As an American abroad, it will come as no surprise that I often have to defend our honor against the stereotypes. Most popular? That we’re stupid about the outside world. As a generalization, this is (unfortunately) not something that I can say is untrue, but I’m always explaining why with valid reasons beyond the average person’s control. I never thought I’d have such proof of media complicity though.

Yesterday, CNN International covered Laura Bush going to Afghanistan, being welcomed by the New Zealander troops with the Haka. What’s the Haka you ask? Well, to me it is a symbol of NZ integrating and celebrating its indigenous heritage. NZ has a native population just like the US and Australia, but their culture has survived fairly well and is tangibly present in NZ’s modern culture. They are called the Maori, tribes closely related to the Hawaiians (for example). The Haka is the Maori warrior dance, and most people are familiar with it because for over 100 years their national rugby team has preformed a haka before international matches. It’s quite fun. You can find all sorts of hakas on YouTube; here’s one that I like.

In short, the story behind the battle haka is that Maori tribes would preform it when gathering for war. The purpose is twofold: one, it scares the everliving crap out of the opposition by making you look fierce and crazy as hell (note the wide eyes and protruding tongue); two, the slapping of the body draws blood to the muscles, warming up the body to fight if the other side doesn’t back down. Pretty clever I think. Personally, it’s one of my favorite cultural/national icons.

But did CNN tell the viewer that? Oh no, instead they only said things things like: “…the closest thing Laura Bush can get to a lap dance in public…”, “…think Chippendale’s in the desert…” and “what does it remind me of? Hmmm…oh yeah! [insert split screen video of a clumsy Ostrich here]“.

I find this stunningly ignorant and inappropriate. Yes, the Haka is fun, but was the only news angle to trivialize and disparage it? They didn’t include any explination as to what it actually is. So millions of people were just introduced to a 1000 year old tradition that has survived to the modern age as…’something that looks funny‘!?!? Is that all they see in it? Is that really the story? Seriously, what was the purpose and intended message of the report? Does the reporter even know what the haka is? I watched this report thinking, “I am witnessing precisely how and where we are taught to dismiss view the foreign world. This is the depth of our intellectual and cultural exposure.”

Given that this blog started as a place to point out how strange culture can look out-of-context, I get it. People may miss the irony of my observations, but I am not a “journalist” and my audience is not reported to be 1.5 billion people (last I checked my stats). Nobody thinks I am an objective information professional, nor takes my word as gospel. And still, my site has a disclaimer.

And people ask why Americans don’t know more about foreign countries. Mystery solved.