[Leica] In depth article on Leica - Slow to Refocus

[philippe.amard at tele2.fr (Philippe AMARD)]

Nathan Wajsman wrote:

> I am sure that the term Anglo-Saxon is not accurate in an ethnic  
> sense, but for better or worse, it is commonly used in continental  
> Europe (especially in the context of discussing business and  
> economics) to refer to the USA and UK especially, but sometimes also  
> including the other main English-speaking countries, i.e. Australia,  
> NZ and Canada. When people talk about "Anglo-Saxon capitalism", for  
> example, they refer to an economic system with a light regulatory  
> touch, limited role for the state, limited worker protection, a high  
> degree of competition and a higher degree of inequality, just to name  
> a few of its features--not all of which are negative, since it is 
> also  acknowledged that those countries are more dynamic and inventive 
> then  the Continent.
>
> I used the term in that sense. And whether you like it or not,  
> Europeans usually do not make distinctions between the different kind  
> of Americans. You are just Americans and that's that. In a similar  
> vein, most people on the Continent simply call inhabitants of Britain  
> "British" and do not give a hoot whether someone is English, Scottish  
> or Welsh or from Northern Ireland.
>
>
Another European voice :
Same about business and economics here. Yet I think in France, "the 
English" is the commonly mistaken  generic word for the whole of the 
UK's population and, sometimes, the Republic of Ireland's ... people 
over the Channel, who have good beer, terric pubs and senoritas, and 
speak a language we don't understand.

Anglo-Saxon rather refers to heritage ; language, culture (common law 
countries, etc), in part to the Commonwealth of Nations, to name but a 
few, as opposed to motleyed Asia, "fuzzy" Africa, and Russia, which in 
many people's minds still includes its former USSR countries... 
Continental Europe is still marked by the Roman heritage, is more or 
less founded on civil law, and seems to have a tendency to severe the 
links between state and religion.

I'm not sure there's any bias in the use of the term Anglo-saxon, it is 
oversimplification due either to lack of knowledge, or of a better term 
to describe what unifies these countries.
NATO can't do, so should the US ever join the Commonwealth that might be 
it :-D
Phx