BBC News : Transatlantic divisions run deep
Good initiative.
Ahh, we won't change this good'ol American folk. :relief: (for those who are still wondering, Windsor Castle is the oldest inhabited castle in the world, and was contructed over 900 years ago).
Who said Americans didn't understand British humour ? I know people who have done similar things to Harry (even at school !) and it wasn't a big deal. When I was 6, I was forced to attend catechism classes and once went there in a military uniform and a fake gun to shock the old sister that was teaching.
One more similarity between the US and Japan. Sometimes I wonder if the US did not bring back a substantial part of the Japanese mindset after the post-war occupation.
This is all the difference between well-educated, cosy and relatively safe Europe, and deeply religious, self-centered, aggressive and intolerant America.
President Bush is about to launch himself into the most ambitious piece of diplomacy he has ever attempted. He will become the first American President in history to visit the core institutions of the European Union, in an effort to patch up relations with the Europeans.
Good initiative.
was the only Englishman, and with customary politeness, the Americans questioned me gently on matters royal.
Amid the stunning snow-capped mountains, a far more open vista than in the Alps, we talked of Camilla and Charles, Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle.
I am ashamed to say that I used the old line about the castle being built too close to Heathrow Airport and they all nodded sagely and agreed it had been a mistake.
Ahh, we won't change this good'ol American folk. :relief: (for those who are still wondering, Windsor Castle is the oldest inhabited castle in the world, and was contructed over 900 years ago).
Prince Harry, one of the skiers opined, had been very, very badly advised to wear a Nazi uniform to a fancy dress party. The others all knew of the incident and nodded in pained agreement.
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The Harry kerfuffle was utterly incomprehensible to Americans. They simply could not imagine how such a thing could ever be seen, in any circumstances, by anyone, to be funny or forgivable.
Who said Americans didn't understand British humour ? I know people who have done similar things to Harry (even at school !) and it wasn't a big deal. When I was 6, I was forced to attend catechism classes and once went there in a military uniform and a fake gun to shock the old sister that was teaching.
A recent example which caught my eye, I thought at first it was a joke, that several television stations refused to allow the screening of Steven Spielberg's film Saving Private Ryan.
Saving Private Ryan, starring Tom Hanks, is not pornographic, nor is it grotesquely violent. It is a war film with some shooting and some swearing.
Although it would be shown on any television station anywhere in Europe, with no comment and no censorship, the swearing is too much for America.
At least they say it is the swearing, but I wonder if there is a more profound difficulty here.
My memory of the film is that it is occasionally grittily realistic. In the battle scenes, soldiers are scared and their deaths are not always terribly glorious.
It is in other words true to life, and that is another area where Europe and America increasingly diverge.
America is fast becoming a nation of faith not fact. A nation where the unpleasant aspects of human existence are simply airbrushed away.
One more similarity between the US and Japan. Sometimes I wonder if the US did not bring back a substantial part of the Japanese mindset after the post-war occupation.
Americans want to believe in miracles, their heads are in the clouds.
While Europeans fret about what they regard as real life, about poverty and social justice and about combating AIDS, Americans find it easier to rally round a vision, however otherworldly it might be.
Millions of Americans, 17% according to a recent survey, seriously believe that the end of the world is coming in their lifetimes and that they will be sucked up through the clouds to heaven.
Of course, we all know how much more religious Americans are, but the crucial point, it seems to me, is that the kind of religious beliefs on the march in America tend to be those stressed in the book of revelation rather than the sermon on the mount.
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The fact is that Americans have long regarded Europeans as weak-willed, lily-livered, morally degenerate moaners, incapable of clear thinking or resolute action.
My point is that this tendency is accelerating.
This is all the difference between well-educated, cosy and relatively safe Europe, and deeply religious, self-centered, aggressive and intolerant America.