h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Indeed... It certainly is, and I am a little annoyed by it. (But not surprised...)
It's been a while since I was here, or so it seems, but it was less than a week. Am I addicted, or what?
Yesterday, I heard John Asshcroft on the BBC WS, and I thought, this guy has really lost his little glass gaming spheres! He urged people to be on the lookout for members of Al Qaeda, who might be planning the new attack (about which he has "credible intelligence". (Riiiight...)
"They may be trying to look innocent by travelling with their families, or disguised as Europeans", said Mr Aashcroft. Hey, they could be anyone! Your mail carrier, your baby's nanny, your local GP, all could secretly be terrorists. Ghaccckkk! We are all in danger - panic and scream! This is just truly, deeply ... I feel so pleased that we are not in the USA - I know there are perfectly reasonable Americans, but they are not the ones we hear about. A New Zealander, Andreas Schafer, was missing for 3 months, and it develops that he was in American custody in Iraq. Thing is, his parents and the NZ government had been told by the American authorities, that they didn't know anything about him.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3568747&thesection=news&thesubsection=general
Check it out!
It's infuriating.

hello Della,

reading this made me think of the Australian government, not long after sept 11, all australians recieved a mail out on terrorism, that told us to 'be alert, but not alarmed', it contained a fridge magnet, so now all aussie fridges are safe from terrorism

The cost.... some several million dollars

Btw I returned my to the sender, as did rather alot of other aussies, this money could have been better spent on education or healthcare......

also, I am coming 'home'(for the first time in 18 years,more then half my life has been spent here in australia) to NZ at chrissy time and would like to get to know you better.......

Hi, Helelou2, nice to hear from you!
There was an Aussie sketch comedy on here last year, I don't remember what it was called! - and they had parodies of the "be alert but not alarmed" adverts.
Fridge magnets? Oh my.
We still have a Y2K preparedness one on our fridge. (All faded and manky since 1999...)
I didn't know you were a NZer! My email is on my introduction - do send an email, and when you get back, we can meet up, that would be great! (I live in Auckland, right by Unitec, formerly known as Carrington various things!)

"The cost.... some several million dollars"

You probably got a better value for your money than we've gotten in Iraq--over a hundred billion spent (probably a lot more coming) and all we've gotten is a lot of dead soldiers, a lot more enemies, and a mess we don't know how to fix. At least you got nice magnets out of it.

"They may be trying to look innocent by travelling with their families, or disguised as Europeans",

So does this mean that "looking innocent" puts you under suspition now

"disguised as Europeans" What about if they *are* Europeans

With leaders like this who needs terrorists?

one love

<>

Exactly!

As a reasonable American--I'll let you be the judge if I'm perfect or not--I'd like to throw in a few comments.

So much of the "panic and scream" mentality you mentioned comes on the heels of congressional hearings that pointed out everything the US intelligence community did wrong pre-911. Now, I believe there was precious little we could've done to prevent planes from crashing into us--which snippet of terrorist information were we to take seriously out of the thousands of potential threats received? It remains, however, a American right--I'm sure it's in the Constitution somewhere--to finger point. Nothing makes us feel better than to place the blame on someone else. Ashcroft's paranoic decree's are made as much to warn an already jittery public as it is to cover the collective backside of the US government. We don't want to get caught with our guard down again and have to point the finger again. Quite frankly, I'd rather have Ashcroft warn me of an impending threat than overlook it and waste even more lives.

So, how do most of us deal with all this in the US? We get up each morning, have breakfast and go to work. If we spot a Muslim extremist with explosives strapped to his chest, we call Homeland Security and the FBI. Quite simple really.

I'm not surprised you don't hear a lot about "reasonable Americans." We don't hear a lot about "Iraqi successes." Every US soldier that dies, every Iraqi prisoner that's abused is spotlighted ad nauseum by the American press. We can debate indefinitely whether the US was truly justified to go to war, but the fact remains that there really are some quiet corners in Iraq (that weren't quiet during Saddam's regime) where calm now prevails and a small sense of normalcy is returning. Unfortunately, that's not considered "news".

It's an odd time to be an American. We want to support our government's actions abroad, but a steady stream of bad news makes it more difficult each day. And yet, as a nation, we'll circle the wagons to defend the US against negative opinion abroad, even if we understand where you're coming from. Americans have gotten used to being disliked by foreign countries, but we close ranks when we're being vilified.

Anyway, enough political discussion (for the time being). The only reason I came here was because I thought you had an interesting name. I should've just said hello and been done with it.

Damn American . . . never knows when to shut up, does he?


Tim

Why do people when talking about US-Americans always refer to them as “the” Americans? sorry, but this is a very bad habit.
I’m Austrian, and when I want to say that Austrians are disliked or whatever I don’t say “I know Europeans are disliked at the moment.” I can’t blame Spain, Norway, Croatia, Greece or any other country for something that Austrians have done wrong.
So why do we talk about US-Americans as if they were the only ones on their continent? IMO this is discriminating against all the other countries in North-, Central-, and South-America.

katkodl

Hello, Tim, nice to meet you! No, it seems to me the USA was definitely not right to go into Iraq. That's all there is to it, because there is no proof, and never was or will be, that Iraq had anything to do with what happened on 9/11. That being said, it's good to have your perspective on things.
Are you aware of the Inside Bushwatch site? It's well worth reading. Ashcroft is, to me, a really scary guy, and his statement about Islamic terrorists 'disguised as Europeans' struck me as bizarre - and dangerous! Anyone could be arrested under those criteria! How do you identify a Muslim terrorist is s/he does not have explosive visibly strapped to her chest?
Still - greetings!

Katkodl, you are right, it's shorthand, and it is discriminatory. I shall be careful to refer to US-Americans...