Filler Post: "Patriotism"

Yesterday I was watching the evening news when an article came on about Scottish Pride. The reporter was going about the streets in Scotland, asking the residents if they felt more Scottish than British. Pretty much every one of them said yes.

I felt an abundance of sadness at this; not that the Scottish feel pride, but more because I don't. I feel I am British only because I live here, and I don't feel Welsh at all. I don't hate Wales, but I wasn't brought up here. I didn't even know there was a Welsh language until 2000.

I claim to be British when people ask, but I honestly feel no patriotism for this country. I have no pride in our chav-filled streets, no pride in our education system, no pride in our government. I enjoy our traditional pubs and our Cornish pasties, but I feel no pride in them. I love our London museums and art galleries and architecture, but they belong to England, and the people of England; not to me.

In all honesty, the only country I've ever really considered myself a part of is the one I was born in, and that's Germany. I spent only about six years of my life there, but it was where I was the happiest (cue Nazi accusations). No, I am technically not German, my parents are Welsh, but none of us can speak any language other than English, and even then, we don't have accents (correction: my father can speak German, having learned in the Army).

So my question is how do you feel about your country, or perhaps not your country? I know a few people who feel a bigger link to Japan or Finland, even though they were born and raised here. Is nationality a technical thing, or a state of mind? Because I feel German, even though I am not.