anyone see the survey in the mirror (drek tabloid rag) today?

80% of americans (surveyed) couldn't pin point Iraq on a map.

This is hardly surprising, the US has allways been fairly isolationist, what with having the lowest rate of passport ownership in the west etc.

however some of the slightly more disturbing locations selected by the survey included britain, nicuragua, Finland, and surprisingly mexico (although one suspects that may have just been someones wishfull thinking)

[Edited on 21-11-2002 by Lupe_101]

Yes,I saw this earlier,I can't find it now.
What was really scarey was the percentage that couldn't find the United states on the map.It was near 10%.

I think Sweden were top.followed by Germany and Italy.

Scary when people do'nt know where America is. Well, in college some people still do not know who the governr of Pa is, or that a state is not a country. Sad is'nt it.

I think people are just being stupid acting like they dont know. I dont see how people can not know where New York is, which is a question they asked in the poll too.

that poll doesn't surprise me that much - there's always a poll like that - but what do you expect? We've got people blaming McDonalds because they're fat. Lupe - do you need a passport to travel around Europe - say if you were to go to France or Germany? - just wondering.

ne1 watch rick mercers talkin to americans basically its a show where they talk to americans and ask them questions but on the show they only show the dumb ppl on the survey what kind of ppl were asked??

"Lupe - do you need a passport to travel around Europe - say if you were to go to France or Germany? - just wondering. "

you need a passport to travell from England as were not part of the EU yet, however I'm fairly sure travell between places like france and spain no longer requires one, I have an odd feeling that last time I was in portugal there was a big debate running because they still needed passports (possibly a throw back to when Lizben was a closed city) cant recall.

so I guess that would be a plus of the EU - being able to travel all around Europe, cool! We don't need passports to go to Mexico or Canada. I go up to Niagara Falls often - if you tell them at the border you're on the way to their casino they seem let you go through quicker

see now this illustrates my problem with the US wanting to invade iraq. you ask a 100 americans whether they should attack iraq a lot of them will say "yes!". ask those same 100 americans to point it out on a map and they get it wrong. smacks of ignorance. got to make you ask whether they're the right people to ask the first question to ...

- qo.

EU citizens don't need a passport.Just right now, I'm coming back from France and I went there without any passport.

Since the Shengen Agreement, EU citizens don't need a passport anymore when they are travelling to another EU country.

We need a passport when we have to go in GB or have to leave the EU.

I think thats the point the mirrors making Q.O.

on an interesting side note though,a good 85% of English press are currently anti a war in Iraq, and this includes our high brow broad sheets as well as our tabloid shlock.

This is a far cry from their gulf coverage which was vehemently pro the campaign.

even more bizarre current events and political programmes on both ITV and BBC are also taking a fairly anti war stance.

is this reflected in other countries or is britain the only place where the media,s telling us this is a bad idea.

Originally posted by Lupe_101:

"is this reflected in other countries or is britain the only place where the media,s telling us this is a bad idea."

um .... iraq? but i guess that's kind of a given ...

seriously, i think most of the EU is getting that way. possibly not as much as britain though. speak up people! what does your media say?

(i think we can happy leave the US out of this one as we already know what they're saying ...)

- qo.

I don't. we only get snap shots of the US media here in Britain and the attitudes of those we meet on the web who seem to be 50:50 on the subject.

I'd love to know the US medias current stance.

Our media real does not have a postion.They just reportwhat is going on.There are individuals that have opinions,both pro and con,but the news seems to be pretty neutral.And much like this board the opinions are about 50-50.

As far as the topic goes,I thinkit is sad.A few years ago they did a poll of collage students, I think it was like 40 or 50% didn't know where Chicago was.When I was done laughing I realized how sad that was.

Geez...

And to think as a kid in elementary schoolI almost always had 10's (=A+'es) for topography... I knew all the (U.S. & Canadian) states, most of the state capitals, practically all countries, almost the capitals and where they were...

Although that was the time before the fall of the Berlin wall...

We had to memorize them all... But I had fun doin it.
All this in the little caribbean island of Aruba...

[Edited on 24-11-2002 by TheBandit795]

It's true that they do seem to turn out these "surveys" as regularly as clockwork -perhaps it's to stimulate the Christmas market for educational toys and books and software.
However, I find it intriguing that in some states, those responsible for the awesome achievements of the public school system are trying to make it very hard indeed for parents in despair who are opting for "home schooling".

What makes this poll even more funny is that it isn't really that surprising.