According to a poll for the BBC, Israel beat out Iran and North Korea as the world’s least popular country. The United States was also seen as a primarily negative force in the world. Canada, meanwhile, was seen in the most positive light, followed by Japan, which was viewed positively just about everywhere outside China and South Korea.
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34 Comments
China also beat out the US with a higher positive and lower negative percentage.
I am sure 90 per cent (or even more)of respondents does not know (care) much about the country they rated. More on the news, worsen the rating.
It’d be interesting to see it broken down by the education levels of those voting.
Another bold display of naivety by the denizens of our global village. All of the things the United States is despised for- pushing globalization, manipulating other governments, military or covert actions in sovereign states, espionage, etc. are all done equally well and often (and in some cases far better) by our friends in Canada, France, Britain, Japan, etc. etc. Even the Belgians don’t get a pass on this one.
The pessimist in me wants to leave it at “oderint dum metuant”…
I guess I’m lucky to be Canadian, but it’s good (and very beneficial) to be friends with the evil satan, no matter how hated the US might be. Canadians can enjoy the benefits of friendship with the most powerful nation while the US takes the heat for almost everything.
“Canada, meanwhile, was seen in the most positive light”.
Ah! In your face…
Actually, most sane Canadians would say, “I’ll believe it when the government stops bleeding me for taxes.”
So Canada gets the number one ranking, but even that’s not enough to get our own, personalized chart breakdown of who said what about us? Hrumph.
Yeah, I’m curious about the 14 percent who have negative views about Canada.
That 14 percent were probably all Newfies.
Iran’s government is certainly a problem. But i had only good experiences, when I had the chance to visit this country. The people were so nice, so gently.
Canada definitely ranked first among terrorists looking for friendly confines in which to operate.
http://magazines.enews.com/doc.....zick060706
So — how can we despised Americans figure out a way to leverage this poll in order to get UN HQ moved to Toronto or Ottawa?
Ok — so they don’t hate us THAT much. Maybe to Tokyo instead?
Once UN HQ is within range of the Dear Leader’s missile tests, it may contribute to a certain clarity of thinking on the part of the collective membership.
And just think how much more everyone will hate us for that! Why, it makes me feel warm all over.
Electing a smart President next year would likely improve the American rating.
…or at least allowing the elected president to take office.
“Canada definitely ranked first among terrorists looking for friendly confines in which to operate.” Really? Possibly less so than the UK, France, and maybe Germany, and certainly not to the degree of stated allies like Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, or Egypt.
As for the poll, the United States has gotten an unfair rap. I would also like to see a breakdown of respondents.
So they asked the French what they thought of France and Israel but they didn’t ask the Israelis what they thought of anything? Hahaha…
“In total 28,389 citizens in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Egypt, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Italy, Kenya, Lebanon, Mexico, Nigeria, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Russia, South Korea, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and the United States were interviewed between 3 November 2006 and 16 January 2007.”
maybe japan is looked upon as as a friendly nation by many but folks should take a look at the editorial the nyt did on the japanese pm’s comments regarding the comfort women. the editorial appered in the print edition so i don’t know if it’s online.
people think japan is a wonderful nation becuase they really don’t know anything about it outside of cars, electronic, or sumo.
—Rest Deleted by Administrator (Robert) for Off-Topic Content—
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PS: No, I wasn’t wrong to delete the rest of the comment. It was off-topic to start bashing someone else’s blog for an unrelated post in this thread.
Haha! Hilarious!
I love how Canada is rated as having the most positive influence in the world. However, in reality Canada’s influence in the world is minimal - compare Canada’s influence in the world during the last half century to America’s, for example, or even more recently to Japan’s (economically) or Israel’s (politically).
Unfortunately, the surveyor only asked if the country influence was 1.mainly positive, 2.mainly negative. There is no category for the amount of influence, or whether or not the country had any influence at ALL (unless the surveyee volunteered additional information). This discredits the survey as inaccurate, and superficial at best.
I think Canada tends to win those sorts of polls and surveys, not because everyone thinks it is so cool, but because it annoys the least number of people.
And the 14% who disliked Canada were probably from Alberta and Quebec.
Denial, Denial, Denial and more Denials, Just like the Japanese. Stick your head in the sand and the world’s opinion will disappear.
America is always good and everyone is always wrong….WRONG!!!!!
No, WRONG!!! is assuming that a person believes America is always good just because they think those who believe America’s output is “mostly negative” are ignorant.
So, America is often good, and you are always wrong.
Look, I’m an American and I’m surprised we only got bronze. This is one I thought we had locked up.
Influence doesn’t have to be an aggressive impact. You can influence simply by example. Maybe that’s why Canada got the nod. They not only get nothing bad said about them in the news, they seldom get anything said about them at all.
With all the ability and resources the US has we could accomplish anything. What we’ve done with it is excelled at killing. We make the greatest weapons and weapons technology ever.
Maybe if we just did a really good job of running our own country people would want to adopt some of our techniques and values.
As it is people tend to not want our policies force fed to them not necessarily because they are bad policies but simply out of spite.
In a nutshell it’s typically America-needs-to-show-leadership howls or America’s-buggered-it protests.
Norway has been actively involved in the Sri Lankan mess, and progress was made until recently. Japan did decent work in Cambodia, but left too early. And it’s the Aussies off to sort out East Timor, Fiji, PNG and the Solomons. That’s about it.
Okay, maybe we ought to divvy up some tasks and let others show their leadership potential. Korea, go sort out Somolia. France, sort out Nepal. China, you have global warming. Switzerland, Mindanao is a mess and needs your help. Malaysia, Myanmar is all yours. Singapore, sort out the digital divide. Brazil, tackle the third world’s potable water problem. India, you’ve run ruffshod on patents, so figure out HIV & AIDS.
I’ll be over here on the sidelines. Nitpicking.
do you really need a BBC poll to figure this kind of thing out? maybe it says more about US education regarding the rest of the world to understand why things like this make news. North Korea has fairly insular education and many there think juche is good and all.
america (and many americans) appears to have serious problems interacting with the rest of the world.
Denial, they say, is the first step.
a few planes into a building would normally clear that up, but america…
it’d rather dig a deeper hole
ps, dont get me rong, i love beyonce, CIS and grahame greene, so im not an america hater by any means
There’s a bit of irony here too, at least based on where I live now. All the Japanese restaurants except for one are run by, you guessed it, Chinese and South Koreans. Perhaps they just don’t like having to cook…
…and for the record. I like our Graham Greene better. “Dances With Wolves” was awesome.
For the record, neither Graham Greene is American, and the BBC is British, last time I checked.
@ Newton #16
Nice catch. I notice Japan did not make the cut either. The selection of nations seems rather… selective, if you know what I mean.
I wonder how many of the respondents were aware that, for example, Canada is one of America’s strongest allies in Afghanistan: there are 2500 Canadian troops in Kandahar (which is a lot given the size of our army), and, unlike many of the European contributors to that war, they actually go out on missions to fight the Taliban. In many respects, Canada ain’t all that different from the Great Satan.
Daveo–Did you know a Canadian sniper who was serving in Afghanistan has the world record for longest kill shot, at something like a mile? Didn’t think so. Your embarrassed defense establishment suppressed the news on that, since it was a Yank thing to do, not something good, polite Canucks do.
Seouldout–I like your thinking. We’ll just stop being global cop and see how the rest of you handle it. Good luck. I’ll be having a beer while criticizing you from the peanut gallery.
Shhh, Daveo, don’t say such things too loud. Gotta keep Canada bash-free. And if the world learned that Europeans have their own versions of the evil homeland security act, that they were all in on such things as ‘renderings’ and that few (if any) countries have stink-free poop, then how could everybody bash the US mercilessly? Gotta always have a scapegoat to hate/envy.
Be sure to read the entire Adobe document before donning thy “I’m not American” t-shirts.
So, Mark, being as I’d rather not read that whole stinkin’ PDF, what are you getting at?
If you take each of the 27 polled countries on an individual basis, you will see a wider variety of worldviews and the true story of how these nations feel about one another, whereas if you just take the average of the whole, of course Israel and the US are going to fare poorly. Bottom line, it’s a shite poll.