globalization hangover

[swoop]

the bombay pizzeria owner wanted a name that says, " i will rule the world of pizza". ahem. it was brought to his attention that perhaps hitler wasn't the right guy for the job, and he has since changed the name.
there are currently 3,000 mel gibson jokes on the tip of my tongue. i will leave them all unsaid.

[spiderlake]

wow.... that's unbelievable

[Bud]

Saw that on Reuter's today. *** was that guy thinking?

[swoop]

they don't know. for them... hitler is a famous guy in history that wanted to rule the world. that's the long and short of it. i'm sure when they mentioned genocide to the dude.. he had an aha moment. if you look closely you can see that they aren't so good with apostrophes either.

the thing that struck me about the whole thing is that no matter where you are in the world.. you can't escape cheap poly-molded horrible cafe chairs.

[Serpico]

.
India has a interesting fascination with western figures and their names

a few years back there was a story on NPR about the names people in India are giving their children--stuff like "Ronald Reagan Biswan" and "Sparkplug Naipaul" etc. They recognize the famous names and reuse them in "improper" ways. Similar to the Engrish (http://www.engrish.com/faq.php) phenomenon in Japan





btw check this out

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20060825/D8JN5GH01.html
.
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[Avispa]

Since this stuff is in India, perhaps it is not so ofensive to them... One thing I've heard, however, is that these jobs they are doing for us (tech support, etc.) now are creating a lot of cultural problems. For instance, they are not used to have women leave their homes at night to work.

I saw a show on Discovery HD the other day where actor Jeremy Pivens (a Jewish) visited India. In one scene, he was very upset when he saw several Swastikas in a temple. To his releive, he discovered that the swastikas are actually ancient symbols in Hindu religion. I am sure DBRK would have great knowledge of this. In the mean time, check this out:

http://religion-cults.com/Eastern/Jainism/jainis.htm

[d_douglas]

A funny (to me) footnote to the bizarre use of Western themes in eastern cultures:

I was working for a Cooperative organization in Bangkok about 6 years ago, and was fitness starved because of the incredible pollution and traffic. I mentioned this to my Sri Lankan boss, who said he knew of a fitness club where I could lift weights and I said I would love to go (note: I hate lifting weights, but I was desperate)

One Saturday morning, he takes me to this club - it is called "Lewinski's" - following Mr. Clinton's infamous interaction with Monica - and it starred a cocktail lounge in the entrance with cigars in neon above the name. Bizarre, but at least it was more or less inoffensive, unlike "Hitler's Cross".

ANyways, it turned out to be a bathhouse for Thai businessmen. After turning down their offer of 'rental shorts' (no joke!) and being told that I could not wear my running shoes in the facility, I descended into a subterranean bathhouse where a rusted old Universal Gym sat in the corner. A few businessmen laid in the warmth of the baths reading magazines, smoking and eating fruit served by young Thai guys. Nothing too creepy there (I think).

I tried to lift weights, but the humidity in the room generated horrible sounds from the weights (metal on metal friction) so I was forced to abandon that idea and splash around in the various cold and hot pools.

Disappointing from a fitness perspective, but cool to see such a weird place with my own eyes. The final stare came when I was leaving and realized that the many empty rooms that I passed on the way in were 'massage' rooms, to which many beautiful Thai women stood in the doorways smiling at me and laughing while surely joking to each other about who was going to get the giant white guy!!

After seeing this glass cube in which about ten more Thai beauties sat chatting to each other and smiling at us, I confirmed with my boss that I could get (quote) 'more than just a massage here'. I politely declined when he offered to leave me there and I could make my way home whenever I was finished, but laughed for days after that (and spent an hour or so explaining to my girlfriend (now my wife) that - really.... it was a great cultural experience!!)

I wonder what kinds of cultural ironies visitors to the US (or Canada, in my case) see when they travel to North America...?

[torquer]

Since this stuff is in India, perhaps it is not so ofensive to them...
I saw a show on Discovery HD the other day where actor Jeremy Pivens (a Jewish) visited India. In one scene, he was very upset when he saw several Swastikas in a temple. To his releive, he discovered that the swastikas are actually ancient symbols in Hindu religion.

Besides the tradition of the swastika, some Indians have some "sympathy" towards the Third Reich because of Hitler's hostility towards England, India's former colonial ruler. During the 2nd WW, some Indian nationalists allied themselves with the closer axis power, Japan, in what they no doubt imagined was a way of speeding up the dissolution of the empire. (Considering the empire's rapid shrinkage after the war, maybe they were correct.)

While this pizza guy shows an olympian level of tastelessness in his choice of business names, I was not aware of any sigficant anti-semitism during my visits to India. No great embarasment about the Nazi links, to be sure, but for Indians the Holocost is not the central example of moral degradation it is in the west. They have some experience of horific inter-communal slaughter much closer to home as their frame of reference.