Blog to America

Brian from United Kingdom - The Genius of America

noreply@blogger.com (Blog to America) — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 06:40:00 +0000

Dear America,

I'm traveling to New York and Washington for the first time in a few weeks. The prospect of going to New York is thrilling. For my whole life I have watched American films and here will be my first chance to see the many landmarks featured in these movies.

I recently saw Saturday Night Fever a wonderful evocation of 70s life in Brooklyn. I saw The Squid and the Whale, too, which is an evocation of Brooklyn in the 1980s. I love the sense of place these films create. The dialogue, and the observations of aspirations and fears, I find fascinating.

I've booked my Sopranos tour, which will take me round all the settings I have grown familiar with, watching six series (or is it seven?) of that amazing drama. I'm looking forward to seeing the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, and the kind of streets that are featured in The Godfather, Sex in the City and Woody Allen films.

Having had the reputation of being a low-brow culture, the Americans in the last decade have redefined television and its possibilities. I'm a fanatical fan of Alan Ball's Six Feet Under. It's a wonderful series which confronts viewers with all the really big questions. It's funny, profound and moving.

I particularly enjoy the ethnic mix which series like the Sopranos and Six Feet Under explore. For seven years I lived in Bayswater in London. It was a tough place to survive, and the English were a community among many other communities.

London is America these days. The idea of a nation state, an England that is for the English, is defunct. As a culture we are not very good at expressing or depicting this new world we live in. The Americans do it beautifully.

About the Author:

Name: Brian Jenner
Age: 39
Country: United Kingdom
City: Bournemouth
State: Dorset
Gender: Male
Income: Medium
Occupation: Speechwriter
Experience With US: Visited the United States
Website: http://www.brianjenner.typepad.com

Laial from Iran -The Murder of Benazir Bhutto & Charlie Wilson's War

noreply@blogger.com (Blog to America) — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 06:35:00 +0000

Dear America,

I had written an angry satirical article about the new film Charlie Wilson's War, which I have not seen yet, except for extensive excerpts on a History Channel documentary. It purported to be the real story of the late Rep. Charlie Wilson, and had him chortling, I love it as the right-wing Muslim guerrillas whom he and the Reagan administration massively funded through Pakistan and hailed as freedom fighters were about to triumph over the evil Soviet empire.

I was advised to keep my review on tap until I had seen the film, which is reasonable advice.

Yet, Benazir Bhutto was murdered in Pakistan yesterday and the murder, as I see it, has a direct relationship to the war in Afghanistan in the 1980s, the subject of Charlie Wilson's War.

Afghanistan's history from the late 1970s to the present is very complicated. The country itself was one of the poorest in the world, divided along ethnic tribal lines and long a battleground among great powers, for example, in the 19th century between the British and czarist Russian empires.

Afghanistan bordered the Soviet Union, and ethnic groups who also were part of the Soviet Union were minority populations in Afghanistan. The Soviets had helped to educate a significant number of Afghanis and an influential Communist Party existed in the city of Kabul. Feudal and prefeudal nomadic elites were predominant in much of the country and the
Muslim religion was the primary unifying force.

Afghani Communists took power in Kabul in 1978, faced with threats from the newly established brutal military dictatorship in Pakistan, and also hoping to advance a social revolution, bringing mass education, land reform and other vital social reforms to the people.

The Pakistani military dictator General Zia had publicly executed Muhammad Ali Bhutto, the civilian prime minister whom he overthrew (father of Benazir Bhutto). Zia wasnt the first Pakistani military dictator but he was the worst. His regime turned more and more to rightist
clerical elements as a base of support and also worked with Saudis to establish right-wing religious primary schools in a country where large sections of the population, including a large majority of the female population, were totally illiterate.

Afghani Communists, tragically, were unable to achieve the unity that is a prerequisite for all communist parties everywhere to keep a coalition together and make pro-people gains. They were divided into rival factions which fought each other fiercely over policy. Despite all the
gains made, there were disastrous errors in seeking to advance the revolution into the countryside, great ineptitude in the land reform policy among cadre with a limited understanding of agriculture, and an aggressive self-defeating anti-clericalism in response to the clerical opposition to the revolution.

With the Pakistani military dictatorship under Zia aiding right-wing Muslim guerrillas, President Jimmy Carters National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski defeated Secretary of State Cyrus Vance and gained Carters support to use the CIA to provide aid to the guerrillas.
Brzezinski saw this aid as creating an Afghan trap for the Soviets, manipulating them into a military intervention which, he hoped, would be their Vietnam.

The Soviets did intervene at the end of 1979 to both save the Kabul government, an ally, and advance a social revolution against fiercely reactionary clerically based forces. For the Soviets, the intervention was both a protection of their own borders and also a reassertion of
proletarian internationalist aid for people seeking to make a social revolution against the forces of internal reaction and foreign imperialism.

CIA aid to the Afghan freedom fighters was picking up under the Reagan administration, which used the advertising term Evil Empire, before the real Charlie Wilson got into the act, although Wilson did play the role of a political fixer, using his position on the House
Intelligence Committee to get more and more money and military aid to the freedom fighters while he ran around Afghanistan for many colorful photo ops.

Large numbers of refugees were created by the Afghan war and great atrocities, as there are in all modern wars. In the U.S. and capitalist media, the Soviets were blamed for these atrocities and large sections of the Euro-American left pretty much went along with the view that this
was a battle between David and Goliath in which the social issues were unimportant compared to the Soviet bad guys and the Afghani anti-imperialist good guys.

However, Indian media particularly, along with other non-Soviet sources, emphasized the fanaticism and crimes committed by the guerillas, including the atrocities that they committed against Soviet military personnel, their families, and those Afghani people whom they saw as
collaborators women seeking to go to schools that the Communist government had established, people seeking to free themselves from the domination of CIA-supported gunmen who might beat them brutally if their beards weren't long enough.

While the real Charlie Wilson was running around with U.S. congressmen,General Zia and Afghan mujahedeen, the CIA was recruiting tens of thousands of foreign fighters from Muslim countries and training them in the Afghan-Pakistan border areas to attack Afghanistan. Money for this war was not only raised from the U.S. appropriations but from
heroin traffic that led Pakistan in the 1990s to have the highest per capita number of heroin addicts in the world.

Benazir Bhutto became prime minister briefly after General Zias death and the restoration of civilian rule. She returned as prime minister in the mid 1990s. The people of Pakistan, less directly than the people of Afghanistan but more so than any other people, suffered from the
counter-revolutionary guerrilla war that Reagan and Zia carried forward against Afghanistan.

As Mikhail Gorbachev began a policy of Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in the late 1980s, Al Qaeda, or the Base, was founded in 1988 under the leadership of Osama bin Laden, leader of the Saudi Arabian contingent of anti-Communist fighters in Afghanistan, scion of one of the
wealthiest capitalist families in the region, and both fundraiser and major logistical man for the guerrillas, much admired at the time by the CIA with whom he had worked for many years.

The Communist-led government in Kabul was eventually destroyed. In Afghanistan, a warlord terror regime was followed by the ultra-right clerical Taliban regime, whose attempts to terrorize its own people into accepting universal female illiteracy, the primacy of a literalist
interpretation of religious law and misery and poverty in this life as a necessity for the next shocked the people throughout the world.

With the dismemberment of the Soviet Union, Osama bin Laden, who, regardless of his CIA friends, had long seen the U.S. and the West as both a sink of sin and a legion of Christian Crusaders and Jewish Zionists seeking to conquer Islam, substituted the U.S. for the Soviet Union as his main enemy, and, setting himself up in Afghanistan with the wholehearted support of the Taliban government that he and the CIA had largely created, began to launch the attacks that led eventually to the destruction of the World Trade Center.

By then, the CIA was much more interested in covering up its long-term relationship with bin Laden than really doing much about him. Its Pakistani intelligence allies were heavily compromised and infiltrated with Al Qaeda and Taliban supporters, and bin Laden family money was around. So U.S. authorities werent that keen on investigating the activities of the bin Laden black sheep Osama.

Today, Al Qaeda and Taliban forces attack the U.S.-backed government in Afghanistan from the base areas that the CIA and the Pakistani ISI used to attack the Soviet-supported Communist government over 20 years ago.

Benazir Bhutto, the former prime minister, has been murdered under the regime of the present military dictator, who imprisoned and held her husband in jail for years without formal charges, along with many other opponents of the dictatorship, just as her father was in effect murdered by the previous military dictator.

And of course, Pakistan does have weapons of mass destruction, nuclear weapons, which it has developed as part of its ongoing conflict with India.

I said at the beginning that I wasn't going to write a review of Charlie Wilsons War until I see the film, but I think this final comment on its advertising is merited. In the commercials for the film, a narrator says with a straight face that without Charlie Wilson history would have been sadly different. Different perhaps, but unless one is a sadist, a masochist, or a reactionary who loves war and destruction for the hell of it, whether it is the destruction of the World Trade Center or the invasion of Iraq happily, not sadly, different.

By: Norman N

C/o: Laila-Shansi

About the Author:

Name: Laila-Shansi
Age: 55
Country: Iran
City: Tehran
Gender: Female
Income: Low
Occupation: FIRED!
Experience With US: Never Visited the United States

Mamduh from Egypt - I Support You, America

noreply@blogger.com (Blog to America) — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 06:31:00 +0000

Dear America,

Some people misunderstood my last letter and thought I meant to attack America, and that was not the case.

In fact, I'm one of the few pro-US and pro-Israel people here, and I tend to support the US in its wars.

Because, I mean, without the US going to Iraq, those who are now complaining and attacking the US would still be attacking it anyway, but then it would have been for the reason that the US did NOT help them.

Iraq is now a democratic country, they have cellphones, satellite channels, newspapers, political parties, political debates, political differences, and even political fights. But would they have ever dreamed of any of that if it wasn't for America?

Same thing for Afghanistan. They wouldn't have even been able to dream about being a democracy, or having even if just a little bit of religious freedom, and being in contact with the world around them. Women would still be made to cover up from head to toe.

Some people in here like to treat America as if it's their mother or something (maybe because it's a super-power). They just like to keep complaining under all circumstances, and America is expected to always make them feel better.

About the Author:

Name: Mamduh Schauki
Age: 21
Country: Egypt
City: Cairo
Gender: Male
Occupation: Student
Experience With US: Visited the United States
Website: http://theegyptblog.blogspot.com

Laila from Iran - Catch Them If You Can!

noreply@blogger.com (Blog to America) — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 06:19:00 +0000

Dear America,

I hope you reach to the positive signals of 'Change We Believe In'.

Iranians can't differentiate between Democrats and Republicans. Though their promises and programs have "interior consumption" but the two party's foreign policy is almost the same. Imagine the absence of Persians' burning desires for solution of human rights demands amid Democrat's diplomacy on open and unconditional talks on oil, nuclear weapon.. and promises of "rose garden" to our governors!

On the other hand, your foreign policy is under control of behind scene lobbyists and the CIA's actions. The U.S. nightmare is middle-east nations' awareness, a risky factor for immunize and assurance of America's benefits.

The solution : putting these areas in crisis in which CIA experts know how to do that perfectly!.

Unfortunately, the ancient civilized non-Arab PERSIA, a place for westerners gambling and competition, locates in this hell. Persians and world historical memory never forget American COUP against our Beloved, Nationalist Prime Minister Mr. Mosaddegh, the leader of independence movement for freedom in the 50's. For that coup, marked protesters and opponents were imprisoned, tortured and killed. CIA destroyed Persians' any signs of hope to manage better life forever.

Current unacceptable frustrating situation of Iran is the results of untold solidarity among Britain, the Soviet Union, and America's past wrongful interfere to our country's interior affairs.

We also observe rapid growth of fanatic ideology of extremism inside and outside our borders, thanks to CIA's previous financially supports and training of Islamic extremists to combat against USSR's trace in Afghanistan and now a huge threat to World Peace.

Catch your smart trainees, so called freedom-fighters and now Islamic extremist enemy, if you can !! and keep them from charging innocent people.

-Laila

About the Author:

Name: Laila - Shansi
Age: 55
Country: Iran
City: Tehran
State: Tehran
Gender: Female
Income: Medium
Occupation: FIRED!
Experience With US: Never Visited the United States
Website: http://www.myspace.com/shansi

Chong from Malaysia - How America Affects Us

noreply@blogger.com (Blog to America) — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 05:49:00 +0000

Dear America,

I am a Malaysian of Chinese descent. In trade, politics, fashion and especially mass media, America or the US (as we like to call you here) affects us tremendously. Since the late 50s, after we got our independence from Britain, the American influence was all mighty from Elvis Presley and Western cowboy movies. America was the hero, the great country. They brought down the Germans and the Japanese. Our leaders admired you so much that they borrow the stripes of your flag for our new one.

However, of late, your heroic image has taken a dark change. Because of our multi racial and multi religious nature, we are seeing America through colored lenses. Our Malay and Muslim brothers hate the Americans for their war against terrorism which affects Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan and the perceived bias for Israel. To the economically vibrant Chinese community here, the key American business role here is increasingly being taken over by an ever stronger China.

I would like to see an America that continues to fight for the weak, the besieged and the poor. The war against terror has taken a paradigm shift that future generations might see as a fight against the weak.

About the Author:

Name: Chong Kee Chew
Age: 48
Country: Malaysia
City: Kuala Lumpur
State: Capital
Gender: Male
Income: Medium
Occupation: Sales Manager
Experience With US: Never Visited the United States

Korova from United Kingdom - The Drowning Man

noreply@blogger.com (Blog to America) — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 16:20:00 +0000

Dear America,

Your government, not to mention your political system, has failed you. George W Bush has failed you. There are many reasons why I feel that your government has failed you, I hope I can clarify why during the course of this letter.

Your government has failed you at the most basic level. The overriding job of any government is to protect its citizens. That is a fundamental foundation of any civilised nation. Sadly, your government has chosen not to protect its citizens. Instead, it has decided to cut you loose and see if you sink or swim. Inevitably, it is the poor who sink. Take for example the recent legislation rejected by President Bush. Bush had a chance to ensure that every section of society was given the ability to swim. When presented with a bill to extend health insurance to millions of children, he could have chosen to embrace American society and ensure every member of the society was given an equal chance in life, regardless of their financial background. However, he chose (for the fourth time in seven years) to reject this legislation and ensure that millions of the poorest children will be left to sink, to disappear from mainstream society and remain a part of the so-called ‘under-class’. From birth, it would appear that the American government has chosen not to protect its citizens and thus renege on its obligations as a civilised nation.

It is not just in terms of healthcare, the American system (particularly under Bush) has displayed a blatant disregard for the ordinary working man/woman. Many Americans were proud of their achievement of being the ‘Most Productive’ workers, according to a UN report. But this reputation has come at a heavy price. Once again, the political leadership had a choice: protect the citizen, or allow them to sink. Once again, Bush chose the latter. Despite their reputation, the American worker suffers intolerable working standards. Unionisation is practically obsolete, with only 12.5% of workers owning union membership in 2005. Under Bush’s watch, the minimum wage has dropped from $5.84 in 2000 to $5.15 in 2005, the median family income dropped by $1,000 between 200 and 2004 and the lowest quintile saw its annual income after tax decrease by $200, while the top 1% saw their incomes grow by $53,000. The workers have been left to sink by Bush, while the wealthy continue to swim at a healthy pace.

The Bush administration has also failed to protect the rights of the indigenous people of America. When given the opportunity to vote on a treaty that set out the rights of the indigenous people, including protection of their human rights and their land, the United States was one of only four countries to vote against the treaty. Once again, we see how the Bush administration fails to abide by its obligations to protect all its citizens. In fact, its treatment of indigenous people has also been condemned by Amnesty International. Amnesty has claimed that:

Native American and Alaska Native women in the United States suffer disproportionately high levels of rape and sexual violence, yet the federal government has created substantial barriers to accessing justice, Amnesty International (AI) asserted in a 113-page report released today. Justice Department figures indicate that American Indian and Alaska Native women are 2.5 times more likely to be raped or sexually assaulted than women in the United States in general; more than one in three Native women will be raped in their lifetimes.

Native Americans are, like many other sections of society, left to sink to the bottom. The Bush administration has washed their hands of them, much like the poor and the workers.

But it is not just internal affairs that the Bush administration has failed the American people and endangered them, foreign policy has put America at risk like never before. The sympathy spawned from the attacks on 11th September, has been squandered as the US government seeks it tighten its grip on the world. However, the tighter they squeeze, the more anti-Americanism will grow. This in turn will lead to greater difficulties on the world stage and America’s increased isolation from the civilised world. This isolation will make all Americans vulnerable and put them at great risk. If current trends in foreign policy were to continue, the entire nation will sink without a trace.

In short, the American administration has done its best to ensure that the poor and the dispossessed sink to the bottom, while the wealthy rise to the top. If America is ever going to regain its status as a respected, civilised nation, it needs to stop threatening sovereign nations of the world and start focusing on the needs of the poor in their own country. Martin Luther King once said:

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

Forty-four years later, it remains a dream.

About the Author:

Name: korova
Age: 31
Country: England
Gender: Male
Website: Mask of Anarchy

Yfi from Iran on Freedom and World War II

noreply@blogger.com (Blog to America) — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 02:44:00 +0000

Dear America,

I have never been to your shores, but I feel that I need to share with you the important role which your country (and all it stands for) has played in my life. I was born in Germany in 1969. My parents were both War children. They were 5 when the Allies marched into what was left of the Reich. Mum grew up in the British sector and has many heart-breaking memories, not only of being bombed out twice, of a brother in a concentration camp due to political activity and of seeing her father killed, but also of the occupation time, when British soldiers were none too kind to little German urchins. My father however, lived in the American Sector. His war time experiences were just as horrific, but the evil was over (according to him) when the 'Amis' rolled into the little town. Initially immensely fearful, the American soldiers won him over with smiles, chocolate and rides on tanks. He describes how he realized (even as a little boy) that his family had been lied to about the Americans - that they were fair and kind, not imperialistic and cruel. He learned elementary English hanging around America soldiers. His family began to receive CARE parcels packed in the US and sent to starving families in occupied Germany. For the first time in all of his life (born in 1939), my dad and his siblings had enough to eat and even some small luxuries. My dad's impressions and recollections have had a profound effect on my own opinion- not so much of America (as a political idea...too much abject nonsense has happened recently), but of the basis of American democracy and human rights. I know from Dad that military intervention is possible for all the right reasons. It does not have to do with oil, etc. My German family never saw the Americans as anything other than liberators and enablers. I still believe in you and I will teach my children to do so also. God bless America.

About the Author:

Name: Yfi
Age: 38
Country: Australia
Gender: Female
Occupation: Teacher
Experience With US: Never Visited the United States

Redwing from Germany - The New Age Empire

noreply@blogger.com (Blog to America) — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 00:29:00 +0000

Dear America,

Excuse me if my English isn't perfect but I guess you will understand what i want to say.

I just want to say that I despise and hate the USA. The USA have forgotten it's rebellious origin and it's liberation fight against the British Empire. Since the end of World War II they've become an empire themselves. They suppress people around the whole world and can't accept that there are more and more of them which shit on the mendacious so called American way of life. They talk about democracy and freedom but they're just interested in might and money. In Vietnam they supported a dictator which canceled the elections because he saw that he won't win them. And then the USA fought against the justified peoples resistance. In Chile the USA pushed a cruel dictator with in neighbour states trained personal terrorists and local people's suppressors to the government and crushed a wonderful socialist democracy and a peoples president (Allende). In Grenada it was almost the same, except of the fact, that the USA lead the Invasion by themselves. They destroyed social hopes of the people and supported dictators!
Especially Latin America was suppressed by that new age empire which thought the whole continent belongs to them and other countries there are just cheap and obeying satellites.

And then take a look at more current times. The USA raid the Iraq and tell us something about mass destruction weapons and liberation but these all are damn lies. There are no mass destruction weapons in the Iraq - unfortunately, because this would have been an impressive defensive measure against evil Invaders from west. The USA have surely more mass destruction weapons than any other nation but dare to forbid and allow other countries to have it or not. The Iraq had been no threat for the world but the USA proved many times that they are. Is there a nation which lead more wars? The USA always fight in foreign countries and dare to talk about defense. In Iraq they just want oil and a bigger presence in the Arab region. They want to expand they're new age empire, like Romans have done in the past. But notice: every empire failed one day. ;-)

The USA expands mass poverty inside the nation and in the world. They keep an evil political system which ends always in crisis- like in world war 2- and in which the absolute majority of all people just can lose. Capitalism is a dark realm of a rich minority- and this means that the system cant work. But the USA defend it despite of that and cause desperation, suppression and poverty. It's not surprising that the resistance in the world against that special kind of terrorism is getting bigger and bigger. The USA talk about cowardly "terrorists" but just dare to fight them miles away from the air with missiles. THIS is cowardly. And they absolutely cant distinguish between origin and result- like the most rulers. They cant or they just don't want.

And take a look inside, man. Over 35 millions in the USA live already in extreme poverty and more and more people have to do two or three jobs a day just to survive. This is no live and no good circumstance. This is f*cking hell- the American way of existing. And it's getting worse and worse. There are so large differences of wealth- and it's a damn minority which has and gets it almost all. This is no justice. And this global tyranny of a rich minority and especially the government of the USA want to force the rest oft all mankind to accepts this system and suffer for it. But we won't- we won't. We don't let us influence by the naive US-propaganda as such easy as us-Americans. ;-) And even they will more and more wake up in the face of that failing capitalistic hell.

Yours Redwing- German neosocialist and webfighter :-)

A hail to the revolution!

PS: Thanks to your mad president because he showed the rest oft the world the true face of the USA better than many presidents before!

About the Author:

Name: Redwing
Age: 28
Country: Germany
City: Bremen
State: Bremen
Gender: Male
Income: Low
Experience With US: Never Visited the United States

Sarmad from Iraq - Where is the New Iraq?

noreply@blogger.com (Blog to America) — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 08:28:00 +0000

Dear America,

I really don't know from were I should start. From my own problems to the Iraqi's, generally it's been nearly two years since I stopped writing and the main reason was the disappointing situation...yes the disappointing. Is this the new Iraq? This was what we wished to have? Is this the new style of life? At the beginning every thing was okay, and we were saying "no problem". The important thing was we got rid of the dictatorship there. We are after four and half years later and Iraq has gone from dictatorship to the old dark ages. Iraq the country of nations and foundation of humanity sinking in rivers of blood and killings and poorness and thieves and only the name stayed Iraq and every thing else is gone. Who is responsible? Is it us or the others?
All we wanted was simple things. Is it hard to have a these things without these losses? It was very expensive payment, my heart is breaking, and I see my country loses everything...even the simple things that we didn't want anymore.

About the Author:

Name: Sarmad Zangna
Age: 31
Country: Iraq
City: Baghdad
Gender: Male
Income: Medium
Occupation: Engineer.
Experience With US: Never Visited the United States
Website: http://www.roadofanation.blogspot.com

Lenin from United Kingdom - On Death Wishes

noreply@blogger.com (Blog to America) — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 06:52:00 +0000

Dear America,

Try to contain your delight at hearing from an epigone of Lenin.

You may wish to know that your continent is surrounded by vast areas of the world that wish you no specific harm. I refer, of course, to the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Everywhere else has it in for you. I mean it. Even loyal serfs like South Korea are turning against you, despite the fact that they have clearly modeled their flag on your excellent PepsiCola product (mmm mmm). Poll after global poll finds that most people consider the United States the world's most greatest threat to peace. Like you, and dear President Bush, I have not the slightest understanding of how this state of affairs can have come about, but I am told that it may have something to do with the habit of American governments to initiate wars and, where they don't initiate them, to escalate them to insane peaks of global danger, from the threat to use atomic weapons against North Korea in 1950-1, to the refusal to reunify Germany as a neutral state and the subsequent threat of a hot war with Kruschev, to the Cuban missile crisis in which Kennedy contemplate global nuclear war.

I am further informed that opinion was soured by near-genocidal violence in Korea after the march past the 38th parallel, in Vietnam before and after the march across the 19th parallel, and in the remainder of Indochina in the same period. The use of right-wing dictatorships and death squads to avert outcomes unamenable to American elite interests has also invested an otherwise fine continental principality with a suspicious poo-taint. Lately, certain people (namely, the world) have taken exception to a global war for dominance counterintuitively dubbed the 'war on terror'. I respect and trust Americans too much to believe that they have ever been taken in by that appelation, but it is now beyond your province, and mine.

Amreekans will naturally understand that I personally would wish to enhance their global standing and protect them from global wrath. May I therefore recommend you take the earliest opportunity to overthrow your government, socialise the means of production, distribution and exchange under the control of democratic workers councils, reduce your massive 'defense' industry to what is necessary to defend your land mass and only your land mass, and convert the trillions spent on war-making into useful production and services. Not only would it benefit most Americans to so transform their conditions, but it would also invite countless billions to relax their batties and stop dragging the stars and stripes across the epicentre of their chutney pipes each morning.

Meanwhile, I and my Bolshevik armies will sneak up on America via the Panama Canal and - d'oh!

About the Author:

Name: Lenin
Age: 30
Country: United Kingdom
City: London
Gender: Male
Experience With US: Never Visited the United States
Website: http://leninology.blogspot.com

Laonick from Australia - Burma: Why does the USA Give a Stuff?

noreply@blogger.com (Blog to America) — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 23:27:00 +0000

Dear America,

You have been asleep for more than 40 years. Your human rights in Vietnam and all the way through the years to Guantanamo Bay Prison Camp is pitiful and now nothing more than a protected chicken pen. The rights of the prisoners are non existent and they are subject to great humility.

I want to get this across because of the human rights issues the USA continuously accuses ASIAN countries of breeching. There seems to be double standards in many areas however the ASIAN countries are far more open, especially compared to secret flights by the CIA into and out of Europe with suspected terrorists who hadn't been charged and other prisoners in Guantanamo who haven't been charged after years of being there and held captive.

Please explain this to the world. We are ready to listen to your 'Human Rights excuse' if you have one.

The world seems to be focusing on Burma now. Why? Maybe to give Iraq a rest.

It would be nice to watch the news for 1 night and not hear a story from Iraq and how many soldiers died, then how many more civilians died in the latest suicide bombing but, if it wasn't for this splatter of blood on the cogwheel of fortune, then why the hell would any them be there?
How many tons of oil were exported today to the USA or Europe compared to 2004?

Give the people some figures and then we might check them out too. Just to keep you Government Departments on the right track. Or tell us where we can find this information.

Thanks.

Nick

About the Author:

Name: Laonick
Age: 43
Country: Australia
Gender: Male

Jacquie from Canada - Why are U.S. women deprived of help?

noreply@blogger.com (Blog to America) — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 20:06:00 +0000

Dear America,

I'll limit my letter to you to one tiny topic - the availability of nitrous oxide gas to labouring women in the U.S. You might think this is an odd topic on which to focus...but it's indicative of the insanity of the U.S. health care system.

From up here in Canada, it is shocking to discover that hardly any U.S. women have access to something that we take for granted. It's simple, cost-effective, and makes sense.

So, here's the stats:

In 2004, there were 4,115,590 births in the U.S.

The epidural rate in most U.S. hospitals range between 60 and 90%.

Each epidural, including the anethesiologist, costs between $700 and $1200.

If you calculate the cost, using the lowest rate and cost...that’s $1,728,547,800 spent on epidurals in the U.S.

Why? Because certain people (doctors, insurance companies, hospital administrators - take your pick...) made sure there was no alternative.

In Canada, and many other countries, nitrous oxide gas is available for pain relief in labour. No doctors orders are required for its use. No anesthesiologist is required for its use. There is no waiting period necessary. Its effects start immediately. It is cheap and simple.

With a portable system, a woman can remain mobile, even in the shower, and use the nitrous oxide gas, thus making her labour faster and easier.

In Canada, 70% of my own clients use nitrous oxide gas in labour and require no other pain relief. We save the medical system a lot of money this way. It just makes sense.

Now, tell me...why does the United States only have nitrous oxide available to labouring women in ONLY 2 birthing centres? That's maybe a few hundred, or even a few thousand women, who are given this alternative.

Why do the women in the U.S. get epidurals...or nothing? I think that's easy to answer.

It’s just one tiny example of a health system gone wrong.

Sorry, I can’t admire a country that places greed before logic.

Name: Jacquie
Age: 47
Country: Canada
Gender: Female
Income: Medium
Occupation: Birth Consultant
Experience With US: Visited the United States

Leza from South Africa on Religion

noreply@blogger.com (Blog to America) — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 01:30:00 +0000

Dear America,

We all want to be heard. Please bear with my ramblings, you'll be able to see my point in amongst the waffle.
Ah yes, about being heard.
Whether on a personal scale with the people around us or for the
rest of us with bigger mouths, in our community or dare I say it globally!
We now have many vehicles in which to explore and expand our level of communication
with one another and as this happens we all come to the realization that;
1. We are all the same.
2. We are all suffering.
As bleak as that sounds!
Some of us are suffering on a level that the rest of us would only experience in our darkest dreaming.
Some of us suffer physically, some mentally, some emotionally. But the bottom line is, we all suffer.
Some of our suffering seems so lubricious and trivial to others that had we the momentary ability to see ourselves from their eyes we would cease our histrionics immediately and feeling slightly silly, get our heads out of our arses. Or other peoples arses for that matter.
The Dalai Lama has the opinion that we all wish to be happy. When asked the question.
What is the purpose of life? He answers.
"I believe that the purpose of life is to be happy. From the moment of birth, every human being wants happiness and does not want suffering"
Now do we believe that Georgey Junior wants to suffer?
Is he maybe a bit of a masochist?
What makes him happy?
Did his childhood conditioning somehow warp his mind into believing that his past and current courses of action are morally sound?
Maybe being the worlds biggest wanker makes him happy?
Or maybe it is the unsettling fact that he is a born again christian which keeps his happiness topped up and buoyant.
Safe in the knowledge that which ever atrocities he commits, it will all be just hunky doray because he has god on his side!
The horror, the mind numbing, desperate horror of it all.
Now.
I believe religion is the cause of ALL OUR PROBLEMS.
It may seem like a sweeping statement but look around and you can see the evidence piling up.
I am reading Richard Dawkins The God Delusion and having had that sneaking suspicion that arrogant,
religious bigotry is the fundamental cause of war and strife on our planet,
I am glad that such a brilliant mind has actually compiled such book to get the truth out there.
And because I am not a good debater and my points tend to get side tracked too much anyway, I have personally willed
Richard Dawkins into my reality. Clever hey? And as a by-product he is now in other peoples realities too.
So hopefully we can all do what Rage against the machine suggested a few years back and WAKE UP!
All we have to do is speak up when challenged, change our own minds and wait for Rupert Sheldrake's Morphic resonance to do the rest.

But from my own very limited experience I have found that the greatest degree of inner tranquility
comes from the development of love and compassion for all sentient beings. As hard as that can be sometimes.
Now America, I know how it feels to feel fear. It has been part of my experience and still can be.
But I choose, remember that word? I choose not to indulge fear anymore. There is a higher path
available to all of us at all times. A history and culture of fear is undoubtedly hard to change, but not impossible.

Apparently Atheists are the least trusted people in America. My word. What does that mean?
Would someone who had formed that opinion, be chatting away to me quite happily about the business I run and pay taxes for,
the yoga classes I teach to bring a calmness into my part of the world, my family who I love and respect, the charity that I support ....., you get the picture.
Would they upon hearing that I do not believe in their god or any god for that matter, take a little step backwards? Their little shaking hands pressed
to their lips. Would they immediately gather up their children and leave my company?
Muttering as they fled that they felt something funny when they saw my three tattoos anyway.
I wonder which group of people Atheists would deem the least trustworthy? I'm not sure about anyone else but I try not
to put people into groups, it seems a recipe for disaster and quite stunningly lazy.

But clearly we need a new paradigm. and lets be fast about it please.
Religion is obviously not working. And luckily having free will, we can we look for a philosophy that is better suited.
I believe that philosophy could be Buddhism. Remembering that we all possess the Buddha nature, yes even George,
and at anytime we can tap into that nature and attain a higher level of understanding regarding the other people we share our planet with.
If you have never read anything about Buddhism please I encourage you to.
Be open minded, think beyond your conditioning, you're family history, your country's majority view point, your fears and hopefully your prejudices.
I've enclosed a prayer written by His Holiness in 1960.
I hope that this prayer can be read by those who dearly need to read it and that it is indeed quickly fulfilled.

Respect.
Leza McLeod
Yoga teacher + designer.
Johannesburg
South Africa.

About the Author:

Name: Leza McLeod
Age: 35
Country: South Africa
City: Johannesburg
State: Gauteng
Gender: Female
Income: Medium
Occupation: Goldsmith and Yoga Teacher
Experience With US: Visited the United States
Website: www.elementalstudio.co.za

Carmen from New Zealand on Democracy

noreply@blogger.com (Blog to America) — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 07:14:00 +0000

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

Carmen from New Zealand - America Is Hey.....America..

noreply@blogger.com (Blog to America) — Sun, 27 May 2007 18:25:00 +0000

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

Ottavio from Australia

noreply@blogger.com (Blog to America) — Sun, 06 May 2007 15:48:00 +0000

Dear America,

A stated on my weblog, I believe America plays a critical role on the world stage. For all intensive purposes, current "World Order" is stable and predictable in-part due, to the economic, technological, military and diplomatic superpower we know as the The United States. Whether acknowledged or not it is in the world's interest that the U.S. continues to exact its present worldly economic, political, cultural and military influence. An influence that extends to leadership in scientific and technological research and the production of innovative technology based products and services. Our democratic way of life, our economies and our national security, are irrevocably tied to a secure world order - an order, to which the present day United States is at the heart, as the pre-eminent driver of internationalism. Compare this, to the global instability that existed in the first 20 years of the past century and its link to the two world wars that followed.

My blog, although new, shall hopefully serve as a platform of advocacy for the continuation of American dominance because as stated before me, America must remain strong.

Just briefly, I also wish to add that I am proud of my Federal Governments unwavering support for America's war on terrorism.

About the Author:

Name: Ottavio Marasco
Age: 45
Country: Australia
City: Melbourne
Gender: Male
Income: Medium
Experience With US: Never Visited the United States
Website: http://americasinterests.blogspot.com/

Bman from Australia

noreply@blogger.com (Blog to America) — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 06:02:00 +0000

Dear America,

It's always hard to make an unbiased opinion on something. Somewhat contradictory, but I'll give it a shot.

America is no doubt one of the most important countries in the world, and is currently the world's super power. Their export market is high and their military is strong. The country has made many alliances and friend countries, and on the other hand many enemies.

The thing I love about America is what most people would also agree to; the music, film industry, clothing, television shows. Much of this is part of my everyday life and I give thanks to that (considering I think Australian tv shows are just weak).

On the other hand some things about America will always make my blood boil. ..

Government, the bush administration and higher military levels and their poor judgment in the Iraq liberation campaign. I'm a strong believer in the concept that the Iraq war was a scapegoat for Bush. Saddam was a bad man, and his capture was a good day in Iraqi history, but it just torn the country apart. The US troops along with other in the coalition killed many innocent Iraqi civilians in the bombings, and to this day many are still dying from car bombs etc. Many soldiers families will be sad to hear that their son, father, or husband will never come back, all because of some top rank idiots. To me, the Iraq war is pointless, and has more bad points than benefits.

Apart from that, I think the American gun culture is disgraceful. America has has the most murders in any 1st world country, and will always be that way thanks to their stupid constitutional right to bear arms. How many more school massacres have to happen before something is done? Take a guess, its as good as mine.

Another small thing is just general racism. From my perspective America has just recently got over the black (African American) racism that plagued the land for the last 100 years. Blacks are okay to be called blacks, and are accepted as the norm in society along with whites. But now there is a new accepted hatred of the middle eastern orientations. I can't pick that out too much though, its exactly the same here in Australia. I just think our countries need to be a bit more open minded.

Don't get me wrong, no country is perfect. But these are just my thoughts. I wish a good day to everyone reading this.

About the Author:

Name: Bman
Age: 19
Country: Australia
City: Sydney
State: NSW
Gender: Male
Income: Medium
Occupation: Liquor Salesman
Experience With US: Never Visited the United States
Website: http://b-t-2-3.150m.com

Lord Le Stat from India - America As Seen By An Indian

noreply@blogger.com (Blog to America) — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 04:29:00 +0000

Dear America,

This is Lord Le Stat from India. A few days ago, I got an e-mail from your MySpace ID, stating that you would like to have my views about your country.

It is with this regard that I am writing to you.

First and foremost, I love America for it has given me the greatest love of my life, i.e. Rock music. Secondly, I admire the respect that your country shows to individuals and organizations with respect to privacy, intellectual property rights, human rights and how can I not state the "engine" which drives your nation, i.e. capitalism, though not perfect, its good for your country to a certain extent.

I also admire the multi-culturalism that is very much present in your country. If you'd asked me for an opinion about your country a few years back let's say 10 years back, maybe I would not have been bothered to say anything, because I believe that only a decade or so back did racial minorities in your country, primarily, African Americans/Blacks got the respect, which they very well deserved and started being treated as equals.

It is very good to see that your country takes great care of its citizens and also its minorities, i.e. religious, ethnic, linguistic and so on and so forth.

What is also amazing is that you country is the most powerful country in this world, as of now, and like my country, we showed the Brits, who the Boss was, when they colonized our respective nations.

Freedom of speech, highest regard for education and entrepreneurship are something which will help your nation in long term, as they are doing now.

But, like every other thing in life, your nation too isn't without flaws, when I say this, I am talking about your country's foreign policy, vis-a-vis, India & Pakistan.

The US Administration has and will continue to harbour hegemonically ambitions, which too a certain extent are megalomanical, which hasn't always worked out good for US, what with Osama Bin Laden proving to be a Frankenstein's Monster and Russia's recent rise is again not a cause for happiness.

Playing two nations against each other, point in case, rapproachment with India, with whom relations were nothing to speak about during the Cold War, against China, is going to do no good to the US, because if the US continues to do so, it will prove that the US is either ignorant of the term, Frankstein's Monster or is too blinded by its selfishness [selfishness to a certain extent is good, not 100% selfishness = path to self destruction]

If the US could show some sincerity and shed the baggage of hypocrisy, that it has shown while dealing with nations, I believe it would benefit US and other nations.

Last but not the least, I look forward to better and improved relations between India and the US and hope that our two great nations, who not only are the most tolerant, vibrant and greatest democracies and economies of the world, do something for the betterment of the world.

About the Author:

Name: Lord Le Stat
Age: 24
Country: India
Gender: Male
Income: Medium
Experience With US: Never Visited the United States
Website: www.myspace.com/abhimanyu

Behrouz from Iran

noreply@blogger.com (Blog to America) — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 04:23:00 +0000

Dear America,

Voice of America (VOA) is spending lots of money on its Persian TV programs. They just tell us the problems which we, who live in Iran, already know. When people in Iran call them and tell them that we already know these problems, please show us a way to solve these problems, VOA says that our job is to give you info we cannot show you the solutions. This is useless. American tax payers are wasting their money. This is how VOA should do:

1. Some Iranians don't trust America because of the U.S. sponsored coup in 1953 in Iran. According to CIA, America overthrew our legal government at that time. America must accept its mistake in the past and assure Iranians that now we both are in the same side. By toppling Mullahs, America brings security for Americans and Iranians. Both nations will benefit from regime change in Iran. I am sure Iranian people will forgive what America did in 1953.

2. Try to unite Iranian opposition group and ask them to forget their differences. Try to show Iranian people how they can change the regime.

3. Try to find a political leader and interim government for us. Iranian people need a leader and interim government to overthrow the Mullahs.

4. This new leader must travel to Russia, China, and Europe and convince them not to support Mullahs anymore.

If VOA does the above, the Iranian regime will fall and the American tax payers will save their money and we will have peace in the whole world because Iranian regime is the only threat to the world peace.

Thanks,

About the Author:

Name: Behrouz
Age: 43
Country: Iran
City: Tehran
Gender: Male
Experience With US: Have lived in the United States
Website: www.myspace.com/beh1

Rushay from South Africa

noreply@blogger.com (Blog to America) — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 01:14:00 +0000

Dear America,

God bless America!?
Questions my mind, this mass hysteria!

How do this happen?
Why them, this day?
Painful queries in their hearst will stay!
Scarred souls are born today
Rest in Peace!, innocent souls you may!

Can't take this anymore!
Shoot to kill, thats the way to even the score!
Wait, there's more. Use deadly planes, to crush them all to the floor!
Oh shameful souls answer this? Why? What for?

Hypocritical administrations, corrupt corporations, lies to the nations!
This has all but stretched your patience!
Wisely stimulate, your mind intellectually
Your trigger-finger, sees the illusions eventually.

Destructive measures are not effective
Ask God, the greatest detective!
Peace and understanding, love and compassion
Ask it too much of those who live in cold-hearted fashion?

Thus i have written, for all to see
Could there still be, an American dream for you and me?

Maybe someone can answer my friend Lance?

About the Author:

Name: Rushay
Country: South Africa
Gender: Male
Occupation: Musician
Website: http://www.myspace.com/rushay

Hamid from Iran

noreply@blogger.com (Blog to America) — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 00:54:00 +0000

Dear America,

U.S.A is the country that I've never been there & I think I will never be there!
But this country is very important for me because my favourite singer & some other Iranian artists are living there (because our dictator regime has forbidden their art in Iran!!!).

In other hand, U.S government claims that they want freedom for Iranian people but they do nothing for it!

These days they are only disagreement with nuclear energy in Iran.

I don't know is Islamic Republic searching for atomic bomb or not, but I know abundant attention to this affair, cause to deviate world opinions about human rights in Iran.

Here we cannot express our opinions freely, women have to wear a large veil to cover her body and hair, in university we have to study religion & Islamic subjects and there are a lot of problems..

I just wanna say this:
Nuclear Energy in not most important problem in Iran, please open your eyes...

Sorry for my bad English!!!

Thanks for your attention to my letter your sincerely,

Hamid from Iran

About the Author:

Name: Hamid
Age: 19
Country: Iran
City: Tehran
Gender: Male
Experience With US: Never Visited the United States
Website: www.myspace.com/hamid_sandyfan

Tu from Vietnam

noreply@blogger.com (Blog to America) — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 03:46:00 +0000

Dear America,

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070417/ap_on_re_us/virginia_tech_shooting

That's it! I wasn't sure what exactly I should write on this blog until now, after reading the article about the "shooting in Virginia Tech". 33 death, with 27-29 wounded. How do you explain that?

Somebody have told me that Gun control is not the ultimate solution for this school/random shooting in America, but education does. Haven't American been educating their people to love, to respect nature, that war is negative, and that shooting people is bad and illegal? And yet these kind of issues still continue to happen, and they get worse and worse by time.

"Until Monday [prior to the Virginia Tech school shooting], the deadliest shooting in modern U.S. history was in Killeen, Texas, in 1991, when George Hennard plowed his pickup truck into a Luby's Cafeteria and shot 23 people to death, then himself.

Previously, the deadliest campus shooting in U.S. history was a rampage that took place in 1966 at the University of Texas at Austin, where Charles Whitman climbed the clock tower and opened fire with a rifle from the 28th-floor observation deck. He killed 16 people before he was shot to death by police."

These are fact! And I say that even though gun control might not be the ultimate solution, but I believe it is our temporary solution that need to be implemented to solve this problem, to reduce the risk for innocent people, and to give American more feeling of safety.

Anybody oppose?

About the Author:

Name: Tu
Age: 24
Country: Vietnam
City: Ho Chi Minh
Gender: Female
Occupation: Accountant/Finance
Experience With US: Have lived in the United States

Behrouz from Iran

noreply@blogger.com (Blog to America) — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 03:34:00 +0000

Dear America,

I live in Tehran/Iran. I want to establish "Federal Republic Of Iran". I want to educate people of the world how barbaric Islamic laws are. Iranians must wake up soon. Mullahs will start World War III by firing atomic bombs to Israel and U.S. bases in the Middle East. They have to be stopped either by Iranian oppositions or by U.S. Invasion. Since there will be no unity among Iranian oppositions, therefore we have no other choice and U.S. invasion is our only chance. If Mullahs start Nuclear War, millions of Iranians will die but in U.S. invasion only a few will die. Which one is better?

About the Author:

Name: Behrouz
Age: 43
Country: Iran
Webiste: http://www.myspace.com/beh1

Kiwi Girl from New Zealand - What the Media Has Shown Me

noreply@blogger.com (Blog to America) — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 07:59:00 +0000

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

Richard from Sudan - A Beam of Light!

noreply@blogger.com (Blog to America) — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 06:41:00 +0000

Dear America,

Firstly I would like to thank the Blog to America site for inviting me!! I would equally admit that I've never been to America, and not even willing to (unlike me compatriots in Sudan)!!

I'm going to start from the issue of migration!!

I think that USA has become a super power not because God blessed America with talented people more than anywhere else, but because America had managed and still managing to seduce all the scientist of different specialties from all over the globe, mainly from Russia, German and other small countries including my "my underdeveloped" SUDAN!!
I'm not blaming America, of course, and no one should even think of that, but I'm rather blaming those Immigrants who betrayed their countries and went to sell their knowledge and experience in America for the sake of better life standards!!

My LATE MOTHER once told me that a "TOOCOOL" on your home land better than a castle on a foreign land, because there you'll never feel "HOME" and I think all the foreigners in America including my ELDER BROTHER must reconsider their residence in America, and answer these questions!! What have you done for your home land? Are you really feeling home in America? Do you feel/think that you have the same rights as the real Americans do? I understand that your reasons to migrate was political at most, but have you really solved the problem by immigration? I think escape is never a solution for any situation, but they are rather solved by facing and struggling to make a change!!

When it comes to politics, where I'm not having much interest, I can make a humble comments on the American foreign policy!!

I might agree with them upon the Moral issues like the fight for liberation of people from dictators like Saddam Hussein, but I completely disagree with the selectivity!! because there's no justice in that at all, it's fare to judge a criminal for a guilt, but injust to judge some and leave others!! So if America wanna be just, they should deal with the criminals on an equal base!!
Let's take the invasion of IRAQ as an example, the American government underestimated the Iraqi people right from the start!!

They thought that they will get the mission accomplished in three month and come home with what they could carry, but the reality that they found there was a way far from that!!
till now the Pentagon is not showing the real figures of the troops killed in Iraq!!
And everyday a new bomb attract and more Americans die!!

I'm sure they are thinking day and night about how to end this, but I think this's not gonna end soon!! They cannot move out, because Iraq will be a pore for terrorist, and they will after that come to get you!! And if you stay we'll never be able to stop their attacks!! I'm not supporting them, but I'm saying that you did a very big mistake by getting in there at the first place!!

And president Bush as long as his in charge will keep committing more and more American young men to Iraq, and more insurgencies but as a matter of fact he's just giving militants more targets to shoot!!!

I hope that America learns a lesson from Iraq and never repeats the same mistake in Iran!!
to be continued.......

About the Author:

Name: Richard L. Janda
Age: 20
Country: Sudan
City: Omdurman
State: Khartoum
Gender: Male
Income: Low
Occupation: Student
Experience With US: Never Visited the United States
Website: www.mysapce.com/lodoro