Wow! Anti-American racism is alive and well Down Under. I'm completley caught off-guard on this as most of my Aussie friends are very intelligent and much better informed that this writer, who obviously went looking for the "worst of the States."

These observations are so ridiculous they don't deserve a response, but my guess is that this writer is one of the more ignorant SOBs in Australia. There's a lot more to America than this crap, my friends. An comparable analogy would be if all Americans thought all Australians were drunken ruffians.

So, as my fellow Ugly Americans might say, "Eat it, Mr. West."

Boris - that's a bit of a heated response isn't it? You say it's the worst of America - fair enough, but in a world where the lowest common denominator is what tends to be exported, isn't it a genuine concern?

Rather than a kneejerk reaction and sledging, perhaps you could illuminate some of the more pleasant aspects of wider American culture?

Regarding the pharmaceutical companies being all powerful, it looks as though the Australian goverment is going to undermine the PBS by forcing the pharmaceutical companies to fund the Therapeutic Drugs Administration. A few million dollars saved for the loss of billions in the future as the companies demand influence in exchange for their dollars. This is so shortsighted of the Liberals that one has to wonder in whose interest they really govern, Australia's or the US? Hear about it on ABC Radio National's National Interest programme:

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/nationalinterest/stories/2007/1940042.htm

From my experience, this article is spot on. The vast majority of people in the USA are totally ignorant of the rest of the world. Which doesn't stop them from believing hard and fast that they are the best (USA #1), and that they hold The Truth, and that only they are Free and Civilised.
It is very scary that these people believe they have a mission to spread their lifestyle to the rest of the world.

There are reasons for anit-Americanism.

Quite good ones in my view.

Perhaps these could be looked at and not just labelled and dismissed.

One qualification - most large countries and empires are insular. This is not confined to America (or India or China).

Never been to North America so cannot comment on this picture of life there. However there are a group of American teachers at my University whom the rest of us at first suspected of pulling our legs - until we had a few d & m's and realised they were for real.

They didn't know that South Africa "also had a problem with black people" and though some had heard the word apartheid thought it was an American term.

Two of the subjects "studied" and contributing to their Bachelor Degrees were Cheer Leading and The Formulation of a Christian Family.

They did not know the names of the Prime Ministers of Australia or England (you know - America's great buddies)whom they insist on calling the "Presidents".

They had heard of the term The Renaissance but were unclear as to what it actually was.

They all thought America was heavily involved in saving the world in the First World War and thought that the Second World War actually started in December 1942.

They can't name any poets, authors, actors or even Nobel Prize winners who are not American. They had never heard of Mother Theresa.

They think that vaccinations, the motor car, the women's movement - ah let's face it, anything of any importance, originated in America.

They routinely deplore how the English are ruining the English language with such new-fangled introductions as putting a "u" in colour etc.

I am sure they are very learned in their own subjects and are wonderful teachers - but this lack of knowledge of anything outside their sphere has a somewhat scary side.

The word indoctrination (and a few less kindly ones) springs to mind.