not necessarily coherent

American culture pervades Northern Ireland. You can only really understand U.S. hegemony when you live in another country. You can be told it by people and professors, but its hard to get until you at least go abroad. Sometimes i want to say, Don't you people have your own culture? Wouldn't you rather watch Irish tv shows or listen to Irish music artists? I know this is naive since they can't help what's marketed to them but it still is kind of bothersome to me. A few small illustrational anecdotes:

--Today in my Development and Change class, we talked about American tv shows for about 20 minutes. They were really just talking about their favorite shows but they were all American: The Sopranos, Desparate Housewives, Sex and the City, Lost, The O.C. 20 minutes. It was remarkable to me. Especially when i was aked if i watch the Soprano's and I said no, its a premium cable channel and I'd have to pay $30 a month for HBO. Not the case for the Irish. Because the companies make plenty of $ of it in the US they can market it cheaply here.

--Then in a completely different class, Economic Anthro, we watched a clip from the Sopranos illustrating how social relations impact gift exchange. And then a clip from the movie Ghost World about garage sales. We also read an article about "the U.S. garage sale", which is funny because its like all these anthropology students are studying our culture like they would the Yap of Micronesia. a bizarre feeling. apparantly they don't have garage sales here.

--I know this entry is quite boring, but just to add, yesterday one of professors spent nearly the entire lecture focusing on how the U.S. is screwing the world with its foreign aid. I wanted to skulk out prayed no one knew i was American. It made me feel very depressed and very powerless.

--Unrelatedly, looking at my floor yesterday, i decided I look like an earplug junkie. Which isn't too far off...