Italy's tourism minister has demanded that Apple remove the "offensive" What Country app from its online store after the travel guide described the Italy as the home of "pizza, the Mafia and scooters".
The mafia sign used by Apple that has caused outrage in Italy
The application, which can be downloaded to iPhones, iPads and iPods, characterises each nation with words and images; Italy is summed up with a road sign which reads "Mafia parking only".
England is characterised by "tea, weird sense of humour, football hooligans and rain", while Germany is summed up with "beer, discipline and autobahns". China is reduced to "overpopulation, kung fu, Great Wall, Tibet and tea ceremony", while the most defining characteristics of the US are "melting pot, hamburger and the American dream".
Scotland is described as a land of mountains with lochs and soaring eagles. A land of poets, artists and great thinkers. A country that has spawned some of the world's greatest inventions and medicines. It just a pity, they've got to live next to those fucking arseholes!
Are they right?
15 comments:
Well, it's either the mafia or always losing wars...
Well, I have to say that I'm amazed there was no Shakespeare and that rain was attributed to England instead of Scotland. Then again it is Apple after all.
RantinRab,
"or always losing wars..."
Romans - hello?
I think the Roman Empire should also have been in there but La Cosa Nostra is cerainly appropriate although the Mafia is certainly more prominent in the USA.
Roberto, some countries just have all the luck... All that and Halle Berry as well!
Harbingers, there was some subtle editing on behalf of the blog owner. The Romans lost wars eventually. They wrote a very long book about it!
Harbers, first and foremost Rome wasn't Italy, and Italy as we now know it didn't come into being until 1861.
As for Romans and losing wars, do the words "Teutoburg Forest" mean anything to you?
To say it was a bit of an arse kicking is up there with "Claire Grogan a pleasant looking singer/actress from Glasgow" in the gross understatement of the year awards.
Great joke on Radio 2s Jeremy vine show the other day
q) What makes the perfect Scottish breakfast?
a) A bottle of whisky, a haggis and an old dog.
q) Sounds grand but what is the old dog for?
a) To eat the haggis.
Contributed in the spirit of national stereotyping.
Budvar,
Italy, that is what we know to be the land Italy was, as you rightly say unified in 1861, but let us not forget that it came from Rome and was of Rome as the Roman Empire controlled the land we know today as Italy.
And Teutoburg Forest, yes it was a huge loss, but when one compares the many victories of Rome and size of its empire, then losses pale in comparison.
Budvar, good point. The Tallies were never the best, they like the British just had the best equipment. If you had given Zulus guns instead of spears, Rourke's Drift would have been a very different outcome.
Banned, as a Scotsman, I find that quite funny but then we are mature enough as a nation to be able to laugh at ourselves. Mind you, I think we have a secret pride in being able to drink other nations under the table. You've got to be good at something!
Harbingers, I say, Fuck the Romans! They never got up here anyway, well just as far as the Antonine wall. Mind you considering the weather they probably didn't want to go any further. Mind you the weather's quite nice around Elgin.
Acshally the Romans had a fort at Edzell due west of Montrose, which is a fair bit higher up than the Antonine wall.
As for the Scots drinking people under the table, thats all well and good, but most of us prefer to drink standing at the bar...
I disagree with your notion that the Brits were only any good because of their superior equipment.
The British armys superior training is a big plus point.
The zulus at Rorkes drift about half of them were armed with the rifles they had captured from the massacre at Isandlwana. So in effect the Zulus had 2000 rifles against the 400 or so men of which only about 80 were fully fit for active duty (rest made up of colonial African troops).
So Zulus armed with the same Martini Henry rifles as the Brits still out numbered them about 5 to one and they still lost.
The moral of this story is, superior numbers with the same weaponry is not much cop if you don't know one end of a rifle from the other.
Budvar, I hadn't realised that they had a fort as high as Montrose, so what was the Antonine Wall about then. Were the West coast 'Scots' more ferocious than those on the Est Coast? Same today mind you. As you say though, there's no point in having rifles if you try and throw them like spears!
Budvar,
That's very true what you say. However we did have better equipment, which shows better ingenuity than other cultures. And yes, our soldiers were very highly skilled. Rorke's Drift is a classic example of a far superior force defeating a far larger non superior one.
Harbingers, even if they will take over S. Africa one day.
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