Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community  

Go Back   Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community > Chatter > General Discussion


 
 
LinkBack Thread Tools
Old 02-03-2006, 03:59 AM   #1 (permalink)
Sky Piercer
 
CSflim's Avatar
 
Location: Ireland
What countries have a positive/negative role in the world?

Interesting story linked on Fark today, discussing the results of a recent BBC survey into which countries are viewed worldwide as having a positive or negative influence on the world. Topping the poll is Iran, with the US coming in second place.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/4674656.stm
Quote:
Iran 'has negative role in world'
Iranian President Ahmadinejad's nation fared worst in the survey
Iran is the country most widely viewed as having a negative influence in the world, with the US in second place, a new poll for the BBC suggests.

The survey for the BBC World Service asked how 39,435 people in 33 nations across the globe saw various countries.

Views of China, Russia and France have declined in comparison to a similar survey at the end of 2004.

Japan is most widely seen to have a positive influence. Europe has the most positive scores of all in the poll.

The survey by the international polling firm GlobeScan and the University of Maryland took place between October 2005 and January 2006.


According to the poll, no country had a majority with a positive view of Iran's role in the world, apart from the Iranians themselves.

On average, just 18% say Iran has a positive influence, while 47% believe the state's role is negative.

Europe and North America have the largest majorities expressing a negative view - with Germany, the US and Italy the most negative about Iran.

Iran is embroiled in a row with the US and European Union over Western fears it is attempting to build nuclear weapons.

Tehran says its nuclear programme is aimed solely at energy production.

Ups and downs

The US has lost ground in some key allied countries, the survey suggests.

In France, 65% had a negative view of the US, up from 54% in the 2004 poll. In Britain the numbers went from 50% to 57%.

Negative views of the US are also up by 20 points in China, eight points in Australia and nine points in Brazil.

Views of China have declined sharply over the last year, according to the poll.

Among the 20 countries polled both years, the number rating China positively has dropped from 13 to eight, while those rating it negatively have risen from three to seven.

But overall, China continues to have more backers than detractors.

Several European countries have developed more negative perceptions of Russia since 2004, the poll suggests.

However, 31 of the 33 states' populations gave Japan a positive rating.

None of the countries had a predominantly negative view of Europe.

The average is 53% positive and 15% negative, excluding the European states asked.

The margin of error in polling ranged from 2.5% to 4%


...in other news; 'Europe' is a country.
__________________
CSflim is offline  
Old 02-03-2006, 04:22 AM   #2 (permalink)
Currently sour but formerly Dlishs
 
dlish's Avatar
 
Super Moderator
Location: Australia/UAE
im a little perplexed at the 'europe' clasification myself... why didnt they just group regions.. asia, sth east asia, middle east, europe, latin america etc. would have made more sense
__________________
An injustice anywhere, is an injustice everywhere

I always sign my facebook comments with ()()===========(}. Does that make me gay?
- Filthy
dlish is offline  
Old 02-03-2006, 04:29 AM   #3 (permalink)
Shackle Me Not
 
jwoody's Avatar
 
Location: Newcastle - England.
Quote:
Originally Posted by CSflim
...in other news; 'Europe' is a country.
Are we including Ireland in the UK category?


*runs like fuck*
__________________
.
jwoody is offline  
Old 02-03-2006, 04:31 AM   #4 (permalink)
Kick Ass Kunoichi
 
snowy's Avatar
 
Location: Oregon
Quote:
Originally Posted by dlishsguy
im a little perplexed at the 'europe' clasification myself... why didnt they just group regions.. asia, sth east asia, middle east, europe, latin america etc. would have made more sense
Unfortunately that grouping would not work for N. America, or if they tried it, they would greatly offend Canadians (who rightfully don't want to be tossed in with the US). Furthermore, if we were to group Asia together, then we'd have to deal with Japan (bottom of the list) versus China (middle of the list) and we'd end up with nothing better than an average.

Europe, especially with the European Union, is seen more and more as a cohesive political unit versus a split of many nations. Truthfully, if Europe had been split up, would there have been much difference in the perception of the individual countries? Doubtful.
__________________
If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau
snowy is offline  
Old 02-03-2006, 04:33 AM   #5 (permalink)
Getting it.
 
Charlatan's Avatar
 
Super Moderator
Location: Lion City
I would imagine they were talking about the Eurpoean Union as a whole (though they did seperate out France and the UK).

I am surprised at how positively people see China.


In the end, this has little to do with reality and everything to do with how these nations market themselves.
__________________
"My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars."
- Old Man Luedecke
Charlatan is offline  
Old 02-03-2006, 02:35 PM   #6 (permalink)
Twitterpated
 
Suave's Avatar
 
Location: My own little world (also Canada)
If Europeans don't want to be grouped together, they shouldn't go about making unions and international governments and such.
__________________
"Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions." - Albert Einstein

"Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something." - Plato
Suave is offline  
Old 02-03-2006, 03:24 PM   #7 (permalink)
pow!
 
clavus's Avatar
 
Location: NorCal
Quote:
Originally Posted by Suave
If Europeans don't want to be grouped together, they shouldn't go about making unions and international governments and such.

HA! Good point.
__________________
Ass, gas or grass. Nobody rides for free.
clavus is offline  
Old 02-03-2006, 04:00 PM   #8 (permalink)
Sky Piercer
 
CSflim's Avatar
 
Location: Ireland
More detailed breakdown:







More here.
__________________
CSflim is offline  
Old 02-04-2006, 10:09 PM   #9 (permalink)
Insane
 
Location: Canada
Looking at Canadian responses...Iran is the only country that received a lower rating than the US. Unfortunately, there's no chart showing countries' opinions of Canada, so I couldn't look at the US's opinion of Canada.

Also interesting - Mexico has a much more positive view of Iran than they do of the US. And one final interesting stat to me: Iran holds India in extremely high regard, and China in very high regard also.

On a final note, Charlatan I'm not sure it's fair to say these are completely conjecture based on a country's marketing of itself. I imagine many people who participated in the survey considered (legitimately) how a particular country interacts with their own country, when trying to assess that country's influence on the world. It's reasonable to assume that these participants may have a very good idea of the relationship between their own country and certain other countries. Also - there are certain things that influence one's opinion that are completely independent of marketing. The Iranian presidents remarks about the right of Israel's existance are a stark example.
Poloboy is offline  
Old 02-05-2006, 09:01 AM   #10 (permalink)
Getting it.
 
Charlatan's Avatar
 
Super Moderator
Location: Lion City
Poloboy... I agree that there are a few people who will take a more reasoned and rational approach to how they view these nation's influnce on the world. That said, I believe that most don't have a complex view of things. Many, when they think of the US, for example, think largely of what they see in film and television (whether that is a fictional film or a speech by Bush), others (in other countries) see the US as an agressive invading force.

When I say marketing I am referring more to the former than the latter.
__________________
"My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars."
- Old Man Luedecke
Charlatan is offline  
Old 02-05-2006, 12:02 PM   #11 (permalink)
Twitterpated
 
Suave's Avatar
 
Location: My own little world (also Canada)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Charlatan
Poloboy... I agree that there are a few people who will take a more reasoned and rational approach to how they view these nation's influnce on the world. That said, I believe that most don't have a complex view of things. Many, when they think of the US, for example, think largely of what they see in film and television (whether that is a fictional film or a speech by Bush), others (in other countries) see the US as an agressive invading force.

When I say marketing I am referring more to the former than the latter.
I think the aggressiveness has a huge factor in these polls. Having a horribly uncharismatic leader who gives off the impression of incompetence certainly doesn't help either, but I imagine the polls would look much nicer without all of the invasions and fighting in which the US has been involved.
__________________
"Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions." - Albert Einstein

"Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something." - Plato
Suave is offline  
Old 02-05-2006, 04:09 PM   #12 (permalink)
Insane
 
Location: Canada
Yeah, I think you're right that it does play a significant factor for the US, at least. I think they're the most likely to have a misrepresentation due to responses based on marketing, rather than a more considered opinion, given the number of Hollywood movies that portray the country in a manner that tends to boost local bos office sales, but may not be so appealing to foreign viewers.
Poloboy is offline  
Old 02-05-2006, 05:44 PM   #13 (permalink)
Junkie
 
China's bolstered by their favorable ratings in Asia and Africa, where there isn't always the same dedication to human rights usually found in Europe and N. America.

And as an aside, we didn't forget about Poland, and apparently based on those ratings they ddin't forget about us.

edit-upon closer review, the US didn't do much worse in those areas than China (and was much better in some Asian countries). As was said above, it's all about good p.r. And recently, China has been laying pretty low on the offending everyone front, whereas the US has been front and center.

Last edited by alansmithee; 02-05-2006 at 05:50 PM..
alansmithee is offline  
 

Tags
countries, positive or negative, role, world


Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On



All times are GMT -8. The time now is 09:33 AM.

Tilted Forum Project

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Search Engine Optimization by vBSEO 3.6.0 PL2
© 2002-2012 Tilted Forum Project

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360