At 06:38 PM 6 October 2002 +0800, Mike Joy wrote:
>It was only that guy's own selfishness that he refused to use metric
>scales. He had no care for the large number of visitors from Europe and the
>metric world. He certainly had no care for wanting to enhance his own
>country's image in the eyes of the world.

It may have been selfish, but since when is that an actionable offense? Why 
does he have some obligation to Europeans visiting his country? If he does 
not cater to them, they will buy from his competitors. So what?

>The fact that Europeans shake their heads in disbelief or even laugh at how
>Britain wants to keep living in the dark ages doesn't bother him at all.

And why should it? Do Europeans have some superiority over the British? 
Something, say, that the British do not have over the Europeans?

>If an American embarrassed America in any way, such as burning a US flag in
>front of a TV camera, you would expect him to go to jail - violation of
>human rights or not.

Actually, this not untrue. You can stand on the steps of the US Supreme 
Court and burn an American flag and you will not be jailed -- the Supreme 
Court itself has ruled that that is an expression of political speech and 
may not be contravened.

***

No one person can make a fool of a country -- he can only make a fool of 
him/herself. Anyone who judges an entire country based on the actions of 
one person is very naive. There is no country that does not have fools, 
there is no country that does not wise people, and, unfortunately, there is 
no country devoid of those willing to judge people they have never met and 
whose motives they do not understand.


Jim Elwell, CAMS
Electrical Engineer
Industrial manufacturing manager
Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
www.qsicorp.com

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