Stardust Global Ventures

This morning I logged on to twitter and instantly saw a link to my friend Luca’s post calling Kara Swisher out. Not literally, just pointing out her inflammatory statements about Italy may not be as clear cut or right as she would have her listeners/readers believe.

I read Luca’s post, found here and was none too happy about the things he purported Kara  had said. Maybe you should read both posts and watch the video of her Italian expedition before reading on for the rest of my thoughts.

Many of you know I spent nearly 10 years living in Canada. I can tell you my experience was full of interesting learning experiences about a country I knew precious little of. It was also full of daily battles of how we can’t blanket an entire country with a single stereotype of who or what those people are.

For a time I felt the need to explain to anyone who would listen that Americans weren’t all loud mouthed, obnoxious, crude, crass, cowboys. In truth, after a few years I understood why that perception existed to other countries. Americans are nothing if not arrogant. Yes I am, too. But why is it we are both perceived that way, and represented that way? Does anyone ask that question? I’ll explain my thoughts in a moment.

First, I want to say that in my opinion, Kara Swisher absolutely portrayed that stereotype. I listened to her interview and found her condescending and rude. Her inability to pronounce Italian words or even really attempt to pronounce them, coupled with her insistence that Italians pronounce twitter incorrectly, flabbergasted me!

Kara:

While most people here note that they like Facebook, prounounced “FAY-sa BOO-ka,” hardly anyone sees the point of Web 2.0’s trend du jour, Twitter (“TWEE-tur”).

In fact, few have heard of it, and those who have don’t use it.

Not so!

Does Kara even understand the differences in language enough to understand that in Italy twitter absolutely would be pronounced twee -tur? That the letter ‘i’ has a long vowel sound that is said quite differently than in the US? What it sounded like to me, was the Bush idea that all countries need democracy because, well, he thought it was the best way to go. Did it never occur to him that other countries rights were being obliterated with that thought?

Americans are raised from birth to believe, and I do mean believe, that they have the answers and the American way is the right way. It never occurs to us that another country may have really good ideas as well. Obviously that is as inflammatory a statement as any I just accused Kara of having made. But be honest about it for a minute. For decades our news channels showed only what the government or corporations wanted us to see. It’s why today, 60+ years after WW2, European countries are so much more progressive than the US. Anyway, it is a huge contributing factor.

Much of Europe was decimated during that war. They had to rebuild and rethink for the future. Our country maintained the status quo. Other than allowing women to head off to have a career, things remained much the same. Not so in Europe. There was far too much work to be done.

Well, continuing on in this thread I can say that Luca also made some statements I think are not based in fact. Luca says he makes many trips to the US and we have old mobile devices that have been out in Europe for years, true, and that Americans don’t know anything about SMS, not true.

What is one of the biggest complaints people in the US make when recieving their mobile bill? They are floored to find that they went over their allotment for sms and how expensive that was. Americans use sms like there’s no tomorrow! Let me offer up Ken and I as an example. Our combined total sms for one month exceeds 30,000 messages.

Also, Luca mentioned the fact that his internet speeds far exceed what most Americans have to their home. Yes…that is 100% true. But here is where the issue for me is, just as I had issues with Kara not understanding why she had no right to run around trying to teach Italians to pronounce a word that for them was being pronounced correctly, Luca has not taken the time to understand why this may be the case.

In many other countries, their lives weren’t tied to old systems of wires and lines. Those were all destroyed during the war. In many places fiber coming to the home was the first type of line they got. Not so in the US. We have so many old systems, and wires etc. that have to be upgraded, couple that with the vast SIZE of the foot print we live on, and fiber to every home overnight is simply a more daunting task than most Europeans can fathom. Luca admits he mostly goes to California. California alone is larger than much of Europe. What about the rest of our country? It’s simply too big a problem to get done in a timely manner.

Those are my thoughts. I see us all living in a time where we have so much to learn about one another and finally a way to do it. Must we hang onto the stereotypes we’ve all been saddled with? We have a duty to at least attempt to understand the WHY of some of what we have grown up believing, and a duty to accept that things aren’t necessarily better or worse, simply different. Let’s relish the great histories we all have and learn together how to create a better next generation instead of fighting over truly inconsequential things. Vive la différence! (That’s French if you wondered!)

Technorati Tags: Luca Filigheddu, Kara Swisher