Jupiter Jones said:
Other than a reference to Windows 95 and Age of Empires there is very
little to date anything in the article.
Since dates would be very relevant as well as specific facts that are
nonexistent in the article, this seems the quality of junk typical of
the Guardian and their shoddy and just plain worthless reporting.
(snip)
Try this, then, from today's Melbourne's respected "The Age" daily
newspaper:
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/08/20/1092889289666.html?oneclick=true
Microsoft counts cost of geographical clangers
By Paul Brown
August 20, 2004
Insensitive computer programmers with little knowledge of geography have
cost the US software giant Microsoft hundreds of millions of dollars in lost
business and led hapless company employees to be arrested by offended
governments.
The problem has damaged the company's reputation and the "trust rating",
which is seen as key to keeping the company competitive, has dropped, a
senior Microsoft executive has revealed.
In a frank assessment of the company's problems in trying to be a global
player without offending local sensibilities, Microsoft's senior
geopolitical strategist Tom Edwards said that employees' lack of basic
geography was to blame.
Edwards told the International Geographers Conference in Glasgow yesterday
that the company has now launched geography classes for its staff to avoid
further problems.
He said Americans had a reputation for being ignorant of world affairs. The
annual National Geographic Survey had thrown up the sad fact that only 23
out of 56 young Americans knew the whereabouts of the Pacific Ocean.
"It is therefore no surprise that some of our employees, however bright they
may be, have only a hazy idea about the rest of the world," he said. "The
repercussions on us can be very serious."
**************************
(snip)
This is one of Microsoft's senior people speaking "yesterday". Glasgow
(for the benefit of our geographically-challenged American cousins) is in
Scotland, the country to the immediate north of England.
Our son is in the Australian Air Force, and has served in Iraq. He says he
was stunned at the abysmal ignorance of the US servicemen and women he
encountered there. In particular, they could see nothing wrong with the
disgusting treatment of prisoners in Abu Ghraib, nor the hideous mockery
that Guantanamo Bay represents of all that the US purports to stand for,
with its absolute denial of the most basic human rights and the rule of law.
Microsoft is indicative of the very best of American know-how and
technology, and also indicative of the very worst of the American psyche,
and of the reason the US is held in utter loathing and contempt by the
civilised world.
Pemo
