Wednesday, July 11, 2007

No class at Pan Am games

In a joke that made Brazilians cringe and forced the U.S. Olympic Committee to apologize, a USOC worker scrawled "Welcome to the Congo!" on a board in the organization's Rio de Janeiro media center for the Pan American Games.

Rio's O Globo newspaper published a photo of the message on its front page Saturday, and ran a headline saying the joke was "full of prejudice." The message was condemned in a nation extremely sensitive about being compared to less-developed countries, especially by Americans -- who often are perceived as arrogant by Brazilians.

The USOC issued a "deep apology to the people of Brazil and Rio de Janeiro" in a statement Saturday, and said the worker who wrote the phrase was disciplined and is no longer a member of the U.S. delegation to the games.

I really don't know what the hell the Pan Am games are and I also have no freaking clue how the American delegation hasn't heard of Brazillian supermodels Daniella Cicarelli and Adriana Lima. You don't make fun of a country who can produce that much grade A beef. Especially when your own cultural exports consist of a lip syncing Cheeto-eating beached whale and your grandmother parading around on stage looking like Blanche Devereaux in Depends. And it's even worse when they make out with each other.

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