AMERICANS VERSUS FOREIGNERS By Maximillien de Lafayette

AMERICANS VERSUS FOREIGNERS:

What foreigners like and dislike most about America?!

1-Why the majority of foreign countries lost faith in the United States (Who cares? Yah, right!)?

2-Why many foreigners look down on American men and women?

3-Why the majority of foreigners would never trust us again?

4-Why American women scare the hell out of them?

5-Why contemporary American art is falling apart in Europe, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East?

6-Why those bloody antagonistic foreigners keep on coming to America and suck our blood, eat our honey and drink our milk?

7-Why do we allow unfriendly and potentially dangerous foreigners who live in the United States to freely demonstrate in the street and create social and political chaos, when Americans living abroad are deprived from similar rights and freedom of expression?

Before I answer those questions, let me illustrate some funny and entertaining instances and examples which frustrate, alienate, confuse and perhaps amuse foreigners, when they look at the way we live, think, act and do business. Those examples might look silly to us but, they caught the attention and curiosity of foreigners, and as such, they might shed light on the conception and preconception of foreigners about the “very essence” of what constitutes the fabric of our life, beliefs and what we stand out for. They are silly opinions, remarks and observations, but their silliness and perhaps the limpidity of their substance are causing global misunderstanding of the American way of life, American art, American dignity and intensifying the lack of respect for all of us.

WHAT CONFUSES OR AMAZES FOREIGNERS: The list of examples is endless. It contains approximately 365 items. We have no time or space to list of all them. However, I will select the most entertaining ones:

1-A mall at the Pentagon. In almost 99,99% of foreign countries, you will never find a boutique or a shop nearby a military high command post. They would not allow merchants and shop keepers to open shops and boutiques in the vicinity of a strategically positioned and located military centers. And most certainly, not in the basement or a parking lot of a ministry of defense.

2-Americans' Passion for football. In America, football players are Gods! Role models, superstars, millionaires, celebrities. In 92% of foreign countries, they are simply “sport people”. Usually, in the majority of foreign countries, from France to Guatemala and from Sudan to Austria, only uneducated people and low class people become soccer (football) players. And they never enjoy a global fame or become wealthy, unless they are really extraordinary with a magic touch such as Pele of Brazil, Eusepio of Portugal, Bochkash of Hungary, Maradona of Argentina and Bobby Moore of England. The rest of them remain obscure and hard working middle class people.

3-High percentage of divorced American women. Almost 89% of Europeans, 79% of Latinos and 99% of Middle Easterners, Near Easterners and Arabs believe that marriage has been desecrated in America. Every time they hear the news about this star getting married to that star, they will automatically tell you that they will divorce in a few months. Statistics show that 72% of American women are or were divorced once upon a time. It is really alarming.

5-Americans consumers who prefer Japanese cars over American cars. A famous European saying goes like this: “The happiest man on earth is this man who has an American car and a Japanese wife, because none of them would quit on him”. Foreigners still believe that American cars are the best in the world. The fact that Americans rush to buy Japanese cars indicate to foreigners that Yankees do not make sense.

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