I had a very different idea of what I wanted to write in my next diary entry, but instead I was reading the news (can't skip that), and I came across the following headline:

BBC: Israel Very Unpopular

Does anyone else see anything wrong with this picture? Let me give you a hint. This was a headline. Someone thinks this is NEWS? I mean, hello? IF you are the sort of person who reads/watches BBC news, would you find this to be a pertinent bit of information - or, more importantly, do you think you wouldn't KNOW IT ALREADY?!?

Okay, so this is the BBC. More importantly, it is a major media outlet. So, they can't actually tell you things you DON'T already know, that would be cheating. But ... as a Headline?

The BBC did a poll, and concluded that Israel is the most unpopular country in the world after Iran. Unsurprizingly they interviewed people in Europe, North America (they claim they went to 34 different countries, so after we count all of Europe, how many does that leave?). They clearly didn't bother to talk to the people who are literally risking their lives to get IN to Israel. Forget that. That is not the point.

No one, no person who can read English, can possibly have any doubt that Israel is unpopular. I mean, duh. So, what WAS the point? And why does it deserve to be headlined? It's as if they interviewed a whole bunch of people in Britain and announced that most people don't like France very much. Um, okay. But, news? I don't think so.

Moving right along, and on a slightly similar note, D2 received her first marriage proposal. An African refugee (remember those people who risk their lives to get IN to Israel?) asked her to marry him. Why, since he already has a girlfriend unlawfully living in California? It's rather complicated you see, but it has a point. IF D2 marries him, then he can legally enter the U.S. as her spouse (she is a U.S. citizen). Once he is IN the U.S., as long as he can keep his nose clean (no problem, these are great people in general, hard-working, respectful, grateful...) he can get U.S. citizenship for himself. THEN he could divorce D2 and marry the girlfriend, who would then be able to stay in the U.S. Legally. Are you with me so far? Good.

Now what was the point? Oh, yes. Who in the English speaking world HASN'T read about how the U.S. is losing it's standing in the international community - how the U.S. has become hated and despized and unloved because of war-mongering ways and exporting McDonald's and all those horrible things. The self-styled intelligentsia - or do I mean the major media, who can tell any more? - is regularly wringing their hands - metaphorically speaking - on the loss of American prestige.

Um, hello? Did anyone just read what ONE man is willing to do just in order to get to live in the U.S. with his one-day-hopefully wife? Is he alone? I don't think so.

So just who is it who hates the U.S. so terribly. Okay, the French. I think we don't need to say any more about that, but really?

I think those hand-wringers need to pull their heads out of their ..... (ahem, excuse me) ivory towers and take a look at what is really happening.

People hate the U.S.? Why, yes. But for the most part the people hating the U.S. are really just enjoying sour grapes. The U.S. isn't perfect. The U.S. has an awful lot that is wrong with it. But as for being hated and despized? Not here. (I can't tell you how many people want to know WHY we left the U.S. for Israel - and don't believe us when we tell them. They can't imagine that any place on earth is better then the U.S.). Not among all those people coming on boats, mortgaging their lives for decades in order to pay for passage, legally or illegally, suffering and dying for a chance to live in that horrible place that every one hates.

Obviously not everyone wants to live in the U.S. Which is a good thing, one country couldn't support the entire population of the planet. And there is much that is good in all the other cultures and societies on this wildly multi-cultural ball.

However, in large part, I suspect that what those extremely loud (although certainly not the majority) people who hate the U.S. hate ABOUT the U.S. is really what most people hate about Israel. It is successful. It is not perfect. It is made up of people from many different walks of life working together, with all of the problems that that entails. Both countries are largely made up of immigrants. Neither country is actually interested in conquest, enlarging itself at the expense of another country or society (and if you want to argue that with me, take it outside my diary, this is not the place for an indepth discussion on a subject that I at least have an awful lot to say about). These countries bother people because a) they are good and b) they are not quite good enough to make them bearable.

It is so much easier to hate these two countries for not being perfect, in short, to look only at the short-comings, rather than to respect them for what they have accomplished and what they manage to do right.

You don't have to like McDonald's and Walmart (and Jazz and baseball) and you don't have to like Jews or Judaism or believe what the Torah (the old testament) says - not to mention use the Polio vaccine or understand the theory of relativity, to see that not only do both countries do a great deal that is right, but that both countries actively TRY to do the right thing, even when what that is isn't immediately apparent.

If that is a reason to be hated, to be unpopular, then thank goodness I am unpopular. I am proud to be connected to two countries that, as nations, really do agonize over being right and doing right. I'm not terribly happy that both countries sometimes forget that doing the right thing and being popular are often in opposition. I am not happy when my country chooses to try and be popular, thinking that that is a better thing.

It is not new that we are hated ("unpopular"). It is not news. It is time that I got a life and stopped reading the news, um, no, that wasn't what I meant to say. But it's true. Returning to the theme: does this garbage really sell newspapers? I suppose it must. I can't think of any other reason to write it.

Go ahead and hate us. Just don't think that it really says anything about us. It says a great deal about those, however, who rather than seeking to make themselves better, would rather drag others down and step on them, to feel better about themselves.

:: Yesterdays : Tomorrows ::

~~~Last Five Entries~~~
Hi and goodbye - 2010-10-15
I'll be moving on - 2010-10-10
Gold membership and stuff - 2010-10-10
Decisions, decisions - 2010-10-07
Days to go - 2010-10-06