December 11, 2006
An embarrassed reader
This comment, from a teenager in Texas, makes me feel that this project is very much worthwhile:
I am an American, and having just found this website I have to say I'm deeply embarrassed by many of the American comments on here, saying things like all other countries must be jealous and we are the greatest nation in the world. I haven't traveled extensively - just to Canada and Western Europe - but I must say that in those experiences I realized how truly charmed my life is, for better or for worse. I hope I am not a "typical American", and the one major note I hope anyone who reads this remembers is that not all Americans are fat, lazy, arrogant and stupid. Many of us actually pay attention to what's happening in the world around us and strongly disagree with the government (even me, and I'm from Texas.) What is frustrating about this site is that I feel somewhat falsely persecuted by many of the comments about Americans, although in the general sense they are logical and probably accurate. I would just like to say , as an American teenager, that I have a deep respect and curiosity about the world, and although I think America has good qualities, I do NOT think it is perfect or even the best nation. With so many issues at hand I don't know how someone can label a country "the best." Thanks for your consideration. -- Eva
I apologize to the readers/contributors who are waiting for an upgrade to the site. We are working out how to add a real forum (that won't allow hackers to get to us, as they did before), and a place where you can suggest books and other websites. I think I've found a company that can help us with a system that we may also be able to use to offer teaching resources from our about-to-be-published encyclopedia, two big volumes called Global Perspectives on the United States. Thanks for your patience, and please don't hesitate to send along ideas.
Posted by Karen Christensen at 4:19 PM | Comments (0)
October 19, 2006
Next steps and some ideas for contributors
Hey, folks, this is Karen at Berkshire Publishing. LoveUSHateUs isn't meant to be a discussion forum per se but a collection of insights and observations grounded in personal experience. Ethnographic accounts, in fact, which are very important and hard to find on this subject.
The use of Caps Lock is a warning sign that people are venting, not providing fresh information. I would appreciate hearing from regular readers/contributors (to karen [at] berkshirepublishing [dot] com) about whether you would like to see a separate forum for the debates. I'll be writing more about this on the blog. In the meantime, please provide specific observations, incidents, comments you've heard, and other evidence to back up your statements.
Also, new writers, please give yourself a more distinctive name than just a first name, so the database can match your contributions through the "Read more by this author" link.
Posted by Karen Christensen at 3:44 PM | Comments (0)
October 11, 2006
British commentary: "how America is eating the world"
"
On a global scale the average US citizen uses far more than his or her fair share of the planet's resources - consuming more than four times the worldwide average of energy, almost three times as much water and producing more than twice the average amount of rubbish and five times the amount of carbon dioxide, a major contributor to global warming," explains the London-based Independent today. This isn't news, except that today's the day when the U.S. population reaches a round 300 million. The article you see here (and can read at www.independent.co.uk) is titled "Supersize Nation: As its population reaches 300m, how America is eating the world." Yuck.
While the British are nearly as irrational and misleading as the United States in their airline anti-terrorist measures (the government here, too, is in need of justification for the Iraq War, of course, so this makes sense), the British press is far superior to ours and I don't mind at all if they take a hard look at America.
I'm using the IRIS system now when I enter the U.K., which means going into a glass compartment and letting a machine read my irises. No human interaction, no passport or landing card to show, and it's very very fast. But it's a little worrisome, thinking that the government has my iris pattern in its system.
Posted by Karen Christensen at 2:30 PM | Comments (4)
September 23, 2006
The daisy motif for "Love Us or Hate US?"
Plucking daisy petals to find out whether someone 'loves me or loves me not' seems to be a European tradition. We chose the daisy as the emblem on LoveUSHateUS.com and one of these days will have an animated graphic with petals being plucked (Joe is eager to find time for this). But does this idea have any resonance in non-European cultures? Please tell us!
And if there are similar folk customs in your country or part of the world, do clue us in so we can make this project more global.
Posted by Karen Christensen at 8:09 AM | Comments (1)
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)
July 30, 2006
Back online after another hacker attack
We've suffered this weekend from another online assault. Our websites were hacked by someone who doesn't like LoveUsHateUS.com, even though this website was set up to garner opinions from around the world. If you came here yesterday you saw a black screen with violent anti-American and pro-Lebanon statements. Ironically, there is more anti-American sentiment allowed expression at LoveUSHateUs.com than you'll find on perhaps any other US-hosted site, and we are as a company committed to global perspectives in general, and to seeking out global perspectives on the United States. Our conviction is that Americans need to understand how people elsewhere see the world, and the United States, in order to operate more appropriately, and humbly, in the global community.
If you are the person responsible, please take time to read some of the comments on the main site.
Posted by Karen Christensen at 12:19 PM | Comments (0)
July 16, 2006
Hacking and obscenities--please stop!
An exciting day at LoveUsHateUS.com, where we discuss what the world really thinks about America. Comments continue to come in, and we encourage you to share anecdotes and perspectives. But, please, no obscenities. If you check the recent entry from "King George" you will see that we had to delete some text and **** a number of words. This site is used by teachers and students trying to understand world opinion, and we do have to set some standards.
Some people think we're going too far by allowing rants, but, in our opinion, rants sometimes convey accurately how someone sees things. It may not be rational, but it's real. Wars aren't rational either. In my opinion, that is.
We won't edit your opinion, and we will publish all comments as long as they do not advocate violence. But we will put the brakes on obscenity. The odd thing about the comment by "King George" is that it was well-written, in complete and correct sentencing, correctly spelled. Come on, George, please raise your sights and give us something more we can publish.
Besides that, our forum has been hacked by, seemingly, a Turkish operation ("acp100 from ay yildiz tim"). This is a new one for us and we'll now have to figure out how to restore the system.
Posted by Karen Christensen at 11:48 AM | Comments (1)
June 1, 2006
The language we use to talk about America, and Americans' use of language
After having our forum hacked, and watching the lively discussion that is taking place on the main site, we've decided to remove the forum for now. Keeping the discussion front and center seems like the right thing. There are quite a few regular contributors, but other people are weighing in, too.
What makes this frank conversation possible? I wonder if our choosing to use the word 'hate' on the website is the key. Most writing about what the world thinks of America wimps out when it comes to the possibility that reasonable people may have feelings of rage towards the United States, and that they may really hate some of the things we do, personally as well as on a global scale. I haven't seen anyone suggest violence--that's something else again--but there are strong emotions here.
Here's a pet peeve of my own: Americans' casual ignorance, and comfortable acceptance of their own lack of knowledge. I was at a conference recently and the moderator said, "Our Arab, or Muslim, or whatever you call it, brethren." Sure, someone may not know the difference between an Arab and a Muslim. But why should he feel comfortable airing that ignorance? And it's easy enough to look up the definitions.
The best one I found on a quick search was this: "An Arab is someone with ancestry from the nations of the Middle East or North Africa where Arabic is the primary language. Iran, where the predominant language is Farsi, is generally not considered an Arab nation." (from www.gsanetwork.org/justiceforall/definitions.htm)
Muslim is the equivalent of Christian: a believer in one of the branches of Islam. Many Arabs are Muslims, and many Muslims are Arabs, but they are not the same thing.
A related peeve is Americans' stilted speech and writing. At the same conference, I heard a senior publisher begin a speech with a sentence that included the phrase, "Esteemed assemblage." Good grief!
Posted by Karen Christensen at 11:55 AM | Comments (0)
First award for LoveUSHateUS.com, What the world thinks about America
Just heard that the Valley Advocate has chosen our site as its website of the week! Congratulations to all the lively, thoughtful contributors from around the world, helping us to understand one another better as we discuss what the world thinks about America.
Posted by Karen Christensen at 10:57 AM | Comments (0)
May 26, 2006
The evolution of Love US Hate US
"Evolution" is a loaded word in the United States and I was intrigued to hear it in conversation when we were in the political center of right-wing Christianity last weekend. Something evolved, even if humans didn't. But that comment came from one of our more liberal friends; my fundamentalist cousin would probably not use the word in reference to anything at all.
This website is evolving. Our design was intended to collect anecdotes and observations: short, precise items about different aspects of the United States that people love and hate. We saw discussion and debate taking place and set up a forum for that. We even baited the forum with our own comments and interesting contributions from the main page. But the discussion has continued on the main page, with considerable back-and-forth between individuals. All very interesting, but not quite manageable or easy to navigate for new visitors. We're trying to figure out how to provide a visible discussion of what the world thinks about the United States along with a collection of observations by visitors to the site and also quotes from eminent people (and pop stars).
We have this blog, a wiki about global perspectives, and one of these days we'll have some PDF background articles available and podcasts. All these media have different advantages, and your suggestions are welcome. Please write and tell us what would provide the best experience at Love US Hate US: What the world really thinks about America!
Posted by Karen Christensen at 6:45 AM | Comments (0)
April 6, 2006
What to do with the weird stuff?
Editing a work like LoveUSHateUS.com is a challenge: we want it to be easy to read, and we want to help out contributors whose first language isn't English, but we don't want to change what people say. The freshness of the entries--and their passionate feeling--is part of their value.
But I did approve an entry just now after deleting the last bizarre line:
"American as baseball and apple pie. Be it Mrs. Smith's, or Grannies, aren't pies just great?
America, home of many great foods and games.
Got to love it!!!
This day ends at 5 and the abyss begins."
If you can explain what abyss that is, please write to me.
Interesting, isn't it, that the entries by Americans are less often signed than those from outside the country. And their English isn't so great, either. Come on, we can do better!
Posted by Karen Christensen at 8:35 AM | Comments (0)
March 7, 2006
Do we censor responses of world opinion at LoveUsHateUS.com?
As you can imagine, naming this site was a challenge. Early on, we considered using something that would stir up debate (the suggestion I remember is "Why The World Hates Us, Really"). But we realized that we should not predetermine what people think. Americans may feel that the world hates them, but that may just be defensive, or stirred up by the media. Our goal is to listen and learn.
And we wanted to encourage broad participation. The U.S. is in some ways terribly divided. Liberals talk to liberals, conservatives to conservatives. If we were just to talk about 'hate,' we'd probably lose people we really want to hear from. Many of us in the U.S. are recent immigrants, after all, who have complex feelings ourselves about this country. We do want to learn about the things you dislike, even hate, about the United States, but it's also going to help to know what you like or admire. That knowledge may help us steer a better course in future.
Plus, it's pretty clear that everyone at least loves jazz.
Posted by Karen Christensen at 10:28 AM | Comments (0)
March 3, 2006
LUSHUS Forum: Where the debate continues
Certain comments posted at LOVE US HATE US have generated threads of comments from other readers. In particular, WCG posted a riff on the beauties of America and many other readers referred to it in their comments. WCG posted again and the debate was on. A forum!, we thought, and put it together. We just posted WCG's comment (and a few others) in our new LOVE US HATE US FORUM and look forward to this global experiment expanding into a readable debate.
We've discovered that people don't want to just have their say on this subject, they want to debate and question each other, as well. People want to talk across continents and hemispheres, across cultures and countries, and around the world.
In his post, Yacine Kabbage of Japan said that "it takes courage to ask people to write what they think of 'us' (whether as individuals, groups or nations)." While we can't speak for all of the United States, at Berkshire Publishing we are fascinated and excited by each new comment. Thank you for participating.
Posted by Carrie Owens at 3:33 PM
March 1, 2006
Help define "a global perspective" at our wiki
We're always talking about global perspectives and how people should have them. But one of the things this project is teaching me is that I'm still blinkered in various ways. I think of the time someone in Australia emailed that I was being 'hemisphere-centric' by writing about the end of summer as if everyone was experiencing the same thing.
Defining a global perpective is something that needs to be done globally, not just by a group of mostly U.S. citizens in a publishing office in Massachusetts. We're using software called a wiki to allow many people to contribute ideas and edit one another's work. Please take a look at the current version, and if you'd like to join in as a writer/editor, just drop us a line for a password.
http://aglobalperspective.pbwiki.com
A recent comment says, "One word: me, me, me." If what's wrong with the U.S.A. is that we think only about ourselves, is a global perspective the opposite, completely altruistic? I don't think so, but as ever we want to know what *you* think!
Posted by Karen Christensen at 8:29 PM | Comments (0)