Going boldly Nowhere
Check out this lead paragraph in the Globe this morning:
OTTAWA — Nearly all key Canadian staff working in Beijing at the Canadian embassy are incapable of reading a morning newspaper or understand the Chinese nightly news, says a former diplomat who was posted there twice and recently published an in-depth review of Canada's China policy.
Not only is it hysterically funny, but also it is grammatically incorrect.
It should say..."incapable of reading or understanding..."
Of course, that is minor quibbling. When did we ever claim we were above that?
The story itself tells it all.
This, of course, is exactly what the American mission in Iraq has been doing for years - hundreds of highly paid dunderheads, cowering in their ignorance in the Yankee compound.
It is the classic colonial mode of never truly interacting with the local population, except of course to fuck their women and make uncared for illegal babies.
The fact that never-ran-a-Popsicle-stand Stockwell Day is our federal Trade Minister should be just about all you need to know about how well we are doing.
Jet skiing on the Yangtze?
1 comment:
I remember when I was living in Japan I had to visit the embassy a few times, and they actually have Japanese nationals working there, and not just at the front desk. I expect that it's much the same in Beijing.
God forbid they hire one of our hundreds of university graduates with at least a basic reading capability in Chinese or other language and a willingness to understand and learn.
But you're right David, if they can't even get the grammar right, how can we expect them to do anything more.
...and people wonder why China is outplaying us...
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