The US mainstream media's (msm) censorship of itself has blotted out the richness of what exists beyond US borders. This perpetuates the myths and legends about who its neighbours really are.

Canadians frequently cite the source of weather -- good and bad -- as coming from the US. Canada also experiences issues presented when migrant workers from Mexico come across its southern border, though not in the same way as the US.

For Canada, getting its message out about its identity, is like trying to listen to your mp3 player with headphones in your back yard while your neighbour blasts his car stereo in the driveway next door.

If the people in the US revolt and quit listening to the msm in favour of many other sources of news inside and outside the US, then it will be possible to begin to diffuse the control the msm has over what the US public sees.

So, America, how do you rediscover your identity?

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The U.S. is fixated on the Middle East while China extends its sphere of influence into Africa. Meanwhile, Latin America is making a long-overdue shift to the left.

One thing I disagree with, though, is the way this speaker's argument is placed within a comparative framework that says while the U.S. is turning inward, China is turning outward. To make this point, he highlights how China is accepting many African students while the U.S. is becoming less disposed to accept immigrants from Latin America. This is an iffy contrast.

China is not accepting large-scale immigration from Africa, just allowing students to study at their universities. The U.S. does the same. In fact if accepting immigration is the measure of a country's inwardness or outwardness, then China (and Europe too) is much more inward (and perhaps therefore nativist) than the U.S.

Not that I'm trying to argue against immigration from Latin America to the U.S. I just have to challenge the shaky premise of the comparison presented in this video.

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about the rest of the world will eventually doom this country. This is a GLOBAL community now and whatever one country does effects everyone else on the planet. Most Americans have no desire to do much traveling and have no idea how the rest of the world looks, feels, or acts.(By the way, we should have another name for ourselves: Canadians, Mexicans, Chileans, Brazilians, and all the rest of this hemisphere are "Americans", too.) I count myself as being privileged to have lived in or visited every continent except Antarctica and I would not trade my travels for anything on this earth. You learn so much by seeing the rest of the world and getting to know other peoples and their magnificent cultures.

Something that I have learned is that NO ONE hates Americans as individuals. They just don't care much for our government and its constant meddling in the internal affairs of their countries. This is always done to further the corporate crowd in the USA and is always to the disadvantage of the ordinary citizens of these countries. (This is especially true in Latin America. What's wrong with "democratic socialism" anyway? Is it because it means the ordinary people in these countries benefit from the sale of THEIR natural resources and not some fat cat in Houston or New York?).

Incidentally, Canadians and Mexicans are among the nicest and most polite people in the world. We have good neighbors and should respect them and treat them with the kindness they deserve. Our ignorance of both these nations is astounding. It's amazing they have put up with our arrogance as long as they have.

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I really do not understand how anyone can be so naive as to believe that Bush's agenda was to bring democracy to the Middle East, or that "one person, one vote" actually exists anywhere in the region - certainly not in Kuwait, or in Saudi Arabia, or in Jordan, or in Egypt. Iran has a sham democracy, and even though Iraq has an elected Parliament, they are powerless over the U.S. occupation - that's a strange kind of democracy, in which you have no say over foreign troops in your own country.

Also, the claims about "tribal affiliations surfacing" is not really true. In Iraq, the story has been U.S.-sponsored ethnic cleansing along Sunni, Shiite, and Kurdish lines. Prior to the invasion, such divisions were either non-existent or irrelevant, and Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds all lived side-by-side.

The claims that the Chinese relationships are 'entirely pragmatic' seem to imply that the U.S. is motivated by some 'noble purpose' in the region, when in reality the U.S. agenda is just as pragmatic - both countries want to have primary control of both Africa and the Middle East's oil reserves - although Russia's Gazprom is now stepping in as well: Russia's Gazprom eyes Nigerian gas reserves: report, Jan 5, 2008

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... interest on the part of American readers to watch this video, that there are few comments about the item?

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Can you contact me?

wonderboy_prods[at]mac.com

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