I have just watched a program on TV tonight about the effect of the US election on our life here in Australia. One of the commentators said that he found that the worst aspect of the question was not so much that we were asking it but that when we had national elections last fortnight, most Americans not only didn't question the effect the result would have on them but that they mostly did not even know we had an election.
As the results of American elections impact most people in the world it may be that most people in the world should have imput into the American Politics. I Can't vote there but I would like to let you know how people here are impacted by American policies. We have just negotiated a so called Free trade agreement with the US, unfortunately free trade is not what we are getting as what has been agreed to is a swaping of Australias own policies of protection of our agriculture by Quarantines as US companies say that this is protection of local products and so is unfair.
We just what to protect what is our own from diseases from overseas.
The US is often seen as the school yard bully by smaller countries and this is because what the US wants will be done!!!!! It is this which causes the US as a nation to be seen as evil by many. We must stress though that if the Nation is seen as Evil, the people are seen as nice but naive. Question your leaders, quetion your press as these often give very biased veiws on the world.
Isn't it interesting that the smaller and less powerfull the contry, the more the citizens know about the other countrie in the world. Fijians know more about the world than the Average Australians, znd the average Australians know more about other places in the world than the average American I have met, and I have only met those whom have traveled outsde the USA. Apparantly only 1.5% of all Americam have travelled outside their own county.
Soap Box time Again.
Tevita

Thank you, Tevita for your input. I have done a littel traveling outside the US and know what you say to be accurate. I wish more Americans would see that our lifestyles and governmental decisions effects people the world over. It is a wonderful country, and I am glad I live here. I also know that there are other wonderful countries and we don't need to make them all into little Americas. I was jsut listening to a radio report about Turkey and how some are rebelling against the westernization of that country. Why do they need to be western? What's wrong with being Eastern? Perhaps we need to be a bit more European or Eastern. PErhaps we would not be so far behind the rest of the world in our ideas of things like nudity. It seems that as we have gone out to spread the gospel, the word we preached was not Jesus and the God of grace, but America and the god of industry.

Nakedspirit

That is why Americans have trouble with the Middle East. If you want to know how the Middle East thinks, just read the Old Testament (minus the spiritual aspect) and you got an idea of how they think. When we read the OT, we see God making the decisions, when we hear of the Middle East doing things (quite similar to what we see ancient Isreal doing) we say they are doing evil. When we read about the same thing (such as wiping out whole nations, men, women and children) we say "God told them to do it" but we don't allow God to say the same thing in the middle east.

We see an "Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth" in the bible, we say, "OK, that is the way it was in the bible times" but we say that the same country cannot do it now. We sanctify the Middle East of the bible, and villify the modern Middle East.

Americans do not understand how the Europeans think either. I would love to spend time in Europe for about six months to a year. I want to learn, to let them teach me, not me looking for "American icons" there. I want to eat their food, listen to their music, sit in their coffee shops, laughing at their jokes, watching their TV and News, bathing in their baths, wear their clothing (or not), driving in their traffic...ok, I'll let them drive...work their jobs, worshiping in their churches (Christian of course). Maybe after a year, I might get an idea of how they think....maybe. It may take me that long to get used to the water!

An example of the difference in thinking: When Jesus said "In three days, I will rise again" (paraphrased), they thought, "What does that mean?" We westerners think "seventy two hours". We think literaly, they think figuratively.

So we can easily misunderstand a lot in the bible due to that.

So we have to be careful about being dogmatic about some things. Even naturism can be dogmatic if we are not careful. We can be just as guilty of being literal as the typical Christian church about clothing.

Where Westerners think of naturism as either sexual or an activity, they may think of it as a "style" of dressing or some other reason for existing nude. The more we try to "Americanize" the Europeans and Middle East, the more criminals we have worldwide due to silly laws that don't exist now.

As the saying goes, "Be careful of what you pray (or ask) for, you just might get it!"

Boyd

Much of what has been called "Americanism" isn't the real America I know and love.
There is a new culture that has emerged here in these post-industrial times. Spread by mass media, multi-national corporations, and retail giants it is as foreign to me as it is to millions of Americans. It is a blight on our land and I hate to hear that it has invaded other countries.

America is a patchwork quilt of many ethnic groups with rich cultures some dating back hundreds of years and in the case of our native Americans, thousands of years. We cherish our regional accents and foods, many cherish the folkways and songs from the "old country" and we enjoy learning about the cultures in our midst.

A lot of us are curious about the world beyond the North American continent, but precious little knowledge seems to be available about those who beyond the great oceans.

A few years ago, one of the cable stations started carrying British house of commons and it is fascinating to see all the spirited debates they have.

Australia is also a subject of intense interest. Popular fiction movies and television shows featuring Australians are always a big hit. There's just not much in the papers or television about the government of that land down under. I used to work for a library and the Washington Post would run far more international stories than our local city paper, but even there they simply didn't offer much. Perhaps Australians are naturally more interested in the minutia of their own legislation than we Americans are, but I think many of us would enjoy learning more about Australian civil liberties issues and their foreign policy decisions. As a Christian, I scan the news from other lands, prayerfully watching to see whether my brothers and sisters overseas are treated well by their governments. Likewise as a nudist, I was disappointed to learn of the problems with acceptance Australian nudists are having in Queensland.

It does seem that the mainstream media assumes we would not be interested in foreign countries so they don't offer us much. If they fill their airtime with local events, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. We will never expand our horizons if we can't see beyond the horizon.

As for travel, I wanted to travel to other countries as a boy. When I was in my college years, I planned a trip to Scandinavia. I studied language recordings, saved every penny from work, but never could scrape up the air fare.

In recent years, air travel became more affordable and I was able to travel to England twice and spent a few hours in France. But then the economy turned sour and a road trip to Tennessee was about all I could afford. I hope that I will have a good job one of these days and can resume travel to exotic places across the sea.

The Internet for some reason is cheaper than ever and is my only window on the world. I find it amazing and a blessing that people from all over the world can come together on this forum and share ideas.

I agree that this forum and others like it are good to interact with people from other countries. I would love to have even more counties than just the USA and Australia responding but that is all at present. By the way it even seams as though the australians are not even real Aussies as Jack sounds as though he hails from a Germanic background and my wife and I both come from Fiji. I am sure Jack's attitudes and beliefs are influenced by this and I know that mine are certainly influenced by being the only white kid in my class and having a class of Hindoo's Muslims and Fijian Methodist Christians in equal numbers.
My birth name is David Hatcher But my friends from Fiji gave me the Name of Tevita Toatagane,(david rooster).
Tevita

...When the locals give you a name you can be proud of.
That is a cool name. I like it.

boyd

TV would be a really good way to educate everyone. The networks should switch from those silly, unbelievably dirty sexy programs to ones telling us about life or conditions in other countries. In India, I've seen such programs while I've been there.

I've been on trips all over the world and have lived in Singapore and spent long bits of time in Oz and NZ, not on tours but just driving around and staying in motels.

On my trips to European and Asian venues, I was often there for 2 weeks at a time. Been to Sicily 12 times like that, for instance.

When I go or my wife and I go to countries we like to go to local places and to prowl around, doing our shopping in local grocery stores and little shops and going down alleys in cities. Guess God was always looking after us. Never had a problem.

Ralph
The naked gardener
God's original intent

I have found that the people who get into the local sceane and joins the local people with what they eat and what they travel on, you get more respect and the locals seem to accept you more. Stay in the hotels and eat only the food you know you may as well have stayed at home.
Tevita