'Lies My Parents Told Me'
Discussion of episodes currently airing in Un-American locations (anything that's aired in Australia is fair game), as well as anything else the Un-Americans feel like talking about or we feel like asking them. Please use the show discussion threads for any current-season discussion.
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Heh. Yes, I had indeed recognised that Thailand is a damned sight closer to Australia than I am at present. Buffista F2F in Bangkok? I understand that one night there will make the tough guys crumble - we could fight crime and dodge pingpong balls?
Or would it be wiser to mention the tigers and elephants and bears, oh my? And the barking deer, mouse deer, pangolin, dugongs etc etc?
I can't find any info about this online, but apparently yesterday afternoon our sister school, in Gaza, was attacked by gunmen. Most of the kids had gone home, but some were still there. I don't know whether they succeeded in taking any of the teachers hostage, but that was clearly the aim.
Fun fun fun.
I saw that, Fay! Two teachers were taken hostage for several hours, until the Palestinians determined they weren't in fact Americans. Scary photos of balaclava-wearing men pointing guns at the head of one teacher. I'm so glad everyone is safe.
Oh, jeez. Damn. Wow. I'm a teacher, and we have had drive-bys, and lots of gang activity....but HOSTAGE? I can't even imagine.
Dude, we're TEACHERS. Commas, gerunds, cells, and pi...I...I...don't get it.
And one of these times, one of the teachers is going to get wounded or killed. You can't have emotionally-heightened, not-too-bright men with guns flailing around forever.
As official Americans overseas, we've always known we were targets. But it really bothers me that recently, ANYone who might possibly be American is a target. And for what? It's not like any of the other hundreds of Americans killed or taken hostage has made life in the Muslim world any better.
Well, that isn't entirely recent, is it? I mean, I can remember flying to Europe in the 80s and being aware that I could theoretically be a target. (Mind you, this was partly because we had military ID and were specifically advised to put that in the checked luggage.)
Having been spat at for being American (which I'm notably not), and having enough Canadian friends pissed off at the pretenders to the Maple, I figured it was a long time thing, for many reasons, to avoid being IDed as American when travelling.
having enough Canadian friends pissed off at the pretenders to the Maple
At first I thought it was cool, but it got widespread enough that people started going "hey, they're going to mess with us too, just in case we're incognito Yanks".
Also, the time I ran into a bunch of Canadians in York Minister. My mellow was harshed when they told us they were from "Vancoozer".
I was like "Dude, you're letting down the side. There's even a Vancouver in Washington." I was kinda miffed at being a flag of convenience for people that dense.
I remember once while I was studying abroad in Cape Town, I was talking to another UCT student, who asked where I was from. When I told her I was from the U.S., she said, "Oh, I haven't met any other Americans yet! I've met a lot of Canadians, though." Note that the study abroad program was overwhelmingly American, and I do not recall a single Canadian student who was there at the same time as me.
I've heard that there are cetain European countries that are more favourable to Americans than Canadians. Germany, I think might have been one.
However,there was a just a Canadian worker in Gaza taken hostage and released in the past week. He said his captors thought he was American at first, and treated him roughly. When they found his Canadian passport, their attitude totally changed.
When they were certain I was Canadian, they were very disappointed. Then, they told me, 'We love Canada.' That's wonderful to hear when you have guns pointed at you," an exhausted Mr. Budzanowski said yesterday in a telephone interview shortly after he was released after almost 30 hours as a hostage.
...
His former captors had taken a liking to him toward the end of the hostage-taking and one — the one who kept asking him to say hello to Canada — even gave him a phone number to call if he ever needed the help of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
The funny thing is this guy totally had a foreign accent to me. It sound liek English wasn't maybe his first language, so I wouldn't have pegged him as Canadian or American at all. I guess maybe if you're speaking Arabic all Western accents sound alike.