Blog to America

Dear America,

Thank you for this opportunity to "voice my thoughts" as a non-American on this site....

I've become brave enough now to venture over to the American Perspectives window and check out letters submitted there....wow, I guess my initial reaction to some views were, how shall we say unlady-like ( haha..)....then as I took the time to mull over some comments I relised as much as we identify as being either American, New Zealander, Australian, Iranian, British, somehow that quiet (and sometimes loud) Patriotic streak overshadows that for the main part we are all like sheep subtley controlled by a much stronger body called "Government".....I don't always understand my own countries Political System and much less the U.S.A's.....my question is "Does Anybody'?...really.......My best friend happens to be an American or should I say A citizen of the U.S.A...(see I'm learning to be Politically correct)...hehe....and he has some very strong Political views and opinions etc...I suppose to remain positive after some discussions my perspective has broadened somewhat, not because of enlightenment but more from the point of view of just how
unstable Governments are...and that emotionally/mentally it is not wise to swallow information just because .......we heard it on C.N.N.....or "they said this".....or my daddy believed that...or our forefathers believed this...or in my case pilgrims fought for this n that.....yes to all those wonderful heroes who sacrificed much for my freedom....I will always strive to educate my sons intellectually and spiritually ,that is how I can be accountable and honor men and women who sacrificed for me.... It's not the fact that men and women disagree( tween cultures particularly), that bothers me its the often angry responses ,ya know the attitude "if you dont agree with me ya can't be on my side, therefore you're an enemy, so I must shut you down, or screw you up......isnt that how power games first begin then develop nationally????.....now my American friend says...I don't understand...I gotta be American to understand....next he will be telling me
I gotta be a man too???....ok I wont go there..hahaha...Take Care All.......

P.S...Appreciate the reply comments to a previous post, made me smile.....


About the Author

Name: Carmen
Age: 51
Country: New Zealand
City: Christchurch
State: N.Z
Gender: Female
Experience With US: Visited the United States

Labels: 50's, americans, democracy, female, freedom, media, new zealand, oceania, patriotism, visited the US

Dear America,

Well this is a cool site. Good morning America How are Ya...say don't ya know me I'm ya neighbors son...I'm the train they call...love that song ,thought Id introduce myself that way....
I was made in New Zealand , been to the States once and loved my time there....of course being in love with a certain American kinda helped....actually I met some very cool hardworking down to earth "real people"...not the silly plastic variety we often see portrayed from "Hollywood".....My Daddy used to say 'People are people" whatever they eat for breakfast" and when they get up in the morning they put their pants on the same way as we do...."one foot at a time".... America and/or Americans are just like me......They want freedom ,I want freedom ,they want their children to be safe ,so do I , they want a decent wage for a hard days work ,so do I....

Of course from the moment we are born we are all influenced by infinite details and influences throughout the years imprinted on our minds via our parents ,our environment , our culture, then comes the 'educators'...the media....and although many think noooo... we are not influenced by media ,its effects are often subtle but sure....personally I like the choices it offers or challenges......

So just to end I want to encourage fellow kiwis to open their minds and don't be afraid of "differences"....of course I don't like the "materialism" that America can take full credit for...but then I don't like the greed of the New Zealand Government either.....America cut the chord to Britain years ago....( over taxes..)...yet we still pay the Crown taxes as well as to our own government...hmmm...that sucks....when I voice that to fellow kiwis they become defences and proclaim how being a Commonwealth Country we are protected by Britian etc , um well they didn't do that to well in the last two wars....(.U.S.A) bailed us out.....cuz most NZ males were serving the British Army overseas fighting Britains war....thats Historical Facts...not just opinion either...

So for the criticism pointed at America I think we should clean up our own back-yard can ask no demand our Government quit sucking up and sending our hard earned taxes back to England!......Perhaps then our gas wont just be for the wealthy and our taxes will be lower......I'm so disheartened that New Zealand is no longer affordable to its own people but has been priced for the greedy and wealthy of this world.....

I look forward to experiencing and contributing to the American way of life again in the future., so fatten that turkey....Stay Safe America...and God bless Us All....


About the Author:

Name: Carmen
Age: 51
Country: New Zealand
City: Christchurch
Gender: Female
Income: Medium
Occupation: Barista
Experience With US: Visited the United States

Labels: 50's, americans, female, foreign policy, media, medium income, new zealand, oceania, visited the US

Dear America,

Hailing from a small country called New Zealand, I am a kiwi who doesn't really know that much about the USA. So when I was asked to write a letter to voice my opinion my first thought was what I hear most people around me saying - Terrorism, Bush, the most wealthy, powerful country in the world. All these opinions I have gained from the media.

The USA appears in our news just about every day here, whether it be to do with the war in Iraq, some scientific development, NASA or some other current event. It may be that I am just growing more aware of the world in my 20's but it seems the entire world is obsessed with what's going on in the US. Is it maybe, we admire you? I really don't know...

As someone who has only travelled as far as Australia I don't know what it is like to be/live in the US right now or any other country for that matter. I know only what I build up a picture of from the snapshots I see in the media. As I have grown older I have come to realise that the picture the media portrays is not always correct, so the picture us kiwi's have of the average "American" may not necessarily be true.

All my life I have heard the saying "Only in America". This lends itself to the fact that the US houses an extremely diverse range of people and almost anything can happen there; another opinion I have gained from statistics and the media.

When I was younger I wanted to either be or marry an American. Growing older has changed my mind. This was probably influenced by the fact that at this time well over half of our television programming was from the US. As I have grown older I realise that I am very fortunate to live in my little corner of the world where I am safe. I am proud to be who I am.

I think the biggest message I could give to America is - Be proud of who you are and try to ensure that the picture the media is painting of you is one you can be proud of.

Best wishes for the future America.


About the Author:

Name: Kiwi Girl
Age: 20
Country: New Zealand
Gender: Female
Occupation: University Student
Experience With US: Never Visited the United States

Labels: 20's, americans, culture, female, foreign affairs, media, never been to the us, new zealand, oceania, pop culture, student

Dear America,

How did you rise to become a power nation so influential on almost everything from politics to entertainment? Take a look at Hollywood for example. Why is it so famous that everyone from everywhere knows the actors and actresses, the movies and shows? Why are they getting paid so much to act? Are they really worth that much? Wouldn't it benefit more people if the money went into providing for the people suffering from poverty in America itself?

America has become so influential that its movies, TV serials commercials etc. are being aired to other countries and people are becoming so addicted to those drama serials and movies that cable TV has become a normality in all households. Kids grow up watching 'American' TV, listening to 'American' music, following 'American' fashion trends etc. Kids from all over end up wanting to be like the idols they see on TV and magazines. But that becomes so impossible when you're living in the other end of the world. So kids like me tend to dream of such big dreams yet knowing that chances of it ever realizing it are little to zero, but yet every time we watch shows like America's next top model, American Idol, TV shows like One Tree Hill, The OC etc, we get that inspiration once again to want to be a famous actress or singer because with it comes so much fame, fortune and ultimately leading to 'happiness'.

So how America, how did you manage to influence the world? Start a war between Iraq, change the economy, change history, create new science etc. How will we, living in small countries that some people don't even know exist, ever rise up to become just as successful as Hillary Clinton, Kelly Clarkson, Brad Pitt, Nicole Kidman, Tyra Banks, Opera Winfrey & Steven Spielberg?


About the Author:

Name: Samantha Aloysius
Age: 18
Country: Singapore
City: Singapore
Gender: Female
Occupation: Student
Experience With US: Visited the United States
Website: http://www.myspace.com/sam_nutts

Labels: 10's, american dream, americans, asia, culture, female, hollywood, media, pop culture, poverty, singapore, student, visited the US

Dear America,

"Enlighten the people, generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like spirits at the dawn of day."
~Thomas Jefferson

"Nigeria at this moment is not "most Corrupt" just "6th Corrupt" and if that is what it is according to this particular measuring stick then so be it (at least it is consistent!)"

Which indices made Nigeria "the most corrupt in 2000 it is now the 6th most corrupt"?

I was once a Unicef Consultant and privy to the same similar indices used in the summation of the levels of unemployment and populations in the State of the World Human Development Reports and using Western mathematics for African developments were erroneous.

An unemployed man in America is totally different from an unemployed man in Nigeria. In Nigeria, all our so called unemployed people are engaged in petty trading and other commercial activities since they have no social security system to take care of their temporary deprivations. We also have own extended family welfare system that these Western statistics cannot be used to measure economic developments in Africa. Commerce and corruption are within the same matrix of human development.

Now in tagging any country as 6th or even 100th most corrupt nation in the world, the indices cannot be the same.

I am not defending corruption in Nigeria.
I don't just agree with the Western yardstick used in judging Africa.

Our Police officers collect bribe. But why?
Did they study the reasons for the low level of human capital development in Nigeria and how that has affected the environment and the human environment determines the evolution of human development.

I was also engaged in national Family Planning projects under the USAID in Nigeria and these differences were noted.

What or who made Nigeria corrupt.

Sokari mentioned less corrupt African countries?

What are the conditions of life in these countries like Ghana and Botswana?

What kind of corruption are we measuring here? Public misappropriation of funds and bribery in Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa where the ruling oligarchs and multinational corporations have so exploited and abused and misused the natural resources and economically enslaved the low income wage earners who are deliberately underpaid from the public sector to the private sector? Like here in the Nigeria LNG RAs where the Nigerian teachers teaching in the Nigeria LNG School cannot enroll their own children and are not given any accommodation within the RAs. And one of the teachers lost his wife during childbirth, because he couldn't afford the quality medical care she needed and the Nigeria LNG RA Hospital said his wife was not entitled to any medical care in the hospital and his children cannot even be admitted to the hospital. But, the White teachers have their children in the Nigeria LNG RA School with full first class accommodation and medical care.

Have you been to our police barracks?
I don't pray for even my worst enemy to live in the Nigerian police barracks. Because, they are not different from the worst tenement in the worst ghettoes in America and other developed countries. And do you know the minimum wage of the police officers?
And they say they collect bribe?
What is bribe in America and Europe is not bribe in Nigeria.

What of the corruption in America where the crime rate in New York alone in a month is worse than the crime rate in Nigeria in one year. Where teenage pregnancies are in hundreds of thousands? Where abortions are state rights?

So what or which indices shall we use to determine these notoriety and monstrosity of criminal corruption in America?

The billions of dollars of stolen African public funds are in American and European banks for years and they knew these were stolen funds and they collected them and have pooled them into the same IMF, Paris Club, London Club and other Western and Eastern financial funds from which they have been giving loans and "White Elephant" grants for their sponsored "White Elephant" projects in Nigeria and other African countries. Now we read about "Abacha Loot" returned from Swiss Banks. What of the interests? Now they want us to thank them for debt relief? Which debt? The debt or the interest?

$200 million of Abacha loot in a Swiss bank for over seven years! Do you know how much that money has generated in their economy?
So, what of the implications of the collections of stolen Nigerian public funds in Swiss banks which to me is worse than the much publicized Nigerian Internet Scammers.

A thief is a thief whether you steal one dollar or one billion dollar and whether you stole it or kept the stolen property.
Is stolen public funds not stolen property?

America, since you are the fire brigade of the world, come and help us put out the fire in the Niger Delta before the fire engulfs the whole of Nigeria!


About the Author

Name: Orikinla Osinachi
Age: 44
Country: Nigeria
City: Bonny Island
State: River State
Gender: Male
Income: High
Occupation: Publisher/Writer and Producer
Experience With US: Never Visited the United States
Website: http://forum.nigeriantimesinternational.com

Labels: 40's, africa, corporations, corruption, crime, high income, male, media, media worker, misperceptions, money, nigeria, poverty

Dear America,
All those small conflict and wars you make all over the world really makes me sick. I could not believe US are actually doing this stuff until it happened in my country. I could see they were bombing neighboring Serbia because of that a**hole Milosevic and I tried to justify it somehow. Even I'm actually Serb by nationality and I had (and still have) large part of my closest relatives and friends there. I tried to digest all the assuring bullshit they were putting on their media. But after few years all those local crimes and peasants (mostly Albanians from Kosovo) they were arming, started attacking Macedonia. A small poor country that tried somehow to defend itself from a bunch of armed criminals. And what happens next is Macedonians got put in same light like Serbs nationalists. At the same time bunch of military consulting experts and agencies from US and Europe started offering services and making cash out of this. These people were "helping" the war to start up using their ties in media, politicians etc. This makes it clear war by itself is money maker. I just could not believe all the lies that I saw on TV those days. BBC was MAKING things up in front of my eyes! It was unbelievable how they deliberately changed facts and setup up totally bullshit news from there. Like anyone actually really cared about it after all. It was happening and there was nothing no one could do. All those people need to make cash and I was at the wrong place at the wrong time. There is always some poor and uneducated people that your corrupt politicians will sell weapons to make war and to make money. America you are a monster. You are feeding with weak countries! Damn you. You f*cked up my life.

About the Author:

Name: Jasen
Age: 26
Country: Macedonia
City: Skopje
Gender: Male
Income: Low
Occupation: IT
Experience With the US: Never Visited the United States

Labels: 20's, europe, IT, low income, macedonia, male, media, military, never been to the us, politics, war and conflict