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August 29, 2006
Spam, blog spam, and the comments we want
I wish the postings on the site came from countries as diverse as those that send us spam comments, ads for imitation Chanel handbags and similar items (we delete these before they get to the public site). Amongst them, in the last few days, are East Timor, Burundi, Suriname, Armenia, Bhutan, Jamaica, and Afghanistan. If only!!
Posted by Karen Christensen at 10:44 PM | Comments (0)
What's the point of LoveUSHateUS.com (and how you can help)
We've reached a new stage with this project, and I want to thank everyone who's been part of it so far. We've had to put some **** in some entries, but on the whole the discussion's been civil, and important information about viewpoints has emerged.
The problem we face now is that our original concept, of collecting ethnographic information (to use academic talk) or real life stories (to put in a magazine article framework), has morphed into an online discussion. And the tool we created isn't really right for the job, because visitors to the site aren't seeing what they are told to expect. Instead, they have to try to figure out where they are in an argument.
Some of the comments are personally and angrily directed at others, which isn't appropriate. Others are too idiosyncratic to be helpful in a public forum.
Here's what we are going to do:
1. We're not going to post personal/idiosyncratic messages on the main board.
2. We'll save a copy of the unpublished postings, because setting up a forum poses security risks that we aren't sure we can deal with right now. It's going to be "Coming Soon" until we figure this out.
3. We'll write more extensive guidelines to contributors, highlighting entries that are particularly useful.
4. We will e-mail our thousands of contacts outside the States, asking them to add more comments, and we'll soon send out a press release as well.
Meanwhile, I'm in China, up to my neck in work but gathering new ideas about this topic, and project, all the time. Please bear with us, and go through your memories for specific accounts, talk to your friends, and help us make this discussion one that will be valuable to those who seriously want to understand the issues--and to do something to improve our relations with people of other nations, whether they're in the U.S. or outside it.
Posted by Karen Christensen at 10:33 PM | Comments (1)
"They should be nice to us"
Standing in line at Immigration when I arrived in Beijing on Saturday night, I heard a group of Americans talking. One fellow said, "They should be nice to us." Emphasis on "should." I didn't hear the rest of the conversation, so I don't know what he was referring to: the immigration officials, the Chinese, colleagues, the rest of his Ultimate team. But I realized I'd heard this phrase before, from Americans in Europe. "They should be nice to us," because we saved them during World War II or we come here and throw our money around or we've sent them plenty of aid or loans or whatever it might be. . . .
A charming attitude, isn't it? But one that is surprising common, and needs some examination. It's true that Americans came through in World War II, and older Europeans are extremely appreciative of that. But they also remember that we let the Nazis come very close to taking England, and didn't enter the war for over two years after Hitler invaded Poland.
I'm writing about global attitudes at our main blog, so do check there for further comments from China. And I'll be writing here later today about some of the challenges in running a site like this (www.LoveUsHateUS.com is our main site, not this blog, in case you've landed here direct from Google), and asking for feedback on how best to organize it and to keep a productive dialogue going.
Posted by Karen Christensen at 9:10 PM | Comments (0)
August 28, 2006
Is America a uniquely virtuous nation?
We just received a thoughtful comment from the historian Howard Zinn on our forthcoming Global Perspectives on the United States. Browsing for information about his many "People's Histories," I came across an article that readers of this website will find interesting, and full of some of the detail we want to see more of. From Professor Zinn's article, "America’s Blinders":
The deeply ingrained belief-—no, not from birth but from the educational system and from our culture in general-that the United States is an especially virtuous nation makes us especially vulnerable to government deception. It starts early, in the first grade, when we are compelled to “pledge allegiance” (before we even know what that means), forced to proclaim that we are a nation with “liberty and justice for all.”
And then come the countless ceremonies, whether at the ballpark or elsewhere, where we are expected to stand and bow our heads during the singing of the “Star-Spangled Banner,” announcing that we are “the land of the free and the home of the brave.” There is also the unofficial national anthem “God Bless America,” and you are looked on with suspicion if you ask why we would expect God to single out this one nation—-just 5 percent of the world’s population-—for his or her blessing.
If your starting point for evaluating the world around you is the firm belief that this nation is somehow endowed by Providence with unique qualities that make it morally superior to every other nation on Earth, then you are not likely to question the President when he says we are sending our troops here or there, or bombing this or that, in order to spread our values-—democracy, liberty, and let’s not forget free enterprise-—to some God-forsaken (literally) place in the world. It becomes necessary then, if we are going to protect ourselves and our fellow citizens against policies that will be disastrous not only for other people but for Americans too, that we face some facts that disturb the idea of a uniquely virtuous nation.
Posted by Karen Christensen at 1:12 AM | Comments (1)
August 10, 2006
The effect of war on global perspectives
It's sad but far from surprising that political decisions should affect individual lives and work, not only for those who suffer the direct effects of war's violence, but also in terms of long-term efforts to improve social well-being. Here's an article from the International Herald Tribune, "Anti-U.S. feeling leaves Arab reformers isolated":
"Fawaziah al-Bakr, who promotes educational change and women's rights in Saudi Arabia, helped organize women to protest the Israeli attacks. 'Nobody is talking about reform in Saudi Arabia,' she said. 'All we talk about is the war, what to do about the war. There is no question that the U.S. has lost morally because of the war. Even if you like the people and the culture of the United States, you can't defend it.'"
Posted by Karen Christensen at 4:26 PM | Comments (0)
August 1, 2006
When our friends are afraid of us rather than for us
Remember when John Brady Kiesling, a career diplimat, resigned in 2003? His letter of resignation to Secretary of State Colin L. Powell was widely circulated, and my teenage daughter made copies to hand out at school. It was this letter that galvanized her into political activism, the Howard Dean campaign that made her aware of how the mass media can manipulate news to preserve the status quo, and aftermath of Hurrican Katrina that made her question her U.S. citizenship. "Where's my British passport, Mum?" she asked.
Here's a little of what Kiesling wrote in his letter of 27 February 2003:
"The loyalty of many of our friends is impressive, a tribute to American moral capital built up over a century. But our closest allies are persuaded less that war is justified than that it would be perilous to allow the U.S. to drift into complete solipsism. Loyalty should be reciprocal. Why does our President condone the swaggering and contemptuous approach to our friends and allies this Administration is fostering, including among its most senior officials. Has "oderint dum metuant" really become our motto?
"I urge you to listen to America's friends around the world. Even here in Greece, purported hotbed of European anti-Americanism, we have more and closer friends than the American newspaper reader can possibly imagine. Even when they complain about American arrogance, Greeks know that the world is a difficult and dangerous place, and they want a strong international system, with the U.S. and EU in close partnership. When our friends are afraid of us rather than for us, it is time to worry.
"And now they are afraid. Who will tell them convincingly that the United States is as it was, a beacon of liberty, security, and justice for the planet?"
Posted by Karen Christensen at 1:34 PM | Comments (0)