A Global Perspective From New Zealand On the War In Iraq
Posted: Monday, October 25, 2004
by Andrew Olson
The Fountainheads.com
By: Kiwi
Come to the Newest E-Zine on the net http://www.thefountainheads.com
Some answers to recent questions on her previous article
Thanks for the response, this seems to be a topic that people are defensive about. Maybe it was not clear that I was actually supporting Americans in saying that the global perception of them as a whole is wrong. It was simply me expressing my point of view since I have many American friends and many people around me that dislike Americans for no good reason.
When I talk about my friends in America people react like why the f*** would you want to be friends with an American?! And I don’t mean other kiwis, I mean people I know from all over the world.
I‘m not concerned about being searched at the airport, or about having a terrorist on my plane, life is too short to worry about things like that. I am very excited to be coming to America so nothing would put me off. I was just making the point that it’s sad to me that any country would have to be so fearful for the safety of their people.
I’m coming over for the vigil for Shannon Hoon, lead singer of Blind Melon who died in 1995. I’m staying with his mother and meeting up with all my other friends that I’ve made in the States.
I don’t think anyone should feel ashamed of their country like I said, Australians give us Kiwis s*** but it’ll never mean I feel any less proud to be a kiwi. The way people view my country will never affect my national pride but I am patriotic enough to be pissed off if people kept putting New Zealand down.
That’s why I was curious about how you guys felt about it and what the reaction to the stereotypes were over there.This world is full enough of f***ed up hatred and ignorance, and as someone that has friends in America I’m sorry that people blindly hate Americans, or any race/people for that matter.
That’s just the way I feel. Sure global misconceptions may say more about the people that hold those misconceptions but the fact is the very sense of a perception has to come from somewhere.
The rest of the world is being fed the notion that Americans are bad from many angles not the least media. A lot of people want to live in America, a lot of people want to live in New Zealand. In fact proportionate to the number of people living here the numbers are comparative.
It’s great to live in a country that foreigners feel they would like to live in. As far as the American perception of foreigners as being one of "brutal dictatorship, religious extremists and disdain for human rights", this applies to all foreigners or just the folk that the likes of Osama and Mr Hussain controlled?!
Because I hope that the American view of every foreign people is not like this, if so then I dare say the comment about Americans being "able to have a more realistic perception of foreigners" is very wrong!
I know people can read this and can manage to interpret every comment into an anti-American stance. They want to fight it or just disregard it, but the reason I wrote in the first place was to say Y’know not all of us hate you, some of us have American friends and love them and feel sad for the position that they and their country is in.
It’s the sign of a f***ed up world we are all living in.
I guess the opinion of one kiwi doesn’t mean anything on a global scale but hey all I can do is defend my friends, if not their government.That’s just my point of view and bless the American concept of freedom of speech which delivered it to you.~~~
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Kiwi's Original Article
This war…
By: Kiwi
I’m by no means an expert of the subject of the war in Iraq. I’m one of those people that like to plead ignorance because it makes me too mad to think about and I get sick of seeing constant streams of images of violence, corruption and power plays. But I relate the war back to other things, like the image of America and Americans and what this is doing to the international opinion/stereotypes of you guys.
First let me tell you what it’s like here, New Zealand is a country that prides itself on it’s clean green image. We don’t like genetically engineered food, we are "nuclear free" something which pissed America off back in the day coz for some reason they wanted to send a nuclear warship to NZ…I forget why. Anyway so yes naturally we were Opposed to this war and told the American government so. Our Prime Minister apparently pissed off ol George W by saying that if that Gore dude was President this war would never have happened.
We are not an anti-American Government, but does this make us anti-American? Well the fact is that the American government has done a pretty good job of making most of the world anti-American as far as I can tell. Personally I was once like the others, contempt for Americans, war mongering, power crazed nutbars sitting there with the global wand in their hand waving it and BOOM there goes another poor lil country that "needed help" ie war ie what the f*%&…?!
Don’t get mad at me yet, I haven’t made my point …So yeah I was kinda thinking Americans are nasty…then I actually started dealing with Americans, funny how stereotypes go isn’t it? The actions of a few can impact so many.
Most of the Americans I know are anti this war as much if not more than me. Which makes me wonder who the fuck voted for Bush…but I guess some people did, why I dunno, but I guess you have to be in America to know that.
So basically the poor anti-war Americans are now stuck with this stereotype and the whole of the world hates them. Of course that’s wrong and of course you should know someone before you judge them but try telling that to the Iraqis and the rest of the world watching this war unfold. I’m not going into the reasons for this war and whether or not it should have started at all, everyone has an opinion and like I say I’m no expert anyway. Although it does make me think of the impact this is having on Americans
and America as a whole.
I’m flying into America in September, expect that I’ll be searched and photographed and fingerprinted?! Wow, it’s freaking insane. This is what it has come to, Americans are scared to let people in, anyone! Anyone could be trying to come in and bomb the shit out of them, even a 25 year old mummy from a lil place called New Zealand…
I like and dislike the Americans I have dealt with proportionately with all other nationalities I’ve had contact with. Some are cool, some are idiots, some are arrogant wankers claiming superiority, some are ashamed of their country.
That makes me sad that anyone should be ashamed of their country.
A country does not define us as a person, being a Kiwi (Nzer) does not make me any type of person in particular. It can define things like the education quality I receive, the amount of benefit I am entitled to, the kind of house I can afford to buy…those type of things . But it doesn’t make me better or worse than anyone else on an international level.
So what’s in a stereotype and how is America ever gonna shake the reputation and opinion held of them by the rest of the world. Or do you even care? I don’t know, you tell me. I’d be interested to know.
~~~
Kiwi
Through and through they felt that this was the time to shine. With merry grins and cheeky winks they held hands with eternity and twisted all frowns into kisses of light and sweetness.
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The President's speech, say again?
So the President gave a speech last night outlining the war in Iraq. It has also been reported by the Ralph Nader campaign that the Draft boards in local communities are forming again. How big will the war on terror grow?
First is TERROR like say COMMUNISM? Do we "Fend off" the Terrorist Threat, like we fought off the Communist Threat, or The Nazi Threat? I like the word Terrorism, it doesn't hide anything. There is no middle ground or political correctness in that word.
Americans like to use words to act on people's emotions... opp 9/11, opp The Twin Towers, etc... I mean we use the F-word probably more than any other group of people, and Surveys show we are second to none in the murder rate... We don't have to carry around flashy guns like we see in other countries. We can legally carry a weapon, or just drive by a house and start shooting. But we don't want to get too far off the subject. The word is Terror.
Terrorists, Terrorize the Terrible Territories of Iraq. Many people think to themselves, and political parties say, "At least it is happening there instead of here?" "When is the UN going to get involved, so OUR soldiers can live?" Hey France, what is wrong, afraid to fight?
Another stupid war to defend the democracies that never work. America had it's own Revolution, maybe the rest of the world isn't ready? Maybe it was not good to exploit countries so that terrorists could hate us. And maybe it wasn't a good idea for American Automakers to make cars that get horrible gas mileage? If we didn't need those countries we could pull out our troops... But then the lump in the throat... Hey, wait, we are tougher and RIGHT, we should STAY THE COURSE...
Until a draft where they take kids who don't wanna fight in the first place.. And why is someone who doesn't want to kill another human being a bad thing? We waste money, we line the wrong peoples pockets, and we feel hopeless.. Jefferson believed in a Revolution every 7 years or so? What happened to doing it for the children? What happened to creating a better America? I think that is what this election will come down too... It is in Bush's hands?
If you have a comment or an editorial please email me:
The Professor@thefountainheads.com
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)The Americans are not scared. Photographing and fingerprinting you is to check if you are a terrorist. Just like the police checking on a person.
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