Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2008/09/18
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Jerry- I smiled after reading this. Stasys On Sep 17, 2008, at 5:39 PM, Jerry Lehrer wrote: > Marc, > > Just because a statement is insulting and a stupid remark does not > make it less true. I remember what my wifes father called me > after I married his daughter and before he disinherited her. The > words were insulting,, stupid and true! > > Jerry > > > Marc James Small wrote: >> At 05:33 PM 9/17/2008, Tarek Charara wrote: >> >Wow. That's a) insulting and b) a very stupid remark >> > >> > >> >Le 17 sept. 08 ? 23:26, EPL a ?crit : >> > >> >> Germany = Racism R Us. >> >> Hmm. Germans are particularists to a fault -- those in Pomerania >> look down on those from Bavaria, and all Germans seem to sneer at >> "those crazy Swabians", the Newfies of the Fatherland. But trying to >> assign to the Germans a special state of disfavor for "racism" is >> just silly. The French are equally silly on such points as are the >> Russians and the British seem to viscerally believe that "wogs begin >> at Calais". >> >> I agree that Lee has probably had a shitload of culture shock to >> accommodate -- US management has trouble getting past the serving of >> beer in lunchrooms. And I suspect some of his subordinates probably >> do have a bias against him because of his origin but, I suspect, this >> might perhaps be more due to his USian roots than his Oriental >> genetic background. The Germans and Chinese had an extremely close >> relationship in the Interwar period, after all, and many German >> firms, from Mauser to Leitz to Zeiss Ikon, marketed there >> extensively. To be fair, it did take Zeiss more than twenty years to >> find an Oriental capable of serving as a final inspector in the >> "Round-Eye Room" at the Contax SLR lensworks in Kyoto, and he was a >> Chinese national from Hong Kong. >> >> The accusation that the Germans are racist is neither stupid nor dumb >> but it is a meaningless statement as it ignores the reality that most >> of us are racists and most of us live in racist nations. So what? >> Don't wait for others to do it but think for yourself. Shucks, I >> will admit to having some German friends (though I rarely repeat this >> in polite company) and, on several occasions, contrary to my Highland >> roots, I've even had actual ENGLISHMEN and ENGLISHWOMEN -- folks from >> the southern part of Britain, mind you, REAL Anglo-Saxons -- SLEEP >> UNDER MY ROOF! If I can rise to this, surely an occasional German >> can rise above particularism and, perhaps, there will come a day when >> a Parisian acknowledges that France includes Languedoc. >> >> For that matter, to most of those who live in the Western Hemisphere, >> we in the US and Canada are either "Nordamericanos" or "Anglos". Go >> figure. >> >> Marc >> >> > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >