by Jim Poulson

Created on: May 02, 2007   Last Updated: September 23, 2011

I have traveled quite extensively in my life. I have also studied a number of languages, including Russian, with which I worked as a translator for a number of years. In the last 15 years, we have hosted seven exchange students. I have been amazed, even appalled, at the ignorance of Americans on anything outside of their own little circles unless it has to do with life-changing issues, like American Idol and Anna Nicole Smith.

Our first exchange student was from Denmark. I could hardly believe my ears when she informed me after a few days that most of her fellow students had never heard of Denmark! She told me even some of her teachers could not find the country on the globe. When she mentioned it was a small country in northern Europe, some of the teachers would turn the globe to somewhere in the north Pacific. Now, since Denmark is a small country, this is perhaps a little understandable. However, we have also had students from Germany (most had at least HEARD of that country) and RUSSIA! Would you believe the number of students who could not find the largest country on earth on the globe. We are talking about high school students here!

Given this wide-spread ignorance of basic geography, is it any wonder how many Americans are totally apathetic about world affairs? I wonder if many of them are even AWARE there are other countries! So when something happens like the war in Iraq, if Americans care about it they must depend on the media to tell them all about it. The media, with their obvious agenda, gets to tell the people whatever they choose to tell them. Americans blindly believe everything the media tells them, then go back to their episode of American Idol or whatever. Media in our country is so stuck on something they call "political correctness" (a concept borrowed from the editors of Pravda and their handlers in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union) that it is impossible to obtain a truly objective report on anything. An organization that attempts to balance the news is derided as "biased". Media is about as balanced as TASS.

Americans will remain blissfully ignorant of world affairs because they see no relevance to their lives until something happens like September 11 and then, who do they turn to? Pravda I mean the New York Times, CNN, etc.

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