Janet Hsieh - Smart and Cultured? Let's Compare!

Janet Hsieh claims to have toured 36 countries, however, anyone can backpack through a lot of countries in a short period of time. Darting through multiple countries on a backpacking tour does not make you cultured. What makes you cultured is how many countries you have resided in LONG-TERM. My Cultural and Expat Advisor, for example, has been to 30+ countries, speaks 10 languages, and has resided LONG-TERM in 9 countries. If you look at the depth of his blog and his cultural comparisons, you will see what a real well-traveled cultured expat is like. NONE of Janet's writings are anywhere near as deep and useful as his. Have a look at his Expat blog and see for yourself.

http://expatriateobservations.blogspot.com

Here are some short but truthful observations from it, as an example.

http://expatriateobservations.blogspot.com/2010/02/friendliness-of-people-and-women-of_20.html
http://expatriateobservations.blogspot.com/2010/02/media-propaganda-and-stereotypes-of.html

No country has it all, and most countries are heavily weighed in one direction and severely poor in another area. Countries that are materially rich are poor spiritually and socially. Countries with the best jobs opportunities cannot usually provide too many gorgeous dates. Countries with the most beautiful women have bad economies and rotten politics. It, therefore, stands to reason that in order to have it all, living in more than one country is often a necessity.
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Jobs and women are some of the most untouchable treasures of a nation. Nobody likes a poor and/or not very educated foreigner looking for jobs and/or women in a richer country. He will get bad or no jobs and most probably, no women at all. Everybody, though, likes a rich tourist/ investor coming to the country with money. In the case of the investors, women will be available for marriage and other things depending on how much money he has. Rich tourists will have to avail themselves of less permanent love arrangements.
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The richer the country, the colder, more arrogant, and unfriendly are its people. It also seems that, the richer the country, the lonelier, less sociable, more self-absorbed and less happy most people are. Beautiful, clean and prosperous, highly advanced countries have huge numbers of zombie-like inhabitants who are extremely unhelpful and selfish. It seems that money, good cars, good clothes and technological progress make masses of people less happy. It does not mean, however, that poverty is what makes people happy. It seems that countries that have* just enough* rather than * too much* or *too little* have the healthiest, happiest populations.
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Media propaganda and stereotypes of people in certain countries are almost always untrue. Not only that, but the people in those countries often turn out to be the exact opposites of what you were taught they were - for better or worse. Nationalities that were supposed to be unfriendly turn out to be very friendly and the ones that we were taught were friendly, turn out to be very hostile, indeed. That goes for other supposedly national characteristics as well.

Once you start traveling, you will see that many things that you thought were true about your own country turn out to be untrue. They always taught you that your country was the best, the freests with the friendliest, most generous people. Maybe even the best girls. As you discover freeer countries with better people and more beautiful girls, shock sets in.

Most views of other countries through the media are either completely false or are wild exaggerations. If you think that in Africa people live in trees with snakes around their necks and eat grass, you will probably not go there and will not take advantage of getting to know great, prosperous people, see their modern cities full of cars and skyscrapers, will not make new friends and learn about a beautiful culture, music and diversity that exists there. If you think of the Philippines or Brazil as a dangerous and violent countries, you will not travel to them to meet their high quality women. If you think of the Middle East as a camel- riding, terrorist-infested society, you will not go there to work and make your tax- free fortune (which is fine with me as I will have less competition).

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Can Janet Hsieh make observations like that? No way. She is too politically correct and so is her audience, so she can only talk about simple non-controversial things that paint the world as a happy-go-lucky rosy place where everything is wonderful and everyone is so friendly. Yaddy yah yah. Thus, her world must be dumbed-down, just like pop culture is. She is a conformist after all, and conformists are not truth seekers; they seek to please the crowd and as such, see truth as whatever the majority agree upon. They have no ability to find truth on their own. Thus, Janet's cultural comparisons are limited to simply saying that this culture and that, are "wonderful and friendly" with no depth beyond that.

Here is my Advisor's truthfully accurate yet politically incorrect summary of America and why so many immigrants are disappointed there.

http://www.happierabroad.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8855

"I think generally, the biggest culture shock that people experience in the US is not between their country and the US but between what they thought the US would be and what it actually is. Books and movies about America make the place appear very free and exciting and happening and the people are so interesting and emotional. There is sex and fun and romance going on. When they arrive, the place looks very conservative and the people appear robotic and quiet. Sex is subdued and hard to come by. The people are not open at all, they look closed and mistrustful. Everybody is just working and looking tired and apathetic. Talking to strangers is taboo. There are thousands of little rules and laws and social mores that seem as dogmatic and strict as those in a Muslim society. And every time you are at risk of breaking yet another law and facing very dire consequences. That is the biggest culture shock of all."

Even though this observation is so simple yet true, Janet could never make such an observation, cause again, she is not a truth seeker who would ever dare to say such things.

Also, see this comparison by my Advisor between the USA vs. Latin America about how racism and ethnicity is inversed and different.

http://expatriateobservations.blogspot.com/2010/03/anglo-american-vs-latin-american-racial.html

Again, can Janet make observations and comparisons like that? No way! There's simply no comparison. So where do her airheadish fans get the idea that she is so smart, just cause she got straight A's and qualified for medical school, like many conformist nerds have? lol Such fans are in no position to judge whether someone is smart or not.

Instead, Janet's cultural observations are limited to basically the following, over and over again:

"This culture is so wonderful! The food is great and the people are so friendly! I'm having such a great time! Woooooooo!"

Gee, that is so substantive, deep, intellectual and authentic... NOT!

Yet that's what almost every host of the Travel Channel says, cause it caters to a dumbed-down audience that doesn't like to think and isn't interested in meaningful things. You aren't supposed to be a deep meaningful thinker, according to those who control the mainstream media. It's ironic that Janet's show is also on TLC (The Learning Channel) since there's not much to learn from it, except how to make cheap talk, cheesy corny antics, and appease dumbed-down people.