Voice: This call is being recorded for quality purposes
FedEx Guy: Where would you like to mail the package, Ma'am?
Amal A: West Bank
FedEx Guy: West bank of what, Ma'am?
Amal A: I mean Israel
FedEx Guy: What is the zip code there?
Amal A: No clue
FedEx Guy: What city in Israel?
Amal A: Well, it's not really in Israel...
FedEx Guy: Ma' m, you said you're mailing this to Israel?
Amal A: It's really "via" Israel.
FedEx Guy: How do you spell that, Ma'am?
Amal A: Never mind. The city is called Ramallah.
FedEx Guy: Vanilla?
Amal A: Why don't you just shoot me?
12 comments:
LOL ... That's priceless!
huh, that's funny!
ng
average american i met while living in the states: so where are you from?
me: kuwait
him: what state is that in?
me: (sighhhh) oh, it's up north..
him: oh yeah, i think i've heard of it..
happened more times than i can remember!! god bless the educational system
Lol, q80. But when was that? I thought Americans got better at the geography of Kewait after 1991? Or maybe that was only for a fleeting moment.
It may be a bit late to comment on this, but for all that its worth, I feel your pain.
American prowess (or lack therof)in geography is still legendary.
It generally takes two tries and a phone call before Fedex can find where I live. To make matters worse, Canada is their "closest neighbour and trading partner"
There is a joke in my country that if we ever get the US angry with us, all we have to do is remove our name from the map.. they would never find us.
morganor,
that's funny.
ignorance of geography is at the root of it. But in the case of the west bank it's also the political complications. You know it's in Israel but not really. the via problematic.
Sorry this has taken me so long to respond to you, but life took me away for a bit.
Yes, I do understand that the political and geographic situation does make things problematic. It is made all the more so when dealing with a group of people who have difficulty understanding that there is a whole world beyond the borders of the US.
If anything, it makes my situation even more ludicrous. There is no senstive politcal situation where I live (or at least not that I am aware of) and they still can't find me.
But then, we Canadians are a sneaky people :) Here is a recent news story that may make you smile:
http://sacandprof.blogspot.com/
Amal, Mogenor, salam,
Not only they are lacking in geography, I think they are lacking in everything. There was this joke about a American calling up to a Malaysian vacation-operator to know the distance from Singapore to Penang, Malaysia. It went something like this:
American: Hi, can I know *exactly* how long it will take to go from Singapore to Gelugor, Penang?
Operator : One minute (went on to check on her system)
American : Oh thank you, (and he hung up the phone).
Do you get it?
Most americans are just so very ignorant. I don't know what kind of syllabus they have in school!
Wow, for a group of people that present themselves as knowledgeable people, you sure paint with a broad brush. I think it is ignorant and unfair to make such generalizations. I know similar generalizations could be made about Malaysians, Israelis, Kuwaitis, Canadians, etc. While there is some good humor in the above chain, there is a lot of hatred. Why? Why is it that wherever I go in the world, I hear so much hate speak about Americans, yet the locals are all too excited to go to McDonalds and Starbucks and wear their Levi's and Nikes. If you want to talk about ignorance, there is a topic. Why do people support these US companies if they hate America so much? A Malaysian businessman was surprised when I explained to him that I had eaten at KFC before and there are KFCs outside of Malaysia, including the US. I had to explain to him that KFC stands for Kentucky Fried Chicken, but since he didn't know any US geography (ignorant fool and not even American) it was lost on him. The US doesn't force its culture on the rest of the world; the rest of the world seeks it. If this isn't true, then why does every country I have traveled to play American Top 40 music and rebroadcast American TV and movies? It is very sad to see the rest of the world becoming so Americanized, but the US isn’t the one doing it. Please explain otherwise if you disagree. If the US is so ignorant and so many other countries willingly import American culture, what does that say about the other countries that have a choice about their culture?
The US definitely has plenty of faults, but unless your country is free of all faults, I think your time would be better spent working to improve yourself and your country than making ignorant statements trying to make others look worse than you.
Hate humor is easy.
When the Olympics were in Atlanta a while ago, a resident of New Mexico called the Olympic committee to buy tickets. He was told that he needed to go through international ticket sales. He tried to convince the operator that actually New Mexico is part of the 50 United States, but no luck. He got transferred to a supervisor who told him, "Sir, new Mexico, old Mexico -- it doesn't matter. You still have to go through your country's Olympic Committee."
Then later when reporters from a newspaper called to ask for tickets, they were also told to contact the Mexican consulate.
If Americans can't even identify states in their own country, it doesn't suprise me one bit that they have no clue what the West Bank is either.
There are things about my country that I love, but even I have to admit that truly, many if not most Americans are pretty stupid and/or ignorant.
Anonymous, geography is taught as a separate subject in many countries, but not in the US. That's a fact.
I think it's strange and ignorant that you point to the proliferation of multi-national corporations as an indicator of how beloved by all their products are rather than how much power they have via money. Did you hear about the Starbucks in the Forbidden City
And the last part of your argument is pretty silly. No one's allowed to criticize the US (a poor little imperialist, genocide-committing hegemonic power) unless "their" country is perfect? I don't know what country this blogger is blogging from, but she criticizes trends and events in many countries. A thinking person should be allowed to analyze/criticize social issues wherever they find them.
~B
HILARIOUS!
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