Don't like that! Do you?

How come a Slovene can suddenly become a brit and play for Britain versus Slovenia?

My children were born in the UK, I like it here but I would not like my children to play for britain. Where I live (and I lived more of my life time in the UK than France now) won't replace my innate culture and 100s years of history packed up in my genes. 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/tennis/32076501

I think it's wrong to buy nationality, I have always disliked it.

Tomic is Croatian, Raonic, Dancevic Montenegrin, Bogdanovic Serbian, Seles/Nestor Serbian/Hungarian, Navratilova Czech, Dustin Brown Jamaican, Pospisil also Czeck, Zverev brothers are Russian, Andrea Petkovic and Kristina Mladenovic Serbian, Wozniacki Polish, Kuznetsov Russian....and many more...

Sharapova is the only US citizen who plays for Russia.

Britain nearly bought Nole 9 years ago.....

Well I guess if like Raonic you were raised since very young in Canada...then I understand. My children for instance feel as much Brits as French I guess....until they spend some time in France and realise how much French there are. But at least I understand for Rao......but Bedene?

I understand Bedene, too.
Does he sell his soul to betting mafia or get a big paycheque and  play for Britain?

Slovenians are not known for their nationalism, anyway...they are quite mild.

The  whole thing totally undermines and degrades Davis cup.

Many East Europeans esp from the Balkans emigrated and raised their children abroad...the line is blurred, but blood is thicker than water, they all speak their native language at home.

It was funny to hear Wozniacki's dad talk to her in Polish - yet - she is Danish!

I think you were born somewhere, or spent the most of your life somewhere, then that is understandable.
However Bedene has not spent most of his life here, and wasn't born here.

Kim Jong-Un wrote:I think you were born somewhere, or spent the most of your life somewhere, then that is understandable.
However Bedene has not spent most of his life here, and wasn't born here.

That's my point.

noleisthebest wrote:It was funny to hear Wozniacki's dad talk to her in Polish - yet - she is Danish!

Yep...there has been lots of migrations within Europe since the end of the cold war.

Tenez wrote:

Kim Jong-Un wrote:I think you were born somewhere, or spent the most of your life somewhere, then that is understandable.
However Bedene has not spent most of his life here, and wasn't born here.

That's my point.

Yep, we're in agreement on this one

Countries are fictional anyway.

bogbrush wrote:Countries are fictional anyway.

In what sense? Do you see yourself as a Portuguese as well?

Tenez wrote:

bogbrush wrote:Countries are fictional anyway.

In what sense? Do you see yourself as a Portuguese as well?

No, because Portugal is fictional. There's a load of geography but nothing that is intrinsically Portugal. Certainly there's no lines in the ground to match what people have drawn on maps.
If I was to visit that land 10,000 years ago nobody would claim Portugal existed so it must have been made up since then.

Actually most borders are made of rivers of blood over the many generations. And people tend to be different from country to country. I have travelled enough in my life to have observed it every single time.

I've also travelled, and have found the opposite.

Interesting. I find the French and the Brits so different to one another....despite being separated only by a 20 mile wide channel.

People are conditioned by cultural expectations but underneath it all they're all the same selfish, friendly, creative, sociable, fearful creatures, apart from the pyschopaths, who are also present everywhere.

bogbrush wrote:People are conditioned by cultural expectations but underneath it all they're all the same selfish, friendly, creative, sociable, fearful creatures, apart from the pyschopaths, who are also present everywhere.

Yes but those general trends of different cultural expectations is a large part of what defines a country, no ?

bogbrush wrote:People are conditioned by cultural expectations but underneath it all they're all the same selfish, friendly, creative, sociable, fearful creatures, apart from the pyschopaths, who are also present everywhere.

There is of course a common base. They usually have 2 legs, a head, a heart and a liver amongst many other things in common...but then that';s the case for men and women yet we are very different too, thanks God!

Though there are of course some common traits between people of different territory, the territory has a huge influence in people and makes us very different!