Oppenheimer on Anti-Western and Anti-US attitudes in the Americas

Today's column by Andrés Oppenheimer deals with the Latinobarómetro poll I cited in this post and he presents some information that contradicts what I said and what Kombiz said in comments in that post. While positiva feelings toward the US have declined significantly since 2000, it's not simply anti-Bush sentiment:

And if you take a closer look at the figures, you find that in some key countries, such as Mexico, anti-American sentiment is growing even faster. In Mexico, the country President Bush described in September 2001 as ''the most important bilateral relationship'' of the United States in the world, a 58 percent majority has a negative image of the United States, up from 22 percent in 2000.

Only three years ago, a solid 68 percent of Mexicans had a positive view of the United States, the Latinobarómetro figures show.

Sixty-two percent of Argentines, 42 percent of Brazilians and 37 percent of Chileans have a negative view of the United States, up from 28 percent, 18 percent and 20 percent in 2000.

He offers some additional reasons worth exploring and concludes with this statement: "The Bush administration and the U.S. Congress should look at the new figures and worry about them."

They should, but they probably won't.

Last Thursday, Oppenheimer had a column regarding the rise of indigenous culture and mentioned a book by Carlos Alberto Montaner titled The Latin Americans and Western Culture, in which the author makes reference to the influence of western culture in the Americas:

Would today's Brazilians, Argentines and Uruguayans be recognizable without their passion for soccer, a game introduced by British high schools in South America? he asks. Would today's Nicaragua, Panama and Cuba be recognizable without baseball? And Colombia, Peru or Ecuador without bullfights?

The very icons of Latin America's national identities -- from Argentina's gauchos to Mexico's charros -- are unimaginable without their horses, which were brought by the Spaniards during the conquest, Montaner says. So were sugar, coffee and bananas, among other products that have been at the center of Latin America's economy, politics and history. And Latin America's entire legal, political and economic systems are modeled after the Western nations.

Well, it was definitely a two way street. To put things into perspective, what would European dining be like with tomatoes, pineapples, corn, potatoes, avocadoes and most important of all, chocolate? Also, if you have spent much time in Europe, especially Spain and Germany, you already know that the indigenous Americans may be getting the last laugh . . .