2013 in Review

Last year there was no review of 2012. I suppose with the travelling for 6 months of the year, the posts were constant, and with all the excitement, trying to pick a 'best of the month' was impossible. I suppose now my life is settled a little more, I want to put on here what I often put on Facebook in picture form. Perhaps add some more detail as I look back on 2013.

I will say that the number 13 used to cause fear in me. However, 2013 being such a rewarding year. And of the most poignant of those rewards happening on the 13th of the month, I think I will make 13 my second luckiest number after 16. Anyway here goes.

January
My New Years Eve was the most unique to me in years and years. Not since the 1980's have I had this type of NYE event. Because, I slept into the New Year and did not see it in, in a conscious state. Still staying in with my sister, we had some beers and pizza, and about 10:30 I was in bed. My feeling has always been that the NYE is a metaphor for the year holds true. My sensible steady ease into the year has been indicative of the fact that this is the year I really try to calm down mentally. I'm in my heart-attack years for goodness sake.

January after NYE is always a bit of a non-month for most people. Often you are paid early in December and have 6 weeks to spread your earnings, with Christmas taking a big chunk of your money as it is. It means the month of January is a quiet one. I was still a temp being paid weekly, so financially it wasn't an issue, but the month was as quiet for me as anyone.

Of major importance to myself was January 30th, at 11:30am marked 10 years since I last saw my doggy Oscar. While I noticed early in the month and decorated my Facebook accordingly. I forgot about it on the actual day. I mentally flogged myself for forgetting that, how could I? Even though I remembered the following day. Its like I let that dog down again. The reasons I gave him up were pure selfishness. A dog that gave me so much, yet only required a walk a cuddle and some food each day. There for me in my darkest moments. But I gave him up because he was in the way of me wanting to travel (which I did in 2004) and further a pretty crap career in London. We all like to say we have no regrets, but that is bollocks. We all have regrets, even if they serve no purpose. I will always regret my awful decision to give up Oscar, and I further regret not remembering on the actual day. I have no excuse for being such a horrible person.

February
My job at Manchester Airport finished in the first week of February. I enjoyed it there and as I wasn't aware I'd be coming back, I was sad to leave all my colleagues there.

However on the 15th, I was off on my mini-adventure into Poland. I was to spend a month volunteering, teaching English or doing some farm work. Although right up until 2 days after my arrival into Gdansk, did I know for sure where I was going. It turned out to be a lovely eco-farm called Agrochatka in Klucksborg, Southern Poland. My hosts Ela and Jerzy were such lovely people as were the whole family. I spent the rest of the month helping in their school. Stacking pumpkins. Cooking my British dishes. Shovelling snow and coal.

March
I spent the first week of March helping at ABC Language School in Lebork, Northern Poland. It was to be my first big classroom experience. With me as a teacher, teaching English and a class of teenagers to control and keep from texting and Facebooking and not concentrating. I stayed with the owners of the school for the week before returning to Gdansk.

Back in Gdansk I met up with a chap from Sunderland who was also travelling alone. I had little English company until this point so we did what English do. We hit the bars in Gdansk, well we hit two bars. Polish beer starts at 5% and moves up from there. We were hammered in the first cosy place next to the hostel. But on we went and when the stomachs could take no more pints we decided then was a good time to become Polish and try the various vodkas. Polish shot glasses are like more like whiskey tumblers. I vaguely remember the walk back along the canal, then awake to one of the worse hangovers of my life.

And what a day to start with a hangover. The snow was falling in Gdansk as I made my way to the Station then to the airport with Hamburg, Germany as my destination. I started at Burgerking in a feeble attempt to fight the sickness with calories and sugar. No such luck, I could not take more than two bites out of the burger. I crossed the street and saw the bus leave, then read that another wouldn't be along for an hour to the airport. I waited in the snow feeling awful, but aware this was all my doing. Why can I remember every footstep of that hungover journey from Hostel in Gdansk to Hostel in Hamburg, yet so little about the night before? There is a lesson on alcohol in there somewhere.

On arrival in Hamburg, I got the bus to the centre. I went to my dorm and stayed there until morning. The next day I caught the train the Berlin where I spent 3 days following my new hobby of photography. Well not a new hobby, but a hobby with a recent cash investment to up the game a bit. And generally exploring the city I absolutely love.

On returning to Hamburg I visited the immigration museum, the next day a submarine, and Beatles Platz, before returning to the UK and back to my kind sisters home.

By the end of March, I had found a way back into Manchester Airport as a temp, and I am grateful to them for finding work for me right up until the end of my time in the UK.

April to May
Nothing much to report in either month. Margaret Thatcher died in April and that split the nation a bit in opinion. And I was surprized in myself how little I found myself caring that her funeral may be state-funded, and how she supposedly invented greed and said nasty things about Mandela. I just saw an old lady who was a PM once. Didn't agree with her very much, but couldn't detest her personally.

Somewhere in April or May I finally got an interview date for June 11th at the US  Embassy. The day was in sight.

I also spent much of May getting the injections needed to come to America. So many I forget which and what for. Seems I spent every few days in a clinic in Ashton-Under-Lyne.

June
On the 5th I had an appointment with a doctor appointed by the US Embassy to see how fit I was to come to America. It seemed I was overweight (I knew this), blood pressure a bit high (I knew this too), but physically ok and unlikely to be a burden to the US (as if they had a public health system or something). Questions on my alcohol intake which I think is normal and less than average seem terrible when you are saying them out loud to a doctor who gives nothing away facially.

On 11th my visa was approved to be a permanent resident of the USA. That was a moment of relief. The following week I booked my flights, and set about disassembling my life in the UK. Fortunately, my life was confined to a room in my sisters and there wasn't much to do logistically. All the packing up was emotional.

July
My last month in the UK. I suppose it started by saying goodbye to everyone in Manchester. While I always saw Manchester as a city I never wanted to settle in, the people I met there are utter treasures. For all I rattle on about dynamic crazy London, for the 6 years I spent there, compare the people I keep in touch with from London days to those from Manchester days. This is telling. So a few nights of saying goodbye and hugs was bitter-sweet.

I also built bridges with two of my siblings, both of which separated by time and incident. We were in constant contact for a while after July, but I guess the things that divide us are more overwhelming than those that bind us. The 'pat eachother on the back' and 'kudos to all' fest has fizzled out a bit. Unfortunately distance isn't the reason. It seems there are completely irreconcilable differences, with a basis in something we will never agree on, and exasperated by us growing culturally so far apart.

On the 13th I arrived in New York and on the 14th into Haines Alaska. The rest of the month was spent job hunting and getting to know the people of Haines. This is with the back-drop of a wonderful Alaskan summer

August
After failing to secure a job in the small town of Haines, I got my first job in America on the 13th, but all the way down in Juneau.

With 3 days training from the previous accountant, I pat myself on the back in hitting the ground running with my first all round general ledger position since 2009. Also finding myself almost alone with learning Federal Taxes as opposed to PAYE, which I had even less involvement in back in 2009.

Also my co-workers are all pretty amazing people.

I got my social security number the week following, at last. And it had 69 in the two digit part - uh, hur hur! I love innuendo.

September
After weeks of long waits on the phone to USCIS, I finally get my actual Green Card. Or by its legal name I-551. But it is a card and it is green and it serves the purpose you'd suppose. I now have to carry this on my person all the time by law.

October
I met my cousin Sara for the first time in our adult life when we took the drive from Haines to Whitehorse, Canada for Canadian Thanksgiving with the family. My Aunty and Uncle were also there and we had a great meal together. Also, the first time I visited Canada, so a new country on my CV. I'm looking forward to our next visit in Spring. It's fantastic having family on my doorstep - well doorstep in North American terms.

I passed my written driving test, and have a State of Alaska Driving License. Instructional only, I have two years to take the road-test, which needs to be done in Spring when the snow melts.

November
Our American thanksgiving with Turkey was good. Just Sarah and I. A cooking calculation error meant we eventually started eating about 9pm. But with Turkey having the soporific effect, alongside killing time with beer, we were passed out pretty soon after dinner.

December
Our works Christmas do was small and perfect. It was my idea to meet up on the Friday before Christmas Day under the email subject "mayhem". The following day was a very sore-head day, but happy that it was a really great evening in Downtown Juneau. And not least due to our amazing boss who paid for the first few rounds and food. Bless her.

Christmas day, was low-key for Sarah and I, here in Haines. We had a ham and my special garlic and rosemary roasters. No presents were given, just a very relaxing day. And of course, being in Alaska, it was a white Christmas. My first since 2009, which was my first ever.

New Years Eve will be spent at a Masquerade Ball. My costume is a scary blank mask and gothic type jacket. Tonight I am helping with decoration of the ball venue. If the party leaves me with a hangover, then the perfect cure will be available on Jan 1st, 2014. I plan to join the town of Haines in polar bear club. That is jumping in the water by Haines harbour on a cold snowy day. I am scared.

Anyway if you've read this far; HAPPY NEW YEAR!

 

Nation Under God

I touched on freedom in another post. How freedom in America is tied up with the landscape, and the past of the people, and the ideological or political aspect is secondary. Then I am reminded about the other overly sentimental soundbite of Americans, tied up with liberty. That is one "nation under god".

Now I discussed this with my wife. It started with me asking how a certain Jehovah's Witness we both know could come to be an American Citizen, without being a raging hypocrit. There are two facets that would be contradictory to a JW's beliefs in the mandatory contract between the government and aliens wishing to become US Citizens.

One is, you have to accept that you may be called to fight for the USA, or at least give some military help if needed to. So a JW taking this oath is either taking it with crossed fingers (lying), or they are ready to break their oath of pacifism and neutrality to god at some possible point. Or more than likely they feel the event so unlikely, they under-value the contract they are now taking between person and state.

Secondly; you have to pledge allegiance to the flag, and this 'nation under god'. Something the JWs fought tooth and nail with The Supreme Court over.

The day may come when I have to do this. I have no qualms that being part of a nation state, seeking its protection, you may have to contribute towards its safety and pick up a gun. Its unlikely in this day and age, but if my citizenship comes along, I will take my duties and contract as a citizen of the United States as seriously as I took those being a British Subject.

But as for the phrase "one nation under god". I detest it.

Now in my discussion with my wife on this, she pointed out that the pledge of allegiance adopted that sentence in the early 1950's. It doesn't go that far back in US history. I bowed to her knowledge there, when I found it confirmed by Wikipedia to be 1954. However, it does go back a bit further, as wasn't it that three minute speech by Lincoln, The Gettysburg address? "this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom"? So while not in the pledge of allegiance, for a long time it has been in the forming of this nation. For many a longtime "in god we trust" has been blazoned across the currency. God and nation are very linked in the USA. And lets be honest its the white majority god; Yahweh.

The USA separates church and state, yet so closely aligns itself to the majority god. I'm not happy about it at all. Why? Because I'm a goddam atheist that's why.

I've not been an atheist all my life. I was brainwashed or bullied as a child into believing a god exists. I've always considered myself a logical person, but the fear of what god could do or will do to all those who deny him overwhelmed the rationale that there is no scientific likelihood of god existing. Looking back this stifling of my natural reason, is mental abuse, and I'm not being over-dramatic claiming that.

So coming out of that fear of god, is my liberation. I therefore cannot understand how liberty can be aligned with god, as American institutions do with such ease. I cannot reconcile seeing a president observing a prayer (and pretty much all 46 of them were Christians) can faithfully uphold a constitution as he swore to. A constitution which promises to the populous the very rights Christianity has fought against from history to present.

Slavery was an economic disaster waiting to happen, despite being just damn well wrong and unfair. Who gave the practise legitimacy, but bible thumping slave owners? I am aware that the abolition movement was both Quaker and christian, but my point still holds. Today, stem cell research, Pro-choice for women, same-sex marriage. The loudest voices battling this, do so waving a bible. In Britain, they are lunatics, in America they are Super PACs and lobby groups.

This "nation under god" statement is the biggest weight on America's ankle as it walks towards intellectual progress. It also keeps America thinking that sheltering Israel is looking after a nation promised by god, and not giving an apartheid state the legitimacy to continue to subdue a people based on their race - in the name of public safety.

It is my passionate opinion, that rejection of god and his existence and rejection of people who shout about his existence without any real proof, is a ginormous leap towards ones liberation.

Imagine that, I do something good because I just want to help someone, not because god will reward me.

Imagine when someone does me a good deed, the credit goes to their kind heart, not to god.

Imagine that I feel ashamed I did wrong, because I caused discomfort to my fellow man, not due to fear that god will punish me.

Imagine that all my successes were mine, and my effort, and I owe god nothing.

Imagine that I accept all my failures as mine, and fess up to them and not blame the devil, or cry to god for help.

Imagine this life is it, and you live it to its fullest, you take in the world that you have a hand in continually creating and innovating - if you want to get off your arse.

Imagine that you only have 80 to 100 years on this planet - that's all, nothing more.

Imagine there is no chance to make good on your mistakes after you die. This is it, absolutely it.

Imagining all this is imagining real freedom!

Or believe in god. Everything you do is being watched and monitored. Someone is tallying your good deeds against your bad on some giant naughty or nice balance sheet. When you die, you have more to do because even in death you aren't free. You either sit by god while he nags you or you are down below with flaming poker up your arse.

Or in my belief system, the same plebs who ruled my life, kept my mind hostage, designed my moral code for me right down to the length of my hair. If I was good, I could live forever under them. Nah, death please.

Imagine your moral choices are written but open to someone elses interpretation. That would be a 'nation under god', and it sounds bloody Orwellian.

But how does this effect me in everyday life here? Happily it doesn't. I live with a christian, but he knows I'm atheist but we politely never debate it. The patriotism of America isn't as strong in Alaska as most other states. This nation under god, has zero effect on me, and people I associate with, who also seem geared towards atheism or agnosticism. I guess I'm lucky.

But in my analysis of America and my role within it as someone who has to tow the line, I am deeply uncomfortable with any use of god and politics. To the extent I wonder, when I am entitled to vote if I will abstain. It would seem whoever I voted for - god would win.

Amythica: Healthcare

Up to now, I have been going on the general defence of Americans and trying to dissolve some of the nasty myths and opinions that cross the Atlantic. But here is a case where, despite reading up on as much as possible and listening to Americans, I still have not had an answer to the following question. That is:

Why with a technologically advanced economy, society and revenue collection system America cannot get it together to ensure all the health needs of all the population are met. When I say health needs I am of course talking about the fact that I strongly feel if you live in a country as developed as the USA, one of the things you should not need to worry about when you are injured or severely sick is - how much is on my credit card, or this is going to bankrupt me? When you are sick you have enough on your plate. This is a human right for all. It should be defined in the UN Charter.

Unfortunately, enough Americans disagree with this and feel health insurance, is like car and life insurance and should remain on the general market. This means that although there are victims, American healthcare is the best in the world - if you can get to it. This is something I disagree with. But lets look back across the Atlantic at Britain and explore the good old NHS.

I read an article about the 2012 Olympics in London, an American article. They were sneering at us for a change. Laughing at why we celebrated NHS hospital beds on the opening ceremony. What other country celebrated a health service in an opening ceremony to define their culture. I admit it looked a bit daft. Probably Danny Boyle had been given a little too much free-reign in telling British culture through a working class perspective. Not that it isn't my preferable version of British modern history.

There was no better showcasing of the British view of the NHS. We are all united in defence of it, and any politician who suggests the slightest intervention by the private sector is an evil heartless Thatcherite. Because the NHS was built out of the most noblest of intentions. The father of the NHS, Nye Bevan said on it's formation "now we have the moral leadership of the world". A grand delusional soundbite, the welfare state was an invention of the German Empire pre WW1 (you know the evil Empire we fought against for no real reason), not ours at all. That said, while Britain was broke and battered from being first in and last out of WW2. Begging the USA for money to repair the towns blown to bits from The Blitz, it decided to reward the war heroes (which went beyond just those who held a gun) with health and housing. Not the way the government rewards modern soldiers today, with PR and poverty.

Greedy doctors, reluctant to join the socialized system, had their "mouths stuffed with money". The introduction of the NHS for all was not going to let anything get in its way. Not the broken UK balance sheet, not the greedy insurance companies, and not the doctors who feared becoming low-grade civil servants. And this is where Obama could have taken a look and some notes. Nye Bevan, took on the greedy and those who financially benefited from others being ill. Obama seemed only interested in taking on small businesses and individuals. The health system was right, ethically unavoidable so it needed to be done, end of discussion. America can find money for wars, they feel are morally right, but not healing the sick. Yes the more you dig back into the foundation of the NHS, and see it as our peaceful workers coup, I'm beginning to come on board and agree those dancers bouncing on the beds at the 2012 Olympics was a perfect and necessary inclusion into our culture, and the sneering American article can go fuck itself.

So why can't America get its shit together over Healthcare? I suppose there is the logic that the task is impossible. To make a comparison with American Health Insurers and pre-NHS British health insurers, is woefully inadequate. The American health insurance system has advanced into so many separate strands, employs many, and is tied to internal economics, you cannot just quickly pull this Jenga brick out suddenly. The British system was all over the place. The average workplace had each worker with a separate insurer. There was no mass-discount and grandfather schemes as in the US. Health insurance in the UK was a failing industry, and getting rid of it was a mercy killing.

Why do Americans accept their Healthcare so easily? OK there are those who have never left their state, and buy into the propaganda that American healthcare is the best in the world. The British let old people die on hospital beds (sometimes a little closer to the truth than we like to admit to the Yanks, even though it is not a policy).

Apart from the disciples of Sarah Palin, there are many Americans who say "it is what it is" and continue with their lives. Even though these same Americans would shout the roof down if the milk was too hot in their Latte. But realistically that's just it - it is what it is. It is rightly felt that an overhaul of the health system would carry such damage. Damage which may not right itself in a decade, its a gamble not worth taking. Especially as by definition no President, Congressman, Senator can commit himself to a plan longer than 4-6 years. That would be thinking of the people over electoral success, political madness.

Of course there are those who aren't in the least disciples of Palin, but reject the fact that healthcare should come from taxation. Or that healthcare should be controlled by the Federal government. These are often slightly left leaning Republicans, or Compassionate Conservatism to coin the Dubbya phrase from 14 years ago. And I have some sympathy for this line of thinking.

Yes the figures are there that in reality more American tax-dollars are spent in the end on the health industry than British do proportionately. But it is true when something is directly taxed, the government has a responsibility to it. Health and government are not good bed fellows. And, possibly you could take that criticism across the pond and say the modern drawback of the NHS (now we've stopped being all teary eyed about Bevin) is the government either overly tinkers or doesn't do enough, but either way is the big gremlin in the works.

Oh how the stupid debates continue; Should doctors run the NHS? 'No' the doctors say, we went to Medical School not Business School. Should businessmen run the NHS, get value for money and look at efficiency drives? 'No' the populous says, my young son with Leukaemia shouldn't have his life decided by an Excel formula.

In America, the government being out of the equation, has some merit. It is a fabulous idea, but completely impossible. Too many people are owing five and six figure debts on uninsured treatments. Debts they will forever be stained by, but never able to repay. The government cannot ever be so lessez faire, to ignore this. After all it is the ultimate underwriter.

Both British and Americans look across the pond and are horrified by eachothers health systems. And this is due to mutual misunderstanding of what is culturally important to the British, and a living reality to Americans. It's fuelled by documentaries in the UK such as one showing a clinic run by a British doctor, with massive lines forming at 5am for basic healthcare. And of course that twat Michael Moore and Sicko (Mr Socialism-Lite). The reality for most Americans in everyday life is not that drastic. If you are injured in a car accident - there is usually insurance for that. Americans work most of their lives and workplace liability covers many mishaps.

Most uninsured visits to US doctors carry a nasty but usually not financially damaging bill. Yes, if you need major surgery and you are uninsured, you could be utterly fucked. But behind this is often a culture of people clubbing together to raise money for someone needing help. Not completely dissimilar to the increasingly common fund raising drives in the UK to send cancer sufferers to the USA for treatment. The everyday American life is not that affected by their healthcare system, so really we Brits don't need to worry so much.

Alternatively, while I have personal knowledge of a child almost losing his hearing due to an NHS nurse saying that the popcorn he put in his ear will come out on its own, the reality of life in this socialist healthcare system is largely adequate. Old people aren't allowed to die by the NHS, they usually die because they are old. Thinking a socialized healthcare means a single standard across the nation, controlled by government, is an American misunderstanding. From my last local hospital who mis-diagnosed they popcorn child above, and my wife's ongoing complaint, and to sadly letting an old person die of near starvation (they forgot to feed her). A hospital in Bristol which mistakenly amputated the wrong leg. These make headlines, but are not an argument for or against private/socialized healthcare. Especially when you consider that a lady in an American hospital recently (a British lady as coincidence would have it) wandered off in a medicated haze and was found two weeks later, dead in a stairwell. No one in Britain is screaming that as an argument against private healthcare. Because aside from the headlines, I know of my sister who screams praise for tumour removed by the NHS and the after-care. And a former acquaintance of mine, who while suffering brain damage and from that being mentally unmanageable, was kept in a regular hospital by the most patient and firm nurses, while her parents were finding a specialized living arrangement for her.

No one likes to be sick. No one likes our loved ones to be sick. It's the most stressful time to sit as an observer or be a part of. When my wife was in hospital for four days while travelling, the helplessness, of just visiting her being the only thing I could do - it is horrible. At this time where the funding is coming from should not be an issue. Then again, this is an issue between family and doctor, it should not include the government. Where you are in hospital in the UK, will greatly affect your treatment, based on the medicines and beds available. But you have little choice to take control of all options, as you are likely to be constrained geographically. The American in a serious situation buys him/herself into a more involved part of the process. This is empowering for patient and the family, who have things to do to help. I get that, from my experience. My wife was in private care in Kuala Lumpur. At every stage we both felt involved, were given options. It is that touch which makes a huge difference.

Both the UK and the USA should not look at eachother, they are bad for eachother in this debate. They should both look at mainland Europe, Canada, Japan and Oceania. The systems which seem to know how to balance the private provision, with universal care regardless of wealth. Britain needs to realize, that while the Bevan and NHS formation story is a lovely one, it happened a long time ago and beautiful stories do not mean 21st century efficiency, medical education, employment, technology and finances.

Maybe in relation to both its own and America's healthcare, Britain should adopt that American phrase I have grown to adore, "is it what it is!". I should maybe adopt that phrase more myself.

Amythica: Fat

Americans are fat. This is obviously a crass and rude charge. But it is built out of observations and some statistics. First though, let me just say since coming to the USA, I have lost weight. However, this is due to me not having a car for most the week and cycling everyday. I almost never drink during the week - and fattening beer is my alcoholic drink of choice. Also quitting smoking, which for me has never really been an effective appetite suppressant, but very good at keeping me from exercise. Energy output increase as opposed to energy input decrease has always been the way I've kept weight down more effectively. But, encouraging for me, it doesn't dispel the myth I'm exploring here about Americans being generally fat.

Now there are sound reasons why America has its obesity problem. Food is bountiful, and most of that food is not fresh, it is processed. American cuisine is, in my opinion, very under-rated and should be taken much more seriously. That said, there is a tendency to glorify a large portion as more pleasing to the eye, than a dish which is presented a little more carefully.

The more I think of it, unlike my last subjects, I cannot think of a reason why Americans don't in someway deserve the fat moniker. Food is big, it's in your face, it's presented as fast. It's a million miles away from eating for relaxation. Food is either meant to be fast, and on the go and therefore a digestive nightmare. Or it is meant to be attacked. Something to gobble down, and feel guilty about latter. Hotdogs are a case in point. I know there are many excellent gourmet dishes originating in America, but hotdogs seem more tuned into Americana. They are huge but designed in such a way that eating them has to be done in the fewest bites, with tennis ball size blobs of bread, "meat" and sauce passing down your throat and settling at an awkward angle in your tummy each time. There is no way to get all the ketchup, bread, mustard, ketchup, onions, pickles, chilli (all the flavours) with a small bite.

The knife and fork seems to be only for formal dinner. Even then, the British way of turning a fork down to limit the quantity of a bite, is replaced by a shovelled fork in the right hand into American etiquette. I'm desperately trying to avoid snobbery here, but still thinking that table etiquette is there for a reason. That reason is digestion. I used to be viewed as quaint by my wife for taking a knife and fork to the largest of burgers, or at a barbecue using a knife to spread ketchup on my bun. But this is a case where I will cling to what I have been taught as worthwhile.

However, food is life. Whether it is a Greek family pushing 8 dishes of grilled meat down you. Or a French table with wine and hours spent passionating over each smell and mouthful. In English there seems to be no phrase like Bon Appetite. This is unfortunate. There is no phrase to celebrate the food, like 'cheers' or 'chin chin' does with alcohol. That said there are moments in American culture, like the tail-gate parties at football games. Cook-outs, and outdoor grilling which while are present in the UK, they are an import, and when they happen they don't seem to have the celebration of food as a central conversation piece.

Food in America is a nasty industry, with the poor as it's more severe victims. I'm fresh from watching Fastfood Nation last night - so not in a good mood to write about the food industry in America. Even so, at the stage of consumption. The serving of food by a tip demanding waitress, it is still a part of the positivism and progression of America.

Do Americans deserve to be called fat? Maybe the stereotype is a little deserved. But to wake up to biscuits and gravy, French toast. Pizza's the diameter of an adult hula-hoop. Soft-shell crab, Sweet potato mash with marshmallow topping. Corn beef hash. Burgers cooked rare, topped with crispy bacon. Clam Chowder. Its all so good. I've forgotten what I'm on about. Who cares? I'm off to cook something.

Amythica: Freedom

I was talking with a typical anti-American at work once. The type who's sneering of Americans has jealousy written all over it. But truthfully it was I that volunteered this complaint of an American stereotype, if only to seek some common agreement in the conversation lest it turn into argument. The fact that so many Americans think that Freedom is something unique to America.

The 'good ole boy' song, sung loudly at Speedways and once covered by Beyonce has the lyrics "I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free. And I won't forget the men who died who gave that right to me". Just hearing those lyrics I'm sniffing condescendingly, and sniggering a bit, at tears wiped away from eyes, and the flag flapping in the wind. It's a bit laughable, as extreme American Patriotism seems to outsiders.

The fact that freedom, and by freedom it is largely assumed to be freedom of economics, expression and speech, is nowhere else but America. The rest of the developed world, and a large part of the developing world say; "Newsflash America, almost everyone has freedom". Freedom is enshrined in many constitutions, and even alluded to in the Magna Carta (the mother of constitutions). It's not new or unique. So why do Americans get so teary eyed over what is a basic everyday right, experienced by all bar a few despotic regimes? I have the answer of course.

Freedom for Americans is more than ideology. Essentially the freedom they talk and sing about is the freedom earned after 1776 and America was free of British tyranny. Calling British colonization of America 'tyranny' is of course being over-dramatic. When we see what the British were capable of in India and Africa, that was tyranny. But this really has nothing to do with the American embrace of freedom, not really. The freedom derived from their independence as a nation, is merely a mascot, not the heart of the matter.

I experienced American freedom on my first full day in Alaska - July 15, 2013. I remember spouting it to my wife in the car, who no doubt rolled her eyes at yet another over-indulgent observation I felt I absolutely had to share aloud. Freedom is in the landscape, the big sky, the open space.

Even as I type this and look out the window and see Mendenhall Glacier, and know behind that glacier is miles and miles of ice and nothing else. It is unfathomably endless, like space. And like the endlessness of the land, so the possibilities seem endless. And from possibilities, ambition. Once you sense it, you can never feel free in a terraced house in England or with your face against an armpit on the London Underground. Not saying uncomfortable (I miss The Tube) - just not free.

The USA isn't exactly the only country with miles and miles of space. Australia, Russia and Canada leap to mind. But to my knowledge and understanding, the entwining of freedom and landscape with the soul of the populace doesn't jump out at me as readily as in America. Maybe it is part revolution and part landscape. Australia and Canada don't harp on about it, yet they aren't nations formed out of revolution although they were settled by peoples of similar ancestry to Americans.

So yes in Britain, in France, in Germany and the whole of the EU we have political and sociological freedom. But I challenge anyone to gaze out at the Scottish Highlands, The Pyrenees or the Alps and see anything more than beauty. Amazing beauty, without a doubt. But not a landscape that screams freedom like the plains and mountains which join the rocky shores of Maine to the endless Pacific Ocean.

So that big bearded gentleman with a CAT hat on and his wife with a stars and stripes badge sown onto her blue puffer jacket. Then ones with their hands on their heart, and a lump in their throat when the word 'freedom' is sung. They aren't just thinking about macro-economics or The Emancipation Proclamation. They are thinking about the endlessness of the landscape they lovingly survive in. They possibly have a mind on some ancestor who came over on some plague-ridden ship and built his Jerusalem amongst the bears and the weather. The word 'Freedom' encapsulates all this. I get it!

But really what about me, it is all about me eventually. What did my epiphany of freedom on July 15 do to me, how did it effect me? As a person, I prefer see equality and liberty as causes all humans need to strive for on a personal and political level. Unfortunately the two aspirations are often at odds with eachother. In the choice of the two, I lean towards equality. And from equality comes a freedom for everyone. It seems while Liberte, Egalite and Fraternite are core values of France. It seems the USA, sees freedom as the only thing. Give all freedom and the rest will take care of itself. This is a myth, I think Americans are fooled by more than any other nation. They call it the American Dream.

Amythica: Insular

Many times I have giggled with my sisters about Americans asking directions in London and pronouncing Leicester Square too literally. That was cheap, how many times have I miss-pronounced Potomac? But behind the laughter is a little something. Almost every British person I know, has a passport and has left the little island at some point. Passport ownership in America is at something like 10 - 15%, depending who you ask. What does this tell us about a comparison between Americans and British?

Now the comfortable smug thing to think is "travel broadens the mind", hence British travel more so their minds are broader. Poppycock! The British grand tour of the Victorian times has morphed into the lower-middle-class Asian tour of today. Gap-years, redundancy windfalls and anyone with time and money to kill sets off from Heathrow one day to Bangkok. Some Brits go on the Australia and mingle with an identical culture in a warmer climate. Then back to Asia. Thailand, Cambodia, Laos. Drinking cheap beer, avoiding the locals and coming back £10000 lighter and feeling they've accomplished something. These aren't just Brits, many are Australians, Germans, all G20 nationalities and yes a few Americans. But for some reason, the Brits cling to this culture of hedonism, and consider the practise places them up the chain from 85% of Americans who won't leave the country.

In my job I have the fortune to meet the most open-minded, keen and optimistic kids, neh young adults. Many have no passport, many can only boast Canada as their only foreign country. But to call them narrow-minded because they have not yet got round to getting a Henna Tattoo on Koh Phi Phi, is offensive. I am in awe of these guys and girls who walk out into the Alaskan Wilderness, camping in the middle of nowhere, securing their possessions from bears. These young adults have lived 1000 times more than Sally on her gap year strolling drunkenly with a tray of noodles down the Khao San Road. When they tell me about their adventures, my jaw drops. Especially a gentleman called Isaac who hiked the Chilkoot Trail in his precious cowboy boots.

The Americans I see are lovers of life. Optimistic, 'can-doers'. This is with business, with ideas, with relationships. Frankly I found this attitude micro-thin on the ground back in the UK. Does this abundance of optimism and excitement tire me? Of course it does, cynicism came to me at birth. Do I feed off it? Yes I do.

You ask any British person at any time to name The President of the USA. If they couldn't, they would more than a little out of touch. Ask any American who the Prime Minister of the UK is and there is a good chance that they won't be able to name David Cameron. Nor Gordon Brown before him. In fact, historically, many Americans only know Churchill, Thatcher and Blair. Does that make Americans weak on International knowledge? Not at all.

Ask many Brits to name the President or PM of Ireland. The PMs of Norway, Sweden. The President of Germany, the PM of France. These are our neighbours and we don't know who leads them. How dumb! But for some reason a twinge of defensiveness arises when Americans don't know who our PM is.

A teeny amount of offense is gained by an American not fully understanding the geography of Scotland, Wales and England. Why is it only Americans who offend us by not knowing as much about us as we do about them? Its easy to answer this, and hard to hear as truths often are. We British are much more interested in Americans than they are in us. No matter how much you remind them of their history as a former colony of the British. Incidentally they were also a colony of France, Spain and (here in Alaska) Russia. The Spanish and Mexican Wars are as important in the forming of the United States than the War of Independence, but many silly Brits don't even know this.

There are other aspects, of this one-way interest and it doesn't necessarily just include the British. America has been the consistent dominant power since at least WW1. Of course, the USSR, and China are past and present contenders for this crown, but the US has been there the longest and seems most comfortable with its role as major world power. I'm not going too far down the politics thread here, as foreign policy is something that should never define citizens. However, decisions made by Washington effects almost every human being on the planet. Therefore, there are few people on the planet who haven't an opinion on America. However, the same is not true in reverse. Americans are not fully aware, how US policies and export of cultures have effected each person or nation on the planet. As it said in The Rough Guide to the USA Guidebook. "Don't expect Americans to understand how US Foreign Policy has effected your country". And why should they? Americans work hard, pay their taxes, have government waste their taxes like the rest of us. They don't owe you an explanation as to why a McDonalds has closed down a local restaurant in Athens.

So we ask why America is so insular (and it may well be), we have to ask ourselves why we are so insular? If an American cares more about jobs in America, than the trouble with the Eurozone. Ask why you are more concerned about illegal immigrants getting council houses and the Conservatives selling off the NHS than Quebec Nationalism in Canada? Europe not getting its shit together, has taken more than enough of American time, blood and treasure. Frankly the US owes Britain and Europe nothing - but Europe has a huge debt to the US, one which we like to conveniently forget. Namely our freedom.

Amythica: Intro

I remember reading the introduction to Stephen Fry's America, the book which accompanied the series of Mr Fry visiting every state in the US. In this introduction, he hit the nail on the head as to British attitudes and opinions of Americans. The snobbishness which tells us more about us than it does about them. Unfortunately, I am an 'us'. And being British I fall guilty of relapsing into that habit which is ingrained. Sometimes encouraged by the American love of my accent, that feeling no matter what British social class I am, it automatically trumps being American. When I see myself thinking this way, I am immediately shamed.

Then again, I want to explore the myths and stereotypes of Americans and America. I want to do this maybe 85% with my own observations as an ex-pat and my personal experiences. Observations which are very open to debate.

Stereotypes are there for a reason. Myths, have some basis in truth to seem plausible, and stand some test of time. Even if the original truth gets to us as reliably as a game of Chinese Whispers. So myths are none-the-less interesting, and to again quote Mr Fry, that our view of Americans "tell us more about us than them", means that a closer look at the relationship of 'us' and 'them' valid and stimulating.

So, in dealing with stereotypes, and therefore generalizations, no doubt any reader will arrive at many examples which contradict me. Sure, I can come up with a few myself, and this is what I will no doubt do as I carry on. When I talk about Fat Americans, please shout back "what about Adele?". Or even, how much do you weigh Chris? When I talk about the glory of British music, please shout ... well there are loads of counters to that.

The subjects I am covering are:

Insular

Freedom

Fat

Music

Language

Healthcare