FOTW Beware of Greeks bearing email

Microsoft! Beware of Greeks (reading maps)

Reg Editor Drew Cullen is renowned in the world of IT for his internationalist and multi-cultural sentiments.

It's sad, then, to see a man who is commonly heard - in stark contrast to the opinions of many of his compatriots - to give forth on the richness of German and French culture, to suffer a momentary lapse of judgement. Peter J. Strifas explains:

At first I was annoyed by your last line in the "article" 'Microsoft Beware of Greeks (reading maps)'. Being of Greek descent can cause that type of a knee-jerk response. But then I remembered I'm halfway around the world and the Greek and Cypriot history is rich enough that small insults or slights are laughable.

Then I started thinking about your quote and your insinuation that it would better to insult the Cypriot Greeks than the Turks is as ignorant as I've seen in many years.

Come now, you didn't REALLY type "Pacify the Greeks and you end up annoying the Turks. (And there are a hell of a lot more Turks than there are Greeks) and find that funny? Are you that much of an ass? Or just insensitive to the life on Cyprus? Oh well, I suppose sitting at home in front of your PC with mother wiping your ass you wouldn't know enough about the atmosphere on Cyprus to understand the "request".

Now I'm not expecting anyone to place the wants/desires of one group over another group but your flippant remark completely misses the point. Its not about "annoying" a group of people or pissing them off, its about their safety. I wonder, does MSFT (or any map distributor for that matter) have any "warning" or "notes" to drivers as they traverse areas in any other geographic region where the "law of the land" changes drastically and COULD endanger the lives of passengers? How would you feel if a "loved one" happened to cross the "wrong" line on a map unknowningly into harms way because some route/map software decided the shortest route actually took you into a different country or political mindset?

Perhaps the "request" is not as stupid as it sounds when you look at WHY the request is made but I suppose a little political lesson could help both you and Microsoft.

And that was just the warm-up act. What about this?:

Dear Drew,

Firstly from your style it looks like you have a Masters Degree (with honours) from some Nursery School. Secondly, on your comment, "Beware Microsoft....the Turks are much more than the Greeks...".....NO COMMENT! Are those your values? If they are, I'm sure they represent 0.1% of your newspapers readers....so I'm wondering why you haven't being sacked yet!

Preparing to throw-up,

A Greek (although I know you would have prefered an email from a masculine Turk with a big cock eagerly awaiting you on your next visit to Ankara).

Hmmm. Lovely. We thought that the 'Dear Drew' was a nice touch. You can read further correspondence on Cyprus here.