å min gud i himmel

Two things happened in the last two days to make me embarrassed to be a US Citizen. I am reminded of the term used by my German friends "the ugly Americans".

Today Canadian Prime Minister Harper was in a news conference with President Obama. I was watching CNN as they took questions from Journalist. A Canadian Journalist asked Prime Minister Harper to comment and also asked that he reply in BOTH English and French for Canadian viewers. The feed from CNN stalled and I switched to FOX News [for some crazy reason] to continue to watch. When the Prime Minister began to speak in French, the Fox News Anchor Idiot yelled, TURN THAT OFF. Then he turned to the camera and said, "I'm sorry I can't stand to listen to him in French." I was stunned.

Most of the world speaks multiple languages. I can get by speaking German in most social situations and Pam can speak enough French to save us in Paris. Nearly everyone in the United States came from someplace else and most spoke a language other than English. When we refuse to speak other languages or we are just too stupid or arrogant to try, we tell the world they are right about America. We are self centered and narrow minded.

The second situation is about the Movie, "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo." The movie is based on the very popular Swedish book by Steig Larsson. The movie was made in Sweden and produced in Swedish. Nearly everyone in Sweden speaks perfect English and at least two other languages like German and French. The Swedes like the Norwegians realize that their language will not become very popular internationally like English, Spanish or Chinese. The Movie was made in Swedish, even though all the Actors speak English, because the Book and Story are Swedish. To change the language is to change the context of the story about Swedish Culture.

Now the Movie is being remade by Hollywood in English. The original Actors in the Swedish version have been replaced with English and American actors. To make the damage worse, the new English version of the film is being shot in SWEDEN! å min gud i himmel [Oh, my god in heaven...in Swedish]

We live in an ever smaller world and as Amerikans we need to learn to fit into the world we live in. It is NOT always about us. I do not know anyone who can name the capital of Canada or Sweden. How can we expect them to respect us?