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Although I agree with some of what you say Lostbuyer.....I disagree about the military base as an excuse.......Most bases are in countries that want our continued presence. Yes....most bases were formed because of wars, but they continue because of host nation invitation......you need to read up on it.
I know he wasn't, believe me, we know more about your country and whatever goes on in it, than you probably know about the entire world.
Why is that, because I am an ignorant American that knows very little beyond America's borders? Or perhaps your the typical European that believes that stereotype? In any case a very arrogant statement.
Just know that there are many here- in the USA and on this site- that would relish the opportunity to have a beer with you and kvetch about Bush! It would be both therapeutic and bridge-building! Maybe we can set up a virtual happy hour!
Predominant opinion here is that “everyone” hates America cause of Mr Bush. No, we don’t.
No need to build bridges with me, they are solid and wide open. America is the country of my fave writers, singers, filmmakers and so on. Americans I met were open-minded (even republicans among them ), nice, educated, curious, polite, practical people.
Idea of having beer is a great one though, we can kvetch (thanks for this word) about other, more important stuff – like is it too cruel to put Paris Hilton behind bars.
"we know more about your country and whatever goes on in it, than you probably know about the entire world."
Not only do you know more than Americans........you also speak for others as you said "we" not "I".
What I ment was that in European countries we are more aware- in general since I speak generally as most do conserning this matter- than the average American about the world (in general), and you must understand that we watch/learn/discuss different subjects than the average American do when it comes to media and such. While American debates mostly consern subjects related to USA (we can watch CNN, Fox News, NBC etc), we have very few debates that only conserns us- many of them consern your way of living, and what your president (and other Americans) do/es that affects us and the rest of the world. Our countries are not as big (size and population) as yours is, and therefor we turn to the outside world.
We (in general) have very developed educational programs to understand what goes on in the world- not to mention the US. We do comparements between our democracy and yours, our flora against yours, our culture (does anyone really think we haven't been americanized when it comes to movies, news, fashion etc? Younger people these days even speak English as good as any American!) compared to yours.
We are becoming you, and safe to say, many know more about your laws and regulations and such better than they know their own country's! (This is a fact- not a predjuidce)
This is not just MY opinion, many people share it with me. Just come over and see for yourself.
Why is that, because I am an ignorant American that knows very little beyond America's borders? Or perhaps your the typical European that believes that stereotype? In any case a very arrogant statement.
I agree it can be seen as arrogance, but then I would like to ask you:
who won the Swedish election? Or how many rivers are there in Bulgaria? Who is the most popular singer in Croatia? When and why do the Finish people celebrate their national holiday? And how many languages besides from English do you speak?
And then, isn't it somewhat arrogant to say there's a "typical European" who believes in a stereoype?
I do not want to provoce anyone or offence anyone, I merely speak my, and others' around me, opinions and perceptions. Please don't take offence. I am speaking GENERALLY.
I agree it can be seen as arrogance, but then I would like to ask you:
who won the Swedish election? Or how many rivers are there in Bulgaria? Who is the most popular singer in Croatia? When and why do the Finish people celebrate their national holiday? And how many languages besides from English do you speak?
And then, isn't it somewhat arrogant to say there's a "typical European" who believes in a stereoype?
Well you got me there buddy. I have to admit I do not know how many rivers there are in Bulgaria. Nor do I know who is the most popular singer in Croatia. I now have to admit that I am truly an ignorant American and I will now shut up until I do learn how many rivers there are in Bulgaria(and every other country in the world) and learn who the most popular singer is in Croatia (and every other country in the world).
Just to set the record straight: Obama is not Muslim. His grandfather was, and he was named for his grandfather. He went to a public school when his family lived in Indonesia, and most of the kids were Muslim because the population of the area was Muslim. (He also went to a Catholic school the same amount of time he went to the Muslim school; but he's not Catholic either.) Obama became a Christian many years ago at a Protestant church in Chicago.
I'm not necessarily an Obama supporter -- haven't made up my mind yet -- just wanted to set the record straight.
Well you got me there buddy. I have to admit I do not know how many rivers there are in Bulgaria. Nor do I know who is the most popular singer in Croatia. I now have to admit that I am truly an ignorant American and I will now shut up until I do learn how many rivers there are in Bulgaria(and every other country in the world) and learn who the most popular singer is in Croatia (and every other country in the world).
Anyway, my impression is that Swede didn’t mean you guys are “ignorant”. The point is, the average European knows a lot about America casue your movies and their (political, social, war, historical) stories are in our cinemas and in our living rooms TV's, your political issues are our political issues too (America is our planet’s only superpower – we want to know as much as possible about it), your celebrities are all over our media, etc.
Example, here in Croatia where I live we have special talk shows on our telly about, I dunno, the results of pre elections in New Hampshire. It is significant for us while the contrariwise is not – do you know the winning margin of the last Croatian presidential elections? Ehm, wrong example – neither do I.
Anyway, my impression is that Swede didn’t mean you guys are “ignorant”. The point is, the average European knows a lot about America casue your movies and their (political, social, war, historical) stories are in our cinemas and in our living rooms TV's, your political issues are our political issues too (America is our planet’s only superpower – we want to know as much as possible about it), your celebrities are all over our media, etc.
Example, here in Croatia where I live we have special talk shows on our telly about, I dunno, the results of pre elections in New Hampshire. It is significant for us while the contrariwise is not – do you know the winning margin of the last Croatian presidential elections? Ehm, wrong example – neither do I.
Thank you, that's exactly what I mean. I am not trying to make americans look stupid in comparison to us, I simply ment that we are "bombarded" with US information on a daily basis, which most americans are not. In fear of being miss quoted, I will stop at this.
....do you know the winning margin of the last Croatian presidential elections? Ehm, wrong example – neither do I.
LOL
While I think Sweden's examples were a bit of an exaggeration and unfairly singled out Americans (i.e. I highly doubt many Swedes or Germans could tell you how many rivers are in Bulgaria either, and I doubt any Swiss or Japanese know Croatia's most famous singer and I doubt many Koreans know about Finnish culture), generally I believe that yes it is true that Americans know far less about other countries than they know about us. I think CroatWebWanderer described the reasons for this in a more articulate manner though. As he (she?) touched on, the reason for this is the disproportionate impact on the world that the United States has on global economics, military actions and pop culture as arguably the world's only true superpower (for now at least....wassup China).
With that said, I do think Americans are more worldly than Europeans give us credit for.
By the way, I had heard of Severina, but not because of her music, but because of, well, her extracurricular activities...
Last edited by dullnboring; 06-04-2007 at 04:33 PM..
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), nice, educated, curious, polite, practical people.
