October 2004

It's all over the news. The 2004 US elections between Mr W. Bush jr. and Mr Kerry. We were watching this documentary tonight about the whole thing, including interviews with people, "normal" civilians, and their opinions about both candidates.
Both were ofcourse saying the same thing. Their favorite candidate is the best, look at the news and the statistics and you will see that [ fill in the name here ] is the best.
Especially that one comment of a certain lady, who said that Bush (ok, it's not a secret that Bush isn't my favorite) was to thank for keeping the country together after the 9.11 attacks and in the war against Iraq and that he had brought Americans and the world together, struck me as a bit odd.

A friend of mine has worked in the US for three years, 2001-2004, and every time he was in Holland, he was surprised about all the things that were written in the news in Holland (and the rest of the world except for the US). He mentioned that there were so many things that wasn't mentioned in the news in the US.
It makes you start to wonder to what level the American people are informed about what's REALLY happening in the world. It makes you start to wonder if that lady, who was so full of Mr Bush, would still be so full of him if she would know what the rest of the world knows. It seems as if the American people (yep, generalizing a bit here, sorry!) are only informed with "good news". A bit of chauvinism is a good thing, ofcourse, but try to stay objective, would you?
They say that "knowledge is power"; does that mean that the American people are completely helpless?