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To: Ilaine who wrote (23405)	9/18/2002 10:33:44 PM
From: Maurice Winn	Respond to of 74559

<Nobody hates Canadians. Nobody hates Australians. Nobody hates Kiwis. Why do they hate us?> CB, I first noticed the phenomenon way back in the early 1970s. Actually, there's more to life than throwing dollars around and I think that might be a good starting point for some of the negative points of view. <But they miss us when we aren't throwing the dollars around, don't they? > But I have to go have a nice cup of tea right now - I could explain another time. The good news is that the USA does much of the best of things, so it's not all negative. Mqurice edit.... well, thanks for the compliment, which is accepted with pleasure [gotta get any crumbs I see ... ]

To: Ilaine who wrote (23405)	9/19/2002 1:11:56 AM
From: Hugh A	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74559

Why do they hate us? I can't explain this. Transferance from their powerlessness to deal with corrupt, US-backed regimes, perhaps. Like many non-Americans, I appreciate America for what it has given the world. Things like fusion of African and European culture (blues, jazz, rock, funk etc.), individual freedoms, female emancipation, and perhaps the most important thing, rewarding non-conformity (creativity). We'll forget about Tang for the moment... However (there always is this bit), what America seems to have difficulty with is understanding that the projection of their power around the world causes resentment. Let me give you a very small example from Canada. It is almost impossible for a Canadian produced film (not the cross-border US-film-shot-in-Toronto type) to gain distribution in Canada. Why? Because the distributors and cinemas are American-owned and prefer to deal exclusively (or nearly so) with Hollywood productions. Unless you are an Atom Egoyan or David Cronenberg, you won't be seen in the box office. This is only a small example and it is being dealt with by "levelling the playing field" cultural subsidies. It doesn't cause widespread resentment because it doesn't affect many people's political/economic rights. I suspect that when the projection of America's power does interfere with the political or economic rights or opportunities of the individual, this is when they begin to hate America and Americans. All that being said, I can't bring myself to take Chretien's position that it is poverty alone that causes terrorism. I think it is powerlessness. There are a lot of countries with rampant poverty and minimal if any terrorism. Perhaps the countries you mentioned, Canuckistan, Kiwi and Oz were lucky we were run by the Poms for so long. Where are the British colonial administrators when you need them? Maybe they could sort out Iraq if they were given a second chance. Enough for now. HA

To: Ilaine who wrote (23405)	9/19/2002 3:32:12 AM
From: smolejv@gmx.net	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74559

one more reaction to >>Why do they hate us?<< a) how do you know they hate you b) who's they? c) who is you? As a kid I somehow (unintentionally, nothing virulent) imbued the picture of Germans (Schwaben in a denigrating way) as warmongers, with Wehrmacht helms and Schmeissers, burning the villages, shooting hostages etc etc. At the same time my good father bought us Spiegel every monday - those were FJS times, and Augstein got locked up etc - and there was a different kind of Germany offering itself. Not that I would feel the cognitive dissonance. It just exploded one day into my face: I was in Stuttgart on PostDoc, staying with a Fischer family (divorced, with two daughters). It was just the time of Filbinger uproar - the governor of Baden Würtemberg was a military judge during the war and let 18-years old boys hang for desertion, date April 15th 1945. The way he tried to wiggle out of his shameful history, made me grimace. When I tested the waters in this respect with Frau Fischer, her answer was sort of an earthquake for me:"This man is a swine". How could eine Schwabin (Stuttgart is the capital of Suebians) think so about another Schwab!? Are they not all the same kind of "warmongers, with Wehrmacht helms and Schmeissers, burning the villages, shooting hostages" blah blah blah Today I can say, I pity those poor bastards with helms and schmeissers, still cant fathom a few of them (see Auschwitz), see all kinds of a*holes around me... And a lot of simply normal, straightforward people. And I like quite a few of them - thank God, otherwise it would be tough -. I can assure you, CB, everybody could - given a chance - experience this kind of shift in his or her perceptions.