Skewed Views of a Nation or As a Result of Poor Communication/a Language Barrier or Goal 2

Goal 2 of the Peace Corps' three goals reads: "Helping promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served."

Back in June, I was watching Rambo II with a few of the bankers in one of their rooms. One of them, who's grammar is pretty awful but manages to have an oddly wide vocabulary, was asking me many questions about the movie and if there were many people that looked like Sylvester Stallone (Google, by the way, recognized that name in its dictionary). After answering his plethora of questions, the conversation turned slightly political asking about the many policies of America, particularly its foreign policies. I was intrigued with where the conversation was going, and it only seemed to steer towards information rather than opinions, so I was happy to indulge him. Then, out of nowhere he asks me, "What is America's policy [on] Islam?" Huh? I was confused. I asked him to repeat the question again. "What is America's policy [on] Islam?" "Well, America doesn't have a policy on Islam. There are no policies on any religion," I said. His response, "No. No. I know. I know. America has a war on Islam." I'm pretty sure I knew what he meant, but I wanted to clarify. So I asked him where he got the information, and he told me, "My friend tells me this. Yes. My friend, he speaks English." I ask if his friend is Cambodian, he is. "Where did he learn English?" I ask. "He learned in school. He was the top of the class. Now, he works at the bank in Phnom Penh and makes a lot of money," he responds. My friend (and I'm assuming his friend) is 28, meaning he most likely stopped learning English roughly a decade ago. So, being the diplomatic person I am, I responded with, "I speak English, too. It is my native language, and I am from America. I know a lot about the policy of America. I think I can help explain." So, I do. I begin to explain to him that America declared war on a couple of countries whose main religion just happens to be Islam. Still a little in disbelief, he asks, "So, America does not war on Muslims?" I tell him no, and he seems to understand a little better. When I explained that sometimes it's best to get your news from a newspaper, and if you were to do so, you should make sure you find a credible one. They read the Phnom Penh Post every evening before dinner, now.

Four months later, when I returned from Pre-Service Training in Takeo province, I was at my health center when my health center director called me over and said there was something he really wanted to show me on the computer; the health center had internet, now. All I could think of as I walked over to his office was, He's going to show me porn. This is just great. He's tried several times before, asking if I had heard of sites like xxgirlazee.net, to make one up (I checked; it doesn't exist). I come into his office, and he pulls up a chair and asks me to sit down. He shows me a website that contains half of the country's name and a bunch of repeating numbers. He clicks on "Weapons Photos" and it eventually leads to 2 line articles stating "America has war on Russia! Russia is angry!" with a large picture above of some large missile. "Look," he says, "big missile!" He laughs heartily. "Isn't it impressive?"--this conversation is in Khmer--"Are America and Russia very angry with each other?" (He can read the English alphabet and knows very few words like war, beer, meeting, information, project, money, sexy girl). After a brief explanation, I ask him if this is where he reads the news, and he says yes. He tells me that he does not read the Phnom Penh Post, which, while not the most critically acclaimed newspaper in the world, is much better than his current source of information and is in Khmer. I made it his home page.

Where do these strains of skewed information come from? Are they opinions passed down as facts, or are they simply mistranslated information from unaccredited news sources? Everyone is more than entitled to their opinion, but sometimes people do not believe it is their opinion of the matter; they believe it is truly factual information.

Talk to you soon,

Garrett