You mean I'm not the only one????

But, first of all, you are apparently unaware that, by law, no Hospital in the US can turn away anyone in need of care.

we don't have to wait 2 days for an appointment, when our medical condition dictates otherwise.

Miller wrote:

we don't have to wait 2 days for an appointment, when our medical condition dictates otherwise.

I suppose that nowhere you have to wait ... if your medical condition dictates otherwise.
(For instance, for a complete cardiologic check-up at the local specilist in our villages you have to wait , three, four weeks if it's your first appointment there.
If your family doctor - who either comes to home, when you call him or you just walk in his praxis - thinks, an urgent check-up has to done, it's made the same day in the hopsital. Costs nothing.
Worst case scenario: you have to undergo an heart operation. It's done either at the university hopsital or another speicalised clinic.
Afterwards, you stay 6 to 8 weeks for rehabilitation in a sanotorium.
Costs nothing [though you have to pay $18 per day for a period of two weeks for staying in hopsital].)

What did you say you have to pay for those services?

I just read (Chicago Tribune, page 4), that it costs more than $ 1,600 to vaccanise one child. Such is totally free here .... and not only "mostly covered by health insurences" like in the USA.

Paaskynen wrote:

pachelbel wrote:

Finn d'Abuzz wrote:

Out of curiosity though, what are the centrals themes of American culture than you believe run through all of its television programs and all of its products?

Baseball, hotdogs, applepie and Chevrolet. Elvis, infantile sexual themes, the latest hollywood star (American royalty, sadly), happy endings, must haves, keep up with the Joneses, people with the attention span of a gnat, rampant consumerism, logos, credit cards (can't leave home without it, right?), marketing that is aimed at 2 year olds, propaganda thru TV, I'm sure I'll think of more...... or someone else will.....

Whoa, I think my (Dutch) mother and her ancestors can lay claim to applepie much more than Americans (must be their cultural imperialism!) and hotdogs is just a "polictically rectified" (just like "freedom fries") word for Frankfurter sausage (which as the name indicates came from Germany). And wasn't keeping up with the Joneses invented by the class-conscious British?

Now if I were to consider American cultural influences that I observe here it would include rampant consumerism and fast food (both short term materialist goals), a focus on the superficial (the wrapping sells more than the content, special effects before depth of plot, cosmetic surgery and reality TV), an obsession with pubescent sex and with crime (nudity is sex (nipplegate!), sex is evil and (armed) criminals are heroes (gansta rap!)), a total disregard for those who do not win and, finally, a tendency to oversimplify complex issues and make them into black and white matters where there is no middle ground (i.e. the place where organisations like the UN can operate) leading to an inability to accept dissenting views ("they do/see things differently and therefore they do/see it wrong", "You are either with us, or with the terrorrists").

I guess that if I think hard I can come up with some more. One must add the footnote, though, that such tendencies exist in many cultures, but they do not have the means of transmission that the American economy and popular culture have.

That's rather odd, not a single uplifting or sublime influence. Sort of brings your objectivity into question wouldn't you say?

pachelbel wrote:

Now, how about your health care?

THere is no better health care in the whole world than what one will find in New York, Chicago, Minnesota, Boston, etc. Are there better trained physicians than those who graduate from Harvard Medical School and then practice in the USA ?

Is there a better hospital with care for all, than the Johns Hopkins Medical Center?

Pachelbel: Why don't I see Americans rushing to Canada for medical care?

By the way, those Americans who can't afford health insurance receive "FREE CARE", because this is the LAW in the greatest country on God's earth ( USA...USA...USA )and we don't have to wait 2 days for an appointment, when our medical condition dictates otherwise.

Walter Hinteler wrote:

Miller wrote:

we don't have to wait 2 days for an appointment, when our medical condition dictates otherwise.

I suppose that nowhere you have to wait ... if your medical condition dictates otherwise.
(For instance, for a complete cardiologic check-up at the local specilist in our villages you have to wait , three, four weeks if it's your first appointment there.
If your family doctor - who either comes to home, when you call him or you just walk in his praxis - thinks, an urgent check-up has to done, it's made the same day in the hopsital. Costs nothing.
Worst case scenario: you have to undergo an heart operation. It's done either at the university hopsital or another speicalised clinic.
Afterwards, you stay 6 to 8 weeks for rehabilitation in a sanotorium.
Costs nothing [though you have to pay $18 per day for a period of two weeks for staying in hopsital].)

What did you say you have to pay for those services?

I just read (Chicago Tribune, page 4), that it costs more than $ 1,600 to vaccanise one child. Such is totally free here .... and not only "mostly covered by health insurences" like in the USA.

But you have to live with Germans to get all those benefits.

BernardR wrote:

But, first of all, you are apparently unaware that, by law, no Hospital in the US can turn away anyone in need of care.

If an American hospital refuses emergency treatment to an individual, he lacks money, that hospital risks closure as well as loss of all federal funding.

I am describing my observations of the prevailing themes in the American culture that influence via TV, film and other media the local culture where I live. I am glad you agree that those prevailing themes are not uplifting. (I do reserve the right, incidentally, to disagree with you about what does or does not constitute an uplifting influence of American culture on the culture of my home country.)

I do not deny that there have been uplifting elements in American culture. We owe the (F.D.) Roosevelt administration, for example, for convincing the Soviets to leave us alone after WWII, and for setting up the UN and drafting the Declaration of Human Rights, but respect for the UN and Human Rights are not prevailing themes in the American culture that reaches us today, are they?

What do you, objectively or not, consider to be uplifting influences of American culture on Finnish culture?

Paaskynen wrote:

What do you, objectively or not, consider to be uplifting influences of American culture on Finnish culture?

I don't have the slightest idea what cultural influences America exerts over Finland, uplifting or otherwise. Other than reindeers, Nokia, and a very interesting mythology, I don't know much at all about Finland.

One assumes you have seen American television. Is that because you have spent a lot of time in the US, or because American TV is broadcast in Finland? One also assumes that you have seen a fair number of American films. I'm curious, are people in Finland forced to watch American TV and American films? Have the ubiquitous American fastfood joints reached your country, and if so is it mandatory for Finns to purchase food from them? Likewise American products, is there a quota all Finnish citizens must purchase?

I certainly can appreciate that you yourself are far too erudite to be contaminated by the base American culture, but based on your comments it appears your countrymen are not so immune.

It's peculiar, but the same sort of thing appears to be happening in most of the countries in the world. Only a handful of discerning natives are able to resist the strange compulsion that causes their countrymen to buy American fastfoods, and disposable products; to listen to American music and watch American films; to sit in front of their televeisions and be absorbed by American TV. Surely the American military or the CIA must be involved, since we know no self-respecting Frenchman would voluntarily eat a Big Mac, no scion of Finland would willingly pay to see The Dukes of Hazzard (The Movie) and no Canadian patriot would ever watch Friends without a gun to his head or a micky in his LaBatt.

It must be coercion, overt or covert, because how else can we explain why these proud and noble cultures cannot withstand the insidious influence of the Americans?

I like Canada, although there are a few Canadians I can do without, and I think I might like Finnland if only because it is the birthplace of the Kalevala, but here too I suspect I would meet a Finn or two who I found unappealing. I'm not sure there are any cultures for which, to me, the good would outweigh the bad. Even the culture of France, despite the French, is pretty admirable. But then I'm an American and so I don't have to worry about my culture being absorbed by a more dynamic one; I get to enjoy them all.

One must add the footnote, though, that such tendencies exist in many cultures, but they do not have the means of transmission that the American economy and popular culture have.

Children whose parents do not have employer provided insurance or whose parents buy their own insurance do not need to miss any vaccinations. Note below for one US city's procedures:




HEALTH : THE DIVISION OF DISEASE CONTROL

Immunization Program

Immunization Services for Parents and Health Care Providers
The DDC Immunization Program is committed to preventing vaccine-preventable disease among infants, children, adolescents, and adults in Philadelphia.

For general information about immunizations, please call (215) 685-6748.

What Immunizations Does a Child Need?
Children in the United States should routinely receive vaccinations against eleven diseases: diptheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, Haemophilus Influenzae type b, measles, mumps, rubella, varicella, hepatitis B, and streptococcus pneumoniae.

DDC recognizes that immunization is truly a lifelong process -- beginning with hepatitis B vaccine at birth and continuing through pneumococcal and influenza vaccination in older adulthood -- and as such has pursued the following initiatives:

Vaccines For Children (VFC) Program
The DDC Immunization Program provides government-purchased vaccine to the more than 400 pediatric medical providers in Philadelphia to administer to children 18 years and younger whose families have no medical insurance for vaccinations or who have insurance through the 4 HealthChoices Medicaid HMOs. Since providers can not charge families of eligible children for these vaccines, cost should not be an issue in assuring that all children 18 years of age and younger in the city are fully vaccinated.

For more information about the VFC program, call (215)

That was an example of One city's procedures. But since you asked, I will locate federal guidelines.

In the meantime, You have not been able to explain why the Canadians rank so low on the Gross Domestic Product per person. You dodge questions. I do not and will answer the one you just posted.

I will ask again, why is Canada a laggard in the GDP per person when compared to the USA? It is at least $8,000 behind per person.

I can wait for your answer. You will have to wait for mine. I do not think I will get one from you on the GDP QUESTION!

Your irony is misplaced. You accuse me of anti-Americanism because I list influences from American popular culture that you yourself consider to be less than uplifting. I would like to point out however what I wrote in my original message:

Quote:

One must add the footnote, though, that such tendencies exist in many cultures, but they do not have the means of transmission that the American economy and popular culture have.

Of course there are films and TV programmes made in Finland and some of them are not so bad, but the Finnish media market (serving but 5 million people) cannot begin to compete with the American market, something you do not seem to appreciate (how many Finnish films have you seen in your life?). Works like like the Kalevala cannot be created anymore if your "dynamic" culture rides roughshoud over others. There will be less for you to enjoy.

FYI; MacDonalds is not ubiquitous in Finland since the market has been cornered by a Finnish chain, which uses a similar formula, but it is the insiduous idea of fastfood that is propagated into the living rooms that makes people frequent these places. After all, it has already destroyed much of the local food culture (and the health of a generation of young people) in the US (without anyone forcing any burger quota on them). We are not yet at a point where school restaurants are run by Ronald MacDonald and serve macwhoppers and coke (The restaurant at my school serves salad and local bread, a square meal and water, milk or kotikalja (a traditional malt drink, so now you know four things about Finland ).)

If the prevailing cultural influences that reach us through the media would be French, the fast food industry would struggle and bistros would be booming and the youths would play cool by engaging in boundless political discussions and sipping wine at lunch would be hip. Would you then accuse me of French bashing if I pointed out those influences?

Now, let me rephrase my question: What do you consider uplifting elements in American popular culture of today? (let's leave aside whether those are transmitted abroad or not).

BernardR wrote:

But, first of all, you are apparently unaware that, by law, no Hospital in the US can turn away anyone in need of care.

If an American hospital refuses emergency treatment to an individual, he lacks money, that hospital risks closure as well as loss of all federal funding.