<div style="text-align: center; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> =========================================================================<br>L O W L A N D S - L - 03 February 2008 - Volume 05<br style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">
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=========================================================================<br></div><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><font style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" color="#888888"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">From: </span></font><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="HcCDpe"><span class="EP8xU" style="color: rgb(0, 104, 28);">Ingmar Roerdinkholder</span> <span class="lDACoc"><<a href="mailto:ingmar.roerdinkholder@worldonline.nl">ingmar.roerdinkholder@worldonline.nl</a>></span></span><font style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" color="#888888"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"></span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">
<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Subject: <br><br></span></font><div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><font size="2">Thanks for your apologies, you already gave them to
me but now to the list.</font></div>
<div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><font size="2">I respect that, and understand that you wanted
to do that, after you noticed that your words were
misunderstood.</font></div>
<div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><font size="2">I hope you don't feel bad about it anymore and that
we'll move on now as if it didn't happen... or, even </font><font size="2">feeling better</font> </div>
<div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><font size="2">because of everything is solved en reunited again!
</font></div>
<div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><font size="2">Peace!</font></div>
<div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><font size="2">Ingmar</font></div>
<div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> </div>
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">From: R. F. Hahn <</span><a style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" href="mailto:sassisch@yahoo.com" target="_blank">sassisch@yahoo.com</a><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">></span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Subject: Humor</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">I must
apologize to anyone who did not understand my responses to Luc and</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Ingmar
that began with Luc's "Nueva España" suggestion that I was sure was a</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">joke
based on what he saw as a real situation.</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">My responses to what I thought
were satire were meant to be pure satire. At</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">the time I thought that that was
abundantly obvious, and hopefully it was</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">obvious to most of you, at least to
the native English speakers in the</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">round. What apparently wasn't clear to a
couple of people at least was that</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">it poked much less fun at European
attitudes than at American attitudes and</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">politics (including contradictory
attitudes toward Mexico and Mexicans).</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">None of it was mean-spirited, at least
not intentionally so. I thought that</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">at least those of you that have known me
for a while would have started with</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">that assumption. Yes, I was poking fun at
all around, including myself to</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">some degree, with the underlying poke at
thinking in national categories and</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">doing so in overly stereotypical and
simplistic ways.</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">I am a born and raised European and am also legally
Australian and US</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">American. I will always remain European, wouldn't be able
not to be even if</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">I tried, which is what man Europeans apparently still don't
understand about</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">emigrants. I don't represent the US American government or
any other</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">government, nor do I approve of most US foreign politics, like a
very large</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">percentage of other Americans, leave alone people elsewhere. I
represent</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">myself. Non-American sensitivities about US politics are apparently
such</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">that there is not even a place for spoofing perceived attitudes. I
thought</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">my satire was *so* obvious, but apparently it was not obvious enough,
at</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">least not to some, hopefully not many -- and to them I
apologize.</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">This goes to show again that humor is dangerous territory in
an</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">intercultural and international setting. We come with different
and</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">variously flexible sets of perception and outlooks wrought by our
various</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">experiences. It also goes to show that there is no way of making
people</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">leave their political baggage at the door before entering. We can at
least</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">try to meet as individuals, as people that are not perceived as
representing</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">groups.</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Regards,</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Reinhard/Ron</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">