February 16, 2007
How Others See Us
“I don’t want to see poverty. I’m on vacation. I don’t want to think that these people don’t have enough to eat.” This is a quote from American tourist Helen Murphy of St. Paul (Minnesota, I assume), on vacation in Labadie, Haiti from a NYT article on page 4 of today’s paper titled “Beyond Mountains of Woe, a Haitian Paradise Beckons.” The article is about the pleasures of Labadie on Haiti’s north coast and how tourists who go there are sheltered and protected from the poverty and violence that is the daily life of most Haitians.
Having edited the just published Global Perspectives on the United States: A Nation by Nation Survey, I wonder if Helen Murphy or any of the other thousands of tourists who frolic at Labadie ever think about how their presence effects Haitians and their opinion of the U.S. She knows that Haitians are poor. And they are; Haiti is the poorest nation in the Americas and receives more economic assistance per capita than any other nation in the world. Haiti is also violent and political repression or revolt has long been its fate. Haitians wonder why we invaded Iraq to depose a dictator and encourage democracy while we have often stood by or even supported cruel Haitian dictators and have limited Haitian emigration to our land.
American use of Haiti as a resort while ignoring poverty and violence contributes to what many people around the world criticize most about the U.S. and Americans – our seemingly endless consumption of other places and their physical and human resources accompanied by a lack of concern about how our consumption effects those places and people.
Posted by David Levinson at 4:42 PM | Comments (0)
November 29, 2006
Criticism of the U.S. equals treason
I've been told that this website is too rabidly pro-American, and there are certainly some contributors of the 'Love it or leave it" persuasion, but what they have to say is mild compared to The Futurist: Who Hates America?. I came across this when looking for a survey I was told about that had more Americans than Europeans doubting capitalism. I need to write to the very reputable person who told me about this to get a link, because I've just been led down too many rabbit holes in the search. Here's a little from this cuddly blogger:
In the US itself, 17% view their country negatively. I have claimed earlier that 8-10% of the US population comprises of active or semi-active fifth-columnists, who seek to undermine American strength and security, yet cannot bring themselves to openly admit this deeply held belief, nor move to another country. This survey appears to offer further evidence of this fifth column.
I didn't realize that to some, a project like this makes us "fifth columnists." Good grief, I didn't even know that term was still used. I associate it with Agatha Christie novels and Cold War spy thrillers.
Posted by Karen Christensen at 3:39 PM | Comments (1)
November 2, 2006
Is this U.S.-centric or not?
I've just blogged about Americans' thin skins at the Berkshire Blog and hope you'll read that (amazing to find that Americans have always worried about criticism and even 200 years ago seemed to be excessively touchy) after giving me a hand with an editorial question. I was looking over an article for our Global Perspectives on the United States volume and found that at the beginning of each country article we compare the area of the country with something familiar to U.S. citizens and students, our states. Most readers will be Americans, and we very much want this work to be used in thousands of schools, but here's what worried me: Greece was compared in area (hectares, btw) to Alabama. Just "Alabama." I thought, and think, that it should read, "the U.S. state of Alabama." We wouldn't assume everyone knows every English county, after all. Maybe I'm being a little touchy myself here and I'm curious to know what you tthink.
Posted by Karen Christensen at 10:49 AM | Comments (1)
September 4, 2006
God's own country
"America. It is God's own country."
I didn't say it, and was a little started to hear this from a young African man sitting next to me on the train from Hong Kong to Guangzhou yesterday, after I told him that I'm American.
"It is the place of my dreams. My dream is to visit America, because I am a Christian."
He was one of the many African traders here in southern China, buying textiles to take back to Ghana. He had watched CNN about Hurricane Katrina and didn't seem to have grasped the poverty and racial divide that showed, and that was discussed in many news reports. What he remembered was a policeman, "Rescuing people but, you know, he was weeping because he did not know if his own family was alive or dead." My new friend touched his heart.
"Please give my greetings to your people," he said in farewell.
Posted by Karen Christensen at 8:57 PM | Comments (0)
August 29, 2006
"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)