Anti-Americanism: Will We Be Booed?

Anti-Americanism: Will We Be Booed?

Feb. 23 issue - The American soccer team won't be going to the Olympics this summer, booted out of the Athens Games last week by Mexico. The 4-0 thrashing was bad enough, but the Mexican hosts added plenty of insult to the injury. Throughout the weeklong tourney, local fans shrieked and blew whistles during the American anthem. They booed and hissed U.S. players; some chanted derisively, "Osama! Osama!"

Things weren't any less hostile on the other side of the border. Backstage at last week's Fashion Week in New York, models from Tuleh, Marc Jacobs and Diane von Furstenberg caused a stir by donning pink T shirts with the slogan I'M AFRAID OF AMERICANS, courtesy of Australia-based Tight Knickers. "The shirt is really a plea from Americans to their president to stop turning the world against the U.S.," says Jesse Margolis, one of three men—one American—who created the so-called Dear George shirt.

This anti-Americanism does not bode well for athletes headed to Greece, where the public has a longstanding distaste for the U.S. government. One American with close ties to the Olympics says recent travels to Europe have him concerned. "Traditionally, fans at Olympic events have been keyed in to the whole Olympic spirit," he says. "Right now the hatred of America is so endemic everywhere in Europe, I worry it will even show up at the Games."

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Anti-Americanism: Will We Be Booed?

It is only a matter of time before that hatred will manifest.

So where do I get an "I'M AFRAID OF AMERICANS" shirt?

At the rugby world cup in Australia last year, the US team was very well received. John Howard, on the other hand, got booed big time. So being anti-war or anti Bush does not equate to being anti American.

Soccer fans are a little different and much more militant. When the Australian team went to Uruguay to play in an elimination match a couple of years ago, a squad of guys was PAID to go down to the airport and spit on our team as they arrived. The home fans will do anything to put you off your game.

The Olympics isn't like that - the worst will be slightly muted applause.

the title of it is misleading.

Most people outside the US are not so much opposed to American culture. They strongly disagree with the policies of the US.

ponder what four more years will bring. Shouts of "Osama! Osama!" are inexcusable/indefensible/deplorable, but might just indicate how widespread and deep the revulsion is for the US under the leadership and pre-emptive war policies of our war president.

Which means, of course, that it never will have actually happened.

:puke: :puke:

We are the most hated nation in the world...and we deserve to be so.

(you have no idea how it saddens me to say that)

Being booed at the Olympics should be a wake up call to Americans that something is wrong. It's too bad that ever since Janet Jackson and her weapon of mammary destruction, our networks now have delays of up to five minutes. People should listen to the games on short-wave radios.

That most americans are actually intelligent and aware enough and not brainwashed by religion to realize that something is wrong.