Wednesday, August 15, 2007

The Rest of the World

I listened today to a lecture by Marva Dawn which she gave at Seattle Pacific University. (I downloaded for free from iTunes U -- check it out if you haven't already.) Her overall message was about what God is doing through each of us to use us collectively to build up the one body of Christ in and for the world. Good stuff, but you'll have to download and listen for yourself because all I'm sharing here is a joke she used.
A worldwide survey was conducted by the UN. The only question asked was: "Would you please give your honest opinion about solutions to the food shortage in the rest of the world?"

The survey was a huge failure.

In Africa, they didn't know what "food" meant.
In Eastern Europe they didn't know what "honest" meant.
In Western Europe they didn't know what "shortage" meant.
In China they didn't know what "opinion" meant.
In the Middle East they didn't know what "solution" meant.
In South America they didn't know what "please" meant.
And in the US, they didn't know what "the rest of the world" meant.
This is brilliantly targeted at Americans. The humor sucks us in as we laugh at what we know is "wrong with them" and then nails us with what we should know is wrong with us, though most of us still try to point at them even on the last line.

6 comments:

Diane M. Roth said...

It's GREAT! I'm looking for a chance to use this sometime...

Anonymous said...

I think this nice little tidbit would not go over well in a sermon at my congregation, but is perfect for a Sunday School class.

LutheranChik said...

This is great...I might have to steal it.

Anonymous said...

ive heard this before but at the end of it it said


and in australia the couldnt understand the indain acent so they hung up

Agha Ata said...

Sorry, but I didnt knwo what WRONG meant.

charlie48 said...

In Britain. we don't know what failure means. Sorry couldn't resist.