Anti-Americanism in Spain

Guest Columnist
By Jason Moulton

While some students basked in the sun in such places as México, I found myself going to an alternative destination -Barcelona, Spain.

During my time in Spain, I had an opportunity to speak with a variety of people. We would sit around, drink wine and have long, in-depth conversations about the global situation. First, I talked to a Frenchie about her views. She was trés Pro-Chirac and cited how the United States is trying to rule the world through its forceful globalization policies. Then, she brought up Sept. 11 and made the remarks, "America deserved it" and "America needs to wake up." Later on, I discovered that this was what many Europeans felt. I tried to comprehend why she thought this, but I failed to sympathize with her thought processes. At the end of our conversation, I wasn't angry at her remarks, because I realized that she was truly a biased, close-minded individual. Next, I had a conversation with an English girl. I mentioned the whole "deserved it" portion of the French girls' spiel and she lost it. We went on to discuss how globalization is just a stepping-stone in the evolution of the human race. But, Europeans detest the fact that the "evil hands" of the American government have pushed globalization upon them. Now, with a war approaching, European anger toward globalization policies has manifested into outrage over the conflict with Iraq. One night, I bumped into an American girl. I asked her how she was handling the anti-Americanism. She expressed her anger while telling me about a Spanish woman who spit on her in the metro for speaking English. I watched Spanish news while there and saw a program about how the Kurds are preparing for a takeover after Saddam is ousted. It bore a striking resemblance to when we were assisting the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan. CNN would never air what was shown in the program. When I saw this, I had an epiphany: a major reason why people have different opinions about this global situation was because of their different experiences with the media. CNN and Al-Jazeera are biased. BBC says "Crisis in Iraq". CNN says, "Showdown Iraq". Note the difference. What I am trying to say is that the media may give everyone a distorted impression about what is happening globally. Throughout my stay, everyone I spoke with was against the war, as I have always been. I almost attended an anti-war rally with caution, but it rained. I have never felt the way that I feel now toward NATO, our country, the media and real public opinion. My vantage point of the world changed drastically. The world is watching. My message to all the students here at SIU is, "Abra sus ojos (open your eyes)" and look what is happening around you. My suggestion is...learn a foreign language, look at a map, travel, be aware of global problems that exist, watch BBC instead of CNN, and most of all....speak out.

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