Right after the Iron Curtain fell, I found myself attending another annual international medical conference, this time in Vienna. (I won’t bother going into how ‘well’ the Viennese treated me- NOT.)
As I am wont to do, I gravitated to the foreigners attending the meeting when we socialized at the bar and at the festivities. I wanted to learn what other countries’ medical practices were.
And, this meeting was a goldmine. Folks that had been barred from attending for decades- from Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Russia, among others- were present in fairly large numbers.
One of the first things we did was discuss from where we came. I had said I was from Alexandria, Virginia. And, my (then) wife interloped with “Oh, Roy, they won’t have a clue where that is. We’re from Washington, DC.”
Before she even verbalized the “C”, those folks were jumping on us… “How is it possible that Marion Barry is still the mayor?” (You may need to do a little internet searching to find out that Mayor Barry remained in office despite his convictions [and refusal to make amends] for failing to pay the income tax he owed the Federal government, his sexual liaisons, and his drug habits.)
Which is exactly why I never wanted to tell folks I lived in the DC metropolitan area. I didn’t want to have to apologize for that jerk. (I already had to apologize for my Congressman, Jim Moran- that was enough!)
Which brings up what is going on now.
Yale University recently hosted its 94th CEO Summit. (It is run under the auspices of their School of Management’s Chief Executive Leadership Institute [CELI].) And, over the two-day event (12 and 13 December), they polled the attendees. Most of the 110 folks were from the Fortune 1000 businesses, with a few government and non-profit executives mixed in.
About ½ (59) wanted the US to regulate FAAMG (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, and Google) for their freedom of speech issues, with 90% (99) wanting regulation of all tech companies for failing to protect our privacy.
Like me, 77% of the attendees were happy that Meng Wanzhou (the CFO for Huawei) was arrested in Canada. (She is still awaiting deportation to the US to stand trial for her company’s (the one her father runs and is the primary owner) crimes.)
Almost 90% recognized that TheDonald’s actions were causing our allies to skirt away. (The exact number was 87% or 96 folks.) That was almost the same number (95) who fear that European – as well as US- instability and our trade disputes are going to extinguish US financial market conditions.
But, the real kicker was that ¾ of the attendees admitted that they’ve been forced to apologize for TheDonald and his “embarrassing diplomatic [sic] messages” when they travel abroad for business.
Here I thought that with the death of Marion Barry and the demise of Jim Moran, we would no longer need to apologize for our representatives.
It has not been and is often still not easy to be an American outside of the US. When I was young I remembered that showing a US flag in Europe while trekking, would draw ire from others. (I am not American as you know). The US is often seen as the culprit of many conflicts in the world (and many of these conflicts have either been created by the US or not responded to adequately). A large part of the world sees the US as the root of all evil. It is then easy to understand that American citizens so often have to apologize for their country (leaders). I remember crossing the border one time from Canada when I was engaged in a brief conversation with a customs officer who told me that “everybody wanted to live in the US”. To which I responded: “No definitely not everybody; I am one who does not”. I lived in South Florida for four years and hated it. Every minute of every hour. What a soulless place. Now that is only a small part of the US but I was so happy to return to Canada! Shortly after that I won entry into the US in the immigration lottery. Hah, that was funny: I declined in no uncertain terms. I did not want to live anywhere in the US. Lots of things are great in the US, but lots of things are really bad. There seems to be little in between. 🙁 I have family and friends in the US and they too are always apologizing. They are so embarrassed with that arrogant stupid nut wing at the wheel.
FWIW, many of us who do live in the US have the same impression of Florida (let alone South Florida) that you had.
Thanks for those thoughts, Jessica.
Marion Barry – oh yes (and I never did live near DC). I wonder daily how The Donald can have the high (well, 39%??) popularity he continues to enjoy while the majority of us are trying to apologize to anyone we know from a foreign country – he isn’t us, he doesn’t represent our values…but, you know, maybe in a sick way, he does? We’ve met the enemy – yes, in some ways, he is us. How could we as a people ever elect Barry? Or the Man of Orange?
If I had those answers, Alana, I would have stayed as a campaign advisor. And, become rich doing so!