Explore international views about the United States of America.

I’ve been reading the book “Reading Lolita in Tehran” and it offers a lot of Iranian views of the United States that are extremely interesting. Also, I now have a friend in Japan, one in South Korea, one in Germany. And I’ve visited Russia and witnessed firsthand some of their views of Americans. I’m nowhere near close to completing this goal (“Explore” is such a vague term, sometimes) but I’m working on it and will continue exploring other views of the U.S.

it’s not done although it is accomplished on this list. I have a japanese roommate who has lived in romania and new zealand, and through him, I have met a lot of people from europe and japan and learned a lot about different perspectives on the U.S. I learned that some believe we are always killing each other, because they only hear of our crime rates and lack of gun control. Others believe our president is dumb and that we are crazy for voting for him twice. I’ve heard that we are hypocritical – we condemn cruelty of other countries, but we developed our own country by killing native Americans. Then others didn’t fully understand the katrina situation – one friend of mine from Switzerland said she never understand why the people didn’t leave New Orleans until she lived in the South for a year, and learned how often tornado warnings and sirens go off, and threats of hurricanes occur in the coastal areas…she said she no longer reacts to tornado sirens since they sound so often and many times, no significant damage occurs. That caused her to realize that some people didn’t leave with the hurricane because those that remained largely were comprised of those who didn’t have enough money to leave and/or couldn’t risk potentially losing their job if the hurricane warning had been a false alarm.

international views differ depending on the person themselves.

I spent a month in NZ earlier this summer and over and over again all I ever heard from locals was how misrepresented americans generally are. One lady told me that she thought that we are the nicest and most well-mannered group of people that she had ever met. This guy that I went bungee jumping with said that he hated our president, but overall felt that the american tourist he’d met were just great, very adventurous and always up for a good time. I even got a comment that went something like ‘I don’t really support the war in Iraq, but something needed to be done and who better to do it than you’. On the other hand, when I was in france two summers ago it seemed like everywhere I went people automatically assumed that I was an arrogant, loud-mouthed, overeater, and were more interested in attacking our nation’s politics then taking an objective view of the country as a whole. So I guess it depends…

I continue to want to learn more about how the international community thinks about the U.S. I learned a lot from all of you who are a part of this team. And, those who were outside of the team, I was grateful for thier input, too. Just because I’m marking this accomplished, doesn’t mean I’m no longer interested in discussions.

If you hace any questions, I’d be happy to talk about… from the European point of view (Spain). Many of you possibly know the incidents in Madrid, March’2004…...

Photo: the main square in Barcelona City, plenty of pleople, in manifestation for claiming PEACE (after bombs in Madrid)

Over the past week I have had many conversations with friends about the devastation caused by hurricane Katrina.

Here in Canada people are very critical of the US Government and the fact that it took so long to get help to those who need it.
Many Canadians were offended by George Bush’s comments that the US would look after itself. The Canadian government immediately offered to help by sending a Navy ship full of supplies and military personnel, but the offer was initially declined. Now, finally the US has accepted the offer and the ship is on its way.
There is a general sense that the US has failed its citizens by not accepting whatever help was available. What are people in other countries saying about this?

...that made me think.

Want to find out more? Ask me or any of the members of 43T currently working on the goal.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0508/S00100.htm

This is the sort of thing that gives America/Americans a bad name.