I was talking to an individual in his early 20's. Some how travel came up. I mentioned that I'm hoping to go to Indian later this year. He was agast that anyone would go to such a "disease ridden country". I told him that you take shots for the major things, and that you are just careful about what you eat and drink for the rest. To which he said he was afraid of shots, and didn't think it was fair that he would need shots to travel. I have to point out to him that we have just as many diseases here, we're just used to them and have immunities built up, so when people come here from forgien lands, they need shots too.
Then he went on to bitch about tourists accents, and I had to point out to him how the tourists at least attempt to speak english, where very few Americans travelling abroad ever try to bother with the native language.
Then he went into the "this is a great country" spiel, and I gave up trying to explain how that doesn't mean other countries aren't great.
You know, he is the isolationist type who will never see further than our own boarders. He will never understand or respect other cultures. I would say he would be called The Ugly American", but you have yo be willing to leave the country and make an ass of yourself in foriegn lands to rank that high. He is the type of ignorant hick that creates short sighted, violent foriegn policy, like we have now.
I really wish I knew of a way to get people like him to want to open their eyes and learn, but as they say, you can force a horse to water but you can't make it drink.