problem.

This article reminded me of an encounter I had in Turkey. Rox, Heather, and I were in a cab heading to the museum on saturday. The traffic in Istanbul is terrible, and it took about an hour to get there from the hotel. On the way, we were chatting as usual, and the cab driver, in incredibly bad English, asked us if we were Americans. After we said yes, he proceeded to give us his take on the world political situation:

"Bush: problem."
"Jacque Chirac: good."
"Blair: problem."
"Kerry: okay."
&tc.

He named a bunch of other heads of state and diplomats that I didn't even recognize. We were all so taken aback that this cabbie, in Turkey, half a world away from the US, could give political commentary. It was an eye-opening experience, to say the least.

After all this happened, Heather told us that, while she was touristing around Turkey before the meeting, she would tell people she was Canadian in response to their questions, just so she didn't have to hear everyone's political views. Heather's as liberal as anyone in this city, and mostly she agreed with what people were saying, but at a certain point you just get tired of people telling you that the US and Bush suck. When she'd say she was from Canada, people would just nod and smile.