A recent survey...

[Bobinwales]

The following question was asked in a recent poll:

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx'Are there too many immigrants in Britain?'


xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx17% Said: Yes
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx62% Said: No
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx23% Said: عهد الأمن العالمي بواشنط



Is this racist? Opinions please. If the consensus is that it is I shall remove it immediately.
I, frankly, can't make up my mind.

[russcable]

If it said "maybe" in Arabic, I might have an opinion but 102% of me is reserving judgement till I know if "Era of global security Boashent" (according to Google's translator) means anything.

[PhilHunt]

I'm so shocked I'm going to write a letter to my local MP. Unfortunately I live in Slough so I'll need to get it translated into Urdu first. [Now if that isn't racist, I don't know what is].

A similar survey was carried out in Alaska:

Are there too many immigrants from Europe?

100% said: Is that in Africa?

[minjeff]

I like Phil's better... as long as we clarify who the President or (for those across the pond) the Prime Minister of Africa is

[Erik_Kowal]

Which part of Slough does Italy lie in?

[Tony Farg]

Perhaps the slough of despond. Or some other pond.

[PhilHunt]

Which part of Slough does Italy lie in?

Per troppo Erik I couldn't make the joke if I said I lived in Milano. No-one with a suntan every gets a place in the government here. ;)

I used to live near Slough when I lived in England. A lovely town called Maidenhead....now there's a word that conquers up images.

[russcable]

When searching for the Arabic text, I found this joke posted on several discussion boards exactly as is and no one ever mentioned that the numbers add up to 102%. I dropped a hint and no one bit. Is it really just me bothered by it, or is that somehow part of the joke that I missed? ;-)

[trolley]

I discovered the same thing, as I Googled around for "Boashent" (to no avail). Some versions listed 102% and some 100%. I don't think it is part of the joke, at least not an intentional part.

[squirrel]

No, you wouldn't find any reference to Boashent! That's because it doesn't exist, but Washington (DC) certainly does.

The wisecracker who originally wrote the "joke" copied a section of Arabic/Farsi script from some sort of political article referring to "the era of global security in Washington" and missed out the last "n" , that's all!

The correct Arabic phrase should have been: عهد الأمن العالمي بواشنطن and the last "n" changes the gibberish of Boashent into "bé Washington". Honest!

Easy now you know!

[PhilHunt]

Now, that's funny! :)