The Sahara and Dumb Americans

At the end of last week, one of my co-workers posted on our main Slack channel with a picture of the “Sahara Desert Dust”. I was confused at first because I was like, “wait, he lives in Guatemala, what is he talking about ‘Sahara Desert Dust’, is that just a name for something in Guatemala?”

So, naturally, I took a few minutes off of work to look up what he was talking about. Thankfully Google knew what I was talking about before I knew and fed me all the results about this dust plume. If you want to read more about it here’s a random article from the top of Google results that will tell you much better than I will: Article.

It made me realize how much of a bubble America is in. The same day I heard about this Sahara Desert business, my co-workers in Guatemala also tell me about a 7.4 magnitude earthquake in Mexico and a volcano going off in Guatemala…I couldn’t believe I hadn’t heard anything about these things yet. Though, at the same time, I admit that I am one of the last people to check the news. I only really look at it if someone tells me about something so I go and look it up myself. I never look at news sites just for the fun of it or even for the knowledge of what’s happening in the world…something I’ve thought about and the pros and cons behind it, but that’s a subject for another post.

I was talking later with some of my roommates and it was interesting hearing their perspective of how Americans are often seen when they visit other countries. I hate to break it to any Americans who thought they were the cool kids overseas, but in many places, Americans are seen as dumb. People who don’t know much outside their own bubble of the world.

That doesn’t mean that others don’t see America as a land of great opportunity. Many will come, or try to come, to America to try to partake in what it has to offer. Prosperity and a chance for freedom. But that doesn’t mean that people think that American’s are smart or even the best at anything, it just means they think they have a good chance here.

I think the general sentiment of most Americans (and when I say Americans, I’m talking specifically about US Americans) is that the USA is the best country in the world. And in general, I agree. The only area that I’d wager that differs is that those from other cultures who know something a different way are going to see some parts of America as a huge step back.

For example, cultures that hospitality means anyone can come over at any time and that’s normal, are going to have a harder time in America where that’s not the norm. It can happen and there are communities like that, but it’s not the normal American thing to do.

There are many other examples of this that I’m sure I, as a US citizen don’t even know about that would be hard for a foreigner to ever feel fully at home here.

You live in, perhaps, the greatest country in the world, but don’t mistake that for being the country that is the best in every area. Every culture, every country, every people group will have their own unique things that make them tick, and America isn’t always going to have or be able to accommodate that.