Khmer Rouge Trials. Genocide or Failed Revolution?

This from a country that lives by the gas prices.

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They're not so poor anymore. I remember when i saw the first Aston Martin parked in front of a supermarket and watched a young khmer get in and drive away. They are now having an economic boom, land and property prices have gone through the roof, investors from Korea, China and elsewhere are flooding into the country. There is an emerging middle-class and the country is developing quite quickly. When I first arrived hardly any of the streets in the capitol were paved now they are and overwhelmed with traffic.

Thanks for dropping by Baron

 

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Americans are narcissistic and arrogant to an extreme, you know that.

 

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almost everyone is.

 

I meant in terms of ethnocentricity or amerocentricity.

 

No, that's from Baron. He is not a country, nor does he speak for any.

 

Obviously nobody can be more "Amerocentric" than Americans - by definition.

Ethnocentrically speaking, I would place us a bit below average. Nation of immigrants, and all that. Plus, explicit ethnic nationalism is actually the norm, in most of the world.

 

Actually no, I find most people worldwide to have a sense of other people, the history of other nations, other spoken languages, traditions, etc., it has only been in the States do I see this lacking and I'm in NY.

 

And we're to infer that you have met - and interacted with, to the point of getting a read of the cross-cultural sensitivities of - some statistically significant sample of both the world and US populations?

Not that having a sense of other people is the opposite of ethnocentricism. You can know others intimately, and still insist that your kind is better than theirs. And you can know nothing of others, and still consider them your equals (if a bit vacuously).

Obviously, the inference is supposed to be that people with a less ethnocentric view take more of an interest in other cultures, but I doubt the differences would look so stark, if you were to first account for geography. I.e., Americans, generally, live a long way away from other peoples. It's not like, say, Europe in terms of the distance you have to travel, to encounter another language or culture.

And anyway, there are plenty of examples where the greater cross-cultural knowledge exhibited in a society is itself a product of ethnocentric enterprizes like empire and colonialism. Which is to say that a greater level of familiarity with other cultures, in those instances, is actually a sign of greater ethnocentricism (at least historically). Again, I'm thinking of Europe here.

Also, do you mean NYC or somewhere else in NY?

 

Lucy is right. Most Americans feel they know a lot about other people, but they think in some kind of media induced stereotyoes that have no connection to reality. Its really strange listening to them sometimes.

 

I've traveled quite extensively and though I haven't traveled through many U.S states I think I have a valid opinion. I agree that the U.S is somewhat isolated and therefore inward looking. they don't travel as much and don't seem to have a context in which to view other nations and issues that concern those nations. I find that in many other countries there is a sense of being a nation AMONG nations, a sense of connectedness with other people and so there is more of an exchange. I just find that there isn't so much of a global perspective here in the States which I think is crucial if they are to engage with the world on the international arena and its even more important if they are to have an understanding of their own foreign policies. I think the U.S sees themselves as 'the world'. They have notions of supremacy and inherent goodness and greatness, its almost delusional.

It reminds me of a simpson episode where the family visits Brazil and homer is walking on the beach in a t-shirt that had a scary image of uncle sam holding the globe in his hands ready to take a big bite out of it and underneath is written in bold 'YOU CAN'T STOP US'

I returned to NY two months ago and will stay until June I think.

 

I think that just has to do with the fact that the US is a superpower. The US affects the world more than other countries do.

Americans not knowing much about the rest of the world does not make them arrogant.

 

I disagree. The sense of having the moral high ground is a form of arrogance. Believing that you are somehow the best when you know too little about everywhere else, to the point of not even being curious is a show of arrogance.

 

So that makes two people - in the same thread - who have sufficient experience with a statistically significant sample of Americans to make broad generalizations about American self-image, cognitive parameters, and their relationship to media. Amazing. I can't imagine how you guys have time to eat and sleep (let alone write 10k+ posts here), and attain deep, reliable knowledge of literally millions of people spread over thousands of miles.

 

I don't know about Lucy, but I hang around with people from many countries and we are all of an equivalent educational background, more or less. Its in these kind of groups that most of us realise how differently Americans look at the world.

Its easy enough to see how easily they are sold on silly things like war on terror and concentration camps and things like liberating the world. I bet a lot of my viewpoints have been very surprising for the Americans here, although they are commonplace in many other parts of the world/

 

Right because the rest of the world is so rational... Because the media in the rest of the world is complete truth and there is no such thing as propaganda outside the US. I think you just met a bunch of dumb Americans, there are dumb people everywhere.

See thats the thing, everyone thinks they are the best, they all find reasons to feel that way. I moved around a lot too, maybe not as much as you, but I have noticed a false sense of pride with all sorts of people.

 

Its my personal opinion. You don't have to agree with me. I admit it is a broad generalization, I have met some pretty knowledgable americans in terms of U.S and foreign history and perspective some are expats, some live in the States but I find them to be few and far between. What I notice much of the time is real ignorance, not so much stupidity though there is that but ignorance. Its like when my mother went on her first visit to Australia and when she returned someone said to her "Why go there? Australia's a bum country".

 

Haha thats nothing. When one of guys working in the uni heard I was returning to India, he asked me how I would adjust to living in a different country.

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Or having a travel agent ask you why you are going to Cambodia since they are having a war there.

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