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shafique wrote:Genius indeed.
Did you notice that it was mostly the Italians who were having a major 'sense of humour failure'. I mean this guy is Italian-American, and he's definitely not amused:
"I am form Southern Italy but live in the USA. I can appreciate a good joke but naming my land of origin "bordello" is not a good joke, not a joke at all. I have been reading the Economist more or less regularly but as soon as this message is posted I will remove the Economist from my favorites and no longer read it unless I see an apology on the Economist and I am informed of this apology via e-mail to my e-mail address. I also suggest to all the other readers offended by this labelling to do the same."
Made me laugh harder.
Cheers,
Shafique
We hope it will be even more controversial.To those who find the "Bordello" reference to the southern bits of Italy offensive, we would cite a comment made by an erudite Italian reader about the original map.
Most vaguely literate Europeans will remember Dante Alighieri’s Divina Commedia, Purgatory, Canto VI, lines 76-78
Ahi serva Italia, di dolore ostello,
nave sanza nocchiere in gran tempesta,
non donna di province, ma bordello!
(Alas enslaved Italy, abode of anguish,
ship with no pilot in a great storm,
not ruler of provinces, but bordello!)
Which goes to show, inter alia, that the Italian word “bordello” has actually two different meanings: besides being literally “a cheap whorehouse”, it also means metaphorically any place or situation of troublesome confusion. And most Italian speakers know perfectly well that in modern colloquial Italian the second meaning is in fact the usual one: everybody understands that a class of unruly kids may be “making a bordello”, without that implying anything much more offensive for the children themselves other than bad manners and a lack of self discipline.
The indignation displayed by so many readers appears thus to be somewhat less than perfectly candid.
Misery Called Life wrote:"Finland's new location should be, preferably, somewhere near the Bahamas, because the Finns have also put up with being next to Russia over 500 years, as have the Poles, and it would be only fair that the Swedes should take their turn in being neutral and doing the kow-towing to the Russians- unless Russia will be sent to the moon(an excellent idea) or next to North Korea.All the same, the Finns would enjoy a new location in warmer climate than now.
shafique wrote:I guess it must a Brit humour thing. And I agree, the Italians at least didn't block the site!
The Economist even made a point of referring to it in the blurb that went with the video:We hope it will be even more controversial.To those who find the "Bordello" reference to the southern bits of Italy offensive, we would cite a comment made by an erudite Italian reader about the original map.
Most vaguely literate Europeans will remember Dante Alighieri’s Divina Commedia, Purgatory, Canto VI, lines 76-78
Ahi serva Italia, di dolore ostello,
nave sanza nocchiere in gran tempesta,
non donna di province, ma bordello!
(Alas enslaved Italy, abode of anguish,
ship with no pilot in a great storm,
not ruler of provinces, but bordello!)
Which goes to show, inter alia, that the Italian word “bordello” has actually two different meanings: besides being literally “a cheap whorehouse”, it also means metaphorically any place or situation of troublesome confusion. And most Italian speakers know perfectly well that in modern colloquial Italian the second meaning is in fact the usual one: everybody understands that a class of unruly kids may be “making a bordello”, without that implying anything much more offensive for the children themselves other than bad manners and a lack of self discipline.
The indignation displayed by so many readers appears thus to be somewhat less than perfectly candid.
Red Chief wrote:Misery Called Life wrote:"Finland's new location should be, preferably, somewhere near the Bahamas, because the Finns have also put up with being next to Russia over 500 years, as have the Poles, and it would be only fair that the Swedes should take their turn in being neutral and doing the kow-towing to the Russians- unless Russia will be sent to the moon(an excellent idea) or next to North Korea.All the same, the Finns would enjoy a new location in warmer climate than now.
Well... well... Stud, it seems that Geography was not your cup of tea. Russia has common border with North Korea.
