CANADIAN RE: RE: Football/Soccer Chatter

[Edis, Bob]

Matt

I agree with much of what you said.  However, how do you explain that the
average European, Asian, Australasian or even Canadian has a much better
'world' view (geopolitical awareness) than the average American?  I've
experienced this time and again has I traveled around the world.

How come Australasia (Australia, NZ, etc) is hardly EVER mentioned in US
news?

1. no civil unrest therefore no news (except on NPR)
2. small level of trade with USA or Australasian products 're-packaged'
therefore no constant exposure
3. distance/cost of travel high therefore few travel agents here bother to
offer it as an option
4. Steve Erwin therefore belief it's just a beautiful, mysterious,
dangerous, wild and unsophisticated place.
5. culture too similar to North American or European to be deemed
distinctive enough to be of interest.  (except for those demeaning Fosters
ads that present us a just a bunch of drunken yobbos)

Could the answers be:

1. start a civil war, institute a dictatorship aligned with Iran or attack a
US interest?
2. flood the US market with illegal guns, drugs or bad meat
3. subsidise air travel and give passengers sleeping pills?
4. put Steve in a business suit?
5. create a national costume, dye our skin green and speak only Esperanto?

Blue
-----Original Message-----
From: Ohmes, Matt [mailto:Matt.Ohmes@COGNOS.com]
Sent: Friday, August 02, 2002 9:56 AM
To: 'PowerHouse List (E-mail)'
Subject: RE: CANADIAN RE: RE: Football/Soccer Chatter


Hi Darren (and the aforementioned interested spectators),

I just had to post another one of my pet theories before slipping back into
lurking obscurity. :-)

A lot of the attention and self interest directed at the U.S. (and the
annoyance of much of the rest of the world at that attention and self
interest) is just a natural outcome of power (economic, military, and
political) and visibility.  

Any powerful, highly visible group has a natural (and slightly unsavory)
tendency to begin to think of themselves as the center of the universe.
After all, everyone talks about you so you must be important, right? (Think
of movie stars, fashion designer, etc.)  It's not a character flaw, it's
human nature.

As for US news / sports coverage being "biased", I think it's part of the
same phenomenon. It's certainly not an American character flaw, it's again,
human nature. And it is the business of news organizations to cover what
their viewers want to see. It's all about proximity, visibility, and power.
I'm sure in Vatican City, most of the news is about the Pope first (local
and powerful), but I'll bet a fair amount of coverage is also about the rest
of Europe (powerful and close) and U.S. (farther away, but very powerful,
visible, and influential).  As you drop down the power and visibility
spectrum relative to others around you, you tend to get more "balanced" in
your coverage.  

Any population of any size is going to have it's bell curve of folks who
will range from dismissing their self-importance completely to believing in
it completely.  In my experience, most Americans know that we are no smarter
and no better than most of the rest of the people in the world. But it is
hard to resist the temptation to think of yourself as "very important" when
you belong to a visible and influential group.  

For an interesting perspective, think of England in the Victorian age or
read Victor Hugo's comments on the greatness of Napoleonic France in Les
Miserables.

Jeeze, how did I get so philosophical this morning?  

Better get to work. ;-)
Cheers,
Matt :-)


-----Original Message-----
From: Darren Reely [mailto:darren.reely@latticesemi.com]
Sent: Thursday, August 01, 2002 5:35 PM
To: 'PowerHouse List (E-mail)'
Subject: Re: CANADIAN RE: RE: Football/Soccer Chatter


Matt, and other interested spectators,

Every "American" here I showed 'The Rant' to had a good laugh also.  It was
in good fun after all.  [:-)] 

And yes, most people think they are from the 'best' country in the world.  I
also grew up in the best city, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.  The
Yanks get bad press about this because they seem to like to listen to them
self's saying it.  And they say it often.  Well according to the rest of the
world.  Or at least as Canadians witness it too often on imported TV shows
of all types. Maybe it is time to keep it a secret.  [;-)] 

Here is a small story of biased American media focus. During the 92'
Olympics, I was working in Canada with a company that had a lot of imported
Americans. As people do we were talking about the coverage we saw, then one
American noted how 'more' balanced the reporting of the athletes was on the
Canadian TV compared to the U.S. coverage.  He went on to say he favored
watching the Canadian view, because he got to learn more about the
compititors, who were mostly mentioned in cursory ways by the American
media.  The interesting thing to me was how easily he recognized the
problem, and how open about it he was.  Since moving to the States I've
found that many of my new friends are aware the unbalanced American media.

As for the timber wars the Americans usually lose in the World Trade Court.
I'll leave that political bouncing ball to the special interest groups.  Oh,
I mean the politicians.

This has been fun,

Darren


Matt Wrote:
> Speaking as a "U.S American" who saw the 'The Rant' ad, I thought it was
> hilarious.  And I suspect that not very many U.S. citizens got that upset
> about it. I also suspect that the on-going timber and logging trade
battles
> had more to do with the Oregonians being short tempered about any kind
> Canadians comments. (I'm sure tempers are short on both sides of the
border
> on that one.)

> As for thinking that the U.S. is the best country in the world... Well, of
> course we think that. Don't Canadians think the same thing about Canada
and
> the English about England and the French about France?  [;-)]   And we're
all
> right, of course.  [:-)] 

> Matt  [:-)] 


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