Ugly Americans ruin Show

This debate is now closed – period. No further correspondence will be entered into.

“it strikes me that this type of behaviour is hardly the way to win hearts and minds”

Ha ha ha ha ha

Surely you don’t believe that anything said outside an official government meeting would have an impact – Noooooo.

While we’re complaining about Americans, why the Defence Secretary decided he’d fly his jet out at 8.30 this morning is beyond me. It blocked all roads from the Hyatt to the Airport at peak hour this morning stopping half the city’s communters. We have peak minute here, today it was peak hour. Had Mr Gates left an hour later there would have been a fraction of the disruption.

A stranger asking to take your photo isn’t what everyone would call a “perfectly reasonably request”, regardless of your country of origin or place of work.

As for “Don’t anger the locals” for ear of a “gunshot right between the eyes”, what are you trying to do, invoke goodwins law? You’re putting out a rather extreme strawman argument there.

Just because you can’t handle the thought of offending someone in public doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily as outrageous to everyone else.

The suggestion that the two American boors are CIA is not as fanciful as it might seem – the large one had dark circles under his eyes. Seriously though, the points brought up in the original post remain unchallenged after this debate and have withstood infantile, and sometimes personal abuse – namely that if you are in a foreign country and you have any complaints you either keep them to yourself or else discuss them with your partner in the motel room (or embassy as the case may be). You certainly don’t ventilate your negative feelings on the top of your voice on a public bus and then compound the situation by arrogantly barking at someone when they ask a perfectly reasonable request.

In bringing this debate to a close it needs to be emphasised that travellers need to exercise discretion at all times when travelling in foreign countries. Don’t anger the locals because in many cases, and in many other places both within and outside of Australia, the response wouldn’t be a posting on a website but a gunshot right between the eyes.

I’ve been coming across increasing numbers of Americans in town, working on supermarket checkouts, serving in cafes etc.

Dunno what the story is with that. Must be here for Defence talks…..

Yeah maybe they were CIA spies just trying to make you THINK they were tourists. BUS tourists. DUN DUN DUN…

I don’t think I would react well to some random stranger on a bus asking to take my photo either.

The Defence talks….yes indeed, perhaps it was Gates and his deputy on the bus.

whos whinging now – you still are. What the hell does some post from a few months ago have to do with the fact that you got upset over one stranger not agreeing to have his photo taken by another.Maybe you should see if kleenex tissues will sponsor you!

I consider this experience far more relevant to Canberrans than crap about a diving trip to the south coast which got a run here a few months ago. Who’s whinging now?

Can’t believe this experience merits a posting on RiotACT. There are morons everywhere, there are rude people everywhere. Often Australians. I’ve seen some pretty bad behaviour by Australians overseas, way beyond what’s described here. If you’re worried about them having such a bad impression of Australia, why not give them a smile and see if you can change their view?

What a drama queen post this is. Not every American is rude. Not every rude person is American. I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but Australians can also be rude too.

I can’t say I’d have been thrilled to go to the Canberra Show either, and there is plenty to whinge about in Australia–just like every other country on earth. It’d be more likely that they were tourists, international students or expats than part of any delegation.

If two people’s conversation on the bus can ruin your day, you have issues.

Tip of the day: try to see the funny side of every situation; you’ll live longer. Perhaps take a look at yourself and why it is that you were so offended by what happened. After all, people are people, and arrogant ones can be found in every town, city and country on this planet. Where did you grow up? Under a rock? Oh yeah, and to suggest these guys were part of the American delegation is hilarious. To suggest Americans in general are rude is plain wrong and very immature. (laughing hysterically)

a yank says no to having his photo taken by a stranger and it almost ruins your day! Fark me you are kidding right?

I work for a US company mainly with Americans and I can tell you its like anywhere. Its become some what trendy to bash Americans especially amongst the luny left but at the end of the day their no different from us. There are dickheads in every country.

barney, I second your comment.

When I lived in Maryland, they asked me if we had roads……

Perhaps they were just American tourists who didnt want to be bothered by other morons on the bus.

I went to the Canberra show on Saturday, compared to years past I didnt think it had much to offer this year. The crowds seemed down on previous years too…or perhaps everyone was hiding out in the showbag hall.

There are morons in every country.

It’s hard to believe Canada and the US are on the same continent. I love Canada and the Candians are really nice people in my experience. US… um, well, almost like a different species.

I doubt if US types here for high level talks would have been on the bus.
We sat on the same table as some americans at the show and they were fine. No whinging, not even loud. They did have a long discussion about what is in satay – deciding in the end it is like mexican chilli, but apart from that (and the accent) you wouldn’t have known they were US>

Oh and I am sure we made many enemies on the sickly patriotic Freemont experience….

Deal with it….

I’m sure heaps of Americans hated Mrs Danman and I’s accent when we were in the US. People actually asked us to slow down our talking so they could understand us…who gives a toss….

It would be interesting to know who they were and where they were from, and if in fact they were involved in ausmin. Americans haven’t yet got the message that the rest of the world judges them, they believe they lead the world.

whinge, whinge, whinge…

Oh they were Americans, they MUST have been in town for the Defence talks… not necessarily, they could have just been regular tourists

A couple of mildly obnoxious Americans on a bus is not much of a news story … even if you try to link it to defence talks.