Americans travelling overseas have noticed that fewer people are willing to differentiate a government’s action from its citizens.

A mother lode of goodwill fostered in the decades after the defeat of Nazi Germany has been reduced to dust in recent years. A growing number of foreigners see some of the United States’ political decisions (pulling out of the Kyoto Treaty on global emissions) and personal choices (Americans’ penchant for gas-loving SUVs) as at best unilateral and at worst selfish. The confrontation over Iraq is just more fuel on a bonfire.

From Spanish plazas to Parisian metros, American tourists are being quizzed, grilled and even spat on by people who do not approve of the Bush administration’s drive for a war against Saddam Hussein.

Only 54% of Americans now believe the US enjoys a favourable image abroad.
And 64% say a fear of unfriendliness is their the top concern about traveling abroad during wartime. US tourism has dropped by 19% in Europe since 2000.

Travel and one to one undefensiveness still remain a vital force in understanding. The travel industry has some tips for US citizens planning to go abroad.

Concerned about being a magnet for anti-Americanism during your next trip abroad? Bruce McIndoe, CEO of iJet Travel Intelligence, offers his tips for staying under the radar:

Avoid American fast-food restaurants and chains.

Keep discussions of politics to private places, not rowdy bars.

Take a rain check on wearing clothes featuring American flags or sports team logos.

Keep your passport out of sight.

Keep cameras, video equipment and maps tucked away.

Soften your speech; Americans typically overshadow their hosts in the volume department.

I started to laugh at the last suggestion and wondered why. My personal experience with American tourists is that it is mostly true. Odd though, I don’t find Americans loud in America.

Stranger in a Strange Land has given up blogging for Lent. Before she left she posted a moving entry she wrote at the end of the NATO bombing campaign in Yugoslavia in 1999. The noise of the planes were her call to prayer. The experience changed everything.

I don’t know the answers, even though I desperately want to. My own views were constantly shifting, as I learned of the suffering on all sides of the conflict, yet despaired over the Western policies and politics. I wanted the suffering to stop, but at what price? My western mind wants simple solutions, “Three Steps to Peace in the Balkans,” but there just aren’t. As much as I wanted there to be a black and white there wasn’t, and in the end it was with those gray areas that I had to trust God. When all human attempts at fairness and justice fail, did I trust that God held the situation in his hands?

They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious.
“Peace, peace,” they say, when there is no peace. (Jer. 8:11)