounced now than it was 30 years ago, probably because both countries
have
only existed in their current forms for about a century.

* Queensland excepted. They do things differently there. Even more
differently
than Taswegians. 

Anyway, my travels in the US have been confined to NY, Connecticut,
Ohio, DC,
Massachaussets (briefly - I took the wrong exit from the freeway), and
California. There's at least as much difference between New England, the
Mid West and California as there is between Germany, Holland, Denmark,
Italy
and the UK. In California's case, there is more difference between San
Francisco
and LA than there is between Belgium and Holland.

But there's more difference between York and Derby than there is between
Sydney and Melbourne.