Monday, May 28, 2007

A Diverse Nation

My American office mate, who grew up in New Jersey, claims she never met an American who literally believed in the Bible until she visited Michigan in her early 20s. Consequently, it irritates her to no end when people make assumptions about Americans. Here's a couple highlights from an interesting opinion piece by an Australian correspondent in Washington:

Some particularly wise person once said that if you are going to write about America, you should do so after a short stay, maybe a few weeks, before you are overwhelmed by its diversity and the sheer size of the place, with all its contradictions, excesses and complexities.

I fear that I have failed to convey the complexity of America, but if I have failed I am not alone. My view is that most of the reporting of the place by most foreign correspondents — British, European and, yes, Australian — fails the complexity test.

It is not without significance that, unlike Europe's Muslims, America's 2.5-million-strong Muslim community is highly assimilated, an economic success story and, overall, slightly more optimistic about America's future than the general population, according to recent research by the Pew Research Centre. And an overwhelming majority of American Muslims — more than 90 per cent — are opposed to Islamic extremism.

Much of American popular culture is trashy, of course, and much of its commercial media is mindless and fixated on celebrity, but the best of American journalism — print and broadcast — is better than anything I have found elsewhere, British journalism included.

America is a place full of contradictions that it would take a lifetime to unravel. For instance, while the Bush Administration's response to Hurricane Katrina and the drowning of New Orleans was inept and heartless, there was a great outpouring of generosity from Americans, who donated several billion dollars to support the mostly poor, black victims.
And tens of thousands of displaced people from New Orleans and the Mississippi coastal region were welcomed and resettled in cities in Texas that were not renowned for their history of great race relations.


That's not the first time I've read American journalism is ranked higher than that of the British - don't tell the poms though.

An interesting nation indeed. Pity the large number of Christian nutters give it a bad name.

11 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Does she hang out with these guys?

JERSEY BABY YEAH!

come on, don't deprive us of our right to stereotype americans...

10:15 am  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

AHAHAHAHAHAHA...

i was going to write something about "i've seen seen an example of the best of american journalism", but after checking out Lukes gymtime link i am laughing too hard to type.....

11:47 am  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

* correct:

about "I've NEVER seen ..."

fucking gay blogger.com.... and gay fingers, not typing proper-good...

11:48 am  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

* correction:

* Correction: ...etc etc...

FUCK!! I am such a 'tard...

11:48 am  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

And it looks like Noah is back to needing more desk space on the ark... all those stinking dinosaurs, taking up room....

11:52 am  
Blogger Engels said...

Hahaha. Another photo of Jersey boys. They have a term for them. Can't remember it though... something basically equivalent to "wog".

Um, how did you find that myspace page...

Oh yeah, everbody has to check out the new creationism museum in St Petersburg, Kansas. Good old Kansas. Why was Dorothy so pissed off when she couldn't find it?

12:42 pm  
Blogger Engels said...

Bon Jovi came from NJ. And the Bouncing Souls, those New Jersey moochers...

12:44 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=guido

i'd post it but apparently its been identified by my genius IT team as potentially illegal content

1:29 pm  
Blogger Engels said...

That's the one. Urban dictionary, how wise you are... I think Guido is the name of the Italian American Eddie Murphy character in Vampire in Brookyln. Yes, I spent too much of my youth watching bad films...

5:45 pm  
Blogger Unknown said...

See your old mate and fellow Queenslander Ken Ham is behind the latest "museum".

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21833056-2,00.html

9:34 am  
Blogger Engels said...

I did actually see that old Ken Ham was up to his old tricks. Another product of the "smart state"...

9:14 pm  

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