September 9/11, a mystery ?

Usually a lot of Americans know two countries from Asia (brown colored) and then they categorized everyone as that club.

Remember being called Bangladeshi, and Pakistani (actually questioned) by n00b Americanos'. The are so particular region locked within their own state (forget country) that they find it difficult to understand different countries and viz a viz communities.
 
asingh said:
Usually a lot of Americans know two countries from Asia (brown colored) and then they categorized everyone as that club.

Remember being called Bangladeshi, and Pakistani (actually questioned) by n00b Americanos'. The are so particular region locked within their own state (forget country) that they find it difficult to understand different countries and viz a viz communities.
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That would be a euro centric view.

When i returned to India I was shocked to find it was even worse here. So i don't feel comofrtable knocking Americans about this any more.

Most Indians could not care less about stuff that goes on outside the country. The ones that do know anything here are a small minority. If you look at news coverage here about foreign topics, its quite sub standard. Loaded with bias, or written for the domestic audience. Mind you everybody is guilty of that but its just more blatant here mostly out of ignorance.

How many foreign correspondents do news agencies have ? maybe a tiny handful. Only recently have foreign articles been able to be syndicated in local papers. Without the internet & forums things would be have been dire.
 
^

But have not Americans had the penetration of these formats longer. I still feel they are quite ignorant.
 
The US gov can't keep a BJ secret, what makes you think they can keep a 9/11 conspiracy under wraps? do the thousands of people likely to be involved want neither money nor fame? [conspiracy nut mode] unless the US gov has invented a mind control device...[/conspiracy nut mode]
 
asingh said:
^
But have not Americans had the penetration of these formats longer. I still feel they are quite ignorant.
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Its the degree of exposure that matters, on the coasts ppl will be more familiar, once you get into the interior then its only about their town or state, forget foreign stuff they don't even know that much about other states ie ones they don't have a border with.

How different are we in this regard ? Can't say we are better except for a small minority that has to travel often around the country.

This is typical behaviour of big countries, in europe they have lots of mingling with open borders and such, things move faster there. Much more densely populated in small areas as well.
 
Do you know that US has a very low percentage of people with even a passport?? I think it was somewhere in the region of 20-35% or so. A majority of the people there have never traveled beyond US borders. Their knowledge of foreign culture is extremely low. Anyway, for them all brown people are bangladeshi's, Paki's or Indian's, depending on which country they have heard of.

On the theory given by one of our posters above, Afghanistan was attacked first to smoke out Osama. Iraq came much later. Iraq attack could be a lot to do with oil, but what about Afghanistan?? Iraq was termed as a mistake by the US, when they did not find any bio weapons. Basically GB Jr. wanted to finish off what GB Sr. started and the main reason was oil. But thats my theory and theories are theories, everyone has his own.

Bottom line, even your friends in the Middle East have their own thoughts and I would not base my thoughts on their stories. there are a million conspiracy theories and most of them are just theories.
 
mav2000 said:
Do you know that US has a very low percentage of people with even a passport?? I think it was somewhere in the region of 20-35% or so. A majority of the people there have never traveled beyond US borders. Their knowledge of foreign culture is extremely low. Anyway, for them all brown people are bangladeshi's, Paki's or Indian's, depending on which country they have heard of.
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well, now that this thread is properly necro'd

1) How does having passport or not even matter? You dont have to actually go to a country to know about it. I havent stepped out of India, yet I wouldnt consider my self ignorant. I'd say its same for a lot of TE members too.

2) How much knowledge do you think common Indians have about western countries? To most Indians, all Caucasians are from Amreeka. Even educated Indians dont really know much. I had a professor during my B.E. who had to deliver a paper presentation in Cancun, Mexico and believe it or not, all the lecturers in the department were surprised to know that Mexico was actually a separate country!
 
Well, Pretttt believe me, when you travel to a country u will understand and learn a lot more. Just reading about Singapore or seeing it on TV or a movie does not mean u know anything about the culture or the people. Travel can open your mind like little else. For eg, do you know that Indians are despised in almost every country in the world??

I would say the knowledge of the common "educated" man in India is a not bad at all.
 
mav2000 said:
Well, Pretttt believe me, when you travel to a country u will understand and learn a lot more. Just reading about Singapore or seeing it on TV or a movie does not mean u know anything about the culture or the people. Travel can open your mind like little else. For eg, do you know that Indians are despised in almost every country in the world??

I would say the knowledge of the common "educated" man in India is a not bad at all.
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Off course traveling does help, but surely that doesnt have to be a criteria at all! You can learn a LOT about the culture of a people of a country just by reading. This is especially true in case of the US since their culture is so exposed everywhere.

Nevertheless, not having been to a country is NOT an excuse for the kind the ignorance that we are discussing about here. The Americans dont have to come to India, Pakistan and Bangladesh to know that these are 3 separate countries. Similarly, the lecturers I mentioned above dont need to go to USA and Mexico to know that these are separate countries. Point is, some people are just ignorant and these ignorant people exist both inside and outside of India.
 
mav2000 said:
On the theory given by one of our posters above, Afghanistan was attacked first to smoke out Osama. Iraq came much later. Iraq attack could be a lot to do with oil, but what about Afghanistan??
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Iraq had nothing to do with oil.

mav2000 said:
Iraq was termed as a mistake by the US, when they did not find any bio weapons.
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No it wasn't because thats not why they went there in the first place.

mav2000 said:
Basically GB Jr. wanted to finish off what GB Sr. started and the main reason was oil.
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wrong

mav2000 said:
But thats my theory and theories are theories, everyone has his own.
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No need for any theory when you know the facts.
 
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