Archive for January 11th, 2008
Following the US lead. Or not.
January 11, 2008The connection between my two countries — Australia and the United States — is amazingly strong and shows up often, both in the press and in private conversations.
For example, Barack Obama’s primary win in Iowa and Hillary Clinton’s win in New Hampshire got almost as much attention in “The Australian” newspaper this week as Kevin Rudd’s election as Aussie Prime Minister received a few weeks ago.
Both these two US election events were front page leaders here, accompanied by big photos. Inside the papers, there were long analytical articles, editorials, and letters to the editors. I’m certain we get better newspaper coverage of this Presidential contest from Aussie papers than we’d get from the smaller and thinner “Dallas Morning-News,” which is what we read while we were in Texas.
Being just back from a holiday trip, Kristi and I have been in conversations with fellow Brisbane residents about similarities and differences. Today at our gym I confirmed for someone who hasn’t traveled to the US that, yes, restaurant meals there do tend to be, by Aussie standards, huge.
And in today’s paper there’s a report out of Washington, D.C., about a new book asserting that obesity is now Read the rest of this entry »