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| Q & A with Yahoo! Correspondent Kevin Sites |
The Orange & Black: Do you feel your work
is seen and appreciated at all by people our
age?
Kevin Sites: Overall, Americans are very
uninformed about the rest of the world, and
high school students are certainly included
in that grouping. We are a First World nation
in our access to information but we're a
Third World nation in our knowledge about
the rest of the planet.
is seen and appreciated at all by people our
age?
Kevin Sites: Overall, Americans are very
uninformed about the rest of the world, and
high school students are certainly included
in that grouping. We are a First World nation
in our access to information but we're a
Third World nation in our knowledge about
the rest of the planet.
Tuesday, April 15
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Part of this has to do with geography, part to our society that doesn't emphasize the
importance of foreign travel in increasing our understanding. But we also have to admit
our own culpability—Americans can be lazy, filling up on a junk food diet of entertainment
news about Lindsay Lohan's latest drunk-driving accident and Paris Hilton's empty
escapades, thinking that what happens in the rest of the world doesn't effect us. It does.
As the last remaining superpower, the U.S. is involved everywhere—politically,
economically or militarily. Not knowing about the rest of the world means that we are not
prepared for important debates after significant tragedies like 9/11, the Virginia Tech
shootings or before going to war in Iraq.
Almost everywhere I've traveled outside the U.S. I've met people who are much more
informed about the actions of the U.S. government than our own citizens. In the Internet
age, this kind of willful ignorance is irresponsible—even for high school age students.
We can remedy this by taking small steps.
Use the power of the Internet! Set up RSS feeds to focus on news and information from
one different country every week or month. Read the country profile on the BBC (Web site),
look at their culture and the recent news, learn about their food (make a dish from that
country with your family one night out of the week to gain even more understanding), learn
a couple of words in their language.
