wearing flag patch while travelling

i was just having a conversation with a friend about people who wear their country's flag as a patch or pin on their shirts or bags when travelling out of the country. i'm canadian, and we're well-known and usually mocked for our inclination towards plastering ourselves with maple leaves. i'm living in australia at the moment, and i never wear the canadian flag, though i love the land. other than the typical "well, i want to differentiate myself from the americans!" response, why wear your country's flag? i'm really curious.

peace
sophia

 

Patriotism is sophomoric.

I love the states, but I don't really care about advertising it.

Patriotism is just banal love of where your parents fucked, it has no meaning to sophisticated 21st century folk.

 

hm, isnt that a valid enough reason? no offence to our american friends, but canadians have a much different international reputation and are often treated differently than americans.

or another alternative might be to hang a timmy's mug off of your pack! LOL i dont watch much commercial tv, but when i saw that ad, i roflmao

 

this is very true, especially in Europe. You could the nicest American ever, but an average Canadian will probably still be treated better. That's why I plan on wearing a little patch or pin of the Canadian flag when I finally can visit Europe.

 

How much of that is related to Americans who don't want to be seen as typical Americans? I know several Americans who went out & bought maple leaf patches (and praticed saying "eh" a lot ) before traveling overseas to avoid the hassle of being lumped in with dumb asshole stereotypical Americans...

 

I've never been to a different country but I have given this some thought and I've come to the conclusion that I would not want to draw attention to the fact that I'm an American. I guess I'm unpatriotic, or "un-American", or ashamed or something, but I don't want to be associated with the man who thinks he runs the world, because I don't agree with a lot of his decisions.

 

because in some countries, they hate america so bad they will be cruel to american tourists. i've heard stories of people being mistreated. spitting in your food, being blatantly ignored, and even being beat up or worse. that's how much people hate america. but, nobody really has a beef with canada, and some other countries even love the shit out of canada, and will pamper them and shit.

 

I carry a bag with a Venezuelan flag on it any my car (used to) have a flag of Spain on the bumper sticker. Because of that, I've gotten tons of DIRTY looks in my small time American town just because I don't wrap myself up in a US flag.

I hate having to defend being an American to people I meet. I play the Spanish version of an online game and when people find out I'm an American, I immediatly have to explain why the country is at war and why Bush said this or why Bush did that. It's kind of annoying so I've gotten in the habit of telling people I should have been born in Spain and that's the end of it.

 

I'd rather live in Guatemala then Canada.

Canada's a boring arctic hellhole, where everyone I've meet reeks of maple syrup, and is slow as hell.

No culture at all.

Everyone over there loves politics but doesn't know shit about them.

 

They also expect Canadians to be easy mugging targets.

 

I wouldn't wear a flag of any kind because that's not my style. But judging someone on their nationality is the most fucking assholish thing to do and people in other countries that are rude to americans for just being americans and no other reason are just dumb assholes.

 

I likely wouldn't wear a flag, but if I did, fuck it, it'd be an American one. If people disliked me because of that, too damn bad. Like Antithesis said, people who would judge you on your nationality are just assholes.

 

I have never met a Canadian who didn't have the Canadian flag somewhere on him while backpacking...

You Canadians are special.

 

i thought this was brilliant, until i continued on to your next post,

and started to doubt your age.
------------

i've worn a canadian flag sewn onto my backpack once, on my first major trip overseas, and i ripped it off after less than a week. as people recognized it, i began more and more to feel like i was trying to make a point i didn't have the right to make; like lodui's first post above, i could have been born to any country, so what statement does a flag really make? it's like name-dropping to make friends with the cool clique.

i think that a true traveller is able to journey on their own, without the aid of a brand or badge, walk in a foreign country as their own person and gain respect and reputation as a result of their own attitude.

i've met canadians so decked out in maple leaves i can barely look them in the eyes for all the distraction. it's ridiculous.

peace,
sophia

 

in all honesty, if i were to travel overseas, i'd probably opt for a mandala patch, and not a maple leaf. there are many ways to show the world where you come from

 

Eh, I just didn't want this thread to get unbalenced... every other post on page one was people saying, 'we'll I don't want people to know I'm american, I pretend I'm Canadian.'

A little feather ruffling is good... :H

But I stick by what I said in the first post, patriotism is childish and simplistic.

PS, I've been to Quebec, and loved it.

 

fair enough, dude; & thanks for the responses.... like i said, i was just having a conversation about it with a friend earlier today and afterwards i was still musing.... wondered what anyone else had to say.

man, i have this one aunt who, whenever i'm getting ready to go out of country, buys me heaps of canadian stickers and badges, caps, flags, you name it, she finds it. no matter how many times i explain to her that i won't use them, she's like, "oh, but give them out to people there; they'll love them!"... hahaha... i can't imagine the balls i'd have to grow to go up to native australians or anything-ians, and offer them my own flag. totally whack.



peace,
sophia

 

what's wrong with Americans eh?

 

When some friends went on a school trip to England they were given Canadian Flag pins to wear and told that they would be treated better if people knew they were Canadian (and not American). Personally, I am proud to be Canadian and would wear a flag when travelling.

Living somewhere is a bit different than being on vacation... It would get a bit obnoxious after awhile if you wore red and white every day.........then people would think you were American. j/k
There's nothing wrong with being proud of where you're from.

 

At this point.. I would pretend to be canadain... There are so many people who hate Americans..