occ,
that would be the Queen of England.
As matt_mcl says, Britain is definitely an ally of the US.
As no doubt happened in the 1800’s to us, it’s difficult to be the most powerful nation, and also to be popular.
P.S. Thank goodness you have democracy and freedom of information.
sorry, mattk, not matt_mcl!
If only were it so. Alas, many (and I think most) of my countrymen and women seem to quite loath the US and things “American”. There are daily diatribes in the media assailing the US for its “arrogance” and for its way of doing things. Letters to the editors, in particular, seem to be selected on the basis for their contempt of the USA.
Of course I am generalizing. But still, on any given day, if you pick up a copy of McLeans’s (gag), the Toronto Star (God forbid) or tune in to the CBC, you’ll find plenty of anti-US ranting.
A lot of the putdowns are couched in the guise of “protecting our Canadian culture” (i.e. ‘legislating airtime for Anne Murray’ or ‘TV ads for Big Joe’s Windsor Discount Barn must displace the big-bucks, corporate American Super Bowl commercials’) and “valuing what makes us Canadian”. The US is held up as an example of what might happen to us if we’re not careful.
What about “Talking to Americans”? This was basically a one-hour razzberry at Americans and their apparent ignorance of Canada.
While I was in school, I learned the capitals of all 50 states as well as their nicknames and major exports. How many Americans could tell me where Inuvik is? Without an atlas! 
It seems that Canadians as a whole are inundated with American tv, culture, information, etc., while Americans think of us as their backward but basically friendly, harmless neighbours.
With better beer.
Some of the bad feeling about America (more specifically the US Government) actually comes from the help that has been given. In South Korea there is a fair amount of resistance to the military presence (same thing in Japan although the US presence there speed up post WWII economic recovery significantly) is based on the misbehavior of the military personnel. The (perceived?) arrogance of military recruits and the indigenous people and businesses that are attracted to military bases are not the best image to put forward to the world.
On the whole the people will go out of their way to talk to an American who isn’t acting like a jerk. I remember sitting in the student union of a South Korean university under a banner that read (translated) “Yankee Go Home!” Several students came up to talk, were perfectly cordial and made it a point to say that the sign was not referring to Americans per se but to the US Government.
The read I get now is that many Koreans feel that US presence is no longer needed and, in fact, is slowing up the reunification process with the North (arguing if this is true or not is a matter for the GD).
Well, what you’ve seen from me is mostly WWII related. An American WWII vet can get drunk for free in Amsterdam, I’ll tell you that much.
But we’re by no means a country that loves the US unconditionally, on a current political level.
For instance, our goverment is really pissed off at Bush for not signing the Kyoto treaty - and rightly so, if you ask me. Also, the renewed Star Wars Plans are VERY much frowned upon over here. Plus, y’all are driving up OUR fuel prizes by buying here because your SUV’s are using 5 gallons per mile, or something.
Anyway, there’s loads of political friction. But in the end, we’re all NATO, and we’re not gonna attack the US anytime soon. Not that our 4 tanks and 6 automatic rifles would make any difference, of course.
Actually it’s hard to say what the Australian attitude to the US is, because the US is such a big, complex entity. There will always be things we like about America, and things we don’t like (and there are some things we “just don’t get”) , but generally the feeling is friendly.
Stuff Doggie Likes about America
[ul]
[li]Democracy, fundamental freedoms, and all that[/li][li]The Blues[/li][li]The collective sense of confidence[/li][li]The SDMB[/li][li]Sending the British on their way (that was way cool)[/li][li]huge cars[/li][li]South Park[/li][li]Generally cool people[/li][li]Heaps of other stuff I’ll think of later[/li][/ul]
Stuff Doggie dislikes about America
[ul]
[li]McDonalds[/li][li]Overconfidence[/li][li]Unwillingess amongst some people to learn about the world outside its borders[/li][li]Disney[/li][li]The fact that I’ve never been there[/li][li]Deliberate butchering of foreign names[/li][li]The inmability to comprehend that some people are quite happy not being American[/li][li]Loud mouthed US tourists in other countries (yes, only some tourists, and yes, Aussies are guilty of this too)[/li][/ul]
Stuff Doggie just doesn’t get about America
[ul]
[li]Baseball[/li][li]Southern Baptists[/li][li]Beer at 3.something%?? WTF??[/li][/ul]
Most of the Americans I’ve met have been good company. Just get the beer situation sorted out, and I’ll be right over. 
:: puts on flameproof suit and waits nervously ::
Heck, Loaded, who does? I bet you don’t hate them as much as the average person where I live (northern New England) hates the tourists from other parts of the country. They’re noisy and loud, and drive weird in their own country, too(there are exceptions, of course.) Nothing’s more fun that listening to a bunch of drunk summer people hooting and hollering across the lake when you’re trying to sleep, you know, when they’re not trespassing on your property to hunt, that is. It’s almost time for the time honored yearly tradition “fleecing of the tourists.” While tourism does bring in money( all the leaf-peepers/skiers/campers/beach-goers spend a lot of $) all of our food and gas prices go up 
It’s very hard to believe that more than one or two nations out there actually like the US, thanks to the news reports always pointing out anti-American sentiment and making sure we get televised protesters on the tube clearly burning the American flag.
Then along came the Internet and international pen pals and little reality programs on TV pointing out how the news companies have been exaggerating and faking things since news first began. Like the ‘reenactment’ of World War scenes passed off as actual, front line footage in News Reels and the carefully set up and edited latest recordings, showing the worst of anti-American protests. Then reports of American reporters actually paying foreign peasants to gather into small groups and stage an Anti-American protest.
We found out how Castro orders people to mass and stage protests against the US, the most recent with Elian. It turns out that most Cubans did not give a hoot if the kid came back or not and, apparently, neither did his father until Castro got involved. Then we discovered some of the middle Eastern dictators doing the same thing, like in Iran, Iraq, and Syria, and making sure that American News companies had plenty of time to get to the protest to record it. Then, the crowds played to the cameras.
Through extensive e-mail, I’ve discovered that the average citizen of almost all nations has no hate for America and, astonishingly, many wish to be able to either visit or move here!! It seems to me that 2 out of 3 Japanese that I’ve talked to make trips here, the same with the British, Canadians move back and forth, Mexicans come in by the ton, Cubans still risk their lives to get here, Africans come here to live or to go to school, Chinese are willing to get stripped of their money to get smuggled in, large amounts of Middle Easterners want to be here or visit and those who don’t seem not to have any real beef with anyone.
It’s that way in every nation that I have contacted and with every ‘alien’ that I’ve talked to here in person.
I’ve only run into a few negative attitudes, like in Egypt, where it seems from the cradle to the grave they’re fighting over a chunk of dirt for religious reasons. I got some harsh sentiments from some people in Ireland about our assisting the IRA, which we’re not supposed to be doing. Then I dredged up information on a long term assistance program, sponsored by congress and still running after over 30 years, where millions are given to some Irish Benevolent Organization each year for financial assistance, which, it appears, that Ireland doesn’t need!! Where the money actually goes, no one knows! Even the Government Watchdog organizations have not been able to find out! A few Britishers gave me static about Imperial American Military Bases still being maintaned overseas. I’ve gotten into international chatroom slug fests where someone starts cutting America apart and calling everyone her idiots. Interestingly enough, the chat rooms were started mainly by British youths, and one was by a Japanese guy who seemed to resent us dropping the bombs over there, to which I pointed out the many, many websites dealing with Japanese death camps for Americans.
Other than that, it seems we are basically liked by almost everyone! Except the governmental leaders, but then, when you stop to think that the Governments start the wars by forcing the populace to invade, attack or whatever based on the desires of a few who are willing to kill off the ‘common folk,’ it’s not surprising. The Russian government wanted to nuke us into radioactive dust, but the average peasant did not. Korea and Vietnam would never have been if the Chinese leaders had not gotten greedy and decided to invade them. WW2 would never have been had Hitler not first manipulate and later forced the German people to believe the way he wanted them to and Japan would never have joined him had the military leaders and politicians not gotten greedy also.
The average person of all nations don’t seem to have any problem with us.
It’s just the leaders who do.
The Baltic States, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithania definitely like the USA. After suffering under the Russians for 50 years, the end of the Cold War–at least partly brought to an end by increased American defense spending in the 1980s–easily made the USA “good guys” in the eyes of the Baltic peoples. The countries are small–but over the last century a large precentage of the three nations’ population (especially Lithuania) emigrated to America. With a wary Russia still on the border of each of these countries, the three Baltic States look on NATO membership–with the USA still being the real force in the alliance–as the guarantor of the indefinite independence of these three nations.
I’ve been thinking for some time of starting a thread like this myself, though I had a slightly different question in mind, along the lines of “How is the U.S. perceived by other nations?” Like a lot of thoughtful Canadians, I’m not quite sure what to make of the Excited States of America. We share thousands of miles of common border, and when your neighbour has 10 times your population, 15 times your economic strength, and infinitely many times your military strength, there’s no such thing as a level playing field. Canada and the United States are each other’s largest single trading partners (or they were the last time I looked at the numbers a few years ago) by a wide margin, but while trade with the U.S. accounts for some huge fraction, like 75% or more, IIRC, of the Canadian economy, trade with Canada amounts to some single-digit percentage of the American economy. To put it baldly, we need you in order to maintain our standard of living, you don’t need us, and the leaders on both sides know it.
There is almost always an element of ‘might makes right’ in any negotiations between our two nations, because everybody knows the Americans can just walk away from the table at little or no cost to themselves, and we can’t. Because of situations like that, America is widely perceived as arrogant and bullying in my country, but that doesn’t seem quite fair to me. Americans act in their own interests, same as anybody else. Britain used to have a similar reputation when it was the global super power. From my perspective as a Canadian, what it amounts to is that when you’re by far the richest, most powerful nation in the history of human civilization, you don’t have to take anybody else seriously, and I don’t believe any other nation in similar circumstances would act any differently.
On the other hand, in my lifetime I’ve met hundreds of Americans, both in Canada and in America, and with one exception they’ve all been extraordinarily friendly and interesting people. That one exception was a uniquely horrible man whose horribleness had nothing to do with being an American, he’d have been a racist, fascist asshole no matter where he came from. Those people are everywhere. Americans are not, again with that one exception, what Rick Mercer’s “Talking to Americans” tried to make them look like. I’ve never met anyone as dumb and ignorant as those poor hapless fools Mercer put on the screen. Maybe I just hang around with a better crowd? Frankly I found that program impossible to watch after the first 10 minutes, it was embarrassingly heavy handed. That schtick works well in a 3 minute sound bite, but an hour of it is 57 minutes too many.
I must also admit that some of my bafflement with America is very entertaining. This could happen only in America: the Senate rejects a presidential ambassadorial nominee, only to have him turn up shortly as Vice President, presiding over the Senate. Eventually he became President, and was sworn in by a Chief Justice who had himself earlier been rejected by the Senate as a Cabinet appointee but accepted as a Supreme Court justice. (Quick now, you American trivia buffs, what two men am I talking about?) Another of my favourites is the quadrennial spectacle of choosing one President through 50 separate electoral systems. That seems to me a much greater achievement than the merely technical feat of bringing back a few hundred pounds of rocks from the moon, even though it does sometimes seem that the whole system was designed to create as much confusion as possible about who is responsible for what.
I can’t pretend I understand what America’s about, and it’s simultaneously edifying and alarming to have a neighbour like that. It is, as I believe Pierre Trudeau observed, like sleeping with an elephant. We have to pay careful attention to every twitch and mumble because the consequences might be catastrophic for us, but the elephant needn’t pay any attention to us at all. And usually doesn’t. On balance, however, I think America has given at least as much to the planet as it’s taken. The heroic idealism in which the nation was born, eloquently expressed in the noble, ringing phrases of the Declaration of Independence, have made America one of the lights of the world for over two centuries. America is also an extraordinarily generous nation; any disaster, anywhere in the world, with the possible exception of the old Soviet Union and what now remains of it, you’ll find Americans there helping out. It was largely the Marshall Plan, an American project, that rebuilt a shattered Europe after the Second World War. I venture to suggest that no nation in the history of human civilization can match the American record for humanitarian aid. I don’t think we could ask for a better neighbour, and there are sure a lot of much worse ones.
Sorry for the hijack, but I’d really like to know your source for this statement, particularly the part about his father.
As to Ireland, I’d say its government is pretty supportive of the US’s in general.
As for Elian, it was speculated early on that Pop had not bothered with the kid until Castro decided to make a fuss over things just to be a pain in the ass. Miami Cubans who still managed to keep contact with relatives in the homeland found out that Castro had the father found and got him involved with the whole thing and made it worth his while. Obviously Castro has mellowed in his old age because he greases the palms of the poor with cash when he wants little things done instead of threatening to kill them and their loved ones like he used to.
It doesn’t take much. A job making more than $10 a day, an apartment that has hot and cold running water and power at least 12 hours out of 24, government credit to buy better food from State stores rather than the average vendors and acccess to medical care that the doctor actually has a degree in. Not the self taught ‘Doctors’ working out of their homes. Like those who have been popping up in Miami Florida and in other areas with large, poor, Hispanic populations lately.
Canada:
One thing which endeared Canadians to my heart came out in the late 60’s, early 70s in the form of a 45 rpm record. It was called simply ‘Americans’ and was a monolog set to America The Beautiful, spoken by a Canadian man, who praised and defended America against every other nation who were grumbling at us at that time, and there were many.
He stated facts. Provable ones, like France ducking out on it’s war debt to us, then insulting American tourists in the streets, Nations who begged for our help and got it, finally regaining their footing and then calling us imperialists, burning our flag and sneering at us. He even attacked what he called snooty Canadians who looked down on America and pointed out how we run help to every nation in the world who suffers a disaster but not one has offered to assist us when our cities were leveled by tornados, earthquakes and hurricanes.
He pointed out that every nation has benefited from our technology, freely shared and our medical knowledge, also given away but we are still insulted and damned. He pointed out how our people have fought and died defending other nations but now those nations turn their backs on us.
He said that we would get ourselves out of whatever trouble we were in at the time and would go on as we always have and that he would not blame us in the least if we chose to pull back within our borders and have nothing to do with the rest of the world because of the way they have treated us.
The record was played on every radio station that could get a copy and the government stepped in and stopped it because they feared it would affect some tricky political diplomacy we were handling, so the 7-11’s bought up copies and sold them by the ton.
I’ve a copy still. It’s old and it’s scratched, but ever since I’ve given Canadians the benefit of the doubt and do not find it worthwhile to get annoyed with them. (Well, not all, but most.) I am pissed off that it took a Canadian to remind us about our good deeds instead of the big name pussy recording artists of the time who were too busy singing about how crappy we were, going back to the USSR, turning Japanese, sneering at vets returning from Nam, and listening to the Brit youth demanding we get rid of our nuclear missiles in England and songs about working in the cane fields to help Castro fight against Imperialist America.
**Sorry, but my post got truncated somehow, so here’s the actual first part.**As for the Cuban/Elian farce, I know some people who periodically slip into Cuba to buy cigars, bring back rare palm tree seeds and plants and spend much money in the special tourist section and enjoy Cuba looking like it did in the 50s. Amazing, is it not, that through all of the venom Castro spews at America, he has a tourist section set up for visitors of other nations, especially American because he prefers American dollars.
They’ve wandered off of the Tourist area into the slums that the rest of Cuba is made up of, can confirm inadequate food, people making, by hand, replacement parts that wear out in the 1950s early 60s style cars they drive, the high literacy rate but low knowledge of everything else but Castro’s version of Cuban history, the political Anti-American propaganda, radio free Cuba broadcast from Miami, efforts by the Free Cuba League flights to drop educational pamphlets, the pronounced poverty of the rest of the nation and the conspicuous wealth of Castro and associates.
They’ve also been around when soldiers show up to pay a small fee for X number of people to demonstrate against whatever cause Castro wants on TV at the time. People who are making little if any money are willing to accept a few bucks, wave signs and banners handed to them, shout slogans suggested and make sure they act up in front of the international camera men. Off camera soldiers are not there just to protect the camera men, but to see to it that the crowd is suitably rowdy.
That was reported several years back in a documentary about Castro.
You know how Americans get into Cuba even though it is against US and Cuban law?
You sail from the keys to Jamaica or to the Dominican Republic, where, for a small fee, you buy a citizenship. It is not against the law for citizens of those nations to enter Cuba. With the ink still wet on your passport, you arrive in Cuba and are welcomed with open arms because of your fat wallets. Having a few commodities to trade, like American cigarettes, video games, video tapes, booze, car parts, cheap calculators and, greatest of all, antibiotics or over the counter medications and vitamins, helps. When you leave, you sail around Cuba, head out far enough to avoid looking like you are coming from there, and head home. Sailboats are rarely stopped by the Coast Guard and if they are, they’re mainly looking for drugs. You’re not obligated to stop into customs, so you sail back into your home port, refreshed after visiting Jamaica or the Bahamas, bragging about the deep sea fish you caught and feasted on and unload your cargo, disguised as baggage.
It’s been going on for years.
Yeah, I remember that one too, Don’t Ask. That was Gordon Sinclair, a Canadian widely known (at least in Canada) as a curmudgeon of the first order. I didn’t agree with a lot of his opinions, but he got that one right. He was “damn sick and tired of seeing Americans kicked around,” IIRC; I had to agree with him then, and I still do. America is a great nation, generous, open, free, loyal, friendly, welcoming… not without flaws, but who among us is? I’ve visited a dozen countries in the last 30 years, for work and holidays, and nowhere but in my own country have I felt as welcomed and as ‘at home’ as I have in the United States. It’s hard to tell when you cross the border from Saskatchewan, where I live, into North Dakota that you’re in a different country. The landscape looks the same, the vehicles you encounter on the highway look the same, the little towns look the same, but then you notice a few subtle signs: a crossroads in the middle of nowhere with a bar at it, half ton trucks with gun racks in the back window that actually have rifles in them, stuff like that that you won’t see in Canada.
I had the good fortune to be holidaying in the United States shortly after our ambassador in Iran, Ken Taylor, had given refuge to half a dozen Americans after the occupation of the U.S. embassy in Teheran and managed to get them out of the country and home. That was a great time to be a Canadian visitor in America; everyone loved us. And that’s typical of the generosity of spirit I’ve always found in America. The waitresses called me darlin’, and were delighted with my children just because they were children. I’ve had a major vehicle breakdown in the United States in the middle of nowhere in Montana and been rescued by some passing citizens who towed us 100 kilometers to the nearest Chrysler dealership and found us a motel room and made sure we were okay before they left us, and wouldn’t take any money for their trouble. That’s America.
Sure, “everybody” hates the USA.
Just like “everybody” hates Martha Stewart… but somehow, her books and magazine sell millions of copies, and she’s worth a billion dollars.
“Everybody” hates Wal-Mart and McDonald’s… which is why there are shut-down, boarded-up Wal-Mart stores and McDonald’s franchises everywhere.
“Everybody” hates suburban sprwal, which is why NOBODY lives in the suburbs, and nobody ever shops at strip malls.
Yeah, right.
In every Middle Eastern city, there are anti-American rallies… but what do you suppose would happend if I showed up at such a rally with a bullhorn and announced “I have visas and green cards for anybody who wants to move to America- who wants them?” I’ll TELL you what would happen: all those Yankee-hating Moslems would trample each other trying to get one of my visas and green cards!
P.J. O’Rourke put it well: the rest of the world is a horny 14 year old boy, and the USA is a beautiful woman who wouldn’t give him the time of day. They “hate” us mainly because they want what we have so badly, it hurts… and it galls them that they probably can’t have it.
That’s probably the most profound example of hubris I’ve ever heard.
From my perspective, us Australians love you Yanks so much that we have become the 52nd state of the union (behind Canada). Everywhere you look in Australia, you can see Uncle Sam.
Our two major car makers are Ford and GM, we drink lots of Coke, Every large town has either a KFC, MacDonalds or Hungry Jacks (Burger King). Our TV and cinemas are dominated by American content, as are our computer screens. Our news services have decided that events in America are almost as important as those that occur at home, judging by the usual nightly service. Need I go on?
Don’t get me completely wrong here - on of the nicest blokes I have worked with hails from Dallas, and regularly remind us of his Texan heritage. Hence I don’t hate mericans per se.
But what I and many Australians object to is the cultural imperialism that eminates from the US. Our local idiosyncracies which make us uniquely Australian are being swamped by Americanisms, to the point where my daughter may as well be living in middle America rather than rural Australia.
Now I will don my fireproof suit and stand alongside Loaded Dog while we get flamed…
What woolly said.
Whatever reasons people (might) have for anti-Americanism, jealousy is simply not one of them. The fact that so many Americans dismiss it as such might be, though.
Another thing to remember is that the impression that many people in other countries have of us comes only from our movies and TV shows. So many clients I work with in other countries imagine 99% of the US to look and be like either New York or California, when in fact it’s more correct to say that the vast majority of the US looks more like Kansas City.
Yes, I know I’m taking a risk here, since there are a few long-term “Members” of this board that seem to love to trash Kansas every couple weeks or so. But bear with me, since I am obvisouly not a sophisticate. :rolleyes:
When they come here to visit, if it is their first time to the US, my clients are stunned. Stunned at the open, green spaces, the Midwestern friendliness, the lack of pollution, lack of traffic jams, extremely low crime. I think if our media was not so blatantly and heavily baised towards presenting that “lovely” New York or California lifestyle, many foreign peoples would have a much different - and better - opinion of the US. I’m not saying it should be focused away from those regions, just more balanced.
Typically, their only single complaint is a nearly complete lack of public mass transportation. Well, I can’t defend against that, because it is true.
Now, regarding the French. I think France suffers from the same sort of perception problem as the US. Parisian French are, let’s face it, rude. Call it brusque, curt, short, distant - they are just plain rude. Whether you can speak the language or not. Now, go into the countryside - like Nantes or Le Havre - and you find people that are remarkably friendly - just like in Kansas City. And you can find green spaces, low crime, low traffic, etc.