[Yaelle]

For people who have not ventured outside the U.S.: Newsflash! There are beloved children of G-d in every land! There are wonderful people and hateful people everywhere!

I hate the official French, the politics, the voices of their "cultural elite," both present and in the various past incarnations, yet I have liked and indeed been very fond of plenty of French people. I have lived in France for a year and surrounded by France for two more (In Geneva). It's OK to bash the French policies and all, but you would certainly all find friends among the French people. I will guarantee it.

One of the open-eyed surprises for me when I was there was how welcoming and open they were to strangers. How many times we foreigners were taken in to homey family lunches, with wine and aperitifs, among poor country people who simply enjoyed having new people to dine with and talk with. I enjoyed their hospitality so much. In fact, the nicest people I met were the ones who had the least. They shared every bit of what they did have and we all had a great time. Many lunches were nothing more than spaghetti and bread and soup and yet they were delicious because of the relaxed, friendly setting.

It was different with the snobs in the city and at the university. I took one class from a Communiste who hated Americains. That was an experience. But I could have found the same at any of our prominent universities, too, come to think of it...

[JIM O]

). It's OK to bash the French policies and all, but you would certainly all find friends among the French people.

Then our"friends" should stand up and condemn their elected leaders actions, it does not happen enough.

[angkor]

There are wonderful people and hateful people everywhere!

Again I'll second that.

I did some brief work in Paris and my colleagues there were great, we did a lot of things and had a lot of fun. Have had superb times with Germans, Aussies, Irish, Vietnamese, Indonesians, etc.

In fact I was recently in Jakarta and Saigon and felt completely comfortable with the people and personal safety, as always (and not at all surprised about that either).

There are of course some bad apples out there in all cultures and of all nationalities, and they do carry a chip on the shoulder about America. But these are the same kinds of people you'd encounter at any American university or DemoRat convention, with the notable difference that they want to challenge you (as an American) rather than attack you. In that regard I can actually tolerate these bad apples more overseas than in America.

There is one charge I've heard which I do in fact believe: Americans are a tad too insular and unaware of the wider world. Unfortunately, I do see a lot of that here on FR (but then again its an American thing, not at all confined to FR)