Locals shared messed up things about their countries that tourists may not know

Unlike the United States, some countries have a pretty good reputation. However, underneath that shiny layer of what seems like perfection could lie several dirty secrets. From genocide to child labor, some of these squeaky clean, all-pristine nations have been responsible for terrible, terrible things. In order to uncover these hidden truths, Reddit user PRPNKSKAI took to the forum AskReddit where they called on locals to share "something f*cked up" about their countries that very few foreigners might know. The answers ranged from absolutely horrifying to "we should've seen that one coming." Here are some of the most interesting responses.

1. Switzerland

"Switzerland up until like the 60s had what basically amounted to a child labour scheme that was officially organised by the government. They were called Verdingskinder and the basic gist of it, is that children would be taken away from 'undesirable' parents (alcoholics, unwed mothers, etc.) and placed with usually rural families to learn some good old fashioned work ethic. Of course since these weren't their actual children the host families didn't give a shit and just used them as slaves." - DoubleIngenuity

2. New Zealand

"Horrifically high rates of child poverty, domestic violence and child abuse deaths. I live in New Zealand. It's gotten better in recent years though, thankfully." - Reader-364

3. South Korea

"In Korea, if whatever your crime is your first offense, or you were drunk, you get off with a lighter sentence or sometimes even with just a fine. Doesn’t matter if you stole something or murdered someone." - themanyfaceasian

4. South Africa

"I live in South Africa, and mostlv people oversees only tend to glorify the end of apartheid and the first democratic election in which Mr Nelson Mandela was voted as President. But what a lot of people don't know was that while Mr Mandela sat in prison our country faced severe sanctions globally, which had a massive negative impact on our economy. Something that our history books tend to conveniently omit, is that at the time of FW de Klerk's presidency, the state realised that we could no longer function as a 'self-sufficient' economy and that the only way out of our economic downfall was to gain validation from oversees nations that had already implemented the measures from the UN and so forth was to comply with those measures. And a good place to start was the pardoning of Mr Nelson Mandela in 1990. Basically, the ending of apartheid only came about due to the fact that the state could not afford it any more. Sadly, all that nonsense about how the state all of a sudden gained a odd set of morals and forgiveness over night is complete BS and is only taught to us in school cover up the harsh and inconvenient truth. I said what I said." - According_Host_347

5. India

"We have (or had) a parliamentarian who came dressed up as Hitler at one point, to much amusement and shock. We even had an ice-cream brand called 'Hitler.' And last but not least, we even had a clothing store called 'Hitler.' It was big enough to cause a diplomatic spat between India and Israel, no lie." - Oden_Bitterblight 

6. The Philippines

"The age of consent in the Philippines is 12." - astarisaslave

7. Canada

"Canadians, including myself have a big problem of thinking we’re this holy country that can do no wrong. It’s easy to think this too when our downstairs neighbours are literally on fire but we have lots of problems, including how we treat Indigenous people. From former residential schools to some people not even having drinkable water on their reservations...our government quite literally doesn’t give a fuck about them and it’s so frustrating. Up north, a case of 24 water bottles can cost up to $100 and regular orange juice will set you back $18. Everything is expensive in the territories. Education for indigenous people is often subpar compared to the rest of the nation as schools in the territories have less funding than provincial schools. We have “third world” conditions within our country and although Canada is an amazing country Indigenous people are treated like second class citizens by the government.. I could go on and on. We’re not as perfect as we seem." - pinkhydroflask1234 

8. Slovakia

"Slovakia - organized crime has very deep roots here. I am personally aware of two instances where a mobster or a group with weapons come into a company, and demand a cut of their profits/assets. And if you call the police you will get 'Are they doing anything bad? If they arent doing any damage/harming anyone there is no reason for us to come there' Yea, good luck lol. And thats just experience from my extended family. You can imagine it happens much more often than that." - m44ever

9. Spain

"Lost children from Francoism. Basically babies would be stolen when they were born and parents would be told that they new born baby died." - nobitanobii