Dispatch: America
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Toomas Merilo27 Nov 2010 18:09
“Vello Vikerkaar” is a great talent. His writings are amusing and, more often than not, right on the mark. I’d say it is a natural talent, God-given. Please do keep writing!

This particular article, though, fails to live up to our expected standards… it is outright mean. Yes, mean, as in unkind, if not unwarranted.

Yes, it is easy to criticize America, its excesses (only in America will you find Bubblegum flavoured ice-cream, really!), their sense of superiority (anyone recall The Ugly American?), their consumer society, their Bible Belt, their education system, % of population incarcerated, and so on ad nauseum.

However, for all of its faults, its track record in everything from innovation, to technology, to long term economic growth, to keeping Communism at bay, and so on, is exceptional and, from an historical perspective, totally phenomenal.

“Vello” writes in narrative form – almost a stream-of-consciousness – which is so very accessible. But this article is almost incomprehensible. How did he wind up visiting such low-lifes? Why did he write about it? Would it be fair for an American to write about Eesti in the same tone, after visiting relatives and attending some party in, say, Antsla?

Sorry, “Vello,” I sincerely believe you blew it! Badly!
Toomas Merilo27 Nov 2010 18:31
Oh! And I forgot to add, that Canada is the land of the mediocre... no, make it the land of the outstandingly average.
Samalt IP numbrilt on siin varem kommenteerinud: Toomas Merilo (18:09)
I agree with Toomas28 Nov 2010 08:47
This article is a mean-spirited caricature, lacking any higher purpose.
very average28 Nov 2010 11:03
One would assume this article was meant to be some type of satire.
Though the authour mocks the residents of the the 'fly over states', in reality it is just these voters-citizens who are keeping communism-fascism at bay for all of his beloved United States. But then again this article was written in such a subtle manner, maybe he is looking for a collectivist-socialist-communist solution for the U.S of A.
xl28 Nov 2010 12:05
maybe it is for those who can read into something else that comes from the article.

it is certainly written from a point of view that exists, and for those who don't like it, it is perhaps because they don't want to admit it exists.
Toomas Merilo28 Nov 2010 13:19
Okay, one of you guys don’t get it. Suppose Vello Vikerkaar’s evil twin had written this instead:

This is the heartland of the pseudo-liberals… too rich to really know what’s going on anywhere. I feel like I’m the only guy who didn’t get a nose job while in high school… but, hey, I don’t need one; my nose is OK. As for manucured nails? Jeez… I didn’t know guys had them. Designer suits? The guys all say they’d never pay anything but full price for them… “If it’s on sale, something’s wrong, you get what you pay for… it’s like a law of physics.”

While sipping on their 1989 Corton-Charlemagne (which they all assert is “so much better than the 2001”), snacking on hors d'œuvre of fois gras from Périgord topped with truffle shavings from the same region, I hear some bemoan the fact that Black/Caspian Sea caviar can no longer be imported into the US (“Something to do with sturgeons being endangered, poaching, isn’t that so? You know I actually I have to fly to Europe to get my caviar “fix”, one tells me. Paris has an excellent selection of top grade Beluga Caviar. Do try to get there at least once every month or two, I do.”)

Moving on, the next conversation I hear is “Dean & Deluca’s [i]confit de canard[i] last week was to die for!” OK.

As for Deauville, Normandy, I hear, “it’s sooo going downhill, but the only place in the world, I’d eat pork and their Calvados? Amazzzing.”

Behind me I hear a conversation: “Hey! The 1st Amendment applies to all muslims, let them build a mosque on ground zero! If they’re denied, let them burn the Flag of the USA in their demonstrations. This is America. I’ll burn a flag myself”

About parties? “Well, the one’s in the Upper East Side are the best.”

I hear one say he just got the 2011 BMW M5 something-or-other. “The V10 engine is gone, now it’s a V8, turbo-charged, putting out 550 hp… it’s OK, he says.”

As the Corton-Charlemagne is slowly dissappearing, I hear how good a job [U2’s] Bono is doing, eradicating world poverty and bringing HIV into the limelight. “He’s a Saint, that Bono! The third world needs all the help it can get! I’d attend any fundraiser Bono organizes!”
Samalt IP numbrilt on siin varem kommenteerinud: Toomas Merilo (18:09), Toomas Merilo (18:31)
Peter28 Nov 2010 14:32
Toomas, I actually have to give you credit this time for writing such a great comment.
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