circumnavigation2005

[circumnavigation2005]

ANYONE INTERESTED IN A VERY SLOW CIRCUMNAVIGATION?
I would love to find someone with whom to share the renewal of this dream of yesteryear. I can easily pay my half, am an excellent cook, speak Spanish and French and my passion is travel.
Think of the advantages of having your own physician onboard.
circumnavigation2005@yahoo.com

[Denr]

This is a very lofty goal given today''s geopolitical landscape. You should know if you don''t already that Americans are hated all over the world, not because we''re Americans but because of our political leaders, can you say “Iraqnam”? It is a dangerous world out there and US flagged yachts traveling in Indonesia and the Middle East have big bulls eyes painted all over them. Read the State Department’s guidelines for this type of foreign travel. I think you''d stand a better chance with the pirates of the Caribbean.

The three stooges go to war: Larry Bush, Curley Powell and Moe Rumsfield

[dman]

Denr LOL.

[dotcom]

Americans were hated world wide long before our current political leaders took office. Or don''t you remember Klinghoffer being thrown off the Achille Lauro in his wheelchair simply because he was an American. We should have responded then instead of waiting 20+ years and giving the fundamentalists all that time to organize and recruit.

So go around the Cape like in days of yore.

[rvkramer]

Hey dnlr... You have a very selective memory. Americans and other "free" societies have been targeted for over 20 years. If not for the selfless sacrifice of the American soldier, the circumnavigation would be very different indeed. Our leaders, both Dem or Rep, have a duty to protect us from all threats. 911 and numerous embassy attacks all occured before Iraq. Fair winds and God Bless all our Leaders.

PS My son is currently serving... as a volunteer.

[pjfsail]

RVKrammer, God bless you and your son. Yes, we have been hated all over the world for many things and for many years. We are loved too, all over the world. I was in New Zealand a few years ago and an immigration official told me, "We love you Yanks but we HATE your government."
And in the Netherlands I got into a debate with a Frenchman who absolutely despised Americans. I was rescued by a number of other customers, in the establishment, who, like the Kiwi, loved Americans but had a huge dislike for our government and its policies. I don''t know if this helps the original question but I did want to respond to your response. We are hated world wide for our government and its policies. But, we are also loved for who we are, Americans. My heartfelt thanks to your son and you for his envolvement in keeping me safe. I appreiciate you both. Regards, Peter

[rvkramer]

pjfsail, thank you for your reply. I marvel at the short memory of so many countries. If not for the selfless sacrifice of young Americans in WW II both the Frenchman and the Kiwi would be speaking different languages, German and Japanese. Never has one country been so powerful and yet not dominated those weaker. We rebuild what we destroyed in war, we respond to natural disasters, we spend billions of dollars in foriegn aid, and try to prevent weaker nations from being ursurped by stronger. This isn''t a political forum and I apologize for my rant, but Kuwait was invaded, we responded. And we left, we didn''t keep the oil for ourselves. The same is true in the Middle East. We want freedom for all and we put our sons and daughters in harms way so that everyone in every nation can one day say I''m free.

[burtsails]

I''m a Canadian crusing on a US flagged vessel; so far just in the US but moving to the Carib. While traveling throughout Europe I saw much protest against the US however Americains always said they were treated well. Americians are some of the friendliest people on earth (a little loud at times) and are generally liked. Politics is always the issue; let''s talk boats!!!

[sneuman]

I am an American who has lived and traveled abroad (mostly in Asia) for the past decade. Americans are disliked more than ever now, that''s true. But the last thing I would do is trust a State Dept. travel advisory. Use your own common sense. Some places are dangerous, but many listed by the SD are NOT. They are paid to overreact and subsequently get it all wrong on a frequent basis. This feeds in nicely to Americans'' more generalized fear of foreign travel.

[WHOOSH]

As counterpoint to Sam''s comments, I would say our experiences abroad over the past five years produce the opposite impressions, namely:

1. Americans seem to uniformly benefit by the tendency of other nationalities to distinguish between Americans and America. What I have seen change as a reulst of American politics and foreign policy in the Bush era has been another nationality''s curiosity about us - how was Bush re-elected? will we stay the course in Iraq? How has 9/11 affected us? With a few isolated exceptions I find people remain very accepting of Americans in Europe and the Caribbean, the two places we''ve lived since 2000. Curious, dumbfounded and eager to learn more about America but hardly harsh or unaccepting to Americans.
2. I would encourage everyone to consult the State Dept advisories (also the CDC advisories) for any country being considered. You just have to do it with the same mental framework you apply to any other source. (Does anyone really believe without question what the cruising guides say?) It is important to reflect on the SD''s role vis a vis their advisories: they are trying to minimize possible negative consequences and so they obviously are biased towards a conservative view of risk. This is no different than the USA''s (or UK''s) Sailing Directions, which read as tho'' a boat will fall off the edge of the earth before the next port. Sam''s correct to caution against unbridled "trust" but the info is clearly worth reviewing with reflection. Advice to avoid information is what I would caution against.

In five years I can count three ''Anti-American'' experiences, one of them a sign in Trinidad I happened to notice when on a bus. A second was a Brit commenting the day after 9/11 that ''we had it coming''; I think what he was trying to say was that our huge presence in the world made 9/11 unavoidable but the group (not all American) took it more negatively. The third was someone hollering profane slurs at us from a German canal cruise ship whie we were locking thru on the Kiel Canal; he was at a make-shift bar and my impression was that he was drunk. On the other hand, I can''t count the number of times we''ve been approached directly by strangers, sometimes very poor, who expressed condolences at the 9/11 attack and who expressed concern for our servicemen in Iraq (despite that war being hugely unpopular in Europe). This seems to me more representative of the feelings people have of Americans, no matter what they think of America''s current political regime.

Jack