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Saturday, September 26th, 2020

‘I Feel Sorry for Americans’: A Baffled World Watches the U.S.

Author:     Hannah Beech
Source:     The New York Times
Publication Date:     Sept. 25, 2020
 Link: ‘I Feel Sorry for Americans’: A Baffled World Watches the U.S.
Stephan:   I got two emails today that so depressed me. One was from Slovenia, the other was from Norway. Both had the same message. As the Slovenian reader put it, "As I read your media, and listen to the international news I can hardly believe what I am hearing. How quickly America has gone from the leading nation in the world to a country so sad I can only pity you. I feel safer in Slovenia than my brother-in-law says he does in Chicago."
Myanmar

BANGKOK — Myanmar is a poor country struggling with open ethnic warfare and a coronavirus outbreak that could overload its broken hospitals. That hasn’t stopped its politicians from commiserating with a country they think has lost its way.

“I feel sorry for Americans,” said U Myint Oo, a member of parliament in Myanmar. “But we can’t help the U.S. because we are a very small country.”

The same sentiment prevails in Canada, one of the most developed countries . Two out of three Canadians live within about 60 miles of the American border.

“Personally, it’s like watching the decline of the Roman Empire,” said Mike Bradley, the mayor of Sarnia, an industrial city on the border with Michigan, where locals used to venture for lunch.

Amid the pandemic and in the run-up to the presidential election, much of the world is watching the United States with a mix of shock, chagrin and, most of all, bafflement.

The bridge between Sarnia, Ontario, and Port Huron, Mich. The border between the United States and Canada is largely [...] </p> </div> <div class=Read the Full Article

2 Comments

  1. Lauren Raine on Saturday, September 26, 2020 at 5:40 am

    Such a disturbing article, and sadly true. Many might say that we already have a banana republic dictator, since Trump and regime have already broken many constitutional rules. I used to be proud to be an American, now I am actually thinking about becoming an expatriate should Trump take the election, which in my opinion would seal the fate of the American democracy for good.

  2. Gus diZerega on Sunday, September 27, 2020 at 12:31 pm

    I want to plug my 2013 book “Faultlines: The Sixties, the Culture War, and the Return of the Divine Feminine” (Quest, 2013) as providing an explanation. I emphasize culture more than economics, though our corporate dominated economy certainly contributes to the problem. I did not predict Trump, but I did predict the kinds of conflicts that have happened, how serious they are, and identify what leads to disaster and what leads to something worth looking forward to.

    I believe Stephan has read it.