Friday, May 20, 2005
Our Newest Op Ed
Pepsi - The Choice Of The Angry Generation:
PepsiCo's CFO Gives An Unfortunate Speech
- By Warner Todd Huston
Apparently PepsiCo's President and CFO, Indra Nooyi, thinks the USA is giving "the finger" to all the world. That's right, she was heard to claim that the USA is flipping the bird to every other nation on earth in a commencement address (this link is a PDF file) she gave to the graduates of Columbia Business School on May 15th.
All commencement speakers have the singular problem of finding a way to give their address a "hook", a way to grab the audience. Indra Nooyi chose as her "hook" an analogy of the five fingers of the hand as representing the five major continents. With apologies to Australia and Antarctica (the hand only has five fingers, she helpfully reminds us) Nooyi delved into the topic of international business to enlighten the graduates. With her "hand" analogy, she identified Africa as the economically small little finger, Asia as the powerful thumb, South America as the ring finger of love, and Europe as that wonderful index finger that "pointed the way for western civilization and the laws we use in conducting global business."
That leaves the USA to be assigned a digit, doesn't it? If you were counting fingers that also leaves only one finger left. And you guessed it. Nooyi identified the USA with the middle finger. She said, "...if used inappropriately - just like the USA itself - the middle finger can convey a negative message and get us in trouble.".......
Click HERE To Read On
PepsiCo's CFO Gives An Unfortunate Speech
- By Warner Todd Huston
Apparently PepsiCo's President and CFO, Indra Nooyi, thinks the USA is giving "the finger" to all the world. That's right, she was heard to claim that the USA is flipping the bird to every other nation on earth in a commencement address (this link is a PDF file) she gave to the graduates of Columbia Business School on May 15th.
All commencement speakers have the singular problem of finding a way to give their address a "hook", a way to grab the audience. Indra Nooyi chose as her "hook" an analogy of the five fingers of the hand as representing the five major continents. With apologies to Australia and Antarctica (the hand only has five fingers, she helpfully reminds us) Nooyi delved into the topic of international business to enlighten the graduates. With her "hand" analogy, she identified Africa as the economically small little finger, Asia as the powerful thumb, South America as the ring finger of love, and Europe as that wonderful index finger that "pointed the way for western civilization and the laws we use in conducting global business."
That leaves the USA to be assigned a digit, doesn't it? If you were counting fingers that also leaves only one finger left. And you guessed it. Nooyi identified the USA with the middle finger. She said, "...if used inappropriately - just like the USA itself - the middle finger can convey a negative message and get us in trouble.".......
Click HERE To Read On
# posted by Publius @ 5/20/2005 02:00:00 PM 
Comments:
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a. she did say that the middle finger was the critical one - the rest can do pretty little without it.
b. its an unfortunate US coincidence that the middle finger immeditaely brings only a negative thought to the mind. Open it a little and its first what god intended it to be - an irreplaceable part of my hand.
c. the freedom you so proudly speak of should not preclude a crticial analysis of the country or its current preceived behaviour.
d. when an argument - esp one emphasizing a single point of view - is made - one does not worry too much about balancing it with the 'other' side of the story - which in fact she did to an extent thru the stress on how critical the middle finger is. The point was about its abuse - which you have conveniently assumed as its prime function.
e. Are you becoming the Soviet Union ?
b. its an unfortunate US coincidence that the middle finger immeditaely brings only a negative thought to the mind. Open it a little and its first what god intended it to be - an irreplaceable part of my hand.
c. the freedom you so proudly speak of should not preclude a crticial analysis of the country or its current preceived behaviour.
d. when an argument - esp one emphasizing a single point of view - is made - one does not worry too much about balancing it with the 'other' side of the story - which in fact she did to an extent thru the stress on how critical the middle finger is. The point was about its abuse - which you have conveniently assumed as its prime function.
e. Are you becoming the Soviet Union ?
# posted by 
: 5/23/2005 12:12:00 AM
: 5/23/2005 12:12:00 AM
To answer…
a.-Her points of how important the middle finger is were absurd. The thumb is a stronger, more important finger. She was just trying to sound like she WASN’T saying what she was REALLY saying.
b. –It isn’t OUR perception of the middle finger that is the problem. It was HERS. And she purposefully MEANT that interpretation.
c.- I never said it DID preclude criticism. I similarly indulged in that freedom by criticizing her.
d. –(yours)"The point was about its abuse - which you have conveniently assumed as its prime function."
Once again it is not MY interpretation. It is a direct reading of HER purpose.
e. –No we are NOT becoming the Soviet Union. We are, however, at the beginning stages of retaking our country back to where it belongs which is AWAY from the Soviet Union style existence that the liberals have been driving us towards since 1934.
In short, you need to pay more attention.
Thanks for the message, though. WTH
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a.-Her points of how important the middle finger is were absurd. The thumb is a stronger, more important finger. She was just trying to sound like she WASN’T saying what she was REALLY saying.
b. –It isn’t OUR perception of the middle finger that is the problem. It was HERS. And she purposefully MEANT that interpretation.
c.- I never said it DID preclude criticism. I similarly indulged in that freedom by criticizing her.
d. –(yours)"The point was about its abuse - which you have conveniently assumed as its prime function."
Once again it is not MY interpretation. It is a direct reading of HER purpose.
e. –No we are NOT becoming the Soviet Union. We are, however, at the beginning stages of retaking our country back to where it belongs which is AWAY from the Soviet Union style existence that the liberals have been driving us towards since 1934.
In short, you need to pay more attention.
Thanks for the message, though. WTH
# posted by : 5/23/2005 12:25:00 PM
: 5/23/2005 12:25:00 PM << Home
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