Kat, you just listed a bunch of really silly questions the NZ's asked
about America? Why weren't you shocked by how ignorant they were?
Look, most people around the world are ignorant about everything except
their personal niche. Yes, Americans are ignorant about NZ. Is that
surprising? You have to answer ignorant questions about the US every
day.
Haven't you ever met kids who complained about how bad their parents
were, but when you met the parents they were actually nice? You have
selective vision...you notice the bad about America and ignore the bad
in other countries. If you actually spent some time in NZ, I'm sure
you'd find all kinds of things that you could hate about it...racism
toward Maoris, poverty, destruction of habitat for herding, bureacratic
headaches, provincialism. Or you could recognize those things about NZ
and not hate NZ because of them, just like you can recognize flaws in
family members.
I think the world can be divided between countries that consider
themselves countries, and those that consider themselves as somehow
special. People in the Netherlands like the Netherlands, it's their
home, the people are their neighbors, etc, etc. Then there are
countries like the US and Japan, that consider themselves differently.
People there feel they have a special mission, or that the important
things only happen in their country. Americans do feel that the US is
special. Maybe specially good, like John does, or specially bad, like
Kat does. Sure America is great, I personally like it a lot. But it
is just a country.
=====
Darryl
Think Galactically -- Act Terrestrially
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