but is it indicative of France, is it an isolated incident like painting swastikas on jewish synagogues in the US, like burning crosses in the south, it is a valid question but i would prefer more far reaching information before judging an entire nation. this seems more like "snapshot" views than comprehensive analysis.
Yeah, Dyslexia, a "Snapshot" sorta like those streaming in from the "Embedded Reporters". "The Big Picture" is often very different from the flashy tidbits trotted out to dazzle the crowd.
dys
Of course, that is the case. Pollsters are quite aware of how seemingly subtle changes in questions asked in a poll can change results dramatically.
ci
Be at peace, old friend. The French don't want dead soldiers, they just also don't want this adminstration playing god or Napoleon, and neither do I.
But, even if it were accurate, the last thing Max (or the two chaps whose name is on that piece) might spend any time doing is wondering WHY such anger and disdain has erupted. Certainly nothing to do with failings of the administration, or of America's role in the world. All the evil and misperception lies elsewhere.
Tartarin wrote:It still strikes me as indicative that most French hate Bush but still say they like Americans, whereas most Americans don't even know Chirac's name and say they hate the French.
Just wanted to see this repeated ... that's the thing, even about this topic itself, innit?<nods>
nimh i would venture a guess that most americans do not know who Blair is either.
Fascinating how quickly bonds between nations are loosed, no? - or can appear so. Here we have nonsensical, yammering hate-talk from both sides of the Atlantic, it seems, and back and forth across the English Channel. Still, the emptiest vessels make the loudest noise. Nonetheless, the thing becomes more real in people's minds as they read about such incidents as Maxsdadeo uses - never mind the reality of countless Allied gravesites, tended lovingly all over France - interestingly, I have a friend just back from there speaking with some emotion of this very loving care, because he, like me, has family buried there from both wars.
1 in 3 french people back Saddam? Hmmmm - can it be that some of them are affected by the hateful, insulting words being spoken in the US and returning them with hateful interest - or are taking up their human task of grumbling and bitching? Is this nonsense to echo back and forth and create a real problem where only disagreement existed before?
That will help things no end, I am sure.
dyslexia
Quote:nimh i would venture a guess that most Americans do not know who Blair is either.
Nah. He has been in the headlines and on the 6:00 o'clock news. And we know that almost all Americans at least get that far in the seeking of knowledge.
Au i do disagree, i believe that if i walked down my street, a very middle class neighborhood and asked each resident to name the head of state for Canada, Mexico, GB, France, far less than 50 % would get the correct answers.
Last Friday (3/28) Jeffrey Nunberg did a piece on Fresh Air which is available on audio and worth a listen:
http://freshair.npr.org/day_fa.jhtml;jsessionid=YO3FQG1XJ5QPBLA5AINCF4A?todayDate=archive
He talks about the choices in how we pronounce foreign place names as cultural choices -- the Eye-Wrack people on one side of the issue, the i-rookh and i-Rock on the other. Remember (I do!!) how those who pronounced Guatemala and El Salvador correctly were thought to be commies? Listen to Nunberg!
Naming things (and people) correctly implies respect...
dys
I think that is likely to be true. It seems less the case here in Canada, though there's no question the average Canadian is far less aware of the world outside North America than their European or even Brit counterparts. Physical isolation explains this in part, but it doesn't explain the difference between our two countries. There seems pretty evidently to be a cultural isolation at work too. My daughter attended grades 11 and 12 in California and was quite shocked at the difference.
In my perfect world, adults wouldn't shoot bazookas at the UN, and kids would all spend 6 months before majority volunteering in some distant country.
"...kids would all spend 6 months before majority volunteering in some distant country..."
That was part of the expectation in my family and the schools I went to. Volunteering -- and spending time in a foreign educational institution. Foreign languages were a must. Thems was the good ol' days.
I have a friend who sent his kids to Canadian schools and universities.
I should add that, living as Texas as I do, it's an article of faith that Mexican schools are better than ours...
