An article on the BBC website today tells the story of a US citizen living in London and the anti-American sentiments from others she has to deal with on an almost daily basis.

Christian Cox, 29, says she is shocked at the amount of abuse she receives because of her nationality and has been called, among other things, “terrorist”, “scum”, and a “low life”.

Ms Cox keeps her voice low in public places in order to avoid having her American accent heard. In the BBC article the former model who moved to London a year ago said she feels worn down at constantly being held to account for the actions of President Bush and for US foreign policy. What makes the situation worse for her is that like many Americans living overseas Ms Cox doesn’t actually agree with many of the Presidents foreign policies.

Cox claimed that British people are far more outspoken in their anti-American views than other countries she has travelled in. “It’s as if they had been waiting to run into an American all day to let their feelings out.”

Francesca Terry, 28, a fellow American who spent four years in London, took to telling people she was from Canada after she was subjected to verbal abuse in the first year or so in Britain.

Sadly Cox and Terry are merely doing what many others around the world have had to deal with for a long time. Michael Koch, a German living in England, has been “rudely reminded” of the Nazi regime more times than he cares to remember. French people in America wrote about feeling of ‘unease’ after Washington DC made some pretty idiotic anti-French moves that included the renaming of french fries to ‘freedom fries’.

Since 9/11 and the start of America’s ‘long war’, Muslims across the world are now struggling against being seen as terrorists or potential terrorists, a situation that is not helped by the growing number of films and TV shows like ’24’, and ‘Sleeper Cell’ that portray Muslims as ‘the enemy’.

I would agree with Ms Cox’s observations that there is now a real sense of annoyance at what is perceived to be ‘American political swagger’ which sadly anyone with the slightest hint of an American accent may experience from time to time. America’s stance particularly on war and the environment looks far different when viewed on foreign soil, perhaps if more American were able to spend prolonged periods in places like Europe and Asia then those policies that seem most abhorrent to outsiders wouldn’t actually be policies at all?

However, as much anti-American feeling as there may be in the world, the incident of hatred Ms Cox speaks about shouldn’t be blown out of proportion. She lives in one of the most populated cities on the planet and encounters thousands of people each day the majority of whom are happy to live and let live.