o WSJ Japan japanese edition + WSJ Europe + WSJ Americas o en Espa?ol o em Portugu?s -- Getty Images PSY performs onstage during the 40th American Music Awards held at Nokia Theatre L.A. Live on November 18, 2012 in Los Angeles, California. A month ago, on a riotously lovely morning in Orange County, California, I stumbled into perhaps the most convincing display I’ve yet encountered of the potency of hallyu – a Korean term that literally translates as “The Korean Wave.” I’d been invited to be a panelist at KCON ‘12, which billed itself as “the first-ever large scale convention dedicated to the hottest entertainment coming out of Korea.” The event was conceived of and organized by the cable channel MNET America, the U.S. branch of the hugely popular Korean music network that might be called the “MTV of Korea” (except that MTV is in Korea and MNET is way bigger). I’ll admit that my initial response was skeptical. Even as I accepted the invitation to speak, I suppressed a nagging fear that MNET was forcing into existence something that wasn’t there, trying to engineer a need among K-Pop fans to gather as a collective from the top down, rather than letting it spring up from the grassroots. It’s a concern that worried the executive who spearheaded the event, too. “We knew that the fandom was out there. We’d seen these fan gatherings spontaneously manifest at other events we’d sponsored,” says Ted Kim, EVP and U.S. chief of MNET America’s parent company, CJ Entertainment America. “But we were struggling, because it’s very hard to get good data when it comes to phenomena like this. You’re just not able to quantify things. And at some point, you just need to make a leap of faith.” That leap entailed booking the Verizon Amphitheatre in Irvine, California, for an event that combined workshops about organizing fan clubs and breaking into K-Pop, karaoke showdowns and dance-offs, autograph sessions, food trucks and merchandise booths and a grand-finale concert featuring some very attractive young people and a Technicolor SFX lightshow that could probably be seen from space. -- convince me that the secret to global pop dominance in this day and age is virginal purity. Hips don’t lie, people! Another reason that Hong gives is that Americans are seen as heroes of the Korean War, and as a result, Korea has been more “closely influenced” by U.S. pop culture than Japan – noting that even today, there are still 30,000 American soldiers (actually, around 28,000) permanently based in Korea. Yes, but there are also over 35,000 American soldiers permanently based in Japan, plus another 5500 military-employed American civilians and 10,000 American military spouses and dependents. Did Korea embrace American pop culture more readily than Japan because the U.S. was seen as heroic? That’s not clearly the case. Despite, or more properly because of its defeat, Japan after World War II actively sought to immerse itself in the culture (especially the popular culture) of its triumphant occupiers, leading to a rapid “Americanization” period in which the media fantasies and material goods of the U.S. vision of the “good life” were prized above all. As Rikyo University law and political science professor Akio Igarashi notes, “In the immediate postwar period, what a majority of Japanese hoped for was the realization of a rational and affluent society… The spacious rooms and the big white refrigerator in the comic strip, Blondie, helped people to imagine the affluence of the American lifestyle….For Japanese at the time, America’s prosperous culture of consumption, symbolized by chewing gum, chocolate, and women’s fashion, represented ‘the American Dream.’” Korea embraced American ideas, media, fashion and consumer aspirations after the Korean War too, but in the ensuing decades, a sharp and growing sense of ambivalence has emerged toward the U.S. Panmi, or anti-American sensibility, has generally strengthened since the Eighties, peaking in 2002 following controversy over short-track speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno’s Olympic gold medal over South Korean rival Kim Dong-Sung, and the accidental deaths of two Korean middle-schoolers under the wheels of a U.S. military vehicle. (This was the year in which a RAND survey found that over 60 percent of South Koreans felt “unfavorable” attitudes toward the U.S.; meanwhile Japanese favorability toward the U.S. has remained over 50 percent for decades and is the second-highest in the world right now, after only the U.S.’s opinion of itself. 2002 was also the year singer Yoon Min-Suk released his cult-hit song “F*ckin’ USA,” to massive media attention.) And it’s not even obvious that embracing American ideas is necessarily the path to pop-culture export success for Asian countries anyway. In the U.S., Asian performers and products that have attempted to ape American sensibilities for the sake of global crossover have universally failed. Dozens of Japanese performers, from Seiko to Utada, Hong Kong’s Coco Lee and Korea’s BoA, Se7en, Wonder Girls and Girls Generation have all made runs at breakthrough success by singing English-language songs and engaging in massive media and PR campaigns, all without much to show for their hard work. The exception to this rule, PSY, was a pop-culture land mine who blew by accident, refusing to be anything but himself and performing a song with Korean lyrics that are incomprehensible to non-Koreans even in translation. In fact, the most successful Korean pop exports that Hong cites, from its idols to its films and dramas to Samsung’s effervescent avalanche of consumer electronics and VOOZ’s winsome licensing franchise Pucca, all represent evolutionary improvements on Japanese templates — not American ones. Korea has effectively dominated the pop culture cosmos by out-Japanning Japan, and, as Hong points out, doing so even in Japan itself, which is still in the throes of a Korean-pop obsession. The question remains, however, whether Korea’s impressive winning run can continue indefinitely, or even long-term. I’m not yet convinced that’s the case. Japanese pop culture has come to the American landscape in the form of visual media — primarily anime and manga. (Games too, but up until very recently, Japanese video games came to the U.S. with most of their unique cultural context flensed away so as not to freak out American parents.) Because those media forms were naturally produced and presented in Japanese, J-Pop fandom erupted organically and grew epidemically out of a kind of language-hacking Underground Railroad of pirate BBS’s that offered downloadable English script translations and VHS-tape-trading marketplaces. In short, fandom flourished because the only way to enjoy authentic J-Pop in that early era was through connections to the fan community. (In fact, the hardest-core fans eventually became the U.S. anime and manga industry, launching the first legit English-language distribution houses, and thus laying the foundation for a subsequent generation’s total immersion in Japanese cultural products.) -- And because music is auditory, not visual, it’s a medium that lends itself to addictive consumption and maniacal appreciation, but not the kinds of collaborative phenomena that are the pillars of most pop-culture activity and community — things like cosplay (dressing up as favored characters) and fan fiction (extending or re-envisioning beloved works through original fanmade stories and art). All of these factors point to the reality that K-Pop in its current modes isn’t a very blendable medium. Its fans want to consume it in as pure and unadulterated form as possible — with incomprehensible language, odd visual idioms and untranslatable nuances entirely intact. The visual media of J-Pop have been culture-hacked and hybridized from the very beginning, often in ways that have caused hard-core fans to grit their teeth — but this flexibility has also allowed it to readily mainstream into U.S. culture, even to the point where even American-made homages (like virtually every cartoon now airing on kiddie TV) are as popular as the Japanese originals. By contrast, I don’t think it’s obvious that an American artist emulating K-Pop tropes can succeed either in the U.S. or abroad (though it’s not for want of a few earnest artists trying). This would seem to sharply limit the market upside of K-Pop, and its ultimate long-term influence. It’s ironic: K-Pop’s recent success is in no small part because it has played on its own terms. But its long-term future depends on its ability to cling to the things that make it unique while relaxing its purist Koreanness. For it to become a truly global phenomenon, it needs ambassadors who are idiosyncratic but have universal appeal, who can speak English fluently but wear their cultural pride on their sleeve. It needs artists who can collaborate with foreign performers and who inspire mash-up creativity among overseas audiences. -- o 11:16 am February 9, 2013 o blaster wrote: i agree with the large number of American troops currently based in the USA it makes it all more so. along with the sales of hello kitty going down has been a major influence in kpop in America. along with the increase sales of samsung products and apple components made by samsung it only increases the chance of kpop to only be more popular in America. we also know that all apple products are assembled in china so we can soon expect a wave of chinese pop music to grow in polarity as well. not to mention large number of Chinese restaurants in America. then again we can also take into account that some songs may not be bad and thats why they become popular. * + The TPP would strip our constitutional rights, while offering no gains for the majority of Americans. Greece’s New Americanized Health Care System Greece Health Care. Dr. Giorgos Vichas, a cardiologist who helped set up an underground network to help Greece's uninsured cancer patients, at the Metropolitan Social Clinic outside Athens, Greece, September 27, 2012. (Photo: Angelos Tzortzinis / The New York Times)Just when the austerity-ravaged people of Greece thought things couldn’t get any worse for them, their universal healthcare system is dismantled and turned into an American-style death system. And while Conservatives here tout our healthcare system as the best in the world – even though every international study disproves this claim – the Greek people are horrified with that they now have to deal with: Americanized healthcare. The same is true in the United States right now where being unemployed and being sick is literally a death sentence in the American healthcare system. As a 2009 study by Harvard University found, 45,000 Americans die every single year because they lack health insurance. The difference between the United States and Greece is we’ve never had a universal healthcare system that covers everyone like Greece has. So when we hear that tens of thousands of Americans die because they don’t have health insurance – plus thousands more who are condemned to death by for-profit health insurance death panels denying treatment – most Americans shrug it off as just the way things work here. That’s why we should all be paying close attention to how the Greek people handle their new Americanized healthcare system, because it will give us a clue as to what we as Americans, living in the wealthiest nation on the planet, should be demanding from our government when it comes to health services. * Border Patrol International: "The American Homeland Is the Planet" + Website Info Opinion: âTraditionalâ America not wanted by Preston Peeden, Associate Editor -- I understand that he's not only coming from a news station riddled with biases, but also that as a cable news "anchor," he and his show exist to gain viewers so as to stay on air. But following the presidential election, O'Reilly topped himself in the category of ridiculously insensitive statements. While discussing the reasons for Obama's victory (something that FOX News tried their best to resent as unfathomable), O'Reilly lamented the "white establishment's" new role as the "minority." O'Reilly went a step further by saying that "the demographics are changing," and that "it's not a traditional America anymore." When I heard this, I couldn't help but think that he was joking (I also couldn't help but wonder why I was watching FOX News). In thirty seconds, O'Reilly had not only racially qualified our nation's make-up, but also implied that, ultimately, Obama won the election not because he was the best candidate or because more Americans agreed with his view of this nation's future, but rather because simply there are less white people in this country. In O'Reilly's mind (in the context of this statement), the presence of more minority voters was not only a bad thing, but that it also undermined the "white establishment." O'Reilly's comment illustrated a long-standing fallacy in American perception, that being that there is a "traditional America," and that if there is such a thing, then it's an idea that we would really want to return to. For so long, Americans have called themselves members of a "Great Cultural Melting Pot," a place where all cultures are accepted and brought into the process of building a national identity that bears the markers of all those that constitute it. On the surface, this seems like an alright idea. But ultimately, this process of Americanization creates an ethnocentric worldview where a certain idea of what an American is and how an American acts becomes the norm, and in that way those that don't fit this view must try to conform to it. Americans look back at the early 20th century and view the influx of immigrants as a positive marker, but in doing so, people ignore the groups that weren't included (Asians, Eastern Europeans, etc.). If America had ever been a melting pot, why were their immigration quotas based on race and ethnicity for decades that existed unmolested for decades? If America isn't "traditionally" an accepting and all-inclusive nation, then what is it? Looking back solely at the Founding Fathers as a model for traditionalism, then our government and our nation exist to promulgate the rights of rich, slave-holding white men. Is that the "traditional America" that O'Reilly wants? Because if so, then essentially our voting population shrinks to only the top one percent. Our nation says that it was founded on principles of equality and liberty, but ultimately we were founded on those principles for a select few; for the rest, their stations didn't improve for over a century. "Traditionally" our nation is exclusivist. "Traditionally" our nation was founded on giving rights to some and keeping rights away from others. When O'Reilly spoke about a traditional American demographic, I hope he didn't mean what those words actually imply. If there is any traditional version of being an American, then that version is one that excludes others based on sex, race and ethnicity. Our nation likes to act like we're traditionally inclusive, but unfortunately it's the opposite. We have created a version of history in which we aren't the bad guy, because that view is convenient, but in reality, a "traditional America" is not something any of us should want based off of the values that we say and believe our country espouses. I believe in racial and sexual equality. I believe in America, but unlike O'Reilly, I don't believe in a "traditional America." I believe in the actual America. I believe in our changing society, and I value it. — Preston Peeden is a senior in history. He can be reached at ppeeden@utk.edu. So why does Bill have such a problem with Holiday trees? This is never explained. He insists a Christmas tree is a secular symbol. If that is true, whatâs the beef with calling it a Holiday tree? To steal a line from Penn Jillette, doing Holiday instead of Christmas brings everyone in; not only the atheists, but Jews, Muslims and other religions as well. Bill accuses Governor Chaffee of removing a tradition. He says this while the governor is standing in front of the decorated tree. The tree is there! No one is taking it away or even talking about removing it. Itâs just called a Holiday tree. Once again, what is the problem? Secularism is taking hold of the United States and has been for some time. Itâs not the 1950s anymore. Easter break is now called Spring break. Christmas break is now called Winter break. This is not due to a war on Christianity; this is due to a desire to include everyone. The grand holiday in December is a mixture of Pagan traditions, the legacy of Saint Nicholas, and Americanization such as fat Santa and Black Friday. Many people of all religions come to settle in the United States and celebrate the winter holiday. Whether you celebrate Hanukkah, Christmas, the Solstice, Kwanzaa, something secular or anything else, the grand celebration in December is for you. So in the spirit of being fair and balanced and looking out for everyone, even the people who donât have the same beliefs that I do, Happy Holidays to all! And may logic and reason bless us, everyone. James Kirk Wall -- Where Nothing Is Too Sacred To Question + A Faithful Word Thoughts of a Chicago-style, deep dish American Muslim + A Daily Miracle Making the ordinary extraordinary, one blog post at a time Home Americanization or Globalization? share -- * Twitter Americanization or Globalization? By Administrator, October 2, 2006 PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS ARTICLE IS FROM 2006. VISIT OUR HOMEPAGE FOR NEW CONTENT. A Ugandan writer explores the meaning of globalization and the growing influence of American culture around the world. [internet.jpg] -- At its most basic, there is nothing mysterious about globalization. But not so fast, some people are now arguing that globalization has mainly benefited the already strong economies of the world and it has given them leverage to not only trade with the rest of the world but to also influence their general lifestyles and politics. Proponents of the school of thought contend that countries like U.S.A are using the globalization as an engine of "corporate imperialism"; one which tramples over the human rights of developing societies, claims to bring prosperity, yet often simply amounts to plundering and profiteering. Another negative effect of globalization has been cultural assimilation via cultural imperialism. This can be further explained as a situation of exporting of artificial wants, and the destruction or inhibition of authentic local cultures. This brings me to the gist of my submission. At a closer look, globalization is slowly shifting towards Americanization. Have you heard the word "Americanization"? Well in the early 1900's Americanization meant taking new immigrants and turning them into Americans...whether they wanted to give up their traditional ways or not. This process often involved learning English and adjusting to American culture, customs, and dress. Critics now say globalization is nothing more than the imposition of American culture on the entire world. In fact, the most visible sign of globalization seems to be the spread of American hamburgers and cola (Pepsi and Coca Cola products) to nearly every country on earth. The song Amerika by the German rock band Rammstein is often seen as a satire of Americanization. It has received mixed reviews: some perceive it as anti-American, others as being opposed to globalization. The band views it as a satirical commentary on "cocacolonization". The most visible sign of globalization seems to be the spread of American hamburgers and cola to nearly every country on earth. According to information from Globalisation.about.com even globalization champions like Thomas Friedman see it. In a recent column describing why terrorists hate the United States, Friedman wrote: "...globalization is in so many ways Americanization: globalization wears Mickey Mouse ears, it drinks Pepsi and Coke, eats Big Macs, does its computing on an IBM laptop with Windows 98. Many societies around the world can't get enough of it, but others see it as a fundamental threat." The rest of the world seems to be following Uncle Sam (U.S.A) and leaving behind its authentic ways of life. This has not spared even the ‘air tight' Chinese society. Americanization is the contemporary term used for the influence the United States of America has on the culture of other countries, substituting their culture with American culture. When encountered unwillingly, it has a negative connotation; when sought voluntarily, it has a positive connotation. How Are We Being Americanized? U.S.A, which has the world's biggest economy and strongest known army, has taken gigantic steps in persuading the rest of the world to think and act like them. Many people especially the Europeans have often despised Americans saying they have no culture. But as any sociologist will tell you, even having no culture is a culture in itself. So for many years, the land of immigrants has been on a process of creating an identity and hence a culture. Now they seem to be selling their culture to the rest of the world as anew and improved product of what we all have as culture. As far as fashion is concerned, the casual ‘American' style of wearing Jeans, T-Shirts and sports shoes is now common and acceptable in many places. For the office it is not rare to see someone wearing tight jeans with a long sleeved shirt plus a tie. His defence is of course that it is the American style (read modern). Cowboy hats, boots and large silver belt buckles are also a common imitation of the dress style of American especially those from Texas and Arizona. The American music industry has also gone a long way in influencing the dress culture of other people around the world. What about the example youths have picked up from famous American rap artists like 50-cent, Eminem, Tupac Shakur (R.I.P) and Snoop Dogg with their flashy fashions characterized by what is commonly known as "bling bling" (expensive shiny jewellery and watches). Look at the music played in the Nyamirambo bound taxis and you will be amazed at how it matches with the dress style of the passengers! The casual ‘American' style of wearing Jeans, T-Shirts and sports shoes is now common and acceptable in many places. Around the world the United States is perhaps best known for it's numerous and successful fast food franchises. Such chains, including McDonald's, Burger King, and Kentucky Fried Chicken are known for selling simply, pre-prepared meals of foods such as hamburgers, French fries (chips), soft drinks, fried chicken, and ice cream. Though undeniably popular, such food, with its emphasis on deep-frying, has been criticized by dietitians in recent decades for being unhealthy and a cause of obesity. It has thus become somewhat of a stereotype to associate American cuisine with obesity and junk food. The whole world now is full of similar eating joints. In Africa many are referred to as take-aways. Popular Culture This transmission of American culture has been mainly through several conduits with the number one medium being the electronic media. Television in particular has done a lot in Americanizing those who view images especially from Hollywood. The guys in Hollywood have made us to adore the tough cigar-smoking guys in the Casinos, the thin shapely long legged women, and to dream about rags-to-riches stories that are a common tag line of the movies. We now adore jazz, hip-hop, rap music, country music as well as gospel music all of which were pioneered by the United States. And trust us in following the Uncle Sam; many countries now have equivalents of the American awards of Oscars for the movies and Grammy's for the music. Just check out the PAM awards in Uganda or the Kisima awards in Kenya, not forgetting the continental Kora awards held annually in South Africa. Many countries have also gone a head to construct theme parks basing on the American Disney World model. Americanization has also led to the popularity and acceptability of what is known as American English. I have seen many posters here in Rwanda of schools claiming to teach American English. Many youths are now using this type of English considering it ‘modern'. We ought not to ignore the heavy influence that the United States has demonstrated in the development of the Internet and it's subsequent control. Remember the conference that was held at the beginning of this year in Tunisia where nations were complaining about the control the US has over the Internet. They were proposing that instead an international body should take over but the conference ended in defeat of this line of argument. The iPod, the most popular gadget for portable digital music, is also American invention. The number one medium for the transmission of American culture has been through electronic media, television in particular. American sports especially basketball have now become famous worldwide especially among college students. However other games like baseball and American football have not been easily adopted by other people in the world, as has been the case with basketball. Soccer, which is known to be the world's most popular sport, is not so popular in the US. However the US women's soccer team is one the of the world's premier women's sides. War on Terrorism Americans have also been known to spear heard the spread of the Pentecostal, Charismatic, Evangelical or born again religious movements worldwide. American preachers are always globetrotting all in the name of spreading the word of ‘Gad'. We should not ignore the fact that the United States Constitution enshrined individual freedom of religious practice, which courts have since interpreted to mean that the government is a secular institution, an idea called "separation of church and state". This notion of separating religion from the state is one of the controversial aspects of exporting American culture. This is embedded in the Bush administration's "War on terror" which some have gone ahead to read as a war on Islam. This controversial American policy is what inspired Prof. Mamdani to write a book titled, " Bad Muslim good Muslim". America, which has thousands of military servicemen around the world, has of late been preoccupied with fighting terror in Afghanistan, Iraq and it is getting ready to deal with the Iran problem soon. Actually some people are already speculating that the current crisis between Israel and Hezbollah is a precursor to America's war with Iran. That US is supporting the Olmert government to keep bombing Lebanon until Iran which is said to be the Godfather of Hezbollah gets angry enough to join the war. At this point it is argued that the US will join hands with Israel and fight the Iran government because "they have weapons of mass destruction". At the end of the war as usual US will be expected by many viewers to have conquered another oil producing country. Many see the War on terror as a veil for acquiring cheap oil to run the US economy. Returning to the Israeli conflict with Hezbollah, one can not fail to see an American tone in the whole conflict. Do you remember the first people to use the word "collateral damage"? This was what Americans first used to describe the death of innocent civilians and destruction of infrastructure by ‘precision' missiles during the Afghan war after the 9/11. This was an excuse used for having bombed the Chinese Embassy and a Red Cross facility during the war. Now compare it with the death of thousand of Lebanese civilians and the destruction of hundreds of buildings. The death of UN officers and the recent Qana massacre can be accurately referred to as collateral damage by the Israeli government. The notion of separating religion from the state is one of the controversial aspects of exporting American culture and is embedded in the Bush administration's "war on terror" which some have gone ahead to read as a war on Islam. This notion of separating religion from the state is one of the controversial aspects of exporting American culture. This is embedded in the Bush administration's "War on terror" which some have gone ahead to read as a war on Islam. The apparent determination by the US to appoint itself "Mr. Fix it all" is a somewhat naive but optimistic belief among Americans that all problems can be fixed with enough commitment and effort. This sometimes leads America into problematic situations such as Vietnam and Iraq. In some cases though, American fix it all attitude has positively led to large outpouring of humanitarianism. This is clearly evidenced by the enormous aid that Americans especially at the individual level, are sending to poor nations. Americans like Bill Gates and CNN's Ted turner are some of the world's biggest donors. In conclusion, therefore, the global stage is at a period of American conquest in many different ways than you can imagine. Globalization seems to be hijacked by the Americans. The world also seems to be clamouring for more of the Yankee lifestyle. However simply dismissing -- or demonizing -- globalization as mere Americanization is misleading. Globalization has the ability to alter much more than just the movies or food consumed by a society. And the results can be powerfully positive, devastatingly negative, or (more often) something in between. Contributed by Allan Brian Ssenyonga, a Ugandan freelance writer for The New Times, an English daily in Rwanda. He holds a bachelor's degree in Adult and Community Education and works as a secondary school teacher in Rwanda. Reprinted with permission from The New Times. To read another Global Envision article about globalization and American culture, see Americanization vs. Globalization. Return to top Categories: -- Tags: globalization Americanization American culture popular culture America Regions: North America * Add new comment #alternate HuffPost Search The Full Feed Latest News The Blog Featured Posts Ian Reifowitz: Obama's America at the Debate: Immigrant Kids Ian Reifowitz: Obama's America at the Debate: Immigrant Kids HuffPost's QuickRead... -- Ian Reifowitz Author of 'Obama’s America: A Transformative Vision of Our National Identity' GET UPDATES FROM Ian Reifowitz -- 66 Obama's America at the Debate: Immigrant Kids "Understand Themselves as Americans" Posted: 10/17/2012 9:44 am -- Follow [follow-arrow.png] Barack Obama , Mitt Romney , Presidential Debates , Elections 2012 , Immigration , Obama's America , Politics News share this story -- At last night's debate, President Obama said the following: "For young people who come here, brought here oftentimes by their parents, have gone to school here, pledged allegiance to the flag, think of this as their country, understand themselves as Americans in every way except having papers, then we should make sure that we give them a pathway to citizenship, and that's what I've done administratively." This remark, which refers to the Americans covered by the Obama administration's actions to provide work permits for young people brought here as children but without documentation, offers real insight into the president's inclusive approach to American national identity. Where some on the right would see nothing more than an "illegal immigrant," Obama recognizes a young adult who has been in this country, for example, for twenty out of the twenty-five years of her life and who has gone through an irreversible process of Americanization. That person is nothing but an American in terms of her national identity. He understands what it would mean to that person to be expelled from the only homeland she has essentially ever known. President Obama understands how national identities are formed, both on the individual and the societal level. He understand how and why an American comes to feel an attachment to this country and to his fellow Americans. The debate tonight was about many things, mostly about policy differences between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. For me, as a scholar of national identity, that one small remark stood out as demonstrative of something far larger. Only one of these candidates has demonstrated, for years and years, a public record of understanding how national identity works, and thus how to invigorate the national identity that binds together the American people. This Blogger's Books from Amazon indiebound Obama's America: A Transformative Vision of Our National Identity Obama's America: A Transformative Vision of Our National Identity by Ian Reifowitz -- People Keep Finding Millions in Gold Bars in Airplane Bathrooms Why American Heritage Dictionary Is Adding ‘Selfie’ and Not ‘Twerk’ Free Willy! Protesters Want Shamu Out of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade American League baseball, in yellow and green. American League baseball, in yellow and green. Some of those turkeys made it to the market because Ms. Bail, and other workers like her, put in long hours of grim, stomach-churning work for little pay, all the while facing the threat of deportation. Ms. Bail is an undocumented immigrant. Her American-born son, Carlos, is a 6-year-old U.S. citizen. She hasnât seen Carlos since the day in May 2007 when the Barry County chicken plant that employed Ms. Bail was raided by agents of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. -- The Pilgrims, of course, were immigrants to a land where they were vastly outnumbered by people who had been here for centuries. In the mythological version of Thanksgiving weâve devised today, built around turkey and pumpkin pie, those details get glossed over. âThe Wampanoag, we sometimes forget, were the majority population,â Nancy Brennan, former director of the Plimoth Plantation museum, told The Christian Science Monitor in 2002. âIn the 19th and 20th centuries, Thanksgiving was really a tool for Americanization amid the great influx of immigration. It was supposed to bind this diverse population into one union.â The nationâs most recent presidential election, which was quite divided along racial lines, suggests our union could use some more binding. -- The 2007 raid on the Barry County plant took place in the walk-up to the 2008 presidential election. Then members of both parties were busy trying to demonstrate their tough anti-immigrant bona fides by screaming âbuild the border fence.â Raids like the one that ensnared Ms. Bail were common. Families were torn apart as parents were deported and their American-born children stayed behind. Companies, for the most part, got a pass. This Thanksgiving, the trend is the opposite direction. On June 15, in one of the most important acts in his first term, President Barack Obama signed an executive order allowing children of undocumented workers, who were brought to the country through no fault of their own, to delay their deportation. It mirrored the DREAM Act, which Congress refused to pass. It allowed those young people, most of whom have been educated in American schools, to continue to contribute to the only country theyâve ever called home. Since the president signed that order, more than 53,000 young immigrants have been able to put off deportation. Hundreds of thousands of others are in the pipeline, beginning the process to eventual citizenship. -- Which policy is more likely to rekindle thoughts of that first Thanksgiving: The one that divides families, and the nation, or the one that keeps parents and children at the same dinner table? America needs a bigger table. It needs to rekindle that simple spirit expressed in the Latin phrase that appears on the official Seal of the United States: E pluribus unum. Out of many, one. -- Hi-Pointe Theatre One Show Only!! "Rednecks & Culchies" A startling look at the American working class from the perspective of Irish working men. Friday, November 8 - Thursday, November 14 NYC Mosque Imam Looking to "Americanize Islam" "Americanize Islam." While he did not elaborate on what an American talk about Muslim life in America. * First Chinese-American woman to fly for military died in fiery elsewhere as it shows no respect to Americans--but that's where any effort to "Americanize Islam" Myopinion046 apparently has ZERO confidence in America, above the hearts of American citizens and above the price Americans are hurting and he spent our money on abortions 5.How much longer are we the American people going to "American" president?? American tax paying citizen, a wife, mother, grandmother All this talk about islaminizing America is just another front.Liberals turning the heads of americans away from the American life looked like a Cheech and Chong movie, I would be * Classifieds Is there a need to Americanize Modern Olympics? - Rawlins Times: Columns Advanced Search -- * Columns Is there a need to Americanize Modern Olympics? * Story -- Posted: Wednesday, July 18, 2012 8:39 pm Is there a need to Americanize Modern Olympics? Dough Hecox Rawlins Daily Times | 0 comments With the Olympics nearly here, I canât help but wish President Obama, Congress or ANYone would take action. Someone should do something, because the Olympics have become entirely too foreign. -- Allow me to explain. American athletes have always been at a disadvantage to their foreign counterparts. An American athlete growing up in, say, Afton, Wyo., has limited access to such foreign activities as judo or tae kwan do. Yes, I know there are several martial arts studios teaching Wyoming kids martial arts and each is probably pretty good, so donât be offended â especially if you have martial arts training. Iâm simply pointing out that taking a karate class in a Wyoming strip mall is a far cry from growing up, say, in Japan where the entire culture has been saturated with martial artistry for centuries. Hockey is similarly hard for Wyomingites, which is ironic considering we have nine months of winter. The problem is that all our hockeyâquality ice is monopolized all winter long by iceâfishing derbies. Fencing, too, is difficult for Wyomingites because most of us assume it has to do with stringing barbed wire to keep our cattle out of trouble. -- As Time Magazine reported recently, Wyoming has â perâcapita â more athletes in the 2012 Olympic Games than any other state. This is no surprise. Surviving endless hurricaneâforce winds and the arctic deep freeze we call winter is an athletic act in itself. When it comes to the game of survival, Wyomingites beat Mother Nature every year â and she doesnât make it easy. Our cowboy heritage ensures that Wyoming athletes would do fine in equestrian events, and our mountainous terrain makes the Equality State a proving ground for the worldâs greatest skiers. However, Wyomingites â and Americans in general â deserve more opportunities to challenge the worldâs best athletes in more traditionally American activities. Judging by the Americans I see at allâyouâcanâeat buffets and shopping mall food courts, competitive eating is a huge sport here in the United States and would be a great addition to the Olympics. True, itâs not an athletic activity in the traditional sense but the annual Nathanâs Hot Dog Eating Contest at Coney Island in New York and the various watermelonâ, pieâ and cornâonâtheâcobâeating contests at county fairs nationwide, make competitive eating something worthy of consideration. Not just anyone can eat like that. With shows like âMan vs. Food,â âThe Biggest Loserâ and âExtreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition,â reality TV has turned eating responsibly and physical fitness into a game show, we might as well capitalize on it. Because America already has a swollen, overweight leg up on the competition, letâs call irresponsible eating and not working out a sport. Our country has some of the worldâs fattest kids, so sumo wrestling shouldnât only be an Olympic sport but one that is promoted in U.S. high schools as a varsity sport. In either competitive eating or sumo wrestling, American kids would be unbeatable. Demolition derby is another classic American sport in which we would literally crush the competition, and for a very simple reason. American cars are the biggest. A 1970 Ford Galaxie 500 will always beat a Daewoo. In fact, you could fit a Daewoo in its trunk. If that seems unfair, fine. Letâs make it a Monster Truck contest. Americaâs Bigfoot will always beat its Daewoo equivalent. The only downside is that either Robosaurus or Megasaurus would frighten Japanâs athletes into a blind panic. Iâve seen how Japanese people react when Godzilla comes to town, so fireâbreathing, carâeating dinosaurâshaped trucks could turn the Olympic Monster Truck rally into absolute bedlam. If monster truck rallies and competitive eating arenât the judgesâ cup of tea, rodeo would be a classic addition to the Olympics. Wyomingâs cowboys and cowgirls would stand a better shot against their foreign competitors calfâroping, teamâroping or barrelâracing than, say, ice skating against Norwegians or playing jai alai against Basque athletes. If we can put a McDonalds in every nation on Earth, we can make the Olympics a little more American too. U.S. athletes will do well in London next month, but I wonât rest until weâve won a gold medal in every Olympic event there is â and even in a few there arenât. More about Rawlins -- * Posted in Columns on Wednesday, July 18, 2012 8:39 pm. | Tags: Dough Hecox, Rawlins, Carbon County, Wyoming, Olympics, United States, America, Obama Rules of Conduct + Latin America U.S. has no plan to "Americanize" Somalia conflict Islamist fighters, saying it had no plans to "Americanize" the + Latin America