The topic further down, "Stupid Questions Americans Ask"
triggered this one....(when I stop laughing, I may be able
to add a few of my own!)
Anyway: "You're from [insert country here], do you know so-
and-so?
Many of us have been asked this..and I suspect that just as
many of us have ASKED this same question!
Location: Hole-in-the-wall hostel,Graz, Austria. The askee
was from somewhere in North America.
Askee: Where are you from?
Me: (Cowering with polecat guilt) South Africa.
Askee:Do you know Janet Scott, from Durban? I met her in
India.
Me: Yes.
(Mike, her brother, and I were buddies at school)
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i cant count the number of times i've been in some other
country and someone has said, "oh! youre from new york city!
do you know ---?" (nyc has 9 million residents). so this is
not a uniquely american silly question.
furthermore, i once knew the person. so back off! its just
conversation...
well, ignorant anyways...
I was working in Toronto one summer, and a family of four
from Alabama came into my restaurant to have dinner. I
asked them how they were enjoying there trip. They replied
that they were very frustrated as the had come to Canada
for a ski vacation, and when they got here there was no
snow, and they had to buy all new clothes becuase all they
brought was winter stuff...that they had bought
specifically for the trip!
As an American, I can confirm (espcially to all of your
readers Down Under) that Americans suffer under a further
delusion -- that Australians are warm, welcoming and
congenial people. Thus, when we travel abroad and meet
Australians, we just do not hesitate to ask the Do You Know
question (partly because the population of Australia is
small, the part of the population in question is likely
very limited, Australians are supposedly unfailingly
friendly (and in my case last year, I asked a group from
Melbourne about one of their countrymen who was apparently
well known in the press). Almost a year later, I still
recall the bourish response that Australians don't play
that game, without offering any further explanation. The
other Australian group present (there on the
Namibian/Botswana border over otherwise pleasant
sundowners) attempted to justify the rudeness by explaining
that many people in Australia, due to their parochial
upbringing, simply have a unduly robust sense of self-
importance and a major superiority complex. Sort of like
passport control officials in Swaziland.
Me thinks the 'Do you know .....?' question relates more to
the small mind of the asker, not the smallish country they
hail from. Me also thinks that idiots who cloak a racist
dig in the guise of an innocent anecdote posess the
intelligence of an amoeba.
I reckon that Net Surfer has not been to Swaziland, and
Does Not [otherwise] Know any of its government officials.
Perhaps the same holds true regarding his lack of an
objective viewpoint concerning Australians.
I once bumped into a Dutch guy in Guatemala who I met over
a year earlier in Sumatra, Indonesia! Just never know.
Sorry I'm not following up on this "stupid americans"
bullshit. I've heard that far too many times already.
Won't people ever grow up and focus on something else?!
Net Surfer has never been to Swaziland and will probably not go there anyway. Where is it? Net Surfer is Australian so is in a good position to make opinion of his fellow country people. Net Surfer does travel a lot and really just minds his own business. Net Surfer is more interested in the people from the lands through which he travels, not small minded tourists who think that Swaziland is THE place to go! Net Surfer thinks you all should have learned more from your travels than the habits of Aussies, Americans, Germans etc. This is Net Surfer's last say on this issue.
I have a similar one:
Having moved to Washington DC from Texas two years ago, I
recently met someone who went to the same New York law
school as my college friend from Texas. When I asked him
if he "happened to know so-and-so", his face lit up and
said, "of course, he was my mentor in the program." Then a
few weeks ago I met someone who works in the same very
large American law firm (thousands of employees nation-
wide) as my Texas friend. I couldn't resist saying, "I
know someone in your firm but he's posted to London." I
told him my friend's name and the guy responded, "yep, I go
to London several times a year and party with him."
It's a small world and you'll never know if you don't
ask.(grin)
SOMEBODY noticed what the title of this post was! For the
KUTZES that can't read..the "stupid americans" post was
further down the page! THIS post was about small worlds..
Is Texas part of America?
...this....spent the weekend in a holiday Inn in Sandton.
(johannesburg, sa.) Nothing like being a tourist in your
own city! For general info, it came to about RAND 400 (US$
60) for Saturday nite. We (Thandi & I) had a great
time....even if they did fuck up the billing for the porno
movies! (Which was reversed.) For those of you that follow
these things..(that was Zen...this is Dow!) suss out
http://www.bootsnall.com/may99joburg.html
Next month, I will be listing stuff you can actually DO in
this God-forsaken city!
I always ask "do you know?" to anyone I meet. it is amazing how many positive responses you get. lighten up...
Three years ago I did a volunteer project in Bolivia, and
one of the other vols was a french guy, who I bumped into
last summer in a plaza of San Cristobal Mexico...completely
unplanned. In the same trip I met a guy in a plaza in
Honduras and then shared a tiny boat w/ him in
Guatemala...but I'm very bad with names and faces so i
didn't recognize him right away.
My french friend is thinking about going to africa, and I'm
going for a year...it's a big continent, but...