Spring Break
U.S. government hurts world's view of America
GUEST COLUMN
Mari Sapina-Kerkhove
Spartan Daily Staff Writer
- Page 1 of 1
|
They were easily recognizable by their tennis shoes (they always wore them), baseball hats and backpacks.
They wore shorts in the grimmest temperatures of winter, they were always eager to strike up a conversation, and best of all - they loved to party.
Pretty soon, some of us became inseparable.
We cooked and ate together, we traveled together, and we held common jobs in the local beer garden.
To help alleviate homesickness, we made a turkey on Thanksgiving, threw a big party on the Fourth of July and organized a betting pool for the Super Bowl.
We loved the Americans. And they, so they told us, loved Europe.
So when I saw the March 17 results of the "Global Attitudes Project" by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, I couldn't help but feel perturbed.
According to the study, amicable feelings between Europeans and Americans have dampened quite a bit over the past few years.
For example, while 61 percent of Germans said they were favorable to the United States in Summer 2002, that number plummeted to 38 percent by March this year.
In France, 63 percent of the population said they thought positively of the United States in Summer 2002, but last month it was only 37 percent.
And in Russia, the number of people expressing positive views of the United States dropped from 61 percent of the population in 2002 to 47 percent in 2004.
As a Croatian who grew up in Germany, who has friends all across Europe and who is, on top of that, married to an American, I feel obliged to comment.
Surely, there has always been somewhat of a discord in culture between the, as a Jan. 2, 2003, Economist article put it, " 'refined, unprincipled' Europeans" and " 'vigorous, naïve' Americans."
Or, translated: Europeans are seen as immoral snobs while Americans come across as uncultured barbarians.
Blame the media, I say.
For example, anyone who has ever seen movies such as National Lampoon's "European Vacation," or the recent "Eurotrip," will know some of the most common stereotypes associated with the French, the British, the Germans, the Italians, etc.
Likewise, a European who gets his picture of Americans from the movies and TV shows he is bombarded with might end up with a slightly skewed perception.
"You'll get shot" was one of the (many, many) things my dad said when I told him I was moving to the United States.
"At least, you could spill hot coffee on yourself, sue and get rich," my brother threw in.
"They all have plastic fingernails, fake boobs, and all they talk about is hair," my co-worker, who to my best knowledge still has never been to the United States, said in a feeble attempt to describe the American female.
We certainly have stereotypes about each other, and there will always be some fundamental cultural differences between the United States and Europe, as much as there are cultural differences within the United States and Europe, and everywhere else in the world.
But those are generally the kind of differences that are more or less harmless.
They add spice to our transatlantic relationship and can easily be diminished with a few visits across the ocean.
The disparities that have emerged since the United States first discussed invading Iraq, though, are another issue.
Some of the phone conversations and e-mails I received from home, especially during the war, were so full of hostility, I was stunned.
"Who do those Americans think they are?"
"What a bunch of arrogant Rambos!"
"How do you even live there?"
These were some of the comments thrown at me.
And as you might remember, over here things weren't exactly Euro-friendly either.
Mr. Rumsfeld suddenly spoke derogatorily of an "Old Europe."
Those Europeans who dared not join the "Coalition of the Willing" were publicly bashed.
Wine was poured out, and fries and toast were renamed.
And I couldn't help but shake my head at how this government was slowly eroding its international ties, not just with Europe.
According to the Pew Research Center, 50 percent of Pakistanis, 46 percent of Moroccans and 67 percent of Jordanians currently also have a "very unfavorable" view of the United States.
Sometimes I wonder what U.S. government officials are thinking about this.
Does the current unpopularity of the United States across the world worry them?
Or is this yet another example of their political short-sightedness and international clumsiness?
I also wonder when Americans will become sick of being represented in such a negative light to the international community.
For now, at least in Europe, the public still seems to make a distinction between the United States as a nation and the American people, the Pew study stated.
It concluded that 73 percent of the British, 70 percent of Germans and 53 percent of the French still have a favorable view of the American people.
The dissatisfaction is clearly with the U.S. government and its policies, the study found, since "an important factor in world opinion in America is the perception that the United States acts internationally without taking account of the interests of other nations."
That, however, is something a country claiming to be the leader of the free world simply cannot afford to do.
Mari Sapina-Kerkhove is a Spartan Daily staff writer.
Guest columns appear every Thursday.
