In which Den gets political.

[den]

re this article linked to by bearblue

I'm really disappointed in the casual dismissal of the deaths of 15,000 people, most of whom were old or very young. It had NOTHING with them being French, or the Government being on holiday, or "the sun being out a little longer than usual," and EVERYTHING to do with a protracted, unseasonal spell of above-average temperatures that European architecture was never designed to repel.

I hate casual dismissals like that. How would people feel about "200 dead in Detroit due to a blizzard, because it got a little colder than usual and Government did nothing, but it's all right because they were AMERICANS." That attitude is wriong, wrong, wrong, and has no place in an article if the writer wants to be taken seriously.

"The World" doesn't hate Americans and the US. They DON'T like "Who gives a fuck." Other countries are not America. We usually do things and think differently from you. But who gives a fuck?

Well, WE do.

The Australian way of doing things has become buried in Americana. Oh, little bits show through in places but it has mostly become US culture. We're a little more relaxed about things, and we talk funny and drive on the wrong side of the road and we certainly don't call the Opposition party "traitors," but it's mostly the same.

And we don't like that much, but we Aussies are a bunch of surrender monkeys and won't complain about that. Much.

Because who gives a fuck?

Comments

[hawkeye7.livejournal.com]

i heard that there were many young Americans (backpackers and the like) who would put a maple-leaf emblem on their backpacks and pretend to be Canadian. some were ashamed of how America looks to the rest of the world, and others were just afraid of being badly treated by those who hate Americans. and apparently there are still a fair number of my fellow citizens pretending to be Canadians.

This is true. I've met them in many countries. Never in Australia though. I remember challenging some and they gave all the reasons you say. My response was: "What are you going to do about it when you get home?"

I think that you can do a lot more that just vote for The Other Guy (although actually voting at all is a start).

American TV is not crowding out ours just because of quantity. It is an economic thing. What causes bitching here is that they would rather not watch American shows. American shows are sold overseas for much less than they cost to make. This makes it hard for local productions to compete so most countries enforce quotas on non-local product in consequence.

The US, as you probably know all too well, has the lowest quantity of foreign product on the air in the world, although it was encouraging to see that the BBC finally wrangled their way onto cable in the US and you are getting more British shows. How about lobbying for more foreign TV in the US? It might help educate your countrymen about the rest of the world.

[jenny_evergreen]

Unless they were from the upper north of the US (i.e. near the border), I can't imagine they'd be able to fool anyone for a second once they opened their mouths. Such an attempt at impersonation would never occur to me. (I'm from the Midwest. I do not in any way sound Canadian.)

In my house, when I watch TV, about 80% of the time, it's BBC America. Before that, we had PBS, which tends to air British stuff.

In addition to voting, we can write our senators, but that's about it, and that's generally viewed (with good reason) as largely an exercise in futility, little more than a gesture at best.

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[jenny_evergreen]

Good point.

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine moved from Paris to Montreal last year. I asked her if there was much of a difference between the two versions of French. She said it was like listening to Australians speak English.

I suppose that's good.

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[hawkeye7.livejournal.com]

When I was in the US last (last year), it seemed that everybody was watching BBC America. For some reason, nobody seems to trust Fox anymore... PBS had British stuff I admit but more is getting through now.

In Russia I caught a couple of Americans pretending to be Australians. In Greece, we swapped packs with a group of Canadians and they pretended to be Australians while we pretended to be Canadians. I assure you that you sound much more Canadian than we do. None of the locals could tell...

(I just wish our stupid flag didn't have the British flag on it.)


As for what can be done, let me give you a big hint. It is not the actions of the American government that create resentment around the world anywhere near as much much as the actions of American people.

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

That's a bit harsh.

[jenny_evergreen]

I do the best I can with my actions (though I can't afford to travel, so any impression I can make is of the virtual sort.) I can't control (though sometimes I wish I could) the actions of other people who live in the USA.

[acelightning.livejournal.com]