Matt Damon: On Americans Abroad

Matt Damon, actor and co-founder of H20 Africa Foundation, talks with Condé Nast Traveler on the role Americans can play overseas.

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Travel & Events

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• matt
• damon
• conde
• nast
• traveler
• travel
• politics
• poverty
• h20
• africa

[metalways]

Why are people so mad at Matt Damon in this video? He believes what he is saying, he is simply misguided. For example. He believes NGO's are actually not a part of government and that they are there to to do good work/help people, that in itself is pretty funny, in a warped kinda way, but I would bet that 90% of people watching this video are just as oblivious as he is and not as "smart". It does'nt take brains to handle truth, it takes balls and the willingness to handle accept what comes

[Hperman09]

As an American, those comments here are hysterical funny. One comment saying best for the America for the world is to stay in the USA? Then who going to help..China..Brazil. A lot of unjusfied hate for USA. Half of the world complain we didn't send troops into Rwanda, Bosnia, and Timor and half of the world complain we send our troops into Iraq and Afghanistan. It's a damn if we do and damn if we don't. My advise for America was to ensure what's best for out national security and nothing else.

[CogitoErgoSum182]

Sadly I thought Matt Damon was a logical and thinking man. Unfortunately I have been proved to have been ignorant on this occasion. The united State's worst export is 'Americans'. I haven't met all of them but all of them I have met have been either an idiot or just straight out rude and think they are better than everyone

[PresidentUriahHeap]

@macryan19 Buddy, 10 years ago I helped set up a computer center in the bush where there are no paved roads and no phone lines - to connect our schools and facilitate the business of our ngo & graduates. Now there are over 40 computer centers in 5 countries, all connected & online by satellite.

What MD said is that what we have is the best he has seen. Not perfect, but the best we have atm. I encourage you to search the web; the world is changing fast, for the better.

[PresidentUriahHeap]

@metalways wtf are you on about? MD is not misguided. I have been working with a large ngo in Africa for 15 years. The politicians want a lot of photo ops because a great deal of good has been accomplished. We stay apolitical. There are lots of other groups and there is a lot of dishonesty, but my group is clean and we work with the other honest brokers.

Progress is being made, every day. What happened to make you such a skeptic?

[coffey3c]

@Alxstef I hate the 500 character limit. I've looked over the video you named. I read the NY Times articles, and every Wiki article on every revolution Noam blamed the US for. My head hurts, and little evidence there. I don't resent your insinuation that I may need to know more about world events, as that is always and certainly true. However, Noam Chomsky isn't the man to educate, for the reasons I gave in my PM. His is a narrow presumption of guilt that is almost naive. Sad.

[smallpotatoes989]

Matt is great! extremly bright.

[smallpotatoes989]

@Hperman09 good point.I live in sloveia which was part of former Yougoslavia like bosnia. and people bitced why any superpower did not stop genocide in bosnia. but you did in Kosovo. so usa can not win I guess, people are just jelaus.

[GuttsandGlory]

@Hperman09 No oil in Rwanda...only poor hungry people dying....lots of oil in Iraq, Libya, Iran, Saudi Arabia...lots of your troops too...

[nobama54]

I think we should have an entertainment tax. These idiots do not earn the millions they collect, so we should take that money and use it for a better purpose! We should redistribute their wealth to third world countries.

[Alxstef]

@coffey3c watch Noam Chomsky MIT Institutions vs People Will the Species Self Destruct April 10, 2001 come back whe you have an idea what America is doing to everyone else

ps any idea why i cant post Youtube links on youtube?

[coffey3c]

I'd like to think that I'm surprised that there are so many dislikes on this video, but I'm not. Too many people have been raised and educated to think that the problems in the world come down to the fact that America is somehow wrong. That we are somehow Amoral for feeling that we are better than average, or even the best out there. Well...

I agree with what he said. And if you listen, he didn't say imperialism, or solve other people's problems. He said help, and learn.