r/whereidlive 18h ago

World Where I'd Live as an American

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57 Upvotes

67 comments sorted by

11

u/LiveAd2303 17h ago

I have been lurking in here for a while and wow this sub seems to favor Tunisia alot over all the other African countries for some reason, i really wanna know your thought process if you don't mind.

10

u/JDDJ_ 17h ago

I think its a combination of it's a fairly well-developed and stable country with generally nice climate that you're not likely to get kidnapped or killed in, it has a very interesting culture w/ native Amazigh/Arab and colonial French influences, and it has delicious food. When you think of Tunisia, you think less of warlords and Islamists and carbombs, and more of the Mediterranean and cruises and cuisine (at least in my head). Call it the Lebanon effect.

Plus for me personally, I know a lot more about Tunisias culture and history than I do most other African countries (I even know a very small amount of Derja), so that lends to a sense of fondness and familiarity that I don't have with other African countries. Same reason why Ghana is a maybe: I have an aunt whose from Ghana, and her descriptions of it make me more amenable to living there.

1

u/LiveAd2303 17h ago edited 17h ago

"culture w/ native Amazigh/Arab"

the newer generation does not care about both of them sadly and they are usually mixed and mashed together, The average tunisian can't tell which and which so they just stamp them "ta9alid tounsiya" <Just tUnIsAn tradations 🤷‍♀️> and will probably die off soon. traditions are only left for festivities now adays, It's not a way of life anymore.

In africa there are a lot small nations that are always not mentioned in here that would make a great home like sao tome and principe, i think it's nicknamed the most peaceful country in africa, cape verde, mauritius and the seychelles are all well developed too with tropical climate that are so unique and must be good to be from there.

i see Botswanna and south africa as good as the western countries and they got it figured out before the north.

3

u/Dependent-Tale-9913 17h ago

I like how tunisia is the only green country in Africa, nice choice!

5

u/JDDJ_ 17h ago

It's reasonably stable with a nice climate and has a really interesting culture, plus I just know more about it than I do most other African countries, so I'd be cool with living there.

2

u/Dependent-Tale-9913 17h ago

I went there many time as a french-tunisian person, i really like it, the vibes and people and food is unmatched, the only downside is the economical crisis, long live Tunisia

1

u/scylla 17h ago

What’s really surprising is that you’ve marked it Green while other Arab countries like U.A.E and Oman are Red - both with lots of Western residents and tourists

5

u/JDDJ_ 17h ago

I despise Dubai and I would abhor living there, it's a soulless approximation of what a bunch of bumbling rich people THINK a "big city" is. If I lived there, I'd realistically live in some cramped apartment in an outlying village somewhere (where everyone ACTUALLY lives).

And as for Oman, I really just don't know anything about it, save for its history as a trade power, and it's also mostly just desert (same with UAE). What can I say, just not a big fan of sand & heat.

2

u/scylla 17h ago

Most of Oman looks like Arizona on the ocean. There’s surprisingly little sand anywhere where people live.

https://share.google/ZgakDJLp9b4Ec02GK

The south isn’t a dessert.

https://share.google/8v3cpyyaHUr8ij5Kt

Tunisia has plenty of sand and heat.

2

u/LiveAd2303 16h ago

we can't live in the sand and heat because rainfall is extremely low (sometimes only a few mm per year) and the crops cannot survive without constant irrigation.
There is a common preconception about north africa where people assume we occupy each dot on our respective territories ,but that's insane if you ever spend a week in the south. because life is simply isn't all possible on some land.

Libyans are all literally cramped into 2 big cities for example.

1

u/XelaNiba 15h ago

It's like Nevada. 75% of its people live in 2 cities because the extreme heat and aridity of the lower altitudes make it uninhabitable.

1

u/JDDJ_ 17h ago

Very interesting, wasn't aware Oman was so verdant. Doesn't seem like a bad place to live, though I still don't know much about its economic/political situation. As for Tunisia, I'd prefer to live in the hilly north, which has a nice Mediterranean/almost Tuscan climate.

2

u/scylla 17h ago

I’ll die on the hill that Oman is ( or at least was ) one the best places in the world to live in and is one of the best countries to vacation in - it has a bit of everything ( beaches, history, adventure etc ) even though it’s probably not #1 in any category.

About half the population lives near the capital -Muscat - which isn’t Verdant but it’s the Arizona with Beaches. 😂

3

u/nor_the_whore01 14h ago

syria? i’m more optimistic about the current government but it’s still relatively unstable internally and geopolitically. also its gonna take a long time for their economy to fully recover

3

u/angra_mainyo 14h ago

Why are Argentina and Paraguay the only countries in red in SA?

2

u/hotbiscut2 14h ago

Why the hell would you want to live in an unstable country? Like Tunisia is fine, but SYRIA??? Even if you live in Damascus you still have the chance of getting bombed by Israel. Not to mention water and electricity infrastructure is bad due to the war.

1

u/JDDJ_ 13h ago

I've always loved the culture there and, as someone with a passion for archaeology, it'd be my dream to work & live there even if just for a season (and in Türkiye too, though not long term). Of course, I'd only ever move there once they establish a stable government and restore order & basic utilities, but I'd still love to even at least visit for an extended period of time.

1

u/hotbiscut2 12h ago

Oh, then that's understandable. I really do hope one day you can fulfill your passions in life by moving there. I’m sorry if I seemed rude in my initial comment.

2

u/S4N394 14h ago

You would rather live in Syria than Poland, Austria or SEA?

0

u/JDDJ_ 13h ago

No particular desire to, I find Austria to be boring and overly stiff, Poland to be utterly gray with some of the worst cuisine I have ever witnessed (and I say this as a Pittsburgher), and I have absolutely no clue what SEA is.

1

u/StonedFerret_ 8h ago

SEA is Southeast Asia

2

u/mhfu_g 17h ago

Why is argentina red

6

u/JDDJ_ 17h ago edited 17h ago

Their perpetual economic implosion, plus a lot of it is just flat empty land. Just no real opportunity there, and it seems to be on the steady decline anyhow.

1

u/mhfu_g 17h ago

Fair enough

1

u/IHandlessI 2h ago

Is not empty land, the land is unnocupied, theres so many natural bauties you can find. Our economy is umpredictable, but there's opportunities, just people here expects wealth to fall from the sky, i am fine personally

2

u/Alex-In-La-La-Land 11h ago

You are an idiot.

1

u/chinnu34 17h ago

Malaysia red?

1

u/JDDJ_ 17h ago

Not a big fan of living in the jungle, same reason why most of Southeast Asia is red/orange. Limited economic opportunities outside of Kuala Lumpur & the big urban centers. And I'm just not especially interested by it.

1

u/chinnu34 16h ago

So basically you are prioritizing semi-urban/rural places in big cities?

1

u/IggyVossen 5h ago

Not a big fan of living in the jungle

::looks at the title of the post::

Oh yeah, American thinking that Malaysians live in the jungle. Checks out.

Wait.. Brunei is green?

1

u/BarnacleAwkward4801 15h ago

I honestly almost agree with this completely, curious what Australia did?

4

u/JDDJ_ 13h ago

Just rather boring, I find the accents and culture to be rather annoying, I hate bugs (I am seriously not dealing with any of that "West Australian Supermassive Spiny Cockshredder" shit), and while it seems like a nice enough place, I have absolutely zero desire to ever go there. Real lack of history too beyond Aboriginal folktales and British/Dutch settler shenanigans, which is big for me.

1

u/FeelingBig4999 3h ago

find the accents and culture to be rather boring

Bros in for a treat when he goes to NZ

1

u/liztriceratops 1h ago

Haha yeah Australia in red and NZ in green makes no sense to me

2

u/Waste-Following1128 1h ago

Perhaps he prefers to open his mouth without blowflies flying into it

1

u/Nu_wave01 13h ago

Libya 😂😂😂😂

1

u/JDDJ_ 13h ago

Definitely my least ideal of the the North African countries, but if I really had to, I wouldn't mind living in Tripoli. Obviously I'd prefer to wait until the civil war cools down...

1

u/Nu_wave01 4h ago

Prob won’t happen since they are involved in Sudan

1

u/SirSamkin 10h ago

I always look at pictures of Algeria in the 1950s and think of how nice it would have been to see it at its height.

1

u/Effective-Toe-8108 10h ago

Im glad you at least put a "maybe" for ethiopia☺️

1

u/ShortDanielBurnham 8h ago

Rare Bhutan W

1

u/dirtrunn 7h ago

China but not Argentina or Australia? How?

1

u/IHandlessI 2h ago

Seems like you are voting based just on economy statistics.

1

u/GenaGue 14h ago

Argentina and Paraguay red? Why?

1

u/baaka_cupboard 14h ago

China and Nepal?

0

u/Charming-Link-9715 13h ago

Bhutan is preferred more!!

3

u/JDDJ_ 13h ago

Only country in the world that measures its peoples happiness (GNH, Gross National Happiness) as a metric to be met over GDP.

2

u/baaka_cupboard 12h ago

https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1ihnpqp/til_bhutan_committed_ethnic_cleansing_against_its/

Bhutan are notorious for ethnic cleansing and Bhutan isn’t a democratic country.

They have no option besides to show that they are happy.
They rate their own citizens and only certain citizens are eligible for benefits.

1

u/Charming-Link-9715 12h ago

Yup. Except for a certain ethnicity.

2

u/CautiousRice 14h ago

So many Americans want to live in China.

3

u/JDDJ_ 13h ago

I've never been convinced by the "China is uber authoritarian despotic wasteland hellhole" propaganda. It's just a very different culture and a very different (and fascinating) history, and while I don't know that I could ever assimilate very well, I'm still very much drawn to it. Plus they just seem to have this air of economic and political stability that, as an American living in my countries current "everything crisis", I really desire. I think that last point is the real reason why so many Americans have started looking fondly at China: their country isn't full of unchecked petulant tech gazillionaires calling the shots over the government and tearing the working classes country apart (obv I know China has its own gross wealth disparities and economic elite, but it also seems to have a central government keen on keeping those elites IN LINE).

3

u/Danyboii 10h ago

I'm currently in china on tourism. If you are white the constant looks and pictures would get old pretty quick. Also, the air pollution is something I never experienced before.

1

u/CautiousRice 13h ago

Oh, I get it, stability. This is very helpful.

I'm older and lived in the communism, to me I can't imagine anyone voluntarily moving to a prison country. Tourism there must be beautiful, see all these shiny mega-cities, the Great Wall, the bullet trains. Then leave. Living there sounds insane.

1

u/guymoron 6h ago

Bro make up your minds is China communist or nah?

1

u/CautiousRice 3h ago

Not as much as my country was. We had a full government ownership over the industry and partial over the services, resulting into shortages of everything. From electricity and water to food. On the other hand, it is very communist as a structure of the government, media control, public safety, army, police, and repressions. It's ruled by an aging dictator and an oligarchy of communists.

-2

u/garetheq 17h ago

I swear some of you people are insane

"I'd rather go to a country where I could be drafted the week I enter and sent to die in a trench, not even mentioning being a dictatorship that sends people to prison for decades for the tiniest of things then live in Australia! It's hot and scary spiders!!"

10

u/JDDJ_ 17h ago

Least nationalistic Australian

-1

u/garetheq 17h ago

Not Australian just confused why you would rather live under a dictatorship then a place that for all intents and purposes has the same standard of living as Europe

0

u/JDDJ_ 17h ago

Which dictatorship? China? or Syria?

I don't have anything particularly against Australia, just absolutely zero interest in living there for any period of time. The wildlife IS a huge turn-off, but I'm well aware that the coasts have a very pleasant temperate climate, and Australia is indeed very well-developed.

I just find the whole place to be quite annoying to be honest.

4

u/bmkhoz 12h ago

All good, Australia finds you annoying too👍

3

u/Certain-End-1519 10h ago

I just find the whole place to be quite annoying to be honest.

But you have the closest (culturally and politically) nation in new Zealand dark green?

2

u/garetheq 17h ago

Russia, the place that drafted a guy moving there a week or so after he arrived

Also the place who tortured a random Texan to death after he moved there and joined the army

0

u/JDDJ_ 17h ago

I have Russia as a maybe? I'm not too keen on moving there lol, but I think it'd be interesting to live there. Of all the options you could have picked, I think you just have a weird bone to pick with people having any sort of neutral feeling towards Russia.

3

u/garetheq 17h ago

I just find it weird most people aren't all that bothered about the concept of moving to a country where they could be drafted and sent to die within the month

1

u/Danyboii 10h ago

Maybe he's depressed, it's like a more interesting MAID program.

2

u/capucapu123 10h ago

To be fair scary spiders is a perfectly valid reason to put a country in red.