(Time to log off, I wonder?)
Wise words.
what is to be understood about china?
tibet, invasion, depression. tibetians dont like it. dont want them. end of story.
taiwan, depression, annexed, taiwanese dont like it. dont want them. end of story.
what to understand about turkey and the kurdes?
what to understand about germany and the jews?
what to understand uk and the falklands?
russia and chechen republic?
continue the list...
Iran is the one when the US organised a coup in the 50's , installing the Shah, whose US-trained Secret Services locked up and tortured 100,000 people.
Iraq is the one which the US armed in the 80's to fight a war with Iran, and then when that was over, they decided he was the new Hitler and invaded. Twice.
Now, I completely agree that you can't hold American citizens responsible, for what numerous government administrations have done over the last 60 years. However, I do wonder, when the national anthem starts, and the hand goes on the chest, and you have the lump in the throat, what you're actually celebrating.
Whereas, I suppose in Europe we know the cost of nationalism.
yes, true! i remember camp david, the handshake etc.
on the other hand it wasnt quiet right to bomb ex-jugoslavia to distract the public from "oral pleaseures are no sex(ual relationship to my/a apprentice)"
An unbelievably depressing over-simplification of some very complex issues.
I'm disappointed.
This would derail the thread, so just an example on Taiwan to show what there might be to consider:
Do you want to free the native Taiwanese or the Chinese living there? China had a civil war and the republican forces lost against the communists. So they retreated to Taiwan, which has before been a part of the Chinese empire (but since it did not have any natural ressources, nobody cared about it). Was Taiwan annexed by the PRC? Ever independent?
Nobody asked the non-Han people there if they would like to have new immigrants, which are by now 86% of the population. So who would you free from whom?
Point is: The world is usually too complicated to see it black or white.
come on!? in 99.9% of all such cases its about power, its politics, tactical bullcrap?! 2002 in vienna i spoke with the son of the chinese ambassador.
hes a friend of a friend and he gave me a little point of view of his own. after that i still had the same feeling: bollocks.
anyway...it gets OT.
Just thought I'd stick my oar in....
Cyrus, your views are totally centred on Europe and the US. I reckon that probably more that 80% of the population of the world belives in Creation based on religious mythos. Perhaps they don't count to you because most of them are fuzzy wuzzies? Europeans getting squirmy, hostile and embarassed about other's religious beliefs is so 1990's. Many European leaders are actually tip-toeing out of the closet re:- religion (Blair, Sarkosy etc.). What a small % of Americans want to teach their kids should not reflect on the country as a whole.
I also disagree that the cars are cr*p. They are simply built for purpose. If you wished to travel 2500 miles in more or less a straight line with your family, you wouldn't want to do it in a race tuned Porsche 911. The noise and vibration would drive you mad and the suspension would break your spine. You would also have to gaffer tape the smallest kid onto the roof. Put a V10 block in there that basically never gets above an idle, bed spring suspension, and a huge interior with space for a mini-bar, wide screen TV and a fridge, and things start to look better.
I love the US, and its people. They are generally so much more optimistic, open, generous and straight-forward than Europeans.
Regarding whingeing, no-one beats my compatriots, the English in this discipline. We are internationally recognised world champions. I was once in a car with a good friend, on a clear country road on a balmy sunny evening, the friend had just got a large promotion, including a 20% pay rise, but you'd never have known it from the grizzling:
"I'm going to have to work with Mr So&So, I can't stand him."
"They'll be pushing for me to work in our overseas offices, how on earth am I going to be able to plan my life around that?"
It went on and on. I considered punching a hole in the car's exhaust pipe to improve the ambient noise.
In Switzerland, the attitude towards Americans and America is totally schizophrenic. The educated townies, and their newspapers (the NZZ for example) see it as a sign of sophistication to sneer.
The country folk / farmers, 5 km outside Zürich call their farms "The Bachtel Ranch", "The Diembar Ranch", with Teepees in the garden and cow skulls over the gate. They also have a love for enormous American cars and motorbikes.
Embarassingly for the hypocritical urban sophisticates, they in all likelyhood have close relatives / ancestors who live / lived on these Mid-West themed farms.
Btw (purely from the viewpoint of an interested outsider):
George W. Bush, Harvard MBa, all qualifications and education history available for review, spoke fluent Spanish, less fluent English.
Barak Obama, Harvard Law Grad, nothing from his educational history available for review, speaks fluent, hypnotic English as long as his teleprompters are working correctly.
Cheers
Jim
Being top dog?
I seem to recall our great-grandfathers doing the same not so long ago...
remind me again, how much did GB snr donate to the university again?
But that's a religious studies program. I'm talking basic high school public funded education
Creation_and_evolution_in_public_education
One article of many: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009...tory-education
They don't try and pretend it's science, that I know of. But thanks for implying I'm racist.
To the OP - one more thing to remember: this commentative reflex on American international affairs, from people you've only just met, is not always (or even usually) a sign of real hostility.
If I met somebody from Denmark, I'd wrack my brain for some recent news tidbit involving his country - not because I'm pro- or anti-Danish, but just by way of making conversation.
Mind you, for Denmark I wouldn't come up with much, probably have to settle for that Happiness Index thing or Hans Christian Andersen. People who meet Americans are spoiled for choice that way.
No it isn't. Its a normal school like any other. You only actually need 2 million quid.....
How car dealers can run state schools
One of my ex-girlfriends was 'educated' there (she was not exactly a glowing advert, I must say ).
But, you're right in that, at least in the UK, you could choose to enrol in another school. If you live in Texas, then I suppose you're knackered.
hahaha! i had to respond to the post because i adored it and i am getting married (this!!!!) friday in nyc (my home) in an untraditional kinda way so this really struck a cord with me.
that being said i have to say luckily i haven't had to face too much american bashing myself
a)because people think most americans are blond cheerleaders- i'm not!
b) i hate to say it but most people i've encountered are so enamoured by nyc that they don't really see as the u.s.a per say.
i have noticed differences for sure in the way that people interact, behave, etc varying between where they are from but so far with the exception of talking politics- which i very quickly remind people about how bush was not supported by myself or most people,as most french feel about sarkosy as well
i have, funny enough, had alot of people comment that they are glad to be around americans ( north americans, i guess(??)) because they like the laid back, funny and fun loving way that many have said they don't see alot of here in suisse.
Heh, this thread reminds me of my last direct encounter with misguided anti-Americanism last month. I was ordering some tea in Amsterdam and I apparently forgot to say "please". (Something tells me the Brit at the bar didn't require this from all his clients, but only ones he had dumb preconcieved notions about.) Now, despite not actually being a Yank, I lived there for 7 years when I was younger, so I speak English with an clear American accent. The guy kept on breaking my b@lls to my eternal confusion and then, as he slid over my tea, he said, "I'm being like this because you didn't use any forms of politeness. I realize there was slavery in your country until recently , but still." I informed the man I wasn't American and his reply was, "Yeah, whatever." So I paid for my tea, patronizingly said "Thaaaank you!" as I dropped the coins in his hand and got out of there.
Anyway...
I've had to defend the US a great deal during my last 9 years in Switzerland because I still feel a strong link to the country. That said, America isn't exactly making the job easy.
I think America certainly has problems now. I think the world is right to focus on the wars, because let's face it, that's the big stuff. But there are other things, more subtle things I am seeing that are starting to make me think that the country is too far gone in some ways.
Patriotism runs rampant, and while it's not a negative thing in itself, it doesn't seem to be based on anything anymore. People are either coasting on the accomplishments of the generations before them or, to be frank, don't know what the hell they're talking about. Other things, like people putting flags on their cars after 9-11 and insulting anyone who didn't. The highest rated TV programs being reality shows that embrace cruelty and make despicable people famous. Just a few examples of a much larger problem which is, in my opinion: America is slowly becoming a culture that embraces stupidity.
The principles of what America is, and what it is to be American, are becoming more and more deformed and even forgotten by a large part of the population. The rampant consumerism which caused millions of people to go into debt with little thought of the consequences. Thinking that lower taxes are more important than social benefits like health care for the working poor. I could go on.
I hold on to the view that Americans are good-hearted and industrious people who were lead astray and deceived by their government, but it's hard to do when a large part of the population seems to be more than happy to be defined by the worst of themselves.
Yeah, that was more my point - it is forced down the throats of the kids. In the US, unless you've got the cash for a private school, you go to the local school - no choice. So if the local school starts to teach odd things and you can't afford private, your kid gets taught some very, very odd things sometimes.
Did you educate yourself about the topic or are you just shooting from the hip ?
http://www.ipatrix.com/do-only-athei...-in-evolution/
Very similar in the UK, I wouldn't know what to do with these gullible people..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism_and_evolution
Anyway, there is plenty of controversy all over the world with evolution/darwinism, but the large monotheistic religions seem to take the greatest offence... 80% seems a tad exagerated.
Well, technically they were really behind Europes and Japans car industry, no doubt about that. You don't need a V10 to get a strong enough, silent motor for a family car.. it's just bad engineering.
Schizophrenic ? Because they're critical of the US' foreign policy while more simple-minded farmers enjoy big pick ups and country music in Aargau ? Come on.
Not exactly true as there are plenty of examples where OB spoke eloquently at lenght in open interviews. Am still not a fan though.
I have lived in the US for a number of years and what I have noticed is that there is a difference between Americans who hardly leave their state and those that have chosen to travel out of the country.
But there are some things that just baffle me about the US.
Socialism is considered the same thing as Communism, and there is vocal part of the population that use it to demonize government reform. Even the left has to distance itself from the word.
While I understand how GWB won the first time, I was baffled how he got elected the second by a clear majority.
The way the media and the population lapped up the justification for going to war with Iraq was truly scary. Watching that made me realize that any war could be justified no matter how developed the country.
While we are debating the stereotypes Europeans/Swiss have against Americans, there is plenty that goes the other way. Freedom fries just about sums it up.
That said the US is about contrast and there are many who think differently, however the view of absolutes (“your with us or your against us”) tends to drown them out.
Snide. If George senior had donated nothing, that would truly have been unusual.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2004/02/gwb_hbs_mba.html
Read and inwardly digest,
Cheers
Jim