Harvard Crimson on the Clash of Civilisations
In Harvard’s “university daily since 1873,” the Harvard Crimson we find an excellent example of the general lack of geographical knowledge often attributed to the United States. Here is the opening paragraph of a provocatively entitled editorial, “The Clash of Civilizations” discussing the current cartoon crisis:
When it comes to problems with free speech about Islam, Denmark is something of a hotspot. Islamic radicals murdered Danish film director Theo Van Gogh in 2004 in response to his short film “Submission Part I,” which juxtaposed documentary footage of husbands beating their Islamic wives in the name of Allah and the same women praying, their bodies covered in verses from the Koran. In Islam, any visual portrayal of the prophet is blasphemous and last year, it seemed that the Dutch were too afraid of reprisals from Muslim fundamentalists for author Kåre Bluitgen to find an illustrator for his children’s book about Muhammad. A major Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten responded by publishing twelve “blasphemous” cartoons last September to “test whether fear of Islamic retribution has begun to limit freedom of expression in Denmark.
I think the author, an undergraduate English concentrator, would be greatly helped if someone were to tell her a few basic, but important facts:
People from Denmark are called “Danish”
Danish ≠ Dutch
Dutch people come from the Netherlands
The Netherlands is not the same country as Denmark
We can then move on to more nit-picky points like:
Theo Van Gogh is Dutch, not Danish
Kåre Bluitgen is Danish, not Dutch
This problem continues through the article, as when we are told that, “it makes no sense for Dutch Muslim protesters to burn the Danish national flag while claiming that they are not being respected by the state.” Also, we learn that, “Dutch illustrators are not the only ones who feel intimidated by Islamic fundamentalists.” Indeed, I hear that some Danish illustrators are having trouble too.
These sorts of mixups are common of course, and admittedly the Dutch and Danish have a lot in common (they both make cheap beer with green labels for example) but I’m a little dissapointed that the editorial staff at the Crimson didn’t notice this.
UPDATE: Since this article I realize that the Dutch-Danish mix up is even more widespread than I imagined. A friend of mine, a certain PhD student friend of mine at Columbia U also mixed the two up. Also, on the most recent Daily Show, when Jon Stewart is mocking the Danish in a skit about attacks on KFC in Pakistan, he threatens the crowd, who were laughing a little too hard, and says something like, “Hey, I’ll throw all you Belgians out!” Why would he mention Belgians when talking about Denmark, unless he though Denmark was the Netherlands?
While I agree with Konrad’s larger point about the lack of geographical discrimination at play in both the article in question and the educations of a great number of U.S. Americans, I must point out that such problems are not limited to either geography or the education system of the United States. Case in point is Konrad’s ignorant spelling of the word “disappointed” as “dissapointed” in the last sentence of this blog entry.
Pees and esses may look very similarly, but they are not the same. These sorts of mix-ups are common of course, and admittedly the two letters share much (they both appear in the same area of the alphabet, for example) but I am deeply concerned that a burgeoning academic would make so basic an error.
Probably because Crimson people drink only Sam Adams…..or they keep drinking Heineken and Carlsberg in turn, and realized the tast is identical….I think the hidden point of this article is why do we import such cheap beers all the way from Europe.
Craig – Shocking! I have fired my editorial staff for failing to notice this egregious abuse of the English language. Looking through my other postings, I realized they have been slacking throughout their tenure at Muninn.
As to your earlier point about this not being limited to the US, I debated including a few anecdotes discussing the far greater ignorance of some Norwegian exchange students I met in Korea studying at Seoul National University last summer, but then decided going back to bed to kick this cold was a better idea…
Hehe, we complain that Americans think Norway is the capitol of Sweden but how many Norwegians know what the capitol of Belarus is (a rather large country in Europe) or Benin (a small country in Afrika with 60% more people than Norway)
But still, one should perhaps expect more from something coming out of Harward.
BTW, Mitch, throw and through is not the same… ;)
Thanks Glenn…I wish I had an editor for my typos…