Comments on: London, Tokyo, Berlin…

By: Castor Borealis

Castor Borealis — Thu, 12 May 2005 07:26:52 +0000

The last pic was classic. After al, Georgians have served in Iraq before, only with Hulagu.

By: lirelou

lirelou — Thu, 12 May 2005 01:38:13 +0000

I love Che tee shirts. Sort of like the Albizu-Campos tee shirts you see on Puertorrican nationalists. Great image, good profile, and everyone has a different version of what either stood for, which usually runs at oblique angles to the reality, of which they are blissfully ignorant. For my part, I agree with the three authors of “El Manual del Perfecto Idiota Latinoamericano”, who credit Che and his hairbrained foco theory with killing more Latin American radicals than the Army and Police could ever have done on their own.

By: Alfred Russel Wallace

Alfred Russel Wallace — Wed, 11 May 2005 18:18:04 +0000

Let’s all agree that good manners maketh the man – so lets be forgiving of “uninformed left-wingers”… hey, I might even be one!!

By: Saru

Saru — Wed, 11 May 2005 17:39:22 +0000

Yeah, because nothing says “Welcome!” like a hand grenade!

By: Grendel

Grendel — Wed, 11 May 2005 12:25:48 +0000

The point isn’t about freedom of speech.

In that case, I might have just misinterpreted Curzon’s introductionary sentence.

they are mostly uninformed left wingers

Are you referring to Expats or the general population in Germany, Japan and elsewhere? As I mentioned in the first comment, the difference of critics of the U.S. administration seems to be higher abroad. My first though was that the exposure (*not* the theoretical availability) to different views on US policies could be higher abroad than at home, which causes these demonstrations (can’t prove it though).

About Anti-American rants – there’s a definite difference between critizing a country as a whole or its government and aspects of its (foreign) policy, as in this case. That line can be crossed quickly in discussions, I agree.

Where I differ with Curzon is, if Expats i.e. choose to demonstrate, they can do it whatever form they see fit (especially since its their own government) – manners shouldn’t stand in the way as long as the form of protest is reasonable (which, if peaceful, it usually is). You could argue though that the Georgian (?) who brought a granade to Bush’s speech in Tiflis got out of line by far.

By: Chirol

Chirol — Wed, 11 May 2005 10:03:51 +0000

The point isn’t about freedom of speech. Of course they are allowed to protest. The point, at least in my book, is that they are mostly uninformed left wingers. They’ll repeat the same mantra about why they are protesting but ask them an analytical question, mention some history that’s not on Greenpeace or Amnesty Intl’s websites and they are clueless.

I have no problem discussing or debating US policies, but almost everyone I meet (at least here in Germany) knows far less about it and the world than me but has no problem going off on long anti-American rants.

By: Adamu

Adamu — Wed, 11 May 2005 00:31:31 +0000

Demonstrations of support like the one in Georgia always make me paranoid that they are insincere “astroturf” drummed up by governments, PR firms working for governments, the CIA, or whatever.

At least with the lame anti-America protestors you know there are legions of zealous hippies who believe in what they’re doing.

By: Grendel

Grendel — Tue, 10 May 2005 21:47:08 +0000

Whatever happened to the first amendment? On the first picture I see people who strongly disagree with their governments foreign policy, the women on the second picture don’t want their “self-defense forces” in Iraq (Spain, anyone?), the guy in front of the Berliner Dom … well, aside from his poster, the picture doesn’t say much :-)

How about a few words why the people on the first three pictures (especially the first one) protest and not the people on the two latter?

I know its far from being representative, but I got the impression that the percentage of Americans who critizise their government and live abroad is quite higher than those who live in the U.S.

By: Curzon

Curzon — Tue, 10 May 2005 20:08:16 +0000

Amen to that. Do I greet friends with, “my you’ve gained weight?” or “wow, you looked better during our college days.” Heck no — manners, peopl! What you say of Georgia thinking the US is admirable yet imperfect reminds me of this post.

By: Nathan

Nathan — Tue, 10 May 2005 19:54:41 +0000

A theme I didn’t hit on in my post for whatever reason was that I’ll take the friendship of a Georgian, a Kyrgyz, or a Latvian (heck, a Russian too, I love Russians) over that of a the Germans or the French any day. I bet you’d be hard pressed to find a Georgian who thinks the US is flawless, but at least they show friendship with warm greetings rather than a patronizing rundown of how we don’t measure up.

By: Chirol

Chirol — Tue, 10 May 2005 19:06:32 +0000

I think nothing makes me sicker than Europeans with a “Che” fetish. Funny that picture was from Berlin. Here you see more Germans with Che tshirts than anywhere else: