After taking the time to read the comments, I've joined the sift community now just to post here.

Ignorance and narrowmindedness exsist everywhere. I'm absolutely certain there are anti-china mentalities in china, Anti-Egyptians in Egypt, heck, I'll bet there are Anti-Canadians here in Canada. So why is it we're only hearing about the Americans?
Because they have the most control over our media here.

Same reason that, sure the typhoon in Sri Lanka was covered for a while, but 9/11 is a few memorials away from becoming a national holiday. (opinion!)
Disasters happen everywhere. Bombings in Israel are covered as a side story in our news.
I find that unfair.
I understand that news covers "local" before "international" but the US is international to Canada... right?
If this was a news post on.. say... how much Europe hates Aussies... would it get this much discussion?
I doubt it.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that, this report is almost nothing but a cry for attention. Lo and Behold, they've got it.

A lot of these people look like blue-collar workers. Why in the hell should they care whether or not they can find Sri Lanka on a map? It's of no relevance to their daily lives. Not everyone is as fortunate to be able to lounge around at home sifting video clips like us, guys. I'm going to guess the majority of us are college educated, tech-savvy, and (obviously) have the disposable income and leisure time to surf the web and accumulate useless knowledge that is of no applicable value to our daily lives.

News flash: most people aren't nearly so lucky and I'd be willing to bet the majority of the people you see in these clips fall into that category. Let's get over the snobbery and remember that not everyone out there has had the same good fortune and educational opportunities as the rest of us.

Oh, and I bet if I took a video crew out to rural New Zealand and started asking the same questions to some of the sheep farmers out there--making sure to edit out any correct answers in the final showing--NZ wouldn't be looking so intelligent either.

It all depends on how many ppl you ask, in a pool of say, 1000 there are bound to be stupid ones and some ppl just dont perform well in front of an camera. Also I will have to point out that because of the accent, not every one can understand the interviewer, hey, some people are just terrible at understanding different accents.
There are bright beacons in the mix too, 1st a girl correctly pointed out where Sri Lanka is on the map(at least the genernal location, even tho that map is warped and mislabled). Then on the question regarding "Axis of Evil" during WWII "Axis of Power" were viewed by the aillies as "Axis of Evil" so the kid's answer "Germany" as one of them is not really wrong I would argue.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLXQ7rNgWwg

Arthur C. Clarke made a video on his 90th birthday, three months ago. This seems to be the last public statement he made before his death. He made 3 wishes:
1. To see evidence of extraterrestrial life.
2. To break our addiction to oil and coal.
3. To see lasting peace established in Sri Lanka.

The whole moving to NAMBLA-friendly Sri Lanka kinda skeeved me out. I'm glad I didn't know about that stuff when I read his work.

[Sri Lanka Ministry of Defence] NEW JERSEY / SRI LANKA - LTTE Heavily Involved In Fund Raising For Hilary Clinton In New Jersey

"Well known activists of a banned terrorist group in the United States are involved in the fund raising activities of the US Democratic candidate Senator Hilary Rodham Clinton"

Get 'em!

Beautiful location, I flew over it in a small Cessna 180 going from Sidney to Brisbane. Wish I could have checked it out. But I had to take the longest ship ride ever through the Philippines and up into Sri Lanka.

Just another update on the progress of the 2007 Cricket World Cup:

Not only are Pakistan out of the tournament - but today India were beaten by Sri Lanka. Following their defeat against Bangladesh this means that India will also exits the tournament in the first round!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/6478525.stm

Not only are Pakistan out of the tournament - but today India were beaten by Sri Lanka. Following their defeat against Bangladesh this means that India will also exits the tournament in the first round!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/6478525.stm

This film explores motivations, attitudes, and challenges faced by Brett Davis and Mary Ann Hopkins who have joined Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in order to assist people in such disaster-ridden areas as Darfur, Sri Lanka, Burundi, and DRC.

Médecins Sans Frontières is a secular humanitarian-aid non-governmental organization best known for its projects in war-torn regions and developing countries facing endemic disease.

Médecins Sans Frontières was created in 1971 by a small group of French doctors, as an aftermath of the Biafra secession. The organisation is known in most of the world by its French name or simply as MSF, but in the United States the name Doctors Without Borders is often used instead.

MSF is governed by an International Board of Directors located in Geneva, Switzerland, and organised into 20 sections. Annually, about 3,000 doctors, nurses, midwives and logisticians are recruited to run projects, but 1,000 permanently employed staff work to recruit volunteers and handle finances and media relations. Private donors provide about 80% of the organisation's funding, while governmental and corporate donations provide the rest, giving MSF an annual budget of approximately USD 400 million.

The organisation actively provides health care and medical training to populations in more than 70 countries, and frequently insists on political responsibility in conflict zones such as Chechnya and Kosovo. Only once in its history, during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, has the organisation called for a military intervention.

MSF received the 1999 Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of its members' continuous effort to provide medical care in acute crises, as well as raising international awareness of potential humanitarian disasters. Dr. James Orbinski, who was the president of the organisation at the time, accepted the prize on behalf of MSF. Prior to this, MSF also received the 1996 Seoul Peace Prize.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A9decins_sans_Fronti%C3%A8res

"Since its debut in Venice in 2002, more than a million people have attended Ashes and Snow, an exhibition of more than 50 large-scale photographic artworks, a 60-minute feature film, and two 9-minute film haikus by Gregory Colbert."

"Gregory Colbert's photographic artworks capture extraordinary moments of contact between man and animal.

Gregory Colbert has spent thirteen years patiently filming and photographing elephants, whales, birds, and other animals in such places as India, Burma, Ethiopia, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Namibia, Egypt, the island of Dominica, Tonga, and Antarctica. ashes and snow, Colbert's lifelong project, explores the nature of animals in their natural habitat as they interact with human beings. His images attempt to lift the natural and artificial barriers between humans and other species—to re-awaken in us an understanding of our shared animal nature."

ashes and snow.

qm - so wise.

How is that fiscal responsibility movement going for the Bush Administration? Have they thought about balancing a budget yet or is permanent war an excuse against doing that as well?

Thank Jesus that President Cheney is in command, scouring central Lebanon for Iraqi WMD, demanding that Sri Lanka be searched for nuclear materials that may or may not be located in North Korea.

If you knowingly elect the gang that couldn't shoot straight, you had better be prepared to eat some chickenhawk shot.