... of mice and men often go awry.
This is one of my favourite sayings -- and the first thing that crossed my mind when I read this. (that is, after falling under my desk with laughter.)
People demonstrated against the US troops who air-dropped footballs with flags on them - and among those the Saudi flag. Hmmm. Those familiar with the Saudi flag know why that is a problem: above a stylised sword is written 'La ilaha illa Allah, Muhammad rasool Allah' (There is no god but God, and Muhammad is his messenger).
So now the americans are accused of insulting Islam, and/or cultural insensitivity. And people have been demonstrating (like, REALLY demonstrating!)
Oh come on, people, cut them some slack! The US Army surely doesn't recruit the brightest, but many could have made this mistake. Hell, I could have. And I think that the US army distributing footballs is cute. (although I still think that US troops should all be court-martialled and sent to rot in a jail in the Hague for crimes against humanity, but that was a cute gesture).
Funnily enough, I used to have the exact same football! Well, almost. On the one my mom bought me (I think around the 1994 World Cup), someone had the presence of mind to change the religious sentence on the flag into a simple 'Saudi Arabia'. Maybe someone in the football factory in China was a muslim..
I broke my parents' bedroom mirror.
5 comments:
I remember that the same thing happened with a fast food restaurant, which put the Saudi flag on its cups, and thus thrown in the trash. Needless to say, it wasn't pretty. As Voltaire said, Common sense is not so common.
:) Eih dah! I had the ball you are referring to growing up.
Rachell: and that's what intercultural management is all about! (i'm going to be teaching this next semester so i'm all about that :)
Juka: yey for globalisation! :)
Where are you going to be teaching? Shall I be calling you professor from know on? :)
Post a Comment