Re: Unamerican

> -----Original Message-----
> From: FFlores [SMTP:fflores@ARNET.COM.AR]
> Sent: Tuesday, May 02, 2000 19:05
> To:   CONLANG@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU
> Subject:      Re: Unamerican
>
> DOUGLAS KOLLER <LAOKOU@...> wrote:
>
>
> >Does political rhetoric in your country play this card?  Is there
> >"un-Dutch", un-French", "un-Argentinian", "un-Swedish", "un-Danish"....
> >behavior?  How is it codified (by which I mean, what prized views of your
> >country is it supposed to be antithetical to?), and what is the
> push-button
> >term in your various languages? "osvensk"?
>
>
> We Argentinians believe we are the best people on Earth
>
What?!  You must be kidding! ;)
Argentinans are known all over Latin America for being the most modest
people
</sarcasm>

> (at least individually or in small groups), capable of
> solving problems cleverly with little resources, and
> in general irresistably charming; OTOH we also believe
> that the country is the worst in the world, and noisily
> protest against corruption and misery (I don't know how
> to translate the word _desidia_ -- it means bad organisation
> and incompetence on all levels). Of course, the fact that
> the country and its people are the same thing and the two
> claims above are therefore contradictory does not deter
> us from voicing it aloud.
>
> Examples of these attitudes:
>
> 1) "Yo, argentino" ("Me, [I'm an] Argentinian"): this
>    means 'I know nothing about this mess, it was like
>    this when I got here'.
> 2) A joke, supposedly told by foreigners about us: "How
>    do you get 25 Argentinians into a Fitito [a Fiat 600,
>    *very* small car]? Answer: you put two in the front,
>    two in the back, and the rest you deflate them and
>    squeeze them into the glove compartment."
> 3) Another joke: a Frenchman, an American and an
>    Argentinian are on a plane. They fly over France,
>    and the Frenchman stretches his hand outside and then
>    says "Oh, I think I touched the top of the Eiffel Tower!".
>    Then they fly over the US, and the American guy does the
>    same and then cries "Hey, I think I touched the torch
>    of the Statue of Liberty!". Then they fly over Argentina
>    and the Argentinian takes his arm out and then back in,
>    and says "Damn, someone stole my watch!".
>
(The third joke has regional variants in all other LA countries, at least
I've remember versions for Colombia, Perú... and Tunisia)
Well, Argentinans are a good source of jokes in all LA.  Some examples:

4) How and Argentinan comit suicide?
   He climbs to his ego and jump from up there.

5) Batistuta and some ohter famous football (soccer) player had a discution.
Each claimed to have been send by God.  Since it seems to be no agreement
they called Maradona in and asked  Maradona answered "You both are wrong.  I
have not sent anybody".

6) An Argentinan goes to the psychiatre: "Doctor, doctor, you have to help
me.  I have a severe inferiority complex.  I sometimes feel I'm equal to
every one else."

> As you see, the local culture is rather self-flagelating. The
> only value of being an Argentinian, as seen here, is that you
> can tell people you know Maradona (or, if you go to Italy,
> about half the famous football players in their teams).
>
>
> --Pablo Flores
>   http://www.geocities.com/pablo-david/index.html
>   "... When all men on earth think, day and night, about the
>    Zahir, which one will be a dream and which one a reality?"
>                               Jorge Luis Borges, _The Zahir_
>
-- Carlos Th