From: s305072@parasol.cs.uq.oz.au (Mark Anderson)
Newsgroups: aus.jokes.d
Subject: Re: How many US navy men does it take to change a light bulb ?
Date: 11 Oct 92 06:05:34 GMT
Organization: Computer Science, Queensland Uni, Australia

In <1992Oct10.014755.29717@kurango.cit.gu.edu.au> tjdavis@kurango.cit.gu.edu.au (Tim Davis) writes:

>	How interesting and informative!  However, without trying to appear 
>	too cynical or critical of the individual making these comments, I 
>	would like to point out the following:

>		There are some rather significant generalizations made in
>		the comments without any evidence of substantive research
>		to back up the claims.  Having read the comments, I might
>		come to the conclusion that the author has a limited
>		understanding of the English language based on spelling
>		errors and inappropriate use of proper nouns.  However,
>		it would be incorrect for me to do so having the under-
>		standing that authoring such comments is usually done in
>		hast with little or no thought.
   well actually at the time i was inebriated and in a rather Anti-American
   mood . In respoce to the lack of grammar and spelling , alas i am a product
   of modern public school education ( joke is i had a b-/c+ average). Last of
   all to my defense I HATE VI .

>		The author did say that the news show he referenced was
>		titled 'The American World News'.  I'm a little confused
>		about the point.  Should we be shocked by the reporting
>		of news about Americans in a news show such as this?  To
>		me, that would be like criticising an Australian news
>		show for reporting on Australian issues.
  well , i still believe that if a show has 'World News' in it it should 
  contain mainly news external to the country producing it , plus i was just
  trying to illistrate a point .

>		The author goes on to state that Australians are obviously
>		less ignorant than Americans on the basis of one example.
>		(I noted that no such survey report was conducted or 
>		reported by the author on Australians)  Would one be
>		correct in reversing the claim of ignorance based on the
>		fact that my children are being taught by Australian
>		educated educators that there are 51 or 52 states in the
>		US when there are actually only 50?

  I believe the Australian people on the whole to be less ignorant of the world
  surrounding us than the Americans . In responce to the survey question , no
  i do not know of any such survey in Australia because our government seems to
  prefer suveys discovering the average length of a stewardess's nose . 

>		The author makes the claim that 'this is a country who
>		has become the self declared world police force'.  I am
>		most interested in supporting evidence of this being a
>		'self declared' status.  What about countries that 
>		officially (ie, Australia and the ANZUS Treaty) and 
>		unofficially look to the US for this type of role?

  I must admit the 'self declared world police force' line i got from friends
  in the US , I was there at the time of the Panama invasion , and i believe
  President Bush used the line 'world police force' in one of his speeches .

>>JOKE: The problem with the shuttle disaster was it only killed seven americans!

>	Having a sense of humour such as this makes me wonder if you also
>	think that using humans for target practice is also funny; an
>	accepted practice in Australia not so many years ago.  Oh, let
>	me appologise.  I used the phrase 'humans for target practice'
>	having forgot that 'Australians' did not consider these targets
>	as humans at the time.
  OK,it was in bad taste. I personally deplore the waste of human & American  :)  life . I just wanted to lighten the post because those readers who were in 
  search of a laugh might have been disappointed without a joke .


>When reading generalized criticisms such as those of this author, I am
>reminded of the phrase used here in Australia when remembering those who
>have given their lives for their country.  'Lest we forget'.  It says a
>lot.

  I would like to admit that my arguments were generalised , and the only
  research i can say i have done is spending a little over 3 months in the
  US .  Those three months weren't spent in a package tour but driving through
  the states and being emmersed in their culture and society which in my 
  opinion the only true way to experience another culture . Now from spending
  this time in the US i learnt that the people kept ignorant by their society
  , i mean they may be able to name there 50 states or name the presidents back
  to washington but on the whole they follow their leaders blindly as only the
  ignorant can . Unlike here in Australia were virtually everyone wouldn't 
  trust a politician as far as they could throw them . Now the thing that hurts
  me as an Australian is seeing our country bombarded by American culture , we
  can't turn on the telivision without catching an american show . That jail is
  the spelling taught in school not gaol .  My ultimate fear is that we become
  like the Americans were we as a people become interested only in internal 
  affairs , and get caught up in all the hyp and believe what our government 
  tells us because a country like that is ripe for a dictator .

DISCLAIMER:
  With this mailing i do not mean to sound like a paranoid lunitic or to
  start a flame session with T.J.Davis only to express my views with spelling
	  and grammatic errors included for free :->

 Hands 
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