I was just wondering - again.... Does anybody ever spend time and money to find out what other people in the world don't know? Or is El Pais just interested in what Americans don't know?
I am sure that the average Fulan@ in Spain is a foreign affairs expert. If you started calling Espanoles at home, found a housewife in Fuenlabrada, tore her away from the latest corazon babble, and then proceeded to ask her about the evil doers in Darfur, she would know all about it, right? Or maybe she knows about the latest developments in the political situation in Turkey? Doubt it.... But that is not interesting (or gratifying) to El Pais. They couldn't care less about what Spanish people don't know. That's no fun.
I searched around for who wanted to find out what we don't know. "Zogby International "is just a company that will harass people by phone and ask what they are told to ask - for money. The "Inter-American Dialogue" is some kind of political / business group from South America. I wonder what their agenda is?
I will tell you one thing. I have never answered a poll, I’m busy ... at work, or whatever. And if they ever did manage to get me on the phone somehow, I would fake a heart attack to get off. There is no way I would spend my time to put a dime in a pollster's pocket. So who are they talking to? Answer: Morons with nothing better to do. Of course the pollsters don't care - as long as they can write something down for their clients.
Another thing about polls … your agenda, whatever it is, can easily be fulfilled. Tailor the questions, call only the people you want to reach, etc. You can always get the results you are looking for.
I'll start holding my breath now until a survey comes out in El Pais on what the Spanish public doesn't know.
2 comments:
I argued with many people about this subject "ignorant Americans" at home and overseas. I just can't seem to be able convince people that knowing a whole bunch of irrelevant information doesn't really make a person useful to its community. Take a farmer working hard to produce his crop and knows everything to know about his stuff. Would it matter that he did not know where Spain is or there is an AIDS epidemic wiping out the villages of Africa? He does what he does best and is a productive member of the society. Do you think a Spanish farmer would know all of this. He also would know all about his craft, though. Knowing a whole bunch of stuff without knowing what to do with it is the newspaper columnists, op-ed writers and blogger's job.
Just reading a whole bunch of crap doesn't make anyone a good human being....
I agree. The American who confuses Spain with Mexico may know how to re-build a carburetor on a 1976 BMW R90/6 better than anyone. He is not stupid. He just doesn't know squat about Spain.
Post a Comment