With the exception of the scene I wrote about a couple of weeks ago, when two white South African women proclaimed their fealty to Ghana by celebrating their hard-earned victory over the "fucking imperialist Americans," I have run into virtually none of the anti-Americanism that is supposedly rife across the globe. I have been saying it for years, but it bears repeating: In vast swaths of the planet, people might have problems with American policies. Much of their skepticism and even disdain has been well earned. But they neither hate America nor Americans. Disliking our President is not tantamount to disliking me, or my country. Polemicists at home on both the left ("The rest of the world hates us!") and the right ("Who cares if the rest of the world hates us!") simply assume that we are hated and craft their narrative around that misconception.
Last night at the bar I met a chatty, ambitious Zulu musician, radio presenter, and business owner. We started off using the universal language of sport, summing up the scoreless football match, and before long he went into an almost enraptured monologue. "I love America!" I hear that more than you might imagine. People love the idea of the United States. And they love what it represents. But in a first, he followed it with, "I love George Bush!" This was both shocking and fascinating to me. I love the United States, and I cannot stand George Bush. So obviously I asked why. Paraphrasing, he told me that Bush is a strong leader. There are no surprises. He says he is going to do something, he does it. Everyone criticizes him, but at least with him, when he says not to do something because there will be consequences, if you do something, there are consequences. "If this country had a leader like that," he emphasized, "we would not be where we are." I should have asked him to clarify -- I'd place a pretty big bet that this means he supports Mangosotho Buthelezi, the longstanding Zulu leader of the Inkatha Freedom Party, and not Thabo Mbeki and the ANC, but I wanted to watch the game, and figured I'd nodded my head without commenting enough through his embrace of Bush. Plus, while I have not heard much anti-Americanism on this trip, I have heard a great deal of anti-Bush sentiment. I think he has fully earned that sentiment, and I think that too many people in the States (and critics outside as well) erroneously conflate disliking our president with disliking our country. So in a sense it was refreshing to hear someone genuflecting before someone about whom I had heard almost nothing but brickbats.
I was thinking about the following last night: I believe I have spent half of the last decade worth of July 4ths abroad (and thus the same All-Star games -- I want the AL to win in order to garner the league's World Series rep, which I hope will be the Sox, home field advantage, and I have no problem if they do so with the Sox players getting in as little as possible to keep them healthy for the second half). In 1997 and 1999 I was here in South Africa. in 2000 I was in Ireland or Northern Ireland. In 2005 I was in England. And I am back in South Africa this year. The others I believe I spent in Athens, Ohio; Asheville, North Carolina; Washington, DC; and Odessa. This little bit of trivia is apropos of nothing. I love my country but do not see it as singularly virtuous. I have lived and could easily again live in a number of countries overseas, all of which have their own virtues and vices. I miss the US because I miss my fiancee and my friends and the Red Sox and my house and chili cheese dogs and even my office and my work (which I've been doing here, but wiothout my own computer and files and books it is hard to get much done). It will be nice to get back, though I am thoroughly enjoying the beach this week and am already lamenting not staying longer in Oxford.
I hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July, that you celebrated our independence from the Brits by grilling animal carcass and drinking beer and watching sports and enjoying the company of family and friends.
BTW: I hate that there is no team left in the World Cup that I can support unqualifiedly. I wanted Italy to win last night, but only slightly. As far as tonight goes, I hate, hate, hate the way Portugal plays. They embody everything that is wrong about soccer -- they dive, pretend they had a limb severed whenever anyone makes contact with them, and they whine. (A friend, citing a trainer friend of his, pointed out something that I cannot believe has not crossed my mind before: People who are actually injured do not writhe on the ground. They tend to be still. Writhing = faking. It's obvious, yet no one in international soccer has picked up on it.) Plus they beat Holland that night I went to Holland House with all of the crazed Dutchmen and then they beat England, which I wanted to see win and make it to the finals to witness an entire nation drunk at once. (I could insert an Ireland joke here, but why go for the low hanging fruit?). And on top of all of that, Portugal was the worst, most ruthless, and most stubborn colonial master in Africa. On the other hand I have a tough time rooting for France. I do, however, really like Zinadane Zidane and Thierry Henry. And did I mention that I hate just about everything about the Portuese team? So I'll root for France tonight and hope that Italy can come through on the weekend. And I will root for Germany to declare war on Portugal. (I kid! I kid!) Or at least to pummel them in the third place game on Saturday.
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