Being Irish seems to carry a much more positive stereotype than being American, and indeed Ireland sets a good example on the international stage. In addition to ratifying the International Criminal Court and the Kyoto Protocol, and consistently supporting the U.N., Ireland gives a much higher percentage of its GNP as foreign aid—and recently announced a new initiative to help fight the nutrition crisis in southern Africa. When I was leaving the Bastille in Paris at 2:30 a.m., cabs were very hard to get, and I begged some rather drunk French men who were getting out if I could have theirs. They asked if I was from Holland, and I said Ireland, after which they all started shouting, “Robbie Keane, Irlanda, Robbie Keane” and immediately offered me the cab. My two British companions were baffled, as they knew a) I don’t speak a word of French and b) the French hate Americans. Of course, I’m not positive the French reaction would have been negative if I’d said American, but I doubt they would have started chanting “Roger Clemens, América.”
The Spanish citizens and media, regarding the Middle East, are much more sympathetic to the Palestinian cause than Americans are. When I discussed the situation with my Spanish teacher, she referred to the Israelis as invaders, who have a huge army and endless support from the United States, and the Palestinians as victims with no way out. She said she can’t justify the suicide bombings, but she asked, “what other options do they have?” In Europe, the atrocities committed by Israel’s army are more widely reported than in the United States. American Middle East policy doesn’t have much support over here either; as far as they are concerned, Sharon is just as bad, or worse, than Arafat. And why, they ask, should we tell the Palestinians that Arafat can’t be their leader when we preach democratic leadership and we ourselves have a moron like Bush in office?
The Spanish also share my perception that America wants to attack Iraq not to secure democracy in a country ruled by an evil tyrant, but to get to more cheap oil and improve the Bush approval ratings come election time. They, like almost everyone else in Europe, are very wary of an attack and don’t think another war would help anyone. I was very impressed that my Spanish teacher had heard about the time Cheney—on behalf of the oil company Halliburton—held secret discussions with the Taliban about running an oil pipeline through Afghanistan. She also knew that the CIA had trained many of the Taliban and supported bin Laden in the past.
If people in Spain—one of America’s NATO allies—hold these feelings, it is not difficult to imagine how people in other areas of the world feel about America. This last joke about America’s current hawkish government is being told on the streets of Madrid, but its echoes are heard across the globe.
In 2065, a child asks his father, “Daddy, what were the Twin Towers?”
The father says, “The Twin Towers were enormous office buildings destroyed by the Muslims.”
The child is quiet for a moment, and then asks, “Daddy, who were the Muslims?”
Nicholas F. B. Smyth ’05, a Crimson editor, is a government concentrator in Dunster House. He holds dual Irish and American citizenship; this summer he has been working in Madrid and taking weekend trips to Segovia, La Rioja, Pamplona and Paris.