It's quite usual to have two family names, one from your mother's side and another from your father's. Usually the father's family name comes last, but it's by no means a rule, more of a social norm (and somewhat fading).
Additionally, it's also perfectly reasonable to have two or more "first names".
The consequence of all of this, and having four names myself, is that I'm always confused what I'm supposed to fill in as my first and last names. I end up using just my very first and very last, but i always feel like I'm being disrespectful towards my mother's family for the omission.
Something similar used to be common with the english too. My great-great-great-great grandfather was "Thomas Tindall Gore", and Tindall was his mother's maiden name. This sort of thing was quite common all throughout the 1700's and 1800's, but seems to have went out of style in the last hundred years or so.
I actually assumed, well into my teenage years, that people's middle names were their mother's maiden name, as that's the case for me, my sister, and my cousins.
Another interesting one I would see a lot is <mother's father's name> <father's father's name> <last name>.
For example, My dad was Charles Marvin Gore.
His mother's father was Charles Maltbie.
His father's father was Marvin Gore.
I don't think I ever saw the two modes combined though, so no example of a Charles Marvin Maltbie Gore. Although that is just in my family. It might have happened in others.
I too found the replies to be somewhat dismissive. You would think this sort of report would be dealt with much more urgency or, in the very least, some concern.
It's an important problem, and the feeling I get from that thread is that they are more concerned where the bug should be filled. I appreciate organization as much as anyone, but the proper response should be frantic running around and hair pulling.
As an european this disgusts me to no end. It can really hurt your patriotism and sense of pride in your country when you realize it's not actually a country at all, just a subservient state, willing to do anything to avoid drawing the attention of the big fat bully. In the end we're all afraid to fight for anything when life is too hard already, I guess.
As a fellow european, I absolutely agree. The only way out I see is to become a federal country, but I don't see that happening with all our internal infighting. Divide et impera.
Why is this surprising? America poured in money during the Marshall plan to build up Europe; NATO is essentially another arm of the American armed forces.
It is you, the voting European citizen who is responsible for both closer integration of Europe and for Europe to have its own defense capabilities. You can't have your cake and eat it too.
America poured in money during the Marshall plan to create a market for US companies that needed new markets after they produced a lot of stuff for the army during the war.
"The Marshall Plan aid was mostly used for the purchase of goods from the United States. (...) In the latter years, under pressure from the United States Congress and with the outbreak of the Korean War, an increasing amount of the aid was spent on rebuilding the militaries of Western Europe. Of the some $13 billion allotted by mid-1951, $3.4 billion had been spent on imports of raw materials and semi-manufactured products; $3.2 billion on food, feed, and fertilizer; $1.9 billion on machines, vehicles, and equipment; and $1.6 billion on fuel"
I am not sure what your point is; your statement doesn't inherently invalidate mine. There can be multiple reasons why one does something. In fact, from the same wikipedia paragraph, that you quoted, here is a chunk that you skipped over.
"The European nations had all but exhausted their foreign exchange reserves during the war, and the Marshall Plan aid represented almost their sole means of importing goods from abroad. At the start of the plan these imports were mainly much-needed staples such as food and fuel, but later the purchases turned towards reconstruction needs as was originally intended."
I've skipped it because it was redundant to the point I think, "The European nations had all but exhausted their foreign exchange reserves during the war" means they had no money to buy from US companies, so the US gave Europeans money so they could buy from the US which I said with "to create a market for US companies that"
I might have misunderstood your "America poured in money during the Marshall plan to build up Europe;".
I took it as the purpose was to build up Europe for Europeans, where my reply was to build up Europe to create a market for US companies.
My whole statement was meant to point out that Europeans are also to blame for not taking responsibility for their own affairs; there are no free lunches anywhere. Taking all that money and using America's army has definitely contributed to economic growth in Europe. The cost of that is you have situations like what is happening now. My whole statement was designed to point the outrage that the OP had was misplaced.
Nevermind the fact that in order to qualify for unemployment benefits you must have worked and contributed in the last few years. As it turns out, most unemployment in Spain, and countries in the same situation, is from fresh out of college students who never had a chance.
Well, you can argue that there is always a choice. And most of them take it, by leaving everything behind and moving to Germany or other central european country. Until they don't want them there anymore.
That's exactly the environment in my country in the 40's to mid 70's. You were obliged to inform the state of suspicious activities of your fellow citizens (things like reading the wrong sort of books or indulging in private gatherings) and were promptly compensated when you did so, whether you were being truthful or just really didn't like your neighbor. The infamous PIDE (secret police) is considered one of the most effective police forces in history, partially because of these sorts of tactics and how they managed to creep their way into every aspect of society. This is not something I'm proud to be associated with our history.
Of course that was dictatorship era Portugal. More than 40 years ago. I wasn't even born. But things have a way to come around again, one way or another, when we let ourselves get too comfortable and forget history or just trust too much on the competence of others.
