Americans show more interest in perceptions

People all over the world tend to think Americans are self-centered and care very little about what's going on beyond U.S. boundaries, sometimes even beyond state boundaries.

Well, in my case, this prejudice proved to be true in many ways. I've been in the States several times in the past years, and I sort of got used to being asked things like "So do you 'gauchos' go everywhere on horseback?" or "What part of Brazil is Argentina in?" I even noticed some surprised looks when I described Buenos Aires as a very cosmopolitan, European-like city, with skyscrapers and cars and McDonald's and everything you can find in a large urban center.

However, I must say these questions have become less frequent in the past years. Instead, Americans are showing an increasing, sometimes craving need to know what we foreigners think about them. How does my country perceive war? What do we think the U.S. role as a peacekeeping force should be? And what about Bush?

Many people also asked me about Argentina and its struggle to overcome a recent economic crisis, and some even pointed out and made accurate comments on many of my country's national policies.

What I perceive as a genuine American interest in the rest of the world has become even more evident in my trip with the World Press Institute, which brought me to the United States together with other eight journalists from all over the world. We are traveling through the country for four months.

In Ely, Minn., for instance, the whole town came to listen to us talk about our countries and our thoughts on the United States, and we were then bombarded with questions for an entire day. Many of these questions were similar to the ones I usually get from a wide spectrum of Americans, ranging from waiters, cashiers and taxi drivers to businessmen, American journalists and even priests.

Is this new "world awareness" a result of 9-11? Or has it always been there and I just happened to run with a "less informed" American sector? I don't know the answer to this; I just know that I'm the one who is surprised lately. And it feels good. Real good.

Teresa Bausili is a reporter for La Nación newspaper in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She is in the United States under a World Press Institute program and spent several days in Rochester last week.