Secret Squirrel and other foreigners (non-US), say what needs to be said about our paradoxical country-I'll be one of the first to admit that the US has tons of very serious problems. Luckily, no other powerful nation has such major problems and contradictions.
Maybe by providing examples and detached information without sweeping generalizations, this can allow some fellow countrymen to take things less personally, and fewer negative reactions might occur?
On foreign travel, heck, when mijn vrouw (wife)/mon femme/meine liebe (dear) Frau and I fly KLM on vacation to Europe each year (probably to London this summer), we are maybe in a minority of US travelers partly due to an awareness of the sometimes indifferent and/or intentionally ignorant Americans who don't even attempt to say "good day", "thank you" in the local language upon entering a shop or "mag ik betalen?/l' addition s.v.p." when trying to pay for dinner etc.
But luckily, all the people out in PpruneLand from other countries are well-versed in such necessary phrases and local customs. Only Americans tend to be in the dark.
On the other hand, people from other countries also return drunk [on Corsendonk] to a Haarlem, Netherlands hotel at 3 AM and wake people up for a bit. And those can be English (as they were that night) or any other accents.
If people in any country in the "west" have a monopoly on good manners, whether besoffen or sober, I'd be interested to know which.
But shouldn't Pprune be an aviation forum, detached from personal politics? I still do not understood how we as individual airline employees (staff) are solely responsible for determining foreign relations within our respective governments. Maybe someone will explain how any of us can change our governments' foreign policies.
[This message has been edited by Ignition Override (edited 05 April 2001).]
[This message has been edited by Ignition Override (edited 05 April 2001).]