I am from the U.S. and I got emotional. Although the main premise of "invading" other countries to steal or borrow their ideas was rather silly, I was fascinated by some of the individual stories from various countries. The U.S. always claims to be the best country in the world, but when it comes to implementing simple and effective solutions to problems, we suck.
I was a school teacher, so I was particularly interested in the segments about education. While our country makes it very easy for college graduates to be in horrible debt at age 21, Slovenia offers free education to even foreigners. WHile the U.S. government keeps making it easier for people to send their children to private schools, I think it was Finland where it is illegal to set up a private school. The reasoning behind this is simple ---when the children of rich parents have to send their children to school with everyone else, they demand that the school is the best possible for their own children and everyone else's too. All schools need to be essentially the same, with equal facilities.
In the U.S. we have children in poor neighborhoods going to schools with leaky roofs, rats, few supplies, and not a computer in sight. Wealthier school districts have super-high-tech studios with computer imaging equipment and their own print shops ---I know, I taught in one of the latter. Students in Finland are among the best educated in the world and they do it without much homework and with one of the shortest school years and shortest school days in the world. They also don't have multiple choice tests; students have to write in their answers. Most students can speak several languages fluently, too.
In Italy, Moore asked a couple who run a business why they don't implement longer work days or less vacation because they could make more money. The woman essentially asked why they would need more money. Can you imagine a greedy U.S. EO who is earning about 300 times what his average worker earns, saying that?
In Norway, the prison system seems to run on the idea of rehabilitation, nor revenge. Recently I took a tour of the closed WV prison in Moundsville. It was a hellhole. The tour guide seemed just a little too gleeful about the many ways they could punish the inmates. I certainly understand that some of the worst of the worst prisoners were housed there, but I also think if you treat people like animals they act like animals.
The film made me embarrassed to be from a country with so much potential that makes everything so difficult, runs on greed, and a lack of empathy.
Every country has positives and negatives. I lived in Brazil for several years, a beautiful country with cheerful, welcoming people, that hasl many problems. Seeing the U.S. from a different point of view made me see flaws I would never have seen at home while I still appreciated the opportunities I had as a U.S. citizen. This film gave me that same feeling --seeing things from a different point of view sometimes makes things much clearer.
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danbiz-126-118517
7 years ago
you got to involve children, ask for their opinion on subject, only preparing them to pass the multiple choice exam lead to nothing, no joyful memories come from it, no sense of accomplishment or individuality, in class, children should speak more, to get motivated, instead of only listening, it would be beneficial on so many levels
you talk about the prison tour you saw...that is insane, prisonner are people that felt rejected from society (not all, but most) and treating them like this, you put them on the side a little more, like they are worth nothing, everyone makes mistakes of different amplitude, but we never ask, why did this person did this, we only speak of the act and rarely of what in that person mind lead to this
usually, most people are not evil, they are simply unloved or they feel trapped, is one or the other, I am not talking about sociopath or rapist here
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vannierelie
7 years ago
Hello :)
First of all, please excuse my english, it's a second language for me so I will probably make a lot of mistakes.
Morre say it himself : it want to show the bright side of every country, not the worst.
But, at one point, you have to ask yourself : can you really translate all those societal choices in every, and especially in bigger, country ?
For exemple Norway or Iceland are very wealthy because of oil incomes.
So their governments can offered that kind of systems.
Is it possible in other countries, with larger populations, where the problems can be exponentials with the size.
For example, I've been to Norway a few times, and they don't have big cities, that means they don't have suburbs like we do in France, or ghettos like in the US. Solutions are always easier to find on a local scale, when you don't have too much incomes disparity in the society as a whole.
That said, he points out a solution : do USA really needs a 600 billion dollars defense program ?
Let's imagine you cut that amount in half and put 300 billions dollars in education, prevention, integration etc... every year, in ten years I think you would have solved a lot of problems.
Here in France, we lived under a "state of emergency" after the different terrorist attacks we've known.
And we've sent an aircraft carrier to bomb Isis, to your side, dear americans allies.
I always wonder : how many does it cost ?
Is this the best way to use our money to make the society better ?
That's the big question I suppose...
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