Finally a Dutch character who...

You can find ignorant people on any street corner. America educates all their pupils through high school,which most countries don't do. Compare the top 10% of American students against other countries and they are right their or ahead of every other country in the world.

i have to say, you're dumber than sh**. You get your idea of Americans from Jay Leno and Jeopardy. The asian last names were obvious to anyone with a reason to know, and not so to anyone who doesnt, regardless of where they're from. And as for your assumption of 9/11, it was nearly 11 years before your post was made. It is not very often spoken of anymore. Only briefly here and there. Unless the one talking is one of those crazies who think the government killed all those people for some flimsy reason and cant stop talking about it. You call americans ignorant in the sames posts that show you know jacksh*t about us. In other words... Go *beep* yourself.

Oh... it was a classic case of making a mountain out of a mohehill. Harry Connick Jr was a guest judge on one of our variety shows, in which one of the acts was a blackface imitation of the Jackson Five. Connick was outraged, saying that such a thing would never happen in America (which, incidentally, isn't true because it's happened on 30 Rock) and apparently the American press jumped all over the story. One headline I remember reading about wondered if Australians were "racist idiots" (I guess the writer had no sense of irony) and on one of the Fox News shows some commentator explained that Australia was a little behind America in human rights, citing the White Australia policy (which ended decades ago).

Of course, no one bothered to mention that the performers were mainly Indian and Sri Lankan, not white, and apparently no one bothered to ask if blackface was as tabboo in Australia as it was in America. Certainly, I'd never given any thought to it at all, and I doubt there are many here who would have until that incident.

As I said, to me it just came across as a few American journalists adopting this superior attitude and puffing themselves up by beating another country down.

Are you from Vancouver by any chance, since you brought up the Olympics?
If that's the case, then you really have no excuse for not knowing the difference between Mandarin and Cantonese.

I was not at all referring to the Olympics. I was referring to backpackers (hence the bit about the flag sewn onto the backpacks) abroad, who just randomly break out into "Oh Canada". I actually asked some about it, and the explanation I got was that they just wanted to make sure nobody mistakes them for Americans, who, they claimed, pretend to be Canadian because they don't want to be seen as "ugly Americans". They believe that by singing the national anthem, and these "pretenders" not joining in, they are exposing them as frauds. Fine, I suppose they accomplish THAT goal, but in the process they make Canadians look like a bunch of loonies (pun intended).

Speaking of getting patriotic - nice rioting! That actually made international news, which is fairly unusual for Canada. Again, not reinforcing the "modest" image you so insist on.

As far as Canadians not always going around saying 'Canada is the greatest nation in the world', maybe not "always", but certainly quite often. I know plenty of Canadians - many of whom have never left their native city - declaring in all seriousness that their city is the best place in the entire world, and they would never move anywhere else, nor do they feel the need to.