Crikey mate, you think St Louis is off the radar? Try asking your neighbor what is the capital of Australia, what language we speak, who is our Head of State, etc etc. One of the sad characteristics of modern English-speaking education, worldwide, has been the infliction of 'social science' or 'social studies' in schools with the net effect, sadly, that basic geographic and historical facts at the basis of all international understanding have gone astray. You might as well ask folk who the President of Afghanistan is or I guess, who General Pershing was.
I can recall, vividly, a restaurant in Mississippi where a group of folk from overseas was having a meal. A local waitress looked at us (we were a mixed race group) and as I was the only obvious 'white' leaned over and quietly asked where we came from. I told her Australia but she had no idea what I was talking about. I even mentioned 'kangaroo' and 'koala' but same result.
But not to worry. In England one time, within sight of Peterborough Cathedral, I stopped to ask a woman outside one of just three houses, whether I was heading in the right direction for Cambridge. She looked totally blank. After a silence, she asked where I had come from and I thought she might be about to give that Irish gem, "Well, I wouldn't start from here," but wowie, she looked back towards the spires on the horizon and said, 'Peterborough, haven't been there!'
Just to end on a happy upward note. Onetime I was in the San Antonio Museum of Texas History, if I have got the name right, and posted a card to my kids. The African-American staffing the little post-office, and I assume others may know of it, about the size of an outside facility, grinned cheerfully at me when he saw the address and said that he loved Australia and wanted to visit again. He had been in Brisbane during WW2 with a labor battalion and had a good time.
Ian
(Dr) Ian Welch
Division of Pacific and Asian History
Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies
College of Asia and the Pacific
Australian National University
Canberra
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