Before I get started, just let me say that some of my best friends, including my wife, are Americans. My son Prahlad is an American citizen by descent. Many of my work mates at Red Hat and many of my associates in the Hare Krishna movement are Americans and I have a lot of respect for them. Yes, you guessed it - we’re about to go American-bashing.

I know it’s easy to do, and perhaps it’s already been done to death, but I’ve got a bee in my bonnet and it just won’t stop buzzing. You see, it all started like this….

My clothes, obtained in Peru up to a couple of years ago, are really starting to look a little worse for wear. There are only so many times that you can wash a white t-shirt before it starts to look gray and frayed. Anyway, I thought I’d better get some new t-shirts at least. So being a product of the age of technology, I got on to the Internet and started googling for some stylee t’s.

My wife couldn’t understand many of them, but I was sure that my 7337 friends at work would be able to appreciate them. I tried to explain to her that buying a t-shirt such as this one from the Mozilla foundation was as much about supporting open source with a contribution as it was about putting cloth on skin. “When you buy this t-shirt,” I explained, “you are not just buying clothing - you are constructing your identity. You are a product of the brands you wear and use.”

Ah yes, the bliss of self-construction for the post-modern consumer. The power is in your hands - happiness is just a click (and a credit card number) away.

Anyway, in the end my bargain hunting instincts, sharpened by years living in the poverty stricken economy of Peru, lead me to order a handful of shirts that cost US$3 each. Great savings. I spent the next day pleased as punch with my thrift and acumen in ordering the t-shirts guaranteed to win friends and influence people while impressing them with my edgy cultural savvy.

Three days later, DHL hand delivered a package to my house in Brisbane, Australia. It arrived while I was at work, and I happened to mention it to a workmate, wondering out loud what it could be. He put two and two together, and informed me that he had also ordered from the same place that I had, on a previous occasion, and had been charged $100 for postage (why he didn’t tell me earlier I don’t know).

I was floored to say the least!

Having recently shifted to a global call center model at Red Hat, we have been discussing cultural differences. Here’s one I can see. I’m just speculating here, but the only rationale that I can think of for sending a bunch of $3 t-shirts across the world by courier for $100, is the need to provide the customer with instant gratification. Speedy service is best. “Your meal in less than 60 seconds or it’s free!”

Now let me clearly state a few things so that you know where I’m coming from: I was born and raised in New Zealand, you know, the little country that banned Nuclear warships in 1987. I cut my teeth on Debian Linux, you know, the distro produced by Europeans and favoured by peaceniks and hippies. I spent three years doing volunteer work in South America, one of the under privileged region of the world.

I don’t want instant gratification! I’m quite happy to wait for a couple of weeks for my t-shirts to come normal post. Now don’t get me entirely wrong - there are two things going on here. One is my noble sense of conservation of the Earth’s resources, which was offended by the cavalier manner in which no thought was given to doing things in a conservative manner. The U.S.’s blocking of the Kyoto protocol immediately sprang to mind, along with visions of the hole in the ozone layer over Antartica, New Zealand, Australia, and Argentina, and images of the new Hummer 2 (I leave you to google FUH2 for your homework).

The other thing however is a little more selfish - that’s my $100 that they are spending on this wasteful endeavour!

Anyway, to top things off - I get the package open and take a look at the t-shirts and totally lose it. I ordered medium sized shirts because small is a little too tight for me. Or at least, what everyone outside the U.S. calls small - these “medium” sized shirts are what we call large! Now I’m really burning! I forgot that Americans are a nation of fat people! How many resources are being wasted on this style of living?!?!

Anyway, my righteous anger has a more selfish motive - these t-shirts don’t fit me properly.

OK, just to balance things out here. The Russians also blocked the Kyoto protocol. And there are people in the US who campaign for environmental conservation.

It’s easy to categorize and demonize “the enemy”. According to Bhagavad-gita, and despite the feelings of millions of people around the world, it’s not simply “the Americans” who are responsible for the destruction of the environment, although that particular nation does lead the way in many respects. It is in fact the result of uncontrollable lust born of contact with the material mode of passion, and acted upon with the understanding that this world exists to satisfy our desires.

People all over the world have a funny relationship with the US. They hate them and envy them at the same time. In both Tokyo and South America, being mistaken for an American, I experienced this weird mix of envy and hatred first hand. People there may hate Gaijin or Gringos, but they are busy emulating them like nothing else.

Actually, according to Srila Prabhupada, the planet can produce resources to satisfy the desires of everyone, but only when the Supreme Being is worshiped as the central point of human society. When this does not happen, so many problems result. My own personal experience is that when the Supreme Being is put in the center of one’s own personal life things just have a way of adjusting themselves automatically. Anyway, next time I might just get a bit more saintly and wait for those pieces of cloth in the street that I wrote about before.