Who creates the United States' bad image abroad?

Ana Velitchkova
Eye on Earth

Last week, we started examining four influential factors creating the United States' bad image abroad. They included foreign policy, army stationed or participating in military operations abroad, U.S. companies expanding abroad and products of the U.S. entertainment industry spread all over the world.

It was argued that because of its foreign policy, the United States appears to have no respect for other countries. In choosing tools for foreign policy, the United States neglects diplomacy and relies heavily on its army because of lack of interest from its politicians. The launches of numerous military operations, especially those carried out unilaterally, build the image of invader and world bully.

The foreign policy and the army open the way for U.S. companies to penetrate the treated regions.

To provide long-term stability for economic activity in those regions and keep an eye on possible competition, the army creates military bases. There are U.S. military bases positioned on every continent.

They create a feeling of dependence in the local population and ultimately add to the negative attitudes toward the United States.

The U.S. companies experienced in the free markets rarely meet significant competition in the new market of the recently "conquered for democracy" regions. Usually, they manage to easily impose their products on people who had never imagined or needed such products before. Through massive advertisement only they can afford, they create desires people cannot satisfy. Often, they try to change values and destroy traditions. It is not rare for them to exploit local workers in sweatshops. A few examples follow:

When McDonalds came to Bulgaria, the company bought a bookstore that had been a landmark for the capital downtown for years. It turned the bookstore into one of its restaurants.

The ILRF accuses Exxon Mobil of allowing the Indonesian military to use the company's construction equipment for digging mass graves and of knowingly benefiting from the forced relocation of villagers in order to accommodate the company's facilities. Mobil has exploited the huge natural gas reserves in Aceh, Indonesia, since 1971.

The website Killercoke.org claims eight union leaders in Coca-Cola plants in Columbia were killed and hundreds of workers have been tortured since 1989.

The National Labor Committee for Worker and Human Rights contends that in Bangladesh, workers, some as young as 10, labor for 14 to 15 hours a day seven days a week for as little as 8 cents to 19 cents an hour making Winnie the Pooh shirts for Walt Disney Co. and Wal-Mart.

Amnesty International reports U.S. companies face lawsuits for complicity in human rights violations.

Next time you go shopping at Wal-Mart, you might ask yourself why they have such low prices. Ask also whose sweatshop labor you are profiting from. You might want to visit Sweatshops.org, too.

The frustration and disappointment U.S. companies often bring to people abroad is transferred to the U.S. general account.

As the fourth major United States image builder, the entertainment industry, has a particularly powerful role.

Everywhere, people watch American movies - in many places, actually, the majority of the movies shown are American. The youth grow up watching American pop culture on television.

The image of opulence people abroad contemplates contrasts painfully with their own poverty.

The behavior and morals they are offered have little attractiveness. Imagine a mother or a father in a "developing" country who is being urged to accept the "freedom" model and who evaluates this "American" model based on the movies or on MTV. Who would want his or her daughter to be like the women on MTV? Who would want his or her son to follow the example of Jackass?

The perception of America as shown by the entertainment industry makes it absurd for a significant number of people to embrace anything American, democracy included.

The image thus created, by entertainment and by other companies, by the army and by the foreign policy, develops the attitudes people abroad have toward the United States. These negative attitudes sometimes turn into negative actions. Terrorism is the worst example.

Naturally, people in the United States do not like these attitudes and actions and consider them anti-American.

Often, because of misunderstood patriotism, some forget to ask why they exist. Instead of reproaching to foreigners for having them, it might be a better idea to look at their causes and ask for accountability those who create the bad image.

Eye on Earth appears every Thursday. Ana is a graduate student in foreign language and literature from Bulgaria. Her views do not necessarily reflect those of the Daily Egyptian.

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