They kill each other at a rate of over 15,000 every year! Some years the murder rate is higher than Baghdads! It would be much worse if they didn't have one of the best emergency services around. http://www.umass.edu/newsoffice/archive/2002/073102rate.html And they worry about 'terrorists'. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! LoL Dee Cee
Yo Zarkov! Here's hoping nobody mentions the fate of native Tasmanians Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Dee Cee
>> Here's hoping nobody mentions the fate of native Tasmanians mmmh, please do not mention that "momentary lapse of reason". LOL Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Hmm yes, the native Tasmanians, tragic story. Deplorable really. Just for you Zarkov, I won't go into it... let you save some face.. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! And being a non-Tasmanian Australian, I'm not even going to touch that one Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!... just kidding... it's one of the most beautiful parts of the world.. just hope it stays that way and the loggers don't get their way. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Now as to the topic at hand.... The US is hated because of the way it tries to ram its culture and what it deems to be 'good' down the throats of everyone else. Travel to any developed country and even undeveloped country in the world now and all one sees are the symbols exported by the US. You see very little of the native cultures in other countries because the US has permeated all aspects of these cultures. Walk down any street in just about any country in the world and you'll see either a McDonalds, KFC, Pizza Hut and others fast food joint... or Coke, Nike, Reebok, Tiger Woods, etc, adds everywhere. Just about all shows on TV are from the US. People in other countries are told that they've succeeded if they've managed to live their lives as an imitation of the 'typical American'.. with house, mortgage, big car, big tv, same dress, fashion and hair style, etc... you're getting my drift.. Lets face it, the US is a great advertising agency. But it's a shame that the so called American ideal is destroying the cultures of every country on the globe.
Bells---instead of bitching about it, why dont you start boycotting these companies. People around the world dont HAVE to buy the product!
all the americans that replied to this thread missed a few key point in the question, what can the rest of the world do about usa, so once again you americans are just going where you are not welcome
you keep believing what your tv tells you buddy one of the main reasons for the war on iraq was to get your stupid country out of the red
Zarkov, I do not lock my doors, or my car and often leave my purse, wallet or other items in the car, so I'm not sure what point you're making. There is crime in certain large cities and some lesser crime in other places but I have never experienced it and virtually everyone I know has lived a life free of crime. Well, my mother's pumpkin was stolen off her front stair one Halloween several years ago, so I guess we'll call that a crime. Although the crime numbers are high, it is because we have a population of 300 million but our crime rate makes us a medium crime nation on a par with England, France and Canada, not a high crime nation, according to Interpol and the UN Crime Victims' Survey. It's funny you should mention our crime rate (which is at a thirty year low while it rises in much of the rest of the world) as the new reason there's something wrong with Americans as that was not one of the reasons I had actually given, nor had anyone else previously. Since you did not seem to realize that our crime rate was down, I might point out that you have merely repeated an incorrect stereotype. I assume, since you switched subjects, that you do not have rebuttals to my prior statements. You claim you get the bulk of your information about Americans from movies...well, that statement speaks for itself as I can imagine the insults any American would receive making the same admission. "Those dumbk Yanks get all their info from movies"...or something along those lines. US students have won the National Geographic geography competition all but once in the last ten years, 47% of all research emanates from the US and 500 of the top 800 universities are in the US, so I would have to say that the problem of locating Tasmania would not be an insurmountable burden to many Americans. Of course, it wouldn't do to undermine the image of the ignorant American so please, keep on with your stereotyping. If nothing else, I feel vindicated.
paula you may have a lot of smart people in your country but at the end of the day, the percentige of dumb people would definatly be the largest in the world, sorry but wake up and smell the dumb shit
i america the first few years of university is the same as the last couple of years at high school in australia, scince america has such a huge drop out rate before the end of high school, i can not understand why you cant see that your country is made up of twits
What makes you think I don't boycott these companies, but they're so everywhere that they've eliminated any competition. They have not just encroached, but taken over. Here in lies the problem. What you fail to realise is that it's not just a matter of boycotting. It's a matter of the fact that the US being such a good advertiser has managed to brainwash people into thinking that their way is best. That their products are the ones people should buy to be just like the grinning fools on tv. I stood in line at a supermarket the other day behind a couple of US tourists, and I gritted my teeth as they were remarking how 'everything was just like it was back home' and how they 'could even buy the same foods as they eat back home'. I look at the way US citizens behave when overseas and it makes me cringe. For example, they don't even bother learning the very basics of the native languages of the countries they visit as they expect that all must speak english. Most people when visiting other countries would at least try to learn the basics of the language. The problem is that many Americans expect that things are to be 'just like home'. Dark, you've failed to realise that the new world order is already upon us, and it's damn ugly. People in other countries are so busy trying to get satellite dishes so that they can watch US shows, buy coke and pepsi, McDonalds, etc, that they leave behind their own cultural roots. When someone visits another country, you don't want to find it as 'being just like home'. You should want to be able to experience other cultures. It's all become one big melting pot, where we all dress the same, eat the same foods, watch the same shows on tv, drive the same cars. Individual cultures are disappearing under the constant barrage of the US culture and ideals.
I feel the greatest threat to the U.S. is stereotyping. Everyone who lives outside the U.S. labels us as group of cowboys completely united in our insanity, and wanting to rule the world. Not everyone here wanted George Bush to be president, in fact more people voted for Al Gore. Some of you outside the U.S. might remember that election recount. Gore won the popular vote, but bush got the vote of the electoral college and became the prez. It wasn't but a few years ago that we were accepted, and had strong alliances with European countries. I don't know what sort of president John Kerry will be, but he couldn't possibly be any worse. I hope that if he wins he will spend some time fixing the American image.
Bells, You said that you "look at the way US citizens behave when overseas and it makes me cringe. For example, they don't even bother learning the very basics of the native languages of the countries they visit as they expect that all must speak english". It's the same everywhere, I live in the US and deal with people from all over the world and most people are drawn to what is familiar. Mexicans live in groups or near other Mexicans, we have Chinatowns all over our major cities, Indians befriend other Indians, and many people from other countries form clubs or associations and celebrate there holidays or religions together. And thousands of these people spend the rest of their lives here and never learn to speak English. I myself had spent several months in Thailand, I learned a few words and phrases, and enjoyed the food and culture very much, but after a while it was nice to be able to get a cheeseburger.
Paula, not only i do not hate americans, but i think it's a great country, have american relatives, and like to visit it every once in a while. also i speak from having known many personal friends from USA who told me I was wrong by saying America meant something else than the United States of America. i do think you can referr to your country as you may wish, but that does`nt make it right. this is actually pretty close to being right: Still the word America does applie to a continent such as i described on my earlier post. It is a word first used by a german writer in honor to Americo Vespucio, an italian cartographer working for the spanish crown who made the first sketch of a map for the recently discovered continent.
It isn't the USA that some of us hate, it is the attitude of ignorance that some of our "American bretheren" portray (such as your post here). I'm picking on your post for a few reasons. First, let's assume that I believe in this whole tribal nationalistic nonsense. Your statement "Love it or leave it" implies that if we don't support the position of the establishment 100%, we ought not be a part of America. Well, you couldn't be more wrong. Speaking out against your leaders and expressing your dissent when they don't represent you appropriately (remember, this is "representative" govenrment) IS WHAT MADE AMERICA GREAT. If you would suggest that we take that power away from the people, then raise your right hand and evoke a "Hail Bush" and support the eventual onslaught of your arabic neighbors. If and when it happens, I'm gonna skin out and head for Europe.
Well, if this MUST become a semantics battle, technically, you're wrong, and speaking from an ethnocentric ("American" LOL) point of view. Most of the world teaches that "North America" and "South America" are one continent called (you guessed it!) "America". Because the United States of America chooses to divide this continent into two does not make it universally so.
Transio, When people say "Love it or leave it" I don't think they're generally referring to people who love the USA but want to improve it. Most of us do that. I think they're referring to people who actually hate the US and work againstr her interests or complain about how hard life is. "Love it or leave it" doesn't necessarily mean you have to go, it means you can choose to go. Why live in a country that makes you miserable when millions are trying to get in? No one is saying "Love it or we'll kick you out" or "Love it or we'll kill you". You have the option to go if it becomes intolerable. Many people do not have that option.
