Re: Election

Jan de Koning wrote:

"...The basic problem is that the people in the USA do not understand the
thinking of other people...."

I don't dispute this, and the reality is that most Americans haven't had to pay as close attention to the rest of the world as people of many other nations, because as individuals we've generally not interacted with or depended on others like they have. So, on average, Americans are probably a lot dumber about the rest of the world than Europeans.

Nevertheless, fairly major misunderstandings are common everywhere. For example, during the few months I spent in a student dormitory at the University of Leeds I learned from the Brits that you can't go anywhere in the US without getting mugged, and Americans routinely throw their cars away after two or three years. A couple of the students were planning to risk the likelihood of mugging to pick up one of these discarded vehicles (even though it would have the steering wheel on the wrong side).

And how much do the Saudi Muslims, for example, who have studied nothing but the Qur'an, really know about the USA or anybody else (except Palestinians and Israelis)? Perhaps now they know more from satellite TV than before, but when I was there, all we could get was local programs, many of them religious.

So there's plenty of misunderstanding to go around. But we'll learn a lot by fighting. Then we'll be in the Arab's face, and he'll be in ours. Almost all of us would prefer to ignore him, but unfortunately he got in our face first, so we all suffer the consequences.

Don

  ----- Original Message -----
  From: Jan de Koning<mailto:jan@dekoning.ca>
  To: asa@calvin.edu<mailto:asa@calvin.edu>
  Sent: Wednesday, November 03, 2004 4:51 PM
  Subject: Re: Election

  At 09:12 AM 03/11/2004 -0500, Ted Davis asked for comments from
  Europeans. Though I am now more Canadian than European I will try to reply
  as an European. (We intend to go to Europe next week, and stay away from
  the list at least till 2005.)
  In the first place my trouble is more with the system than with
  persons. Not too long ago I saw a list of countries starting with the most
  "democratic" ( = government influenced by the people). In Finland people
  had most influence, The Netherlands was no 10. The U.S.A. was way down
  around place 40 or 50, I forgot the exact place. I assume partly because
  of the division into States, so that issues are shown by state. The result
  is that it is hard to get a true picture of what is really the "will of the
  people" in the USA.
  Though this election seems to have been influenced by Bush's praying, and
  his church-going, some really basic principles were hardly mentioned, while
  others were so much mentioned that they overruled other issues.

  For example: global warming is a world-wide issue, so that the nations of
  the world joined in the Kyoto accord, except the U.S.A. , one of (maybe
  THE) greatest polluter in the world. Here in Canada we deal with the
  closing of the border for Canadian cattle, which does not make any sense
  anymore. if it ever did, since the original cow appeared to have been
  imported from the U.S.A.. Take the potato harvest which could not be
  exported because one sick potato was found in one place. An immense
  quantity of potatoes had to be destroyed. Things like that do not help in
  relationships with other countries. As Canada is quite a bit less powerful
  than its neighbour we cannot do much about it. (The softwood-lumber issue
  is another sore point.)

  Add to that (and here Canada is guilty as well) the total lack of
  understanding of the thinking of other people, and the result is that the
  U.S.A. is standing alone in several respects. More could be mentioned, but
  the basic problem is that the people in the USA do not understand the
  thinking of other people.

  Does that mean, that I am anti-USA? No, I am not but I do think that the
  USA does not do much to endear itself with the European nations, which
  become more and more united, and thus stronger and stronger. Its armies
  become larger, and larger, and more united.

  Another warning: Hitler was first "democratically" elected, but became
  more and more a dictator. I don't think Bush is like that, but the
  election system in the USA can certainly be greatly improved. Thr
  Guatanamo Bay camp looked a lot like the German camps, where anybody could
  be imprisoned without charges, and tortured.

  Jan de Koning

  P.S. Don't be mad at me, please,
  Jan
Received on Thu Nov 4 06:48:35 2004