Japan, Germany top list of positively rated countries: BBC poll

Wednesday 02nd April, 04:17 PM JST

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redacted at 05:47 PM JST - 8th April

It's the BBC reporting. They long ago admitted their outright anti-American bias.

What impact does "popularity" have? McDonald's, Macintosh, Boeing, Starbucks, all the major US multinationals still enjoy the same or even larger market shares.

The ultimate referendums in this era are immigration patterns and birth rates.

Germans are leaving their country in huge numbers - though not as dramatic as the flight England faces - and the concerns Japan has with its falling birth rate are well known.
frontandcentre at 09:53 AM JST - 9th April

redacted - I'd be very interested to have you point out exactly where and when the BBC "long ago admitted their outright anti-American bias". Don't confuse reporting demonstrable facts about the misery that Bush's foreign policy has caused with 'anti-American bias' which it plainly is not. Please face the facts, rather than lamely criticising those who accurately report them.

Further evidence of your tenuous handling of facts is talking about a "flight" that "England faces" (I presume you mean Britain rather than England - get the name of the country correct, please). Sorry to prove you wrong, but the British population is actually increasing slowly. Check your own CIA World Factbook if you don't believe me.
redacted at 02:47 PM JST - 9th April

front and centre - "tenuous handling of facts"?

Yes, your population is growing - the new additions to the census numbers are immigrants and the children of Pakistani, Indian and Sri Lankan immigrants the BBC refer to as "Asian" for some peculiar reason.

"A record number of British citizens are leaving the country, according to official figures published yesterday.

"An unprecedented 196,000 left the country last year, with Australia, Spain, America, New Zealand and France the most popular destinations for those seeking a new life.

[...]

"A study by the Institute for Public Policy Research think-tank earlier this year [2007] said there are now 1.3 million British emigrants living in Australia.

Another 761,000 live in Spain, and 678,000 in the United States. "

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?inarticleid=477006&inpageid=1770
frontandcentre at 03:55 PM JST - 9th April

ha ha - you criticise the BBC for supposed bias (no evidence, I notice), then turn to the Daily Mail as your source ?

you don't know how funny you are!
notimpressed at 04:15 PM JST - 9th April

redacted: What impact does "popularity" have? McDonald's, Macintosh, Boeing, Starbucks, all the major US multinationals still enjoy the same or even larger market shares.

sorry to tell you, those types of things, including culture, are just products that can be bought and enjoyed, where as the countries actual reputation can be removed from that. Not quite all countries are as commercialized as america yet. We just buy the stuff, and thankgod we dont live there. Its a pity really, looks like it could have been a nice place.
redacted at 06:46 PM JST - 9th April

notimpressed -

Convince me that I as an American really need to start worrying by posting election results that would prove the US has alienated its traditional or even recently-won allies.

France? Germany? Canada? Australia? Japan? The UK? India?

Sorry, all led by democratically-elected presidents and PMs who are pro-American.

Iran? North Korea?

Yeah, they loathe us.
frontandcentre at 07:38 PM JST - 9th April

There's a massive difference between supporting the basic foreign policy objectives - a world free of terror, a lasting Arab-Israeli settlement - and agreeing with the daft methods that the U.S. has used to try - and fail - and achieve these (invading a country that had nothing to do with Al Qaeda, and by giving billions of dollars to Israel to buy weapons). Sarkozy hasn't suddenly sent troops to Iraq, all he has done is made more conciliatory noises towards the fading regime in the U.S. Clever politics, that's all.

We are all pro-American when America acts responsibly
redacted at 08:50 PM JST - 9th April

Interesting presupposition, frontandcentre - America is responsible for a lasting Arab-Israeli settlement?

Why America? Was it America that gave Arab land to European and Russian Jews?

Was America behind Sikes-Picot?

The Holocaust is not blood on American hands.

Why is America responsible for what Europe started?

"We are all pro-American when America acts responsibly"

Frankly, I think fewer and fewer Americans really care what you in Europe think and feel.

I hope I don't come across as being rude here. Young Americans are no longer taught that America's core values were/basically still are (for now...) derived from European/Judeo-Christian traditions and if they are it is not usually presented in what you'd recognize as a favorable light.

Quite apart from that there are also demographic reasons why they do not look to Europe in quite the same way as older Americans once did. We have way more Hispanics and Asians in the States than was the case 30 or 40 years ago.

Not even in the pop culture realm does Europe really matter.

If and when they do worry about European attitudes toward the US it's because they seem to believe it provides a measure of where the US Left is, in its infantile Utopian fantasies of establishing things like free health care.

What they like about Europe these days is its vastly weaker - essentially harmless - post-historical "progressive" appearance.

A Europe that is no longer really European appeals to a wide range of American groups who want to see their own country robbed of its essential identity but are incapable of telling you what should replace the traditions and institutions that made us so great.

"Sarkozy hasn't suddenly sent troops to Iraq, all he has done is made more conciliatory noises..."

I don't care about the man or the noises he makes. I pointed out that judging from election results in France, Germany, Denmark etc. the argument that the US has alienated its allies is one advanced by the media but clearly refuted by looking at ordinary citizens' choices when they vote.
notimpressed at 09:19 PM JST - 9th April

redacted: you are talking about politicians now, not normal people. We dont vote those parties into power based soley on their policies toward America, but on thier policies as directly related to us. Your reaction is a prime exemple of what causes American unpopular ( again Im not talking in a political sense). 'Frankly, I think fewer and fewer Americans really care what you in Europe think and feel.' Nope, you couldnt care less what anyone thinks could you? That'll win hearts for sure.

Popularity has to do with people, and You, as an American come off as a 'typical American' self righteous and entrenched in a superiority complex. 'Not even in the pop culture realm does Europe really matter.' because only America matters right?

Convince me, as a NewZealander, why am so sick of hearing about AMerica this and America that? When was the last time I heard something good? When did America do anything in the world that was not for itself? I guarantee most people can point out any example you offer as having ulterior motives. The Bigger America and Americans mouths gets, the more I want you to shut it. So many Americans I know are being given a bad name by this attitude. Whenever you bray about how your country is the greatest in the world, are you suggesting that you are better than us? Well gee, I wonder why that would annoy?

Its all about that attitude that you are putting across that you are the only ones that matter. If America disappeared tomorrow mate, I would miss th emusic, and occassional film, but I,and probably every ther non-american would be thinking " Thank god thats over", or "Man i was wondering when they would $%@# off"

Sick of hearing you all talk yourself up, and everyone else down. This is all about peole attitudes,and anti_American fever is getting a foothold everywhere. Its up to the American people to get a clue and stop lording it about. You need to spend all that military budget on some factories producing mass amounts of humble pie.If you care so little about everyone else, why should they like you? Cant have your humble ( should that read smug?) pie and eat it too.

Words that come to mind when asked why is America so unpopular these days. Arrogant, smug, boorish, self-righteous, pushy, beligerant, confrontational... get the picture now? Stop talking elections and try and understand people. Since when did politics acurately represent how real people think and feel?

Moderator: All readers, back on topic please.
cxu at 09:35 PM JST - 9th April

" "While no country gave Germany, rated for the first time this year, an overall negative rating, two countries—China and South Korea—continued to have a majority negative view of Japan."

I wonder how China and South Korea rated in this poll. " ... looking at the dates of this poll, I think next years poll will be more interesting in that regard.
Loki520 at 09:56 PM JST - 9th April

A negative view of Japan.... Well, the "standing army" should just leave Japan to it's own devices, I guess....

Moderator slap in 5, 4, 3, ....
redacted at 10:57 PM JST - 9th April

Learn to read a little more carefully, notimpressed.

I wrote: Frankly, I think fewer and fewer Americans really care what you in Europe think and feel. I hope I don't come across as being rude here. Young Americans are no longer taught that America's core values were/basically still are (for now...) derived from European/Judeo-Christian traditions and if they are it is not usually presented in what you'd recognize as a favorable light.

and went on to explain that demographics play a large part in the shift away from looking to Europe like America once did, in much the same way that young Kiwis do not look to Mother England the way your grandparents or those of their generation probably did.

More and more Americans have ancestors from elsewhere...
notimpressed at 11:15 PM JST - 9th April

yOu got it man. But caring what people feel, shows you care about more than yourself. you say less and less, but when did the majority of Americans last care at all? The 'majority' have no idea and just live in an american bubble. Anyway, America is not the greatest country in the world. None is. I think its understandable that America is not making many friends these days, because it undervalues that which is not American, or a dollar. Its a big place, that alot of people just cant see out of. Therefor the rest of the world seems irrelevant to them. UNfortunately there is a world outside of America, and we happen to matter.
frontandcentre at 10:29 AM JST - 10th April

You know, the funny thing is that America does do a lot of good in the world - it has a long record of providing generous levels of aid to African countries, for example. However, everything else that it does tends to lead to what the likes of redacted would call "ingratitude" when people have the temerity to feel threatened by the blundering of Bush's mistaken foreign policy.

*All *foreign policy is self-interested, but what people don't like about America's is that Bush has shamelessly maintained that he cares about the freedom of people in the Middle East while supporting nasty, dictatorial regimes in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, for example. By doing so, he has given extremists a rallying call, which means an endless supply of suicide murderers willing to maim and kill in Iraq and other places.
redacted at 02:22 PM JST - 10th April

"By doing so, he has given extremists a rallying call, which means an endless supply of suicide murderers willing to maim and kill in Iraq and other places."

Yeah. They kill themselves and innocents because holding their breath til they turned blue failed to get Bush impeached. LOL.

By completely marginalizing these people, making caricatures of them and denying them any sort of free will or the capacity for independent thought it is you who make Bush/America much, much, much bigger than they could ever be.