Papua New Guinea is a good example actually. What happened there iover the last few weeks was exceptionally horrific. I wonder how many Americans are even aware of what happened.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/south-pacific/8527270/Eight-witches-slaughtered-in-PNG

backwoods


Papua New Guinea is a good example actually. What happened there iover the last few weeks was exceptionally horrific. I wonder how many Americans are even aware of what happened.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/south-pacific/8527270/Eight-witches-slaughtered-in-PNG

To insinuate that only a few of us, give a damn about the world, and what happens in other countries is a complete disconnect from reality; and horribly steeped in a lack of truth.

How many Americans have died fighting in WWI, WWII, The Korean War, Vietnam, and Iraq, Afganistan, Somalia, Lebanon, Panama, other Islands of the Pacific, and other parts of Africa and the Middle East, as well as Europe, North, Central and South America?  How many Americans have traveled all over the world as Doctors, Nurses, and volunteers set on rebuilding disaster areas; related to war, or man made, or natural disasters?  How many Americans have given pennies, dollars, thousands of dollars, and millions of dollars of aid and support all over the world?  

Are there people in America who have not traveled the world? Yes.  Are there uneducated people in the USA?  Yes.  Are there people in the USA who can not do math, do not keep up with current events, and haven't the faintest clue where Papua New Guinea is on a map?  Yes.  Is this not also true for every other country on Earth?  Can you not find the same types of folk everywhere?

America is a very kind, very brave, very compassionate, and caring society; it is only false propaganda, that convinces the worlds population to feel and think the contrary.  


Peace.

Linear Phase

backwoods


Papua New Guinea is a good example actually. What happened there iover the last few weeks was exceptionally horrific. I wonder how many Americans are even aware of what happened.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/south-pacific/8527270/Eight-witches-slaughtered-in-PNG

To insinuate that only a few of us, give a damn about the world, and what happens in other countries is a complete disconnect from reality; and horribly steeped in a lack of truth.

How many Americans have died fighting in WWI, WWII, The Korean War, Vietnam, and Iraq, Afganistan, Somalia, Lebanon, Panama, other Islands of the Pacific, and other parts of Africa and the Middle East, as well as Europe, North, Central and South America?  How many Americans have traveled all over the world as Doctors, Nurses, and volunteers set on rebuilding disaster areas; related to war, or man made, or natural disasters?  How many Americans have given pennies, dollars, thousands of dollars, and millions of dollars of aid and support all over the world?  

Are there people in America who have not traveled the world? Yes.  Are there uneducated people in the USA?  Yes.  Are there people in the USA who can not do math, do not keep up with current events, and haven't the faintest clue where Papua New Guinea is on a map?  Yes.  Is this not also true for every other country on Earth?  Can you not find the same types of folk everywhere?

America is a very kind, very brave, very compassionate, and caring society; it is only false propaganda, that convinces the worlds population to feel and think the contrary.  


Peace.

Good post Linear! I agree totally. What really sucks is...this propaganda puts the American people in the line of fire. I've always yelled and screamed on forums when any type of discussion like this came up....
 
"Don't like our government, most of us don't either. Take it up with them, don't kill us...we just pay rent here and want to survive another day with our families. If WE the people had a choice to send troops to war...I'd bet everything I own that we would have never rolled up into Afghanistan, Iraq or anywhere else in the past 20 years."
 
As for the thread being removed, I called Tech Support this afternoon for an ongoing issue I have with a refund. The woman that handled my call was working from home. The Cake building in Boston is closed and they're pretty shaken up by this as you can imagine. They probably don't want it being discussed because it's so close to home and who knows...the mod that removed it may have had a family member hurt or something. Such a shame...my heart and prayers go out to all those people. What a world we live in. :*(
 
-Danny

Linear Phase

backwoods


Papua New Guinea is a good example actually. What happened there iover the last few weeks was exceptionally horrific. I wonder how many Americans are even aware of what happened.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/south-pacific/8527270/Eight-witches-slaughtered-in-PNG

To insinuate that only a few of us, give a damn about the world, and what happens in other countries is a complete disconnect from reality; and horribly steeped in a lack of truth.

How many Americans have died fighting in WWI, WWII, The Korean War, Vietnam, and Iraq, Afganistan, Somalia, Lebanon, Panama, other Islands of the Pacific, and other parts of Africa and the Middle East, as well as Europe, North, Central and South America?  How many Americans have traveled all over the world as Doctors, Nurses, and volunteers set on rebuilding disaster areas; related to war, or man made, or natural disasters?  How many Americans have given pennies, dollars, thousands of dollars, and millions of dollars of aid and support all over the world?  

Are there people in America who have not traveled the world? Yes.  Are there uneducated people in the USA?  Yes.  Are there people in the USA who can not do math, do not keep up with current events, and haven't the faintest clue where Papua New Guinea is on a map?  Yes.  Is this not also true for every other country on Earth?  Can you not find the same types of folk everywhere?

America is a very kind, very brave, very compassionate, and caring society; it is only false propaganda, that convinces the worlds population to feel and think the contrary.  


Peace.

LP you are of course right. unfortunately alongside that sentiment for freedom, free speech and charity goes economic rapacity, lack of social cohesion, a predilection for old-fashioned values like owning a gun, and a fundamental Christian ethos, which makes for better 'news' for us in the rest of the world.
 Most Americans I have met are decent, compassionate, NORMAL people, as are most Germans (more germane for we Brits perhaps), most Muslims, most Brits. We all have a minority of people who are bad, which are then shown by media to the rest of the world as being representative of all of us. I always think the true determinant of a country is how many people want to live there - and certainly here in the UK, there is no shortage of wannabe Brits!

Brilliant post LP - sayeth the French Canadian guy now living in the US and loving this country w/ all his heart.

backwoods


Papua New Guinea is a good example actually. What happened there iover the last few weeks was exceptionally horrific. I wonder how many Americans are even aware of what happened.

[link=http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/south-pacific/8527270/Eight-witches-slaughtered-in-PNG]http://www.stuff.co.nz/wo...hes-slaughtered-in-PNG[/link]
Linear Phase:
To insinuate that only a few of us, give a damn about the world, and what happens in other countries is a complete disconnect from reality; and horribly steeped in a lack of truth.

How many Americans have died fighting in WWI, WWII, The Korean War, Vietnam, and Iraq, Afganistan, Somalia, Lebanon, Panama, other Islands of the Pacific, and other parts of Africa and the Middle East, as well as Europe, North, Central and South America? How many Americans have traveled all over the world as Doctors, Nurses, and volunteers set on rebuilding disaster areas; related to war, or man made, or natural disasters? How many Americans have given pennies, dollars, thousands of dollars, and millions of dollars of aid and support all over the world?

Are there people in America who have not traveled the world? Yes. Are there uneducated people in the USA? Yes. Are there people in the USA who can not do math, do not keep up with current events, and haven't the faintest clue where Papua New Guinea is on a map? Yes. Is this not also true for every other country on Earth? Can you not find the same types of folk everywhere?

America is a very kind, very brave, very compassionate, and caring society; it is only false propaganda, that convinces the worlds population to feel and think the contrary.

 
　
I don't quite understand this response to Backwood's post.
 
He (imo) was not insinuating that most Americans do not give a damn about the rest of the world.
 
In fact, I am one of those Americans who knew nothing of the tragedy in Papua New Guinea; but I sure remember a few Lindsey Lohan stories during that timeframe.
 
Whether we want to admit it or not the media bombards us with certain events and other events are lightly covered or ignored completely.

tom1


backwoods


Papua New Guinea is a good example actually. What happened there iover the last few weeks was exceptionally horrific. I wonder how many Americans are even aware of what happened.

[link=http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/south-pacific/8527270/Eight-witches-slaughtered-in-PNG]http://www.stuff.co.nz/wo...hes-slaughtered-in-PNG[/link]
Linear Phase:
To insinuate that only a few of us, give a damn about the world, and what happens in other countries is a complete disconnect from reality; and horribly steeped in a lack of truth.

How many Americans have died fighting in WWI, WWII, The Korean War, Vietnam, and Iraq, Afganistan, Somalia, Lebanon, Panama, other Islands of the Pacific, and other parts of Africa and the Middle East, as well as Europe, North, Central and South America? How many Americans have traveled all over the world as Doctors, Nurses, and volunteers set on rebuilding disaster areas; related to war, or man made, or natural disasters? How many Americans have given pennies, dollars, thousands of dollars, and millions of dollars of aid and support all over the world?

Are there people in America who have not traveled the world? Yes. Are there uneducated people in the USA? Yes. Are there people in the USA who can not do math, do not keep up with current events, and haven't the faintest clue where Papua New Guinea is on a map? Yes. Is this not also true for every other country on Earth? Can you not find the same types of folk everywhere?

America is a very kind, very brave, very compassionate, and caring society; it is only false propaganda, that convinces the worlds population to feel and think the contrary.

 

I don't quite understand this response to Backwood's post.
 
He (imo) was not insinuating that most Americans do not give a damn about the rest of the world.
 
In fact, I am one of those Americans who knew nothing of the tragedy in Papua New Guinea; but I sure remember a few Lindsey Lohan stories during that timeframe.
 
Whether we want to admit it or not the media bombards us with certain events and other events are lightly covered or ignored completely.

Medias are medias, everywhere. I've recently read appalling statistics in regards to international content in the news back home. That being said, w/ the US being in the position they are in, of course we probably hear more about them back home and elsewhere than they ever hear about us. Like I always say, I can probably name 3 time as much US presidents as I can Canadian PMs. 

At least now there's other ways to find information.

Unless someone has information to the contrary, I only saw two posts in the original thread before it was removed.

Neither post I remember being, political incendiary, or mean.

The thread upstairs is still alive and well

mgh

LP you are of course right. unfortunately alongside that sentiment for freedom, free speech and charity goes economic rapacity, lack of social cohesion, a predilection for old-fashioned values like owning a gun, and a fundamental Christian ethos, which makes for better 'news' for us in the rest of the world.

As an ex-Brit living in America I will have to say I balk at this kind of thing. It's good old European snobbery of the kind that I admit I also took part in before I lived here. I feel that having lived substantial portions of my life in both countries, I feel qualified to comment. I really don't know what you mean by "lack of social cohesion" - America is no different from any other Western country in that some places you'll find social cohesion, other places you won't. Just how much social cohesion is there in Britain? There are no ghettos there? Of course there are. I know Britain well. There is a tremendous amount of social deprivation, especially in the inner cities. I grew up in Newcastle, epicenter of the "chav." And let's not forget that Britain has almost FOUR times the level of violent crime as the US. 


What exactly is wrong with "old-fashioned values"? Are you suggesting they are any worse than the modern values which, since the early 70's have seen an exponential explosion in virtually every social problem from drug abuse to teenage pregnancy to violent crime and gang activity? There are some old-fashioned values that needed to die a death, sure. But I don't see much to celebrate with modern values, which seem to be churning out more scum in society than there ever was. 


As for owning a gun, well, if you lived in a remote area in a detached house and someone burst into your home at 2am, you have an inalienable right to defend yourself. You have to understand that guns give the right of self defense to people who do not have the physical strength to defend themselves from marauding thugs. Self defense is its primary role. Yes, Americans take that right very seriously, and take a far more individualist attitude to life than Europeans. It's not a bad thing. I remember when I first moved to America, I lived on Nantucket for a while, and I was taken aback by how many people I met there who had built their own houses, dealt with their own sewage and took their own trash to the dump. It was just one example of the kind of self-reliance that, although admittedly in short supply in a lot of American cities, was a marked contrast to the kind of attitude I was used to in Britain. 

tom1


I don't quite understand this response to Backwood's post.
 
He (imo) was not insinuating that most Americans do not give a damn about the rest of the world.
 
In fact, I am one of those Americans who knew nothing of the tragedy in Papua New Guinea; but I sure remember a few Lindsey Lohan stories during that timeframe.
 
Whether we want to admit it or not the media bombards us with certain events and other events are lightly covered or ignored completely.

Is that really such a bad thing? I don't think the human mind has evolved to take in absolutely everything that's going on in the world around them. It's just too much. Just like charity. If you set out to "care" about everyone who's suffering in this world (or indeed your own hometown) then you'd go mad. There wouldn't be enough time to live your own life. We evolved empathy for a reason, and this was to take care of those nearest and dearest to us (presumably to protect the genes that you share with them). It's been shown time and time again that people empathize more with victims of tragedy the nearer they are. And we're more horrified by things that happen in places that we're familiar with, or look like places we're familiar with. A bombing in a mall in the US is going to horrify you more than a bombing in a marketplace in Afghanistan, because you can place yourself in the mall far easier than you can place yourself in Afghanistan. When people tell me they feel an equal horror at both events, I do not believe them! If a 5 fatality car crash happens at the bottom of your street, at a spot you walk past every day, it hits you way more than hearing about a similar crash across the country. Just human nature. 


I got to my subway station one morning last week just in time to see an operation underway to remove someone who had fallen under a train. Even though I hear about people getting hit by trains at least 2 or 3 times a week in New York, this one really blew my mind, because it happened at place I'm intimately familiar with, and I saw the evidence with my own eyes. Even within New York, I take a greater interest in the news from my own neighborhood than I do in news from other neighborhoods. I don't see anything weird or wrong about that.