What Sonny said about representing your country when traveling abroad got me thinking a bit. Most people indeed associate your individual actions with how they see your country. At least I know I do, and it feels kind of weird knowing that to some people, my behaviour represents that of the entire Belgian population. I only hope I left a good impression.
Actually we don’t always have to know someone in person before we connect them with other, barely related stuff, do we? Think about the president of the United States. According to a GFK study, the election of president Obama made America the most admired country globally in 2009. He’s just one person, but his charm and intellect make his country rise so much in the world’s opinion. Too bad there’s a lot of movies and comments on the internet proving the opposite, because this election almost made me believe Americans had gotten smarter too. Which they have not because believe me, if the chats I had with some of them are a good random sample survey they’re quite self-centered and short-sighted. Or could I be generalizing and stereotyping too much here?
Elien Van den Berge
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