UruguayLiving.com

No, Virginia, Uruguay
is NOT Europe!

One cannot help but
wonder why the US
thinks it should run the world when so many of its people know so little about
anything outside their own borders.

Today I called the fraud
department of the Bank of America to let them know that we would be paying for
things here and in Argentina
with our company Visa check card. The person with whom I spoke was very
nice, as all BoA personnel seem to be unfailingly nice. However, she was
at best geographically challenged–and at worst, dumber than a box of
rocks. But, did I mention, she was very nice?

I told her that Chris
and I were working in Uruguay
and would be using the card here. She said she would note that we were in
Europe. I explained that Uruguay was NOT Europe, but was, in fact in South America. She asked me to spell it, which I
did, and she duly noted the account. I also explained that we would be
using the cards in Argentina,
another country in South America. I told
her Chris Kohl was there right now. After spelling Argentina, she duly noted that as
well.

At that point she told
me that it looked like there was a problem with the account. I asked
why. She told me that if I was in Uruguay, someone was using my card
elsewhere, in a place called “Monty-video”.

No, I did NOT make this
up.

I suppressed the urge to
speak my mind. Instead I explained that Montevideo was the capital city of Uruguay, and that Uruguay,
like the US,
had a number of different cities. Polite as always, she thanked me and
said she had noted the account accordingly.

And that was that…

Wrong! Literally 2
minutes later the VoIP line rang and it was the same woman at BoA with whom I
had just spoken. She said we had a problem: someone was using Chris
Kohl's check card in a place called “boon-ohs airs”..,

It must be something in
the air, because I didn't explode nor did I even question her parentage
or mental competence. Once again, I calmly explained that “boon-ohs airs” was Buenos Aires,
and that it was the capital city of Argentina,
which, like the US and Uruguay,
actually had more than one city in it.

Unfailingly polite to the
end she thanked me, and that was that.

After she hung up, I
stared at the phone for 3 minutes wondering if it would ring yet again–it
didn't.

The worst part of the
whole thing is that this is not an isolated case of American ignorance–after
all the US
is governed by a Commander-in-Chief who pronounces nuclear as “nuke-you-ler”.

Scary, isn't it?

Posted by southron on Friday, March 10th, 2006 at 20:45.