Last week I was in New York, not a city I especially like but it has it's charms, it's comparisons to London are huge, the general attitude of people, the hurriedness of everyone, the stink of the place when the sun comes out. The one thing it does beat London at though hands down is the A/C on public transport. I heard on the news earlier a guy saying that he has no A/C in his apartment, so for a couple of hours a day he gets on the Subway and just travels to the end of one line, then comes back. In NYC you have 2 hours to complete your journey, which costs $2.20, bargain for 2 hours of comfort.
I digress, whilst I was in New York I found myself wondering if the people who live and work there appreciate that to almost the whole world New York is the promised land. People all over the world want to live in New York, we see it in movies, TV, books and even the newspapers. The most famous sports brand in the world is the N with 2 'Y's of the New York Yankees, Wall St is known the world over, the skyline is one of the most recognizable on the planet, and everyone knows what happened on September 11th 2001, the images from that day will forever stick in the mind of all of us.
So I have been talking to people asking about America in general, do they understand that a good percentage of the planet look up to America, would love to live here, and follow the day to day news from here as much as news in their own country.
I have found that people love their country, or their little part of it. People are of course patriotic, that is one thing everyone knows of Americans, but have nothing to compare their world to. A lot of people I have spoken to have never left the country, several people I have spoken to have never been to Chicago, which is 4 hours away. Again, people all over the world would love to go to Chicago, and will probably never get the chance. I tell people this, and they seem genuinely shocked. "It's just Chicago". Which it of course is, but it is a place people have seen on TV, have read about, and to many offers a lifestyle and freedom many can but dream about.
This is of course not an American thing, in the UK I know people who live near me who have never been to London. We live an hour away. An hour 20 on a slow train. London is probably the most famous city on Earth, the crossroads of the world, offering some of the most famous landmarks in Europe, perhaps the world, has one of the best public transport systems in the world.
I am not a huge fan of London, I think English people should give it a go, live there for a while, that's all most people can deal with, it was for me. A year, that was my lot. A friend of mine went with his girlfriend thinking it was what they should be doing, lasted a year, and have now moved back to rural life. It's not for everyone, quite the contrary, I also know people who are there, and are stuck there, work, family, don't know anything else.
The one thing I do know for sure though, most people in London don't appreciate what they have, and I wonder if people in New York do. Over the July 4th weekend I have seen first hand how proud Americans are to be American, I just wonder if they appreciate what that means, and that there are hundreds of millions around the world who would take their place in a New York minute.
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