LONDON (Reuters) - A majority of people surveyed in a global poll think the re-election of George Bush (news - web sites) has made the world more dangerous and many view Americans negatively as well, the BBC said Wednesday.
The survey by the British broadcaster showed that only three countries -- India, the Philippines and Poland -- out of 21 polled thought the world was safer following Bush's election win in November.
Bush will be inaugurated for his second term Thursday.
On average across all countries, 58 percent of the 22,000 surveyed said they believed Bush's re-election made the world more dangerous.
"This is quite a grim picture for the U.S.," said Steven Kull, director of the Program on International Policy Attitudes at America's University of Maryland.
The survey found that 56 percent of Americans thought Bush's win was good for the world with 39 percent disagreeing.
Traditional U.S. allies in western Europe, such as Britain (64 percent), France (75 percent), and Germany (77 percent), were among the most negative about Bush's re-election.
A majority in Italy (54 percent) and Australia (61 percent), which both have troops in Iraq (news - web sites), also thought his win had made the world more dangerous.
Anti-Bush sentiment was strongest in Turkey, with 82 percent thinking his win was bad for peace compared to just 6 percent in support. A large majority in Latin American countries, including 58 percent in close neighbor Mexico, were also negative.
Analysts said the poll had far-reaching implications, suggesting a serious rise in anti-U.S. feeling in general, with 42 percent saying it had made them feel worse about Americans compared to 25 percent who made it think more of them.

IRAQ OPPOSITION

There was also overwhelming opposition to sending troops to Iraq, even among close allies such as Britain.

"Fully one in four British citizens say the Bush re-election has made them more opposed to sending troops to Iraq, resulting in a total of 63 per cent now opposed," said Doug Miller, president of GlobeScan which carried out the poll.

"Our research makes very clear that the re-election of President Bush (news - web sites) has further isolated America from the world."

The survey found that 47 percent of those questioned now see U.S. influence in the world as largely negative.

"Those saying the U.S. itself is having a clearly negative influence in the world still do not constitute a definitive world-wide majority, suggesting there may be some underlying openness to repairing relations with the U.S.," he said.

The survey was conducted between Nov. 15, 2004 and Jan. 5, 2005.

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If you want to stay alive on your trip around the world, PUT CANADIAN STICKERS ON YOUR BIKE. IF you want to be jailed or abused, put an AMERICAN FLAG on your bike.

I couldn't resist posting that article I found a few minutes ago. Geeeeeesh....we should all work for the BBC. The above article nearly echoes everything we've been saying.....but I'd like to put an additional sentence on the above article paste in onto the last paragraph;....here it is.........."no shit!"

I hope the judge won't put me on super secret probation for not mentioning motorcycles in the above post. However, ponder this, doesn't a discussion about political awareness BENEFIT those of us that ride around the world?!!

Thank you very much, I'll sign autographs at a later date.

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If you want to stay alive on your trip around the world, PUT CANADIAN STICKERS ON YOUR BIKE. IF you want to be jailed or abused, put an AMERICAN FLAG on your bike.

GlobalGS, (just to keep this on bikes and bike travel) you asked how to "get rid of" your US plate - that's easy, unscrew it and throw it away...

But first, go to almost any bike shop in Europe and ask where to get a plate made. Many do it in house, or will send you to the local shop that does. (You may have noticed that Euro plates are all plastic laminated?)

Just use the same letters/numbers as your original plate, and you're good. You ONLY need the letters/numbers, nothing else. In theory, in Europe you also need - separately affixed - a country tag, but I doubt it would be a problem if you didn't have it. I ran a Euro plate for two years, in Europe, Africa and South and North America, no problem.

The North American stamped metal plate is the oddball, not the norm in the world, so the plastic is fine.

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Grant Johnson

Seek, and ye shall find.
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One world, Two wheels.
www.HorizonsUnlimited.com

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Grant Johnson
Seek, and ye shall find.
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Inspiring, Informing and Connecting travellers since 1997!
www.HorizonsUnlimited.com

Re "ponder this, doesn't a discussion about political awareness BENEFIT those of us that ride around the world?!!"

Yes, agreed. You'll notice this thread is still going...

So long as people maintain their sense of humour and try to understand others points of view, this is all good stuff. Awareness of others opinions and ideas are what we ( HU ) are all about, and one of the big reasons this site exists.

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Grant Johnson

Seek, and ye shall find.
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One world, Two wheels.
www.HorizonsUnlimited.com

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Grant Johnson
Seek, and ye shall find.
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Inspiring, Informing and Connecting travellers since 1997!
www.HorizonsUnlimited.com

When travelling Europe in 03, we rarely saw flags on bikes or cars, but most displayed the countries symbol, and we did likewise.

For the record, we take most of our vacations by bike in the U.S.(more than I can recall), have family and friends there, my first U.S. bike trip in 1975 lasted 2 months (no problems), and we've always had a great time there.

But, in Europe we did have the CDN below our plate. Why? The war had just started and we had the sense it was going to be very unpopular; we didn't want someone mistaking our BC plate for an American plate, then doing something stupid like trashing the bike. I don't think it actually made any difference, because from most responses in Europe, they don't know what CDN stands for.

I would skip the flag again, but consider the symbol for travells outside N.A.

Grant, actually I was the one that asked about traveling without a US state license plate on the bike. Thanks for the feedback.

I will be traveling from the east across Russia first. Do you know if what you describe can be done in European Russia (or Siberia or the Russian Far East, for that matter) or will that be possible only in the EU countries?

Thanks again, Grant.

Mike

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Mike

liketoride, sorry!

You are likely to only find it where they do such things, but nothing stopping you from making one anywhere.

It's just a piece of clear plastic, with black numbers stuck on the BACK side of it, then covered with a single large sheet of black or yellow usually.

So you're looking through the clear at the numbers, with a yellow background. Easy. Except for getting numbers that stick on in reverse.... although you could stick them to the backing, then mount the works. Not quite as solid, but if done well, should work fine.

If you're at home in the US you should be able to come up with something easily enough.

good luck, Grant

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Grant Johnson
Seek, and ye shall find.
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Inspiring, Informing and Connecting travellers since 1997!
www.HorizonsUnlimited.com

Susan, you wrote that the letter i quoted was one-sided and that's true. The original question was asking why are people angry with America and the replies have been trying to answer this. If the question had been "What do people love about America?" the answers would have been quite different.

GlobalGS - you wrote some fairly thoughtful responses to the replies you have received. But i want to reply to one comment you made: "Some of the countries that have gotten the blunt end of the stick (Iran, Syria, Iraq (invading Kuwait) etc....) have in the past acted aggressively and thereby deserved a good slap upside the head, by the big kid on the block". Perhaps you should compare the number of innocent people who have died and are still dying as a result of US aggression with the crimes committed by these other countries. Then you might be able to understand the anger throughout the world. I think Osama Bin Laden and Al Quaeda have a fairly similar philosophy to you on that one.

And as for the statistics you quoted, i suspect they would be a whole lot worse if more people actually knew what was going on. Most people don't know and that included Pete and I until about a month ago when an American friend sent us the above link to Democracy Now. DN is one of the very few independent (and therefore unbiased) media channels in the US. All of the mainstream media are owned by big business. As Amy Goodman writes: "This is a well-oiled propaganda machine that is re-packaging government spin and passing it off as journalism". It seems that the people of America are being brainwashed by hype. No wonder they are confused about the backlash or "blowback" as the CIA calls it. Wars (including the War on Terrorism) are being justified, marketed, implemented, sanitised and glorified. Do ordinary American people have any idea of extent of the death, injury and suffering their government is inflicting? Perhaps only the soldiers do, and i do feel really sorry for them.

I apologise for the length of my emails, but the reason i am writing so passionately about this is that i fear that we are balancing on the brink of a third world war. It seems to be mainly about rapidly diminishing oil resources, but in many developing countries supply of fresh water is also becoming a crucial issue. War is not the best way to solve these problems and maybe it is not too late to turn things about. Whatever happened to good old fashioned diplomacy and respect for human rights in dealing with problems?

I guess the key issue for me is that the massive poverty and suffering in the world has been exacerbated rather than relieved by US foreign policy, and most of the suffering and death is easily preventable. E.g. if the money spent on warmongering was instead spent on foreign aid and reconciliation.

If you want to see some really staggering statistics on poverty and the uneven distribution of wealth, have a look at the website of the Alliance for Sustainability: [URL=http://www.mtn.org/iasa/povstats.html]

Jenny


[This message has been edited by beddhist (edited 21 January 2005).]

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Cheers,
Peter.

Europe to NZ 2006-10

Lucky for you that you got away with it. For the record, German authorities consider licence plates as documents. Any change can land you in hot water. German cops know what US plates look like, we used to have plenty of them in the country until a few years back, when all the US military had their own plates.

Austria is probably the only country where the country tag rule is enforced, even if only to make money out of it. (Even though EU reg'd vehicles with the new EU plates don't need them any more A cops issued tickets for this, in contravention of EU rules, cause the A govt. hadn't passed the appropriate rules yet.)

Oh yes, the Germans use the metal plates, too, as do most French (you can choose here).

In most other countries I guess you get away with hand-painted plates!

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Salut from Southern France, the bikers' paradise,

Peter.

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Cheers,
Peter.

Europe to NZ 2006-10

Hi all

All though I do not have a sticker or a flag of my country.I do have a sticker which is on my bike its not a nation but a Community
my Horizon Unlimited sticker
If you have not got one vist the souk and I'm sure Grant can help you out

Flags; what a great discussion, let it roam off topic once in a while as they all do, sure beats talking about carnets and leopard-skin tank bags. The trouble is we're all pretty much agreeing with eachother... Where's an ugly American when you need him to lock this thread out!
What happened to Global is shocking - think about it. it's pretty extreme. I can't help thinking that the flag must have been very blatant and not just lost among a box covered in other flags, as you see some times. Looks like that icon has become about as popular as a swastika these days. Remember how utterly uncool it appeared - at least from where I was watching with a groan - when they draped a flag over Saddam's falling statue that time? They could not get it off quick enough.
Someone else explained it above, but Americans are proud of their flag in a fairly normal, patriotic way (if that's your bag). Remember too that woman in Fahrenheit 9/11 (on UK telly next week) who hung hers out proudly every day, despite her experience. A practise unknown in the UK or maybe even Europe.
When I was in the US last summer and saw flags outside people's houses and 'God Bless our Troops', I assumed it was a hardcore KKK enclave and it gave me the creeps. I'm sure I was wrong. I was also nervous about travelling up there, so demonised have they become. Now it's becoming clear the country is very much divided down the middle, politically. I met especially great people, as you invariably do, some falling over themselves to apologise for the smirking chimp. And this was Idaho, redneck central I assumed!
Me, it would never occur to me to stick on a Brit or any flag - or even a GB sticker anymore. If they want to know where I'm from they just got to ask - though I think it's a very human instinct to do so, to size a stranger up. Like AndyT said, low profile is best - keep them guessing - as it's already glaringly obvious we're foreign and often a lot richer (the 'Range Rover' syndrome I've seen in Africa, not a great car at some borders). No need to rub it in. It's better for cornering too.
Piero S seemed pretty clear to me first time round and I agreed with him. Apart from the bit about 'loving his country' which I don't get at all. What's there to love about any country that isn't as good - maybe in other ways - somewhere else?
One thing I'm sure we've all discovered from our travels (and which Ted Simon mentioned in that video about him I watched last night) is that in the end we're all people. Take CB's advice, keep your flag on your underpants, along with other essentials

Chris S

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Author of Sahara Overland II hardback edition and the Adventure Motorcycling Handbook, among other things

http://www.sahara-overland.com and http://www.adventure-motorcycling.com

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Adventure Motorcycling Handbook 8 • Morocco Overland 3 • Overlanders Handbook 2 • Twit

In the Netherlands you can't buy plates that easy.
You have to show your (Dutch) bike papers.

I think in other EU-countries they have the same rule (or coming soon)

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Freek (NL)

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Freek (NL)

Hi,

I find the different opinions on here interesting.
Well described with words by many.
I guess that if a canadian flag can save your life, then take a canadian flag, if you need a french or an english flag, idem.
But I agree that the best is to avoid flags and everything that relates to national pride,
let the flags decorate places as the white house, buckingham or the elysée.
You can still be proud of your country if you wish.
Sure that americans are now badly seen out in the world, much due to the behaviour of their president.

The truth is...not only americans.

Also; EVERYONE that looks as them !

France is a good example for this in little scale.
Me I'm swedish but I live here in France, we all know french are funny greedy acting individuals.
When spaking french I keep some of my swedish accent, before, I was often compared to german,
now I'm often compared to american..this is just funny,

but I'm sure that in the middle east countries, anyone white taned rich tourist looking, will more and more be classified to the american kind; a power hungry invador, without understanding for what is different.
A consumer for 40% of the worlds ressources.

So the keyword is sympathy, it mustn't be false of course, but I think that most here have understanding of those in the 3d countries/Europe/Usa who aren't the Bush or Oussama kind= a large number.

Its obvious that if you chose to travel, it's because you're an open minded kind of
person.
So you'll just have to use common sense and demonstrate sympathy.

Why not arab stickers, saying something similar to make love & not war.

Matt

I talked to a German who ordered food in Paris. He ordered in English because his French is horrible. He said they were rude to him and then when it was explained he was speaking English as a common language since he didn't know French, they apologized to him. They were rude because they thought he was American.

Which makes me think, how was the original poster acting? I give people the benefit of the doubt, but if he was being an Ugly American, then maybe he had it coming. I don't know him, and I don't know the situation of the story. I've only read his version. I hope that an overlander knows better, but I wasn't there.

--Dave

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Trying to ride (and work) my way round the world on a 1965 Ducati 250cc. Australia, New Zealand and Japan are first. http://nokilli.com/rtw/

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Not Ted Simon since 1970!
http://nokilli.com/rtw

Maybe I'm shallow but the purpose of my international traveling is to promote understanding--about those I encounter and myself as an American. Let's face it, we're all cultural junkies but also ambassadors for where we came.

Governments may not get along but people do. I always fire the first volley in the attack by knocking over locals with a big stupid smile and obvious Delighted-to-be-here look on my face. It's an effective weapon.

This has worked well in Latin America, Russia, Mongolia, Eastern Europe and the Middle East. I was even treated like family by Palestians when visiting Gaza after obtaining a very difficult-to-issue permit from the Israeli army. I was the sole Westerner at Dr. Barghudis Presidential rally in Jericho and unwittingly met with Hammas face to face in Gaza on election day.

Sorry to hear about problems in Western Europe. When I was in Munich for kidney stone treatment, the staff, doctors and people on the street were extremely kind. Hospital employees brought family members in to meet the wandering Yankee.

I love my country but if I wave flags while traveling it's the ones from countries visited. I'm a proud American but also a citizen of the planet and while making a point to act that way, expect others to also.

There are sometimes situations encountering crowds with questionable intent, at which time I simply announce myself:

"I have traveled around the world to visit your city and learn about the people, now what do you want to show me?"

This has never failed as they take a second look at my frayed clothes and crusty machine.
The next thing is invitations for tea, meals or tours.

As members of the world riding community we should disregard differences and emphasize what we have in common. Complaining about each other's elected leaders doesn't change anyones mind. I have a few bones to pick with leaders around the world as well as my own but to rant here only further divides a family that should be promoting unity.

As a prisoner of the ELN in Colombia a few years ago, some of the political officers interogating me almost showed signs of reason. As they were holding my head underwater, spitting in my face and yelling things about the president, in a moment of calm, I managed a few questions of my own.

"Do you approve of what your government does?

"No!"

"Then what the hell makes you think I approve of mine?"

Suerte amigos

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Around the World on Two Wheels www.strikingviking.net

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EARTH RIDE!
Understanding the world through adventure travel.
www.strikingviking.net