Americans overseas who embarrass all Americans

@lmur,

I was crossing the border from Lewiston, New York to Queenston, Ontario, and the woman on the Canadian side looked at my identification (showing i was a resident of Hilliard, Ohio, a very modest little city), and was particularly grim throughout the brief interview. I always try to be affable, and i couldn't understand what her problem was. Having determined that i had nothing to declare, that i had no firearms in the vehicle, that i didn't plan to stay for longer than six months and that i wasn't a dangerous terrorist--she finally smiled and said, "I've been to Hilliard, not much of a town, is it?" I said i liked it that way, and asked her what in god's name had taken her there. She replied: "My sister." Her brother-in-law is a firefighter in Hilliard. Small world and all that . . .

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@FBM,

Checking out Amazon I found a string of books written about this subject by same authors. So, maybe I picked the wrong one.

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An idiot who happens to be an American doesn't embarrass me.

I do find it ironic that an African-American who misunderstands a Korean word that sound like "nigger" is a rude embarrassment, while one who jumps to the same conclusion in Washington DC because a public official used the word "niggardly," is, at the very least, understandable in his ire.

No nation has a monopoly on jackassess or saints.

This particular idiot would have been just as idiotic in downtown New York. If he wouldn't embarrass me in NY why should he embarass me in South Korea?

Are South Koreans so slow witted as to think that all Americans are exactly the same and if one is a fool, they must all be?

Just imagine how someone ranting about a boorish Korean in NYC (Spike Lee?) meant they were all boors would be received by Koreans and Americans (the latter not so much if it were Spike Lee, but if it were Rick Perry?)

If you judge an entire group of people on the basis of one individual you are a fool. I would like to believe the majority of South Koreans are not fools.

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Is it possible that a percentage of those that travel may reflect a higher percentage of folks with characteristics that stand out to the locals? In other words, those that stay home, or vacation in their own regions, do not stand out to their own types. It is all subjective, perhaps?

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@Finn dAbuzz,

I do agree, but hasty generalization is a very common behavior among people in general, not just Koreans. Just look how prevalent racism, nationalism, regionalism, football-teamism, etc, are.

I do think that Korea and Japan may be more susceptible to group think than many countries because of their high degree of cultural homogeneity, coupled with Confucianism and its heirarchical approach to group harmony.

When that Cho guy shot all those people at Va. Tech, Koreans as a whole felt embarrassment and apologetic, whereas I think we would just realize that it was just one lone psycho, whose nationality/race was irrelevant.

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@Foofie,

Foofie wrote:

Is it possible that a percentage of those that travel may reflect a higher percentage of folks with characteristics that stand out to the locals? In other words, those that stay home, or vacation in their own regions, do not stand out to their own types. It is all subjective, perhaps?

Exact opposite I'd think.

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@FBM,

You are far more familiar with Koreans than am I, but because they were embarrassed about Cho, doesn't mean Americans need to be embarassed about the idiot in your clip.

Hasty generalization, whether common or not, is unfortunate, and we should try to avoid it whenever we can. We also need not allow it to cause us to be embarrassed or to apologize.

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@Finn dAbuzz,

I once went on a day trip to Boulogne with some work colleagues. Unfortunately we went on the same day as a load of Sun readers who had saved up tokens for a free crossing. It was awful, being in the company of a load of drunken francophobic yobs.

I tried to be as polite as possible. I want people to think well of the British. I thought you would want people to think well of Americans. I was embarrassed by the booze cruisers, I'm surprised you're not embarrassed by the arsehole in the video.

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@FBM,

Americans aren't even embarrassed when their troops shoot innocent civilians, when their fliers bomb millions into oblivion, when their proxies rape, torture and murder innocent men, women and children.

Who would you say is susceptible to group think, Finn?

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@JTT,

Why do you take this cape upon your shoulders, as if you are the only one who is appalled by these things? The only one who posts about them over and over and over and over and over, no matter what the thread. Thank you for sparing Gracie so far.

Others of us have been more than embarrassed. What we have done about it is individual and none of your business.

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@ossobuco,

Quote:

Others of us have been more than embarrassed.

Good on ya, Osso. Keep up the good work.

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@JTT,

Your sarcasm is lost. You don't know all of us.

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@JTT,

My apologies to Finn. FBM sounded so much like a Finn clone, that I mistook him for Finn.

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@ossobuco,

Don't be so defensive, Osso. You say you are doing the right things, then I can only applaud you.

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@JTT,

Never mind me doing right things.

You try to convince others by berating and that is not useful. I understand, in many ways, what I take as your anger, but being a pest does not forward your point of view. It is counter productive as you look like a maniac, which reflects on all who differ re regular present points of view.

Calm down and just talk.

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@ossobuco,

Quote:

Never mind me doing right things.

Then stop yakking about it all the time.

The facts, Osso, the voluminous facts placed squarely in front of a person's face should be all that is needed to, at the least, wake people from their stupor, from their ignorance [in the non pejorative sense].

There is some berating, I'll agree. There is much in the way of factual material that so clearly points to an unremitting dedication on the part of the US to abuse the innocents of the world.

There is thread after thread of people bent on making demands for justice in every cause under the Sun except when it comes to these most egregious examples of injustice.

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@JTT,

I don't yack about anything I have done. Some pals have done more obvious stuff. One instance I disagreed with, heh. You are projecting on me.

Pestering people on thread after thread is not useful. I figure you are one of the most ignored posters on here.

You are near incoherent in your rage.
As I've said and you constantly dismiss, I have agreed with you at least some of the time.

But no, you are off on railing, yelling, condemning all, yet again, yet again.

It's tired, Jtt. Stop it.

Just talk.

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@ossobuco,

Okay, Osso, let's talk. Just a small piece of the troubles that have been heaped upon poor little Cuba by the stunningly hypocritical US government and its frightened [free] people.

The "ugly American" is a reality. The ugliness hasn't come to be known simply from boorish behavior. As many have noted, boorish isn't solely a trait of Americans.

But the "we are the greatest country ever" mentality that is drummed into a lot of empty heads goes a long way towards creating the problem.

But this "ugliness" comes, a lot, from a much greater evil than that of being a boor.

Quote:

2006

July 11. US President G.W. Bush approves $80 million to be used for "boosting democracy in Cuba." The fund is the result of proposals from a commission (members of which include Condoleezza Rice and Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez) exploring "US policy towards Cuba after the eventual death of Fidel Castro." The Cuban government refers to this as an "act of aggression," and Cuban dissident-journalist Oscar Espinosa Chepe considers the fund "…counterproductive. I believe Cubans have to be the ones who love our problems and any interference serves to complicate the situation," he says.

November 8. For the 15th straight year in a row, the UN General Assembly votes overwhelmingly on a resolution to demand an end of the US embargo against Cuba. The vote is 183 in favor of the resolution (to end the embargo) and 4 against, with the nation of Micronesia abstaining. Voting with the US is Israel, the Marshall Islands and Palau.

http://www.historyofcuba.com/history/funfacts/embargo.htm

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@ossobuco,

A person I knew fairly well was involved in the ucla takeover. I agreed with all of his points of view, except the takeover. (I suppose I am religious in my way about keeping universities open.)

Reagan then shut down the campus.

I drove in, parked and worked all the dialysis changes, and so on, a few hours of stuff. No one else in the building. No one else as far as I could see.. for a long way.

That isn't heroic, it's just action. Unimportant minutes.

People act small and large when pushes come to shove.

Get off your horse.

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@JTT,

That is not talking, it is more battering.

I haven't read it, but you are a battering ram.

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Americans overseas who embarrass all Americans

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