[USMA:21777] Re: Australian Comments

[kilopascal]

2002-08-17   What makes absolutely no sense is that most Americans are not of Anglo-British descent.  With the large amount of African-, Asian, Hispanic-, and Euro-Americans, there should be a large pro-metric attitude.  Yet, there is the opposite.  Even newly arrived immigrants seem to jump happily onto the FFU bandwagon pretending they don't know anything about metric or forgot it as soon as they kissed the ground when they arrived.   John           ----- Original Message ----- From: James Wentworth To: U.S. Metric Association Sent: Saturday, 2002-08-17 02:06 Subject: [USMA:21774] Re: Australian Comments From: kilopascal <From the distant past: http://www.shaunf.dircon.co.uk/shaun/metrology/australia.html >   That collection of columns is very revealing, because it shows the "franco-phobic" attitude that seems to underlie much of the resistance to metric among English-speaking people.  In "We're Halfway to Lunacy" (The Bulletin, 25/1/75), I found this gem: "I for one am ready to say. firmly that things would have been a lot better for us all had the Gauls stayed barefoot."  In America, substitute "Those Euro-snobs" or "Those snooty Europeans" for "Gauls," and you have the same anti-metric attitude.  --  Jason