Are there any warm countries with good governments?

jackiebaron

liah wrote: »

I'm wondering why it's only really countries that have a 'real' winter that are progressive, I can think of quite a few countries I wouldn't mind living in, various places in Europe (Scandinavia, etc), Canada, etc. But they've all got fairly brutal winters.

Chances are I'll just have to suck it up and pick a country with a winter, but why are there so few, if any, countries that are warm all year round that fit the majority of those criteria?

An odd correlation, but one I'm curious about.

Liah why don't you just spend the spring and summer in a northern hemisphere country and autumn and winter in either a southern hemisphere, tropical or equatorial country? Is that not an option?

Seaneh

pickarooney wrote: »

I've heard Portugal is a bit ѕhit. The food is rubbish and it's kind of poor.

Portugal have one of the most creative, varied and diverse food cultures in Europe, they took all the best bits from all their colonies around the world, influences fron places like India, Angola, Mozambique and Brazil on top of their own fantastic traditions.

It's a great place to live too.

Not "rich" but far from poor.

FreudianSlippers

PeakOutput wrote: »

my personal potential paradises are

a bunch of warm places...

oregon

WTF. Summers are nice... like July-September, but the rest of the year is even more miserable than here. It's grey from like October to June and rains relentlessly.

At least here you can get crisp and sunny days in the winter. Oregon winters are like the sun went away for the majority of the year.

Wibbs

NSNO wrote: »

What about Gibraltar? Lovely climate, Mediterranean food, British colony in Europe, good possibilities for travel home or to Europe/Africa....

Other suggestions that I'd echo would be Monaco and San Marino.

All of the above are tiny. Gun to my head I'd go for san marino. It's nice. Gib is a rock. The name describes it well. Monaco is tacky, hideous and hideously expensive. It's like you took the worst bits of 1970's Torremolinos and compressed them into a tiny space, threw it against a cliff and then populated it with eurotrash. It has long ceased to be the "monte carlo" of the imagination. The french coast running up to it is nice though.

pickarooney wrote:

I've heard Portugal is a bit ѕhit. The food is rubbish and it's kind of poor.

Please tell me you're extracting the urine. It has one of the oldest, most varied cultures and histories in Europe and a cuisine up there with the best. It's one of the most important nations states in European history. Hell there are 500 year old towns in the place with more cultural impact than this country has in the same timeframe. Great nightlife too.

KindOfIrish

Italian speaking part of Switzerland (Lugano) - Italian climate and Swiss everything else.
Tenerife and Gran Canaria - ideal weather all year round, part of Spain. No viza, no work permit, direct flights to Ireland

PeakOutput

OisinT wrote: »

WTF. Summers are nice... like July-September, but the rest of the year is even more miserable than here. It's grey from like October to June and rains relentlessly.

At least here you can get crisp and sunny days in the winter. Oregon winters are like the sun went away for the majority of the year.

my basic criteria for my personal paradise is somewhere i can ski surf and skydive all year around or as close to as possible (not having to travel say more then 4 hours in any direction to take part in one of the above activities for example). im very flexible with weather if those criteria are met.

leaving aside new england which has no surf but i love anyway, oregon meets those criteria (or so iv been told i havnt made it to the west coast yet but will be working there this time next year so will find out then) but its weather would be a downside, northern california meets them as well with better weather i guess

Greystoner

Singapore is very clean and well run and no shortage of electronics and gadgets for amusements. It has all the amenities you could want. Some things can be pricey, but others can be cheap; just watch the locals and you would soon find out where to get things cheaper.

It may be too hot though some times, but there is air-con everywhere as standard.

If it got boring, you would be pretty central to get to other Asian countries; Malaysia, and Thailand very near (Both great in many ways), and you could pop over to Indonesia as and when you pleased for a bit of the exotic!

Love New Zealand, but it isn't really that warm on the whole, and the chances of getting skin cancer are pretty high.

Earthhorse

Are you bored of Germany already, liah?

liah

Earthhorse wrote: »

Are you bored of Germany already, liah?

Oh god no, this is just pre-planning for when I get lazy and don't enjoy travelling anymore, I'll definitely be here awhile yet.

Manic Moran

It's Southern California (LA and San Diego) that is sunny and warm but Northern California - including San Francisco - is quite mild and gets wet and foggy winters and springs.

I think you have to look at relative terms. It's January, and I'm wearing short sleeves up here in the Bay Area.

Is it as warm here today as it is in San Diego? (where you have to worry about wildfires more than earthquakes). No. But believe me, when I stepped off the airplane from Dublin earlier this month, it felt satisfactorily warm to me.

NTM

Terry

clln wrote: »

Terry are you really that slow?
It is not babble it is truth.
Irelands demise is all down to bonds,currency,bullsh*t talk,IMF bailouts,ECB bailouts all printed on paper,believe it or not there was a time when Tulips were a sacred thing and a good place to invest,at least as sacred as gold or diamonds,check it out for yourself but don't display such ignorance.

The value of anything is what the markets decide it is............ pork belly's is another example of markets being crazy,it could be that tomorrow it is old socks.

These people are amoral compulsive gamblers wearing suits who bring countries to their knees for the thrill of the hunt,if you do not know that then you do not understand why Ireland has been screwed.

I am a bit slow, but your initial post was complete and utter gibberish.
This one just sounds like more conspiracy theory crap.

pickarooney wrote: »

In as much as any government is competent, the south of France has great weather, beautiful scenery and political stability.

Costa Rica is pretty stable, beautiful and the weather is A-1 Sharon.

Brazil is getting its act together politically and the weather is top notch.

Heh.

Wompa1 wrote: »

Pride in your country is a bad thing!? My dad thinks Ireland is the best country in the world. I wouldn't agree with him but wouldn't begrudge it either, if Americans want to believe they live in the best country in the world then who cares, good for them. Whatever about the patriotism it would nice to have that optimism here at least.

There's a difference in pride and fanaticism.
How many people do you know who consistently run around shouting "Ireland is number 1. Yeah!!!!!" or something similar?

Take a look at American potests compared to Irish ones.
Have you ever seen an "ROI #1" banner, even though it's a purely Irish based protest?
How many times have you seen "USA #1" in the same context?

jackiebaron wrote: »

Yup, that 2 party dictatorship is well entrenched and going nowhere. It's the electorate that are the unhinged ones.

I'd argue that it's not just the electorate, but also the far right. The likes of the Tea Party in the political field and Fox News in the media.

Insinuating that Obama is a NAZI because of his health care reforms is hardly sane.

Wibbs wrote: »

North west atlantic coast of "green" Spain for me. Great climate and countryside. Think Ireland with better weather(and better scenery). The locals are a good fit for us, whether Basque Asturian or Galician. Economically it's one of the richest in Europe(or would be if a separate country). They have a very good heath service. One of the best in the EU. Crime is pretty low and the corruption scandals that have come up in southern and eastern Spain don't seem to crop up there so much. Plus if you're homesick its only 90 mins away from Dublin flying from Bilbao(dunno if there are Cork flights. if so, knock a half hour off I'd reckon). Plus loads of cultural stuff. I'd think of it as the Celtic Latin country. Gets my vote anyway.

Or you could just come back to Ireland. After all, we originated in the North of Spain.

This is one of the greatest countries on the planted, and to dismiss it because of a small bit of rain is a bit silly.

Seaneh

KindOfIrish wrote: »

Italian speaking part of Switzerland (Lugano) - Italian climate and Swiss everything else.
Tenerife and Gran Canaria - ideal weather all year round, part of Spain. No viza, no work permit, direct flights to Ireland

Northern Italy is absolutly baltic in the winter, don't let yourself be con fused with Napoli.

Milano, Torino, Trento, Venezia etc are all FAR colder than Ireland in the winter and get a lot of snow.
Lugano is in the middle of two mountain ranges and gets really cold in the winter.

sheesh

has anyone mentioned Japan?

Its warm there isn't it?

Spain, the northern part of italy, France all have reasonable governments.
Remember you will be living in the Expat communities so you would be reasonably ok.

ArtSmart

Unpossible wrote: »

How about the cayman islands? Heard it was a great place to live and work. You could also go for gibraltar, or one of the small islands in the atlantic owned by the UK like st. helena's

canaries,Balearic islands, cayman islands , bermuda, malta, rhodes.
basically any med/ Caribbean island.
med safer. malta = excellent health care, wealth dist very good etc. but cramped.

course, you'll have to find a non-tourist spot.

course, you must love non-cultural (except visual culture)

for culture + sun + stability (relative) etc = argentina

or just go on holidays more often.

pickarooney

sheesh wrote: »

has anyone mentioned Japan?

Its warm there isn't it?

Spain, the northern part of italy, France all have reasonable governments.
Remember you will be living in the Expat communities so you would be reasonably ok.

In the Canadian ghetto?

opinion guy

Actually yeah Japan is awesome. But major cultural adjustments involved there

Marcus.Aurelius

Terry wrote: »

This is one of the greatest countries on the planet, and to dismiss it because of a small bit of rain is a bit silly.

A small bit??????

:pac:

Johro

liah wrote: »

I am not one of those people.

Woohoo!;)

JupiterKid

Japan is not a warm country. Its climate is temperate.

The southern parts - Kyushu and Shikoku - would have mild winters and hot, humid summers but Honshu North of Toyko and the Northern Island Hokkaido can have punishingly cold winters.

And some one else on this thread mentioned South Korea.:rolleyes: Again this is a country in the mid latitudes with a temparate climate - today in Seoul it's minus 7 degrees celsius. Hardly "warm" by anyones reckoning except the Artcic Inuit.

Link:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34685733/ns/world_news-asia-pacific/

If you want balmy sub tropical you need to go much further south to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Southern China and the Phillipines - then into South East Asia for truly tropical.

For clement weather and a stable government in East Asia I would choose Taiwan.

Some people on here have a shockingly poor grasp of geography!

hairy sailor

Mena wrote: »

Try Bahrain, I love it there.

Bahrain's ok apart from the thieving taxi drivers

sheesh

JupiterKid wrote: »

Japan is not a warm country. Its climate is temperate.

The southern parts - Kyushu and Shikoku - would have mild winters and hot, humid summers but Honshu North of Toyko and the Northern Island Hokkaido can have punishingly cold winters.

And some one else on this thread mentioned South Korea.:rolleyes: Again this is a country in the mid latitudes with a temparate climate - today in Seoul it's minus 7 degrees celsius. Hardly "warm" by anyones reckoning except the Artcic Inuit.

Link:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34685733/ns/world_news-asia-pacific/

If you want balmy sub tropical you need to go much further south to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Southern China and the Phillipines - then into South East Asia for truly tropical.

For clement weather and a stable government in East Asia I would choose Taiwan.

Some people on here have a shockingly poor grasp of geography!

so the southern part is warm...


Liah if you decide to go to japan go to the southern part.;)

Iwasfrozen

JupiterKid wrote: »

Japan is not a warm country. Its climate is temperate.

The southern parts - Kyushu and Shikoku - would have mild winters and hot, humid summers but Honshu North of Toyko and the Northern Island Hokkaido can have punishingly cold winters.

And some one else on this thread mentioned South Korea.:rolleyes: Again this is a country in the mid latitudes with a temparate climate - today in Seoul it's minus 7 degrees celsius. Hardly "warm" by anyones reckoning except the Artcic Inuit.

Link:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34685733/ns/world_news-asia-pacific/

If you want balmy sub tropical you need to go much further south to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Southern China and the Phillipines - then into South East Asia for truly tropical.

For clement weather and a stable government in East Asia I would choose Taiwan.

Some people on here have a shockingly poor grasp of geography!

The temperature in Tokyo today is 4 degrees, that's not hot but it's pretty mild for January. Especially considering temperatures average at 27 degrees in August.

Similarly the temperature in Seoul today is -9 degrees. That's freezing but it's not the norm. The norm in Seoul in January is -2 which is pretty cold but not that bad considering the winter we've gone through and considering temperatures reach and average of 25 degrees in July.

All obtained for wikipedia.

anto2

Temperature in Northern Thailand 26 c most of the day today getting down to 23c at night .( but this is the cold season here ;-)

Politics anything but stable here ,but it has never affected me personally .Dont come over here looking for any kind of Governament pay out though .Bring over an nest egg and enjoy a very cheap cost of living .
Bought a 4 bedroom house 10 klm outside the city ( Chang Mai ) in a gated community for 30,000 euro ( equivalent ) a few months ago .

Manic Moran

JupiterKid wrote: »

For clement weather and a stable government in East Asia I would choose Taiwan.

Until the Chinese finally decide they've had enough of their upstart renegade province, and bring them back into the fold...

NTM

Tchaikovsky

Malta?


Cead mile Malta!

Metallergy

LighterGuy wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azVqekQBK8g

this was by Toto of hold the line fame?! :pac: would never have suspected it. real departure, that..

my knowledge of Toto is stacking up, yet i am none the wiser

roguey

PeakOutput wrote: »

my personal potential paradises are

new zealand
australia
hawaii
bali
thailand
south korea
maldives
potentially some african countries i know nothing about
california
oregon
new england in the summer at least


in the next 18months ill hav visited all but the asian countries unless i get my greencard in may in which case ill commit to the states for a few years

why Oreon may I ask? Although I have a sneaking suspicion why..;)