I Love Americans, I Hate American-Centricity

From Matt’s blog.....

“Thailand is one of the worst places for the tourist shuffle. There’s an endless army of young guys chasing after you, desperately trying to get you in one of their tuk-tuks (a clever hybrid between taxi and go-kart). They shadow you at a distance of about two paces, stepping into your path whenever they can and muttering stuff to get your attention. The only thing I’ve found that helps even a little bit is yelling at them.

I can't really lodge this as a complaint, but no one speaks a word of English here. It'd be nice if the British had colonized this place at some point, or the US had decided to fight a war here, but no such luck."

I have been reading this guy's blog about his travels around the world. While I comment him for his free spirit, I can't but feel pissed off at his typically ethnocentric and arrogant American comments.

He goes on to complain about how he has to stand up for two minutes before a movie to pay tribute to the Thai king and what a dumb idea it is. He calls being a Bangkok "being stuck in a festering sewer with perverts and morons"

Ok I am making an awful generalization here. There are awesome, kind hearted, friendly, accepting Americans. I have met so many wonderful Americans in my travels to America and around, and many of them are still my friends till today.

BUT, I have also met some others who have a strange case of culture-phobia everywhere they go. They set American culture, values and lifestyle as the yardstick for every single country they visit, and then get upset when it doesn't match up. If that is your mindset, then why the hell do you even bother to travel? Why don't you just stay at home in America where everyone speaks english, you can chew gum and spit without getting fined and there is no death penalty for trafficking drugs?

A few things I noticed about American travellers, and yes once again, I'm generalizing.

1) They expect everyone in other countries to speak English and get very upset when they don't .
2) Sentences always start with "In America..........." followed by "..... I don't understand why they don't do it here"

Examples that i have heard:

"In America our shops open 24 hours, I don't understand why they don't in Australia"
"In America we can say what ever we want, I don't understand why they can't in Singapore"
"In America, we all speak english. I don't understand why they can't in Asia"

The worst I've heard was:
"In America we use miles and Fahrenheit, and we drive on the right side which is the correct side, and spell color without a U, I don't understand why they don't in the rest of the world. You guys are like SOOOOO weird."

My standard response is: Why don't you just stay in America and stop whining to me?

They tell me about the awful human rights abuse that is happening in my country, that capital punishment is such an Asian thing, and that I am not part of the free world. I have been told so many times regarding so many issues that " Your country is in the wrong and America is right because America is always right. "

My country is not the one with the guantanamo prison issues.
My country is not the one who killed..how many was it..civilians in Iraq.
My country wasn't the one that invaded and then lost the war in Vietnam.
My country isn't the one that refused to sign the Kyoto protocol.
My country isn't the one who has MNCs indulging in child labour in developing country.

So my country isn't perfect. But please take the log out of your eyes before you attempt to remove the speck in mine. So we whipped one of your citizens for vandalizing repeatedly. Seriously how does that match up? I am not pissed off at the fact that America wants to "free" everyone in the world from the clutches of oppression by raining some bombs down, I am pissed off at how hypocritical that statement is. And the whole thing about the people in singapore being molly-coodled my their government and internally absorbing all sorts of propaganda our government spits out, I am not denying that it is the case here. But i haven't seen more propaganda in my life than when i was in America. Everything, every holiday, every news, every monument is a cause for American patriotism. So the Thais pay tribute to their king, don't the Americans sing the anthem before/after every football game. It's clearly double standards here.

You want to know what is freedom.

Freedom is being able to walk in and out of places without having to subject my bag and myself to security checks all the time.

Freedom is not about owning a gun. Freedom is knowing that your neighbour most probably does not own one.

Freedom is being able to drink when I'm 18 not having to sneak in alcohol everywhere i go even when I am in college. Between alcohol and chewing gum, I'll take alcohol any day.

Freedom is being able to read the world map and identify where most of the major countries are. That includes being able to recognize places like Japan and Australia.

Freedom is including non-american newspapers in your daily reading diet so for goodness sake you don't tell me "I don't understand why people would ever hate americans, we are godsend. We are the best. We are helping people all the time. They just want to find someone to blame." Or worst still “You mean there are people out there that hate Americans?”

Freedom is knowing at least two other countries' leaders besides George W. Bush. This includes knowing who is Tony Blair or Koizumi and not telling me "I don't see why any American needs to know any other leaders in the world. We are the biggest and most powerful nation, so it should be that other people know our president"

Freedom is releasing yourself from your stuck-up American-centric opinion on the world and looking at everything non-american as second class or as not the “real deal”.

Freedom is unbiased knowledge, and admitting that you lack that unbiased knowledge.

I still love Americans, I love their enthusiasm and forever positive attitude. Their efficiency and their friendly nature. And I am sure there are Singaporeans, Australians, Malaysians, Canadians, Thais etc that behave like that too. I behave like that too sometimes. But I am just reliterating what I have seen and heard while traveling, and it irks me out big time. And today just happens to be one of those days. So yes kudos for releasing a "How to behave guide" to Americans when they travel. I would like to get my hands on a copy some day.