Travelling with Americans

AOG, Madrid

Last weekend, after spending a few days with my partner, I flew from Barcelona back to Madrid. 

As I waited to board the plane, I noticed a man and his young son watching a soccer match between Germany and Greece on television. Because it was soccer, at first I thought that they were German. 

However, after a while, I overheard them speak and realised they were American. Yes, I was slightly shocked that somebody from the US would like soccer.

As luck would have it, they sat next to me on the plane, and we spent the entire flight, from take off to landing, talking about Europe and the US.

It was very interesting to hear him speak. After a few minutes he realised I was for Obama and never liked Bush, and I realised that he didn’t like President Obama at all and was very pro Bush.

We spoke, however, without acrimony, and listening to what the other had to say in a very amicable way. 

I was very surprised about what he said. It was like his views were taken from an alternative reality. From a parallel-universe America. 

“But President Obama is destroying our economy!”

“Of course we did nation-building in Iraq. Look at how grateful they all are.”

“How are American oil companies benefitting from the invasion of Iraq They have not received one dollar. How can you say that when ,today in the US, a gallon of gas is over $5.00?”

“We had to invade Afghanistan because they were harbouring and protecting Osama Bin Laden. What were we supposed to do?”

I don’t pretend to have all the answers, or even half the answers, but I was surprised that a man who grew up and lived in California was so misinformed. So one-sided. 

Here and there I would point out the general European view about America and its policies, both at home and abroad to the father.

“I have been reading the European media, and they only concentrate on the bad side, they never tell you about the good stuff in America”, he said at one point.

I have to say that the conversation was very challenging. His son, who was 15, had just spent an entire year studying Spanish in Salamanca, Spain’s Oxford. And his son loved soccer, so he loved soccer too.

I say this because this man was a nice person who loved his family and had worked hard to support it. 

I say this because he told me and his son so during the flight.

“How many birthdays did I miss? How many games?”

His son nodded in silence.

This man was now in semi-retirement but he must have been in his early to mid 50s. 

As the conversation went on, I tried to tell him about the other side of the spectrum when it came to some of the things he spoke about.

And I have to say that, to his credit, he went quiet very often and didn’t fly off the handle at any one point. 

Perhaps what I was telling him he had heard already, or maybe he is capable of independent thought and, when given new data, he processed it in silence. 

Or maybe he was ultra polite and thought I was just a stupid liberal living in Europe. 

His son, by contrast, did not really join in to defend his father's views. He would nod, however, whenever the European side was expressed. 

I don't know if he fully agreed with it, but, at least, he had been exposed to a different perspective for one year of his life. Unilateral views, for this boy, were no longer an option. 

I mentioned that, in the case of 9-11 and what happened in Afghanistan, perhaps invading an entire country to eventually kill one guy was not the best thing we could have done. That entire families had been killed by Western soldiers in the pursuit of one man. That I didn’t see the justification.

"But they, the Taliban, were harboring a terrorist!"

I mentioned that, as he had mentioned, the middle class in America was shrinking, and that this was very strange since, in the 1960s, when America was not as rich as it is today, the middle class was not shrinking, in fact, it had been growing steadily since WWII. 

That back then, and for many years afterwards, the world looked to America for guidance. But that was not the case today.

“So people hate us?”

“Some do, but then our foreign policy gives them little choice.”

“So what are we meant to do?”

“Not invade countries would be a good way to start.”

“So, are you saying invading Iraq was a mistake? Look at all the good we did.”

“We did good when, after WWII, we took up the cause of nation-building in Germany and Japan. But we didn’t do that, and have not done that, in Iraq.”

He was very surprised to hear this. His facial expressions were very interesting to watch. I think that at times he had a hard time taking in this new perspective. 

And then we went on to speak about his son’s future; and his own future.

“If you want to open a restaurant, why don’t you go to college? Take some courses; you have experience, how about some economic theory and new business concepts?”

“Dad I told you to do that!”

And then he told me about his new “job”, managing his younger son who wants to act.

And about how he needs to help his wife out, and look out for his  soccer-loving 15 year old’s college career.

And that of his other son from another marriage, but which they never talked about.

And I realised what a great father this guy probably was, and how unfortunate that he was a bit of a poster child for the dangers of misinformation and a lacking education. 

At one point he asked me if the sun was a planet just like the Earth and about how European countries managed to have free health care and not break the bank.

“Socialism just does not work, look at the Euro!”

And, when I got home, I turned on my television and, during my channel surf in search of BBC World, chanced upon Fox News.

US Iran To Have Direct Group Talks Over Nuke Program

AOG, London




I have always thought that the best way to deal with proto-nuclear powers is through engagement. True, Iran is not just that. Having left the Western sphere of influence after the Islamic revolution, it is a country intent on carrying out a very proactive foreign policy. As of late, it has done well playing off the US and Russia against each other.

It is perhaps too early to tell if this has actually helped Iran's cause any, but it is obvious that it has bought the regime time, and it has shown it to be a very independent player in the world stage.

It is also true that in foreign policy matters, Iran is preaching to the converted. Nowhere outside the Islamic world (with the odd exception of Venezuela, and possibly Russia) is Iran seen as a serious player. Too dependent on religion to be taken seriously by most secular powers, nevertheless it is a country intent on undermining, when not outright demanding, the destruction of Israel.

I think the Obama administration is doing well in bringing Iran to the negotiating table. I am not sure that it will stop the Ayatollahs from creating a nuclear power in the region, but it is a start.

About Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Dealing with cultures in a Blasé sort of way

AOG, Madrid

It is a difficult thing to live in a different country, something I have done all my life. So much so that I, in fact, belong to many places all at once, and to nowhere in particular.

I think that as my personality developed, it picked up pieces from here and there and fused them with whatever was there before. And this must have gone on always. In many ways it still goes on.

I am acutely aware of how different my sense of humor is becoming in Spain. My friends refer to it as being very "British". This is because I am the epitome of sarcasm, mockery and understated irony. And yet, I am aware that this sense of humor was already quite latent in high school back in Texas. If not sooner.

I find myself these days trying to learn the Spanish work etiquette. I find it hard to know when to make a joke, when to be serious. When to relax and when to worry about something. If there is a Spanish word for Blasé, I have not found it yet. And flippancy is sometimes frowned upon. And very often welcomed. I just never know.

And it is driving me mad. I find myself being either very serious, which is interpreted as being in a bad mood, angry, or something to do with my general well being oroutright irreverent (unfortunately I do this only too well!) and out of synch with everyone else. I think the people at the office are still trying to figure me out, although I believe that most think they have me figured out already- a very common Spanish thing to do, in my view.

When I arrived at the radio, I met with some of my ex-classmates on the elevator. As soon as they saw me they said "we were just talking about you, we were discussing how you should have been sent to the culture section at El País". I was flattered and amazed they thought this. I think I am better suited for an international newsdesk. And yet, this is how I am perceived.

I spent today updating the radio's website, as I have been doing since last week, with mostly international news. I think that they know it is what I like doing most, and so they oblige me. But of course, I do all sorts of news.

Today I wrote about sectarian mobs in Lebanon killing 4 people; about the arrest of a Spanish brigadier for talking to the press last year and criticising the Defense Ministry- big no no in this country it would appear. At least from within because it appears that everyone in Spain and their dog criticises the government whatever the reason.

I also wrote about the US Secretary of State's forthcoming visit to Spain next March.

And then I discover that "no mention was made [between Spain's Foreign Affairs Minister, M.A. Moratinos, and Ms. Rice] concerning president Zapatero's recent declarations concerning his willingness to follow the desires of the people of Spain and not meet up with President Bush ever". I was amazed to read this.

Amazed at how insular this country can be at times. I think Señor Zapatero must be the ONLY president or Prime Minister on earth who would say such a thing publicly.

And I don't think that this is either pragmatic nor helpful for Spain's foreign policy.

What country wants to deal with a state whose president may or may not meet with you depending on whether he likes you or not? I fully understand Señor Zapatero's principles in wishing not to meet with Mr. Bush. But when you are in politics, it is time to put your personal beliefs aside for the pursuit of a greater cause. In this case, Spain's foreign policy goals.

True, Mr. Bush is out of the White House in no time, but I think Mr. Zapatero fails to realise that by snubbing the American Head of State, he snubs an entire country. And if Mr. Zapatero is not aware of how much Spain's wellbeing depends on Americas's good will, he, or indeed Spain, may experience a rude awakening one day. This is, after all, the man who is pressing at the UN for his plan of an "Alliance of civilisations". Am I missing something here?

Unfortunately many in Spain (and the rest of Europe for that matter) prefer to live in the fiction that they are in the right, and America in the wrong. Not just today. Always.

Many people here are very anti-American. Not anti 'Americans' mind you, Americans they deal with well enough, and Spain is certainly very americanified these days, just like any other Western country. Two days ago they broadcasted Mr. Bush's State of the Union speech. Live!!! If that is not Americanified, I don't know what is!

Still, many here profess a deep dislike of American foreign policy. Old imperial rivalries? Perhaps. I have to say that I find the British behaving towards the US in much the same way. But whereas in Spain, as I stated before, Americans are mostly liked well enough, in Britain I would not be so sure. But of course, these are just generalisations. And I still have of lot of cultural catching up to do.