Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/12/01

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Country of origin
From: "B. D. Colen" <bdcolen@earthlink.net>
Date: Fri, 01 Dec 2000 18:33:20 -0500
References: <200011301527.QAA24567@d1o915.telia.com>

Well Deutchland Uber Ales to you too, Alan - I haven't heard such racist
Teutonic crap since, lets, see, since Nuremburg....Yes, the weapons and
machinery, built by subhuman Slav slaves, were pretty good - but Germany
lost the war anyway.

Personally, I don't give a rat's behind who builds my cameras or cars, as
long as they do a good job. And by the way, aren't there German cars
manufactured in the U.S. and, gasp, Mexico?

B. D.

Alan Hull wrote:

>  Erwin Puts wrote about Portuguese workers.
> > assume that these men mand women would be inferior to the mythical
> German quality workers. And if fact: IT IS NOT TRUE!!!!!!
> > Portuguese quality is as good, if not better than German quality.
> -------------------------
> Don't be ridiculous Erwin.  Mythical?  Is it mythical that the German
> army, using German built weapons and machinery, far superior to
> anything else in Europe, sliced through the Dutch, British, and French
> armies like a hot knife through butter not so long ago.  Is it mythical
> that Mercedes, BMW, Porsche, are among the most sought after autos in
> the world?  That the reputation of Linhof, Leica, Rollei, Contax, are a
> myth?  Then of course expanding the comparison we have Schiller and
> Goethe, Beethoven and Wagner, Von Bruan and Einstein.  The list is
> almost endless.  When I buy Leica I buy a piece of THAT action.  I am
> not interested in paying a premium price for a  precision tool made by
> a population who go to work on a donkey.  That sounds like an insult to
> the Portuguese but it is not meant to be.  They have fine qualities but
> being superior engineers to the Germans is very definitely not one of
> them.
>
> It has also been said that because the Portuguese workers are trained
> by Germans, the product they make is indistinguishable from the genuine
> article.  That is a piece of politically correct BS.  To illustrate the
> fallacy of this argument select eleven fit men at random.  Tell them
> that they are about to become the worlds best soccer team.  Send them
> away to Brazil for intensive training for many years.  Then play them
> against any professional soccer team.  They will lose because there is
> such a thing as natural born ability which no amount of training can
> surpass.  Natural ability works at all levels, interlectual as well as
> manual dexterity.  Its genetic.
>
> If a country wants to win a gold medal at the high jump it must enter
> one man who can jump ten feet.  To enter ten men who can jump one foot
> each doesn't work.
>
> BTW. I fully understand the argument that CoO does not affect the final
> photograph.  But my point is that I am not buying photographs when I
> buy a Leica.  I am buying a camera.
>
> With all respect.
> Alan

In reply to: Message from "Alan Hull" <hull@telia.com> (Re: [Leica] Country of origin)