US flips its lid over 'middle finger' tag

[donsu]

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/GE25Df04.html

The remark was innocuous, but given the Internet age, where one does not have to wait for the media to make an issue of things, it has been blogged out of proportion. India-born PepsiCo president Indra Nooyi, one of Fortune's most powerful businesswomen, anointed America the "middle finger" of the world in a speech to Columbia Business School's graduating students. And as most of us know, for any guy in the fast lane, whether on the Internet or in a car, showing the middle finger can only mean one thing.

-snip-

In her speech, Nooyi attributed fingers to the other continents, none of whose proponents have reacted in cyberspace: the thumb for Asia, strong and powerful and looking to turn into a bigger global player; Europe, the index finger, pointing the way; South America, the ring finger to symbolize love and sensuality; Africa, the little finger, small and insignificant but when it is injured, the entire hand hurts.

Nooyi described the US as the middle and biggest finger. In a rejoinder Nooyi has explained: "In my comments, I used the analogy of a human hand to illustrate that people in countries around the globe need to join together to make the world work in harmony - just as all the fingers of a hand work together. It is an illustration that I learned when I was a student, and that I have shared with others on many different occasions."
-snip-
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and you must read this paragraph:

It's also important to note that Nooyi is a woman, and giving someone the "middle finger" is more of a man thing to do - unless the woman happens to be a Madonna or a Britney Spears looking to excite a male crowd at a concert, not an audience of management students. Even on the road, how many women actually point the middle finger? Not in India, at least: they are too scared of being followed, stalked, acid-attacked or raped.
(if anyone knows what terrorists are all about it's the women of the world)


(I must not be reading the proper blogs - first I've heard of this. how about you?)

[getmeouttahere]

1. I think it is an apt representation....

of the world situation. The middle finger happens to be the biggest finger, but let's face it, the rest of the world thinks we are flipping them the bird anyway, so what would you expect?

[LibInternationalist]

3. not only that, but the middle finger

is only vulgar when it acts alone :)

[madrchsod]

2. i it was posted last wednesday or

thursday..pretty funny and very true

[KansDem]

4. The middle finger?!?!

You mean this one:

[donsu]

5. but this woman must be out of her mind! - Africa - "small and

insignificant" !!!

South America is love and sensuality!!!

surely she means the world of pepsi - in pepsi's world Africa has low sales of the drink. Asia must gobble up pepsi by the gallon.

maybe she lives in an alternate universe