What are you doing to the dollar, GW?

There seem to be a limited number of Americans touring India right now - it's pretty far for Americans to travel here, in addition to the expensive tickets and multiple vaccinations. There is, however, no shortage of Israelis, Brits, and other various Europeans. Yesterday, after soundly defeating Nick in a late night game of Rummy 500, we encountered our first North American accent so far whilst carousing at the Laughing Buddha. This Canadian, a native of Toronto, immediately informed us that he hated Americans. He stated the most obvious reasons: arrogance, irresponsible tourism, support for George Bush and the Iraq war. We talked to him for awhile, trying to convince him that politically, the USA is quite divided and that Minnesota is (or at least used to be) a very liberal community. He then proceeded to drink, smoke, and hook up with twenty-year-old Swedish girls. He's been living in Goa since September - he'll be here until March. He spends his days swimming, looking for cheese sandwiches, riding his motorcycle around Goa, and getting giant tattoos on his back of Hindu gods he doesn't understand. And somehow, we're the bad tourists? I'm finding it difficult to reconcile the issues fellow travelers have with Americans when they themselves have come to India, a country I have roots in, because their currency is worth a lot and they can drink and smoke freely in the tropical weather - something that is not inherent in Indian culture. They come straight to Goa, bypassing the Indian parts of India, stay in hotels with fellow Westerners, eat at pubs started by British people (which I readily admit was a great guilty pleasure yesterday), and generally ignore all the Indian people around them hawking t-shirts with Om symbols and cheap silver jewelry. Of course, this is how the tourist industry thrives, but seriously, blaming Americans for arrogance at that point is utterly ridiculous.

Contemplating this over breakfast, I headed into the water to float in tranquility and try to think about how Americans are supposed to represent themselves abroad. There is nothing like leaving the USA to start feeling vaguely patriotic. As I was floating, an Indian man swam up to me and asked the standard "Which place are you from?" We had a short conversation, two heads bobbing in the Arabian Sea, about Americans coming to India. He asked if I had been scared off by the tsunami - he said most Indians were scared to come near the beach. He started to talk to Nick, also, and told him that it was very lucky for him to be traveling because "Indians, they do not get vacation, they just work all the time." Now, I know this is not true. I know there are millions of Indians who have the means to vacation and travel, just as there are millions of Americans who find this possible. Are we lucky? Of course we are. But there are just as many Americans who will work their whole lives without getting on a plane as there are with that privalege. It seems that people everywhere are confusing class with nationality. Yes, there have been times and there still are places from which people do not find it possible to travel, but that is rapidly changing.

Of course this Indian man from Karnatka is greatly referring to all the Euro-travelers in Goa. They really do over-run the beaches, covering the seaside with man-thongs and topless sunbathing. Do Indians behave like this? Not that I've seen. I'm sure the tourist scene in other parts of Asia is similar. It's starting to become very clear to me how American culture infects the rest of the world, and what that means for Americans. It makes me more defensive than I'd like - yes, George Bush is an extremist. Yes, America thinks it runs the United Nations. Yes, many Americans know nothing of international politics. But I am not the embodiment of that. I am not Justin Timberlake and George Bush and McDonalds and New York and Disneyland rolled into one.

And everywhere we go, someone says to someone else "Oh, the euro's doing great! It's the dollar that keeps going down..."

The ship may be sinking.