I wonder why everybody likes to hate the U.S.A. ...is it because they are cocky? The U.S. is a dying country when it comes to world-wide influence. It is silly to think that the U.S. is the root behind all evil in the world. Yes, they influence international politics, but if a country has a strong government which is good for its people, the U.S. or any other underground conspiracy group you can think of would be able to shake that government.

You don´t need to rely on the media to see what is going on. If you know any people (as I do) who live close to the border you´ll know that people are not leaving Syria because Turkish influences, but because their own Syrian government is dangerous. I´m so tired of people always blaming the U.S. for everything, even when a government is clearly using force against its own citizens. How about saying "hey, that Syrian government shouldn´t be hurting its own citizens"?

Something REALLY absurd caught my eye. Yes, even more absurd than the Armenian genocide issue (seriously.... this thread needs to be more varried). Some news from my own country made me feel completely sick today.

Some parents offered their 8 year old daughter on the internet for sex! The parents, 44 and 43 years old, made sexual pictures of their daughter for the negotiations via email. They wanted to offer their daughter to trade for a loan. The man they had contact with was a 32 year old man who was also arrested by the  police. The parents where caught when a family member used their laptop and found the email contact between the parents and the pedofile. The family member immediately contacted the police. The child has been brought to a safe location, and the parents and the man are in prison, waiting their trial. Police is investigating if the parents had already done this before, and if the child had been sexually abused. Horrible...

Personally, I thought it was striking to see where the parents are from. I know the village they are from, and this is a highly religious area. The kind of place where nobody goes outside on sunday, except to go to church.

http://www.nu.nl/binnenland/2535759/ouders-bieden-8-jarige-dochter-seks.html

Wow, I have heard of problems with girls getting married by force when they are on a holiday in their parent´s native countries, while they are in high school. But I never heard of this in the Turkish community in Holland, only in Northern African and Western African communities living in Holland. Strange that this happened... Anyway, I guess it would be very difficult to make her marry against her will in Turkey, especially for the law. It´s a strange story...

Orangutangs on tv... I´m so easily amused

I don´t care much about what translation requester does or not, I was just sticking up for Acute. To call somebody ignorant, while that person seems to have a clearer view of what actually is going on is just silly. How many times have we "regulars" on this website seen very similar translation request? They always end up in about 10 further translation requests that depict a further relationship that never ends well. Usually the request stop after these 10, without the person in question ever making a real contribution to this website. If Acute wants to respond to an open message like this, he (or is it she) has every right to.

Great idea, I should twitter a certain Dutch politician in the same way

People on thsi website have heard these kind of stories a million times before. I myself have lived and worked in a tourist resort and Turkey, and have seen married men juggle many women. They all say they are unhappily married, and they all never say that to their own wives ofcourse. They are not unhappily married, because they don´t take their vows very serious in general. If somebody on this website points this out to you, it doesn´t make that person ignorant. It´s not ignorant to find it weird for a person who is not single to try and find contact with somebody who is married. If you don´t want people to judge you, don´t air your dirty laundry on the internet. And if you are smart, dump your boyfriend if you are not happy with him, and find contact with your ex if he is single too. Don´t make dating you and being with his wife at the same time a good option for him. It is unfair to his wife, especially since he already says he married her for the wrong reasons. You think the wife knows he married her for a greencard? It means he´s already lying to her (or you). In general, if he is willing to cheat on one wife he is willing to cheat on the next as well.

Somebody just tried to look out for you because it is clear that you are getting yourself into a giant mess. If you don´t want that kind of advise, don´t tell about your problems in the first place.

 My point is this. Some Muslims in my country point a finger towards the media for depicting a bad image of Muslims. They say the media is bad bad bad, because they report on Islamist terrorists and report on the high crime rates amongst Muslim teens in my countries. These people never go to those criminal kids and say "WHAT are you doing? Go home, go to school, and stop bullying people in the name of Islam". They never say in public "what is wrong with those terrorists, stop defying the name of Islam!" They always blame the media. I have a problem with these people. The media is making the problems worse, yes, but it is not the root of the problems. The root of the problems is the terrorist who hurt others in the first place. After 9/11 I wasn´t checked at the airport for a pen or camera, I was checked for bombs. The root of the problem is that those kids are out on the street making problems, because their parents are badly integrated and have no idea what their kids are doing.

I have watched the way the Dutch media reports on Muslims and terrorist attacks closely, because my Muslim friend said she was boycotting the news because of bad reporting. So, for a month I closely watched the two main news programs we have in Holland, to see which language they used. Guess what, the word Muslim terrorist was never used. They said "a member of Al-quaida did this" and "a member of the Taliban did that"... "The police forces in the 4 largest cities of Holland are asking for help to deal with street gangs"... I realized that the news reports aren´t such a big issue as people might think, it´s the actual actions of the crazy people that do stupid stuff in the name of Islam that hurt everybody the most. I won´t judge all Muslims on the actions of those few crazies, but you can´t blame the media for the people who generalize. That´s just a lack of intelligence on the part of those people.

True, but I find it strange that when people debate the reasons behind the negative image, they only blame the media. If people don´t acknowledge that there are bad muslims who give all muslims a bad name, they will never be able to battle the whole problem of negative image. Extremes always make the best tv.