What Americans know about Ireland - CNBC interview

trishasaffron

http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/ireland-s-ida-boss-faces-bizarre-cnbc-interview-1.1986505

hard to believe its not a Jon Stewart take off!

The Backwards Man

People in Dublin think we use sterling in Donegal so hardly surprising.

We'd bite your hand off for it but that's beside the point.

catallus

The Backwards Man wrote: »

People in Dublin think we use sterling in Donegal so hardly surprising.

Ye hide the fact that ye took the Queen's sovereign? :mad:

NIMAN

Sweet Jebus, that guy on the right who asks all the dumb questions!

How is he even in such a job? He is brainless. I bet one of those guys who knows nothing about the world if its outside of the US. "What, you mean Italy's in Europe? Get outta here"

Iranoutofideas

At least he wasn't asked - "have you got electricity in Ireland?" like I was when I was over there.

The Backwards Man

catallus wrote: »

Ye hide the fact that ye took the Queen's sovereign? :mad:

Won't take her sovereign but I'd kill for her head.

Cookie_Monster

The Backwards Man wrote: »

People in Dublin think we use sterling in Donegal so hardly surprising.

good to know you've progressed from turnips at least

The Backwards Man

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

good to know you've progressed from turnips at least

Fifty euros doesn't last half an hour in a pub, a drill of turnips will last you all winter.

Mountainlad

"Norther Ireland, there the one's that should be the ones not using the pound, there the one's that wanted to break away"

Yeah...to the UK

catallus

The Backwards Man wrote: »

.....a drill of turnips will last you all winter.

A drill of turnips? Did they teach you that fancy talk in Lancashire? :mad:

The Backwards Man

catallus wrote: »

A drill of turnips? Did they teach you that fancy talk in Lancashire? :mad:

What else would you grow turmits in?

ninebeanrows

Wow, didn't realise he was such a buffoon, to be honest I think the other two anchors were a little embarrassed by him!

Witchie

Thankfully they are not all that thick. I was pleasantly surprised when I was over there in the lead up to and after the Scottish Referendum, how many were really well clued in on it and had some lively debates about the pros and cons.

Toto Wolfcastle

Martin Shanahan came across really well there. I felt sorry for the woman who kept trying to bring the interview back on track while the guy on the right shouted over her about how confused he was.

The Backwards Man

Bobblehead Panda wrote: »

Martin Shanahan came across really well there. I felt sorry for the woman who kept trying to bring the interview back on track while the guy on the right shouted over her about how confused he was.

There's an old saying about empty vessels and noise, but I can't for the life of me remember how it goes.

murpho999

To be honest though it's not just Americans that are like this.
I'm fairly well travelled and I would say the majority of people around the world think that Ireland is in the UK. Have even met many English people who still think that Ireland is in the UK.
Also met Asians who had never even heard of Ireland.
Lived in Holland for 7 years and was called "Engels" (English) all the time. Had some even not believe me that we have the Euro, let alone our own government etc.

It's very annoying. I know we speak English but so does USA, Canada, Australia etc.
People don't seem to have confusion with Austria and Germany or France and Belgium.
Don't understand how it happens as basic geography teaches you here about other countries so surely it's the same abroad?

catallus

The Backwards Man wrote: »

There's an old saying about empty vessels and noise, but I can't for the life of me remember how it goes.

One in the hand is worth two in the bush?

DuMorph

Was this the final phase of the intern assessment for junior financial journalists?

Mr. Shanahan handed both the chaps on the panel their asses, with complimentary pats on the head.

DuMorph

It also reminded me of that TV show where one of the hosts said that JayZee put Dublin on the map.

Spook_ie

The Backwards Man wrote: »

Won't take her sovereign but I'd kill for her head.

You want head from Lizzy, **** you're just weird!

Sunnyisland

murpho999 wrote: »

To be honest though it's not just Americans that are like this.
I'm fairly well travelled and I would say the majority of people around the world think that Ireland is in the UK. Have even met many English people who still think that Ireland is in the UK.
Also met Asians who had never even heard of Ireland.
Lived in Holland for 7 years and was called "Engels" (English) all the time. Had some even not believe me that we have the Euro, let alone our own government etc.

It's very annoying. I know we speak English but so does USA, Canada, Australia etc.
People don't seem to have confusion with Austria and Germany or France and Belgium.
Don't understand how it happens as basic geography teaches you here about other countries so surely it's the same abroad?

Agree with this, just had a conversation with a lovely Ukraine lady who was shocked to be told that Ireland wasent England lol
Have to say I laughed myself as if 'twas before I be reading her the proclamation,anyway I left her more confused than before...

namloc1980

NIMAN wrote: »

Sweet Jebus, that guy on the right who asks all the dumb questions!

How is he even in such a job? He is brainless. I bet one of those guys who knows nothing about the world if its outside of the US. "What, you mean Italy's in Europe? Get outta here"

I bet he thinks Central America is Kansas.

anncoates

The Backwards Man wrote: »

People in Dublin think we use sterling in Donegal so hardly surprising..

They just launder it

Billy86

murpho999 wrote: »

To be honest though it's not just Americans that are like this.
I'm fairly well travelled and I would say the majority of people around the world think that Ireland is in the UK. Have even met many English people who still think that Ireland is in the UK.

Reminds me of when I had just got to Australia and went out to the beach with a few people in the hostel I was staying in. Headed there with three lads in the same room as me - two mates from London and one guy from Worcester. So here we are in Sydney nearly at the Opera House to get a half hour ferry up to Manly, when the Worcester fella starts giving out about Asians. Just an unannounced rant with every slur in the world and not even a hint of sarcasm or humour to it... really random.

Anyway, he then begins to move in about "Krauts and all the bloody foreigners at the hostel" when I remind him were all foreigners there jokingly, since the London fellas were looking proper uncomfortable at this point. So he turns and says (completely friendly and oblivious, no idea how wrong he was or on a into up whatsoever) "well we found Australia... and here we are, four English lads!" which had the London lads cringing hard, looking like they expected something to kick off (I was just trying to stop from falling over laughing). So I just kind of look at hi many say "eeehhhh...." and he did in fairness correct himself, unfortunately to "four UK lads then!" Again I don't even know what to say, so just "eeehhhh....". Again he corrects himself, now to "well at least we're all British!"

I always have to laugh a little when I think of that moment and the London fellas completely incredulous faces. He wasn't the brightest spark though that Worcester lad, he had an absolute obsession with ironing everything for ages (socks, boxers and all) and his surname was Crease, and he somehow never put that together until I nearly wet myself when he told me his surname after 2 or days.

Kim Kardashi Un

The Backwards Man wrote: »

There's an old saying about empty vessels and noise, but I can't for the life of me remember how it goes.

A stitch in time gathers no moss?

Billy86

Iranoutofideas wrote: »

At least he wasn't asked - "have you got electricity in Ireland?" like I was when I was over there.

To be fair I went to school with some Kenyan lads who were asked a number of times if they knew what a TV was, needed to be shown how to use a microwave etc. Not even from poor backgrounds of anything either - white, richer than most people in the school, and with an accent way, way closer to English than African.

That said they were teenagers asking (with the odd wildly stupid, similar remark from a teacher or other adult) and not hosts on financial programmes for major news networks like CNBC.

anncoates

Didn't bother watching the video but we're a very small country with no genuine global significance yet we have a relatively large 'footprint' based on a pimped-out, slightly cartoon image of our culture and history and a disproportionate self-regard for ourselves as a nation so this kind of stuff is always slightly inevitable.

Get over it.

kylith

He should have come back with "America, so ye're basically Canada, right? After all ye're right next to each other. Why do ye not use Canadian money?"

zefer

anncoates wrote: »

Didn't bother watching the video but we're a very small country with no genuine global significance yet we have a relatively large 'footprint' based on a pimped-out, slightly cartoon image of our culture and history and a disproportionate self-regard for ourselves as a nation so this kind of stuff is always slightly inevitable.

Get over it.

Why would you comment if you couldn't be bothered watching the video? You are as ignorant as the American tv host in the video.

Shenshen

murpho999 wrote: »

To be honest though it's not just Americans that are like this.
I'm fairly well travelled and I would say the majority of people around the world think that Ireland is in the UK. Have even met many English people who still think that Ireland is in the UK.
Also met Asians who had never even heard of Ireland.
Lived in Holland for 7 years and was called "Engels" (English) all the time. Had some even not believe me that we have the Euro, let alone our own government etc.

It's very annoying. I know we speak English but so does USA, Canada, Australia etc.
People don't seem to have confusion with Austria and Germany or France and Belgium.
Don't understand how it happens as basic geography teaches you here about other countries so surely it's the same abroad?

*lol Believe me, they do confuse Austria and Germany. And Switzerland and Germany.
If they even are aware that there is a place called Austria. My Austrian relatives, when travelling abroad and telling people where they're from, usually get faced with really confused expressions and cautious "Do you mean Australia?" questions.

And that's not even in the US, that has happened to them in Turkey, in Malta and in Iceland.

At least people know that Ireland exists

Kovalev68

Shenshen wrote: »

*lol Believe me, they do confuse Austria and Germany. And Switzerland and Germany.
If they even are aware that there is a place called Austria. My Austrian relatives, when travelling abroad and telling people where they're from usually get face with really confused expressions and cautious "Do you mean Australia?" questions.

And that's not even in the US, that has happened to them in Turkey, in Malta and in Iceland.

At least people know that Ireland exists

That's shocking, have these people never seen dumb and dumber!!

Balmed Out

To be fair Ireland is close in size to Sierra Leone and probably as close in distance as Ireland is to America. How much does the average Irish person know about Sierra Leone?

AndyBoBandy

Balmed Out wrote: »

To be fair Ireland is close in size to Sierra Leone and probably as close in distance as Ireland is to America. How much does the average Irish person know about Sierra Leone?

True,

But we don't have business interests in Sierra Leone, the same way the U.S. have business interests here?

enda1

It's very simply atrocious journalism not having done basic research on the topic you profess to know and understand. And rather rude to your expert guest to contradict in his subject of expertise and about his own nation. Baffling really.

Not a representation of Americans however.

trishasaffron

Balmed Out wrote: »

To be fair Ireland is close in size to Sierra Leone and probably as close in distance as Ireland is to America. How much does the average Irish person know about Sierra Leone?

Perhaps but if I was interviewing someone about investing in Sierra Leone I'd have looked up wikipedia at least;)

anncoates

zefer wrote: »

Why would you comment if you couldn't be bothered watching the video? You are as ignorant as the American tv host in the video.

Does the video involve somebody making uninformed generalizations about Ireland or is it something completely different to what is described?

Caliden

It's like the guy doesn't know about Canada and Mexico....

OldRio

Now that was funny. Ignorance is bliss,

Mr. CooL ICE

Balmed Out wrote: »

To be fair Ireland is close in size to Sierra Leone and probably as close in distance as Ireland is to America. How much does the average Irish person know about Sierra Leone?

That's where the waste from craggy island parochial house ends up?

dark crystal

That guy should have just shut up as soon as he realised what an idiot he was making of himself, but the clueless moron just kept going on and on about it.

How do people that stupid get these jobs? I would have thought a basic knowledge of countries and their currencies would have been a fundemental requirement in securing the role as anchor on a financially based news show.

Balmed Out

Andybobandy wrote: »

True,

But we don't have business interests in Sierra Leone, the same way the U.S. have business interests here?

I think the point stands as for the size of the American economy were not a major trading partner in the same way they are to us. How much does the average Irish person know about Indiana despite the fact that were inundated with US tv and media?

trishasaffron wrote: »

Perhaps but if I was interviewing someone about investing in Sierra Leone I'd have looked up wikipedia at least;)

Very true, I'm not defending him as he's clearly been an idiot in this case. I was talking about Americans in general for whom I think its understandable they wouldn't know a whole lot about Ireland, the thread title is "What Americans know about Ireland".

dark crystal

Balmed Out wrote: »

I think the point stands as for the size of the American economy were not a major trading partner in the same way they are to us. How much does the average Irish person know about Indiana despite the fact that were inundated with US tv and media?




Very true, I'm not defending him as he's clearly been an idiot in this case. I was talking about Americans in general for whom I think its understandable they wouldn't know a whole lot about Ireland, the thread title is "What Americans know about Ireland".

Well, Ireland's financial situation has been covered quite extensively on shows just like this in the US over the last five years or so. You'd think maybe he kept up with financial news, what with it being his job and all.

Quin_Dub

Balmed Out wrote: »

To be fair Ireland is close in size to Sierra Leone and probably as close in distance as Ireland is to America. How much does the average Irish person know about Sierra Leone?

We know it's a country and not a province of Nigeria or some crap.

Ignorance is ignorance...and there really isn't an excuse for it.

Whatever about meeting some randomer in a bar or whatever and them displaying this kind of stupidity , it's utterly unacceptable for an anchor presenter on one of the leading Financial shows on TV in the US to be that dense...

SpaceTime

That just makes me wonder about the quality of the rest of their output tbh.

The guy is supposed to be a business news expert not the weathercaster from some remote TV channel in small town Nebraska totally out of his depth doing the business report for the first time.

(Sorry Nebraskans, I'm just using you for illustrative purposes, I'm sure your local TV anchors would be better than that!)

I would assume the producers probably provided briefing notes too. That's fairly normal for anything involving live guests.

Not knowing that Ireland's a founder member of the Eurozone when it was featured in so many stories about the Eurozone crisis etc is pretty bad for a business presenter.

Then asking a public servant questions that you know he won't be able to answer like trying to engage him in a discussion about why Ireland is in the Eurozone is pretty stupid too. The guy isn't a politician and can't publically theorize on his own government's policies.

You might as well have asked Why is Ireland in the Atlantic? Why does it begin with the letter I and not Q..

Trying to get into a debate about things that are just facts is pretty lousy interview technique.

Likewise the question on taxation will not lead to a discussion just a robust defence. Again, I'm not really sure what the point of that was either.

All in all from a viewer's perspective that interview provided absolutely no insight into Ireland really at all.

Then he started making some kind of waffly noises about gold and basically going on a weird Eurosceptic rant towards the end.

Bizarre maybe but from a consumer of CNBC content just a complete waste of time.

That wouldn't happen on CNN Business or BBC Business output.

AnLonDubh

Well Ireland is very small and quite far from the states, I don't really know about Bhutan of course. Still I don't think I randomly assume countries are provinces of other countries.

It can be shocking what you hear. I remember a Japanese guy telling me about "the islands past Spain" and since I was from Europe could I tell him about them. He meant the British Isles and he almost described them as mythical and was very excited to hear I was from one of them. He asked who owned them and was it still a kingdom with knights, e.t.c.

For context Japanese maps look like this: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/1853_Kaei_6_Japanese_Map_of_the_World_-_Geographicus_-_ChikyuBankokuHozu-nakajima-1853.jpg

A bit archaic, but I can't find a modern school map.

Balmed Out

Quin_Dub wrote: »

We know it's a country and not a province of Nigeria or some crap.

Ignorance is ignorance...and there really isn't an excuse for it.

Whatever about meeting some randomer in a bar or whatever and them displaying this kind of stupidity , it's utterly unacceptable for an anchor presenter on one of the leading Financial shows on TV in the US to be that dense...

Im not defending the anchorman as ive said already. The thread is titled what American's know about Ireland and im just pointing out why its nor likely to be a whole lot.

SpaceTime

Still inexcusable really given that's what his job is.

I don't expect some random Japanese tourist to know a lot about Ireland. However, I think I could confidently assume that a Japanese business presenter on NHK World would be fully briefed if they were going to interview the head of the IDA.

Also Ireland's not that insignificant in terms od US FDI in Europe it's a huge deal.
And it shares deep cultural links with the US, speaks the same language, shares a very similar legal system and business culture and is extremely easy to get info about.

It just shows though that these are the kind of people with the attention span of a goldfish who make and influence huge business decisions.

So something like "Ireland a tax haven" can cause serious, serious problems very quickly if left unchallenged or challenged in a way that causes it to become more mainstream in the chatter.

mikemac1

The only thing NBC do well is football coverage

SpaceTime

Bear in mind this is CNBC - an international business news channel not local NBC news in the US.

whomitconcerns

I was on to HTC customer care in the US a few years ago, and was in Romania at the time.

Where are you calling from sir?
Romania
What city sir?
Bucharest
And what state is Romania in?
Its in Europe...
yes sir but what state?
erm..europe, earth...
Sir I need to know the state you are calling from?
ROMANIA...its not in the US...its a seperate country....
etc

SpaceTime

I had one where someone e-mailed me complaining that my phone was out of service.

I checked... It seemed fine.
Asked her what number she was using

Cork on:
+44 353 21 xxx xxxx