Darryl Shannon wrote:
>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.
Yes, but when I was in America I had to field dumb questions about New
Zealand, too, and they weren't along the lines of "is everyone in America
really beautiful?" They were more like "New Zealand? Isn't that part of
Australia?" or "New Zealand? Don't they have cannibals there?" or "New
Zealand? Where's that?" New Zealanders are understandably ignorant about
many aspects of American life (and not all the questions are dumb,
anyway; some are just embarrassing because I have to admit to 'em).
Americans are ignorant of New Zealand's *existence.*
>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.
Well, I know that. America is *my* country, and I get to pick on it, and
that's certainly part of it. And New Zealand certainly does have its
problems. But they seem so... well... minor. Something like the people
complaining about how courtesy is going down because they can't cross the
four-lane any more. It's not that it's hard to take seriously, it's just
that it's so much farther along than us in ethical/environmental areas
that it's scary.
>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.
I know, and you're right. America has to be special- even if it's
'specially bad <grin>. I can't seem to help thinking like that. But, what
the hell, it's my country, and I can shout and raise hell and fight to
make it better all I like, right?
Right? Er, where'd everybody go?
Kat Feete
--------------------------------
Suicide was against the law. Johnny had wondered why.
It meant that if you missed, or the gas ran out, or
the rope broke, you could get locked up in prison to
show you that life was really very jolly and thoroughly
worth living.
- Terry Pratchett
