SHANGHAI, CHINA-Having arrived in China from the United States just over a week ago, I find it strange watching political news from my own country far back across the Pacific. My apartment for visiting overseas faculty at Shanghai International Studies University is equipped with international cable TV including Al-Jazeera in English, whose world newscoverage includes US news stories of interest to international viewers; and via high-speed internet I can watch US domestic news on my laptop as pictured here. Al-Jazeera is clearly the superior product for world news, and I long ago gave up on getting anything of value on US politics from CNN, but I have enjoyed watching MSNBC's Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow from Shanghai on my laptop in addition to my usual daily readings from the Huffington Post, all via standard local broadband service despite all reports that overseas news sites are inaccessible in China. Domestic Chinese media also cover US politics in detail; and in stark contrast to his immediate predecessor, President Barack Obama appears to be quite popular in China, particularly with young people as elsewhere in the world. Obama's anticipated visit to China in November promises to be quite an event.
Among US domestic stories covered in detail by Al-Jazeera and other international media, most prominent is the fight for (and against) health care reform, Al-Jazeera observing like some in our own media the embarrassing fact that the US is the only nation in the industrialized world which does not provide universal health care to its citizens. As I write this, in fact, Al-Jazeera is comparing the US health care system to those in other developed countries around the world, and showing brief clips of shouting Obamaphobes at town hall meetings bent on maintaining our sad status quo. Nothing, however, can compare to Olbermann and Maddow for detailed coverage of the continuing town hall fiasco across the United States. Yesterday I watched video on Olbermann of right-wingers at a town hall in some dark corner of America rudely shouting down a disabled woman in a wheelchair, and I felt ashamed to be from the same country as these ignorant pigs. Lots can be blamed on the health care industry for the opposition to reform, but the ugly behavior of ordinary right-wing Americans at town halls can only be blamed on themselves and their own willful ignorance. These people are a disgrace to civilized human beings everywhere.
I would say the same about those I've also watched on my laptop making stupid Obamaphobic statements about the President's upcoming speech to American schoolchildren. US presidents regularly visit schools and address America's children, yet when this president follows suit these morons naturally assume some dark purpose at work. Professional liars like Glenn Beck and Ann Coulter say such things because they are paid to say them. Ordinary Americans who say such things, on the other hand, do so simply out of ignorance and hate. Ignorant people in remote areas of rural China or other developing countries at least have an excuse for their ignorance. In America there is no excuse. If you're ignorant in America it's because you have chosen to be ignorant. I repeat: These fellow citizens of mine are a disgrace, and their absence from my immediate surroundings makes my heart not the least bit fonder of them. Their persistent irrational disregard of the facts makes me feel quite certain that simple racism is at the heart of the matter for many Obamaphobes, whether they admit it or not, and for this in America in 2009 there can be no excuse.
Meanwhile, new US ambassador Jon Huntsman has announced that Obama will visit China in mid-November. Obama's visit is certain to generate excitement among young Chinese as well as among expat Americans like myself, and I would fully expect to see cheering crowds of youthful admirers, souvenir Obama t-shirts, and other trappings of Obamamania here just as we have seen around the world. This will be a great time to be an American in China. With a $61 million US pavilion currently under construction for the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai, I am hoping that the president will visit here as well as Beijing, but if not I am very tempted to buy an air ticket to the capital so as not to miss the event. My last visit to China was shortly after the US-led invasion of Iraqin 2003, and I can tell you that George W. Bush was and remains as unpopular in China as anywhere else in the world. Despite Obama's troubles at home, his stellar popularity around the world makes being an American abroad a much more pleasant proposition than it was only a year ago.
Noticeable particularly on Al-Jazeera is the change in America's tone on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since Obama took office, and the resulting change in how America's role in the conflict is portrayed. The new US administration's sharp criticism of continued Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank has, at least on Al-Jazeera, resulted in the US no longer being portrayed merely as a lackey of Israel. Israel now stands alone as the responsible party for its continued violation of international law and Palestinian human rights, and - if onlyin a spirit of cautious optimism- Obama's America is coming to be regarded as a far more balanced broker for peace. This is nothing but good news for Americans at home and abroad.
Mark C. Eades
http://www.mceades.com
