British Identity

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FignonLeGrand

FignonLeGrand

Apr 1, 2009
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Ryo Hazuki said:
it's an obvious joke topic by teh topic creator. everyone who read wiggins from belgium with a pair of brains could understand that.
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A pair of brains? I know Doctor Who has a pair of hearts and most men have cajones but a pair of brains. Are you reffering to Wiggins it might make sense to have a pair of brains in his Belgium 'homeland' so you can deal with the obvious contradictions of French and Flemish or a desire for fine dining followed by chips and mayo.

hhhmmm chips
 
Captain_Cavman

Captain_Cavman

Nov 30, 2010
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Rechtschreibfehler said:
Well, why would the birth place, or where your parents come from and so on be so important? How's that far away from the question why your so called "blood" would be important?

Just to be clear, I don't think any of this is important. I think the first imporant thing is that you are a person ([human], but that sounds so far away from any other possibly intellegent being not of human biological sort).

The kind of question of the thread itself in my opinion isn't that far away from the viewpoint of strong nationalists/racists.
If "oh you are not born as British/German/Russian/Togolese" or "oh youre parents aren't xyz, so how can you be xyz?" are important, it's just a small step to say "I am XYZ. Being XYZ is the best there is: You are neither born in XYZ nor are your parents XYZ, so you are of less worth than I am, since I am XYZ."
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I call BS.

XYZ doesn't really exist. like KAZ, KYR or UZB, Sacha Baron Cohen invented them for comedic effect in his film Borat.
 
sublimit

sublimit

Jan 18, 2010
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Ryo Hazuki said:
it's an obvious joke topic by teh topic creator. everyone who read wiggins from belgium with a pair of brains could understand that.
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Maybe. Anyway I see dont see Wiiggins being any good at cyclocross, plus he can time trial well so there is no way he can be Belgian.
 
stainlessguy1

stainlessguy1

Dec 30, 2010
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Martin318is said:
You're talking about a country whose royal family is effectively German so...

You get the same thing with "Australian" movie stars.

Mel Gibson - American since about 11yrs old I think
Russel Crowe - Kiwi?
Nicle Kidman - born in Hawaii or somewhere wasnt she?

My own kids are Australian but born to a Colombian mother and they have been living in Colombia for about 6 months so... as of right now are they Aussie or Colombian? Who cares, they're mine. :D
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Yes , well put . They are your kids and represent the next generations to come. ;)
 
El Pistolero

El Pistolero

Jul 16, 2010
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The Hitch said:
I dont rate athletes in the same catergory as life saving scientists, poets, independence heroes, royalty and myself;)

But our kings really were foreign. It wasnt that they were of mixed herritage. THey were chosen because they were foreign and not all bothered to learn the language. The French one ditched the throne after like 9 months and run off back to France.

Even by French standards thats a pretty easy surrender (of the throne).
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Kings were not considered foreign by the contemporary population as long as the sovereignty lay with the King and not with the people, which it did for most of the Ancien Regime. Calling someone a foreign king in the early modern times is an anachronism. France was the first country in the world where sovereignty lay with the people instead of the king in 1789. Or second, come to think of it the American revolution against Britain took place earlier, but that had much less impact on the world than the French revolution anyway :p

Flemish counts spoke French. Burgundian dukes spoke French. Karel V had Dutch/German as his native languages. Filips II spoke Italian/Spanish. He left the Netherlands after 1559 and never returned. The following King that visited the Southern Netherlands personally would be Emperor Jozef II in 1781 ;)

I don't rate royalty all that much personally. Most of them are genetically weak anyway because of incest(just look at the Castilian/Aragonese/Portuguese royalty houses back in the early 16th century and have a great laugh). Most of them didn't rule personally and let other people rule for them(enough exceptions to this of course). Bunch of fat people doing nothing and getting everything handed to them because of their birth. That's how I see royalty. I have more respect for athletes then.
 
stainlessguy1

stainlessguy1

Dec 30, 2010
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FignonLeGrand said:
But are there really any national teams? Isnt it positive for the sport as a whole that nations such as UK and Austrailia are now at a point where they have enough national riders to make a 'spine' of a decent international team, and can find domestic backing? Lets be honest ANC Halfords or Linda Mccartney were not the best examples of a UK based continental squad. Less than 40% of the Sky team are GB riders, would this be any different to say Spanish riders for Movistar, Italians at Liquigas or Dutchies in the rabobank squad?

If cycling really want to become an world class proffesional sport surely it needs to embrace the developments across the world and hope that UK, Austrailian and hopefully South American based squads can succeed.

This board often seems to reduce itself to squabbles based on nationality or cycling history. Why has no one ever started a 'how can we aid an african team' rather than taking pot shots at countries who are emerging and embracing this great sport.
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Yes Well Put. ++1

Perhaps that is what the O P ment, in that can Britain capitalize on the fact that a few great riders have done so well in GT's . Can they use this momentum to gain more support from young people( the next generations) as well as business and governments , and turn around threads like , * why are cyclists so hated in the UK * . etc.
Timing is everything . :cool:
 
El Pistolero

El Pistolero

Jul 16, 2010
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sublimit said:
Maybe. Anyway I see dont see Wiiggins being any good at cyclocross, plus he can time trial well so there is no way he can be Belgian.
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Can we claim Sagan as Belgian then? He's good in cyclocross :D

Wiggins is what Wiggins considers he is. If he says tomorrow that he's a Belgian, well then he's a Belgian :p
Not going to happen though.
 
stainlessguy1

stainlessguy1

Dec 30, 2010
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the reality of fast tracking a citizenship

This has been a thread that is of the heart and heritage, but not really of the times we live in .
The question beckons , why build an exclusive all nationalist ethnic team when in todays world we can buy an athlete after scouting him out from say the islands for the 100 meter sprint (for example), promise him or her the world , turn around and fast track the citizenship all so the fans ( general public) can feel great about themselves.
The reality of the times we live in are obvious. The average olympic fan doesnt care. In the pub / bar, the question that is asked is ,How many medals did WE WIN. The answer is you won non, the athlete won the medal, the team gets the acolades and you get to raise your stein and say cheers .
But until a better feeling of euphoria comes around that will just have to do .
The world has evolved and things could be much worse.:cool:
 
Siriuscat

Siriuscat

May 24, 2010
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Jeez, I just wasted ten minutes reading all this garbage....worst Internet thread in history.

I'm off to be Scottish first, British second:rolleyes:
 
N

Nederick

Sep 30, 2010
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I was born in Scotland, but find myself today still subscribing to Renton's rant when they went camping.
Nice scenery though.
Not sure what this has to do with cycling. As much as the rest of the posts on this thread though. :confused:
 
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