Posted on 03/09/2009 3:52:00 AM PDT by Libloather
British press aghast at 'cheap' Obama gift
March 07, 2009
British newspapers are upset over what they see as rude treatment given to Prime Minister Gordon Brown by U.S. President Barack Obama this week, observers say.
The London dailies criticized Obama's treatment of Brown during his state visit to Washington this week on several fronts, including alleged cheap gift-giving, the New York Daily News reported Saturday.
President Obama has been rudeness personified toward Britain, The Daily Telegraph wrote Friday. His handling of the visit of the prime minister, Gordon Brown, to Washington was appalling.
The main point of contention was an alleged gift-giving snub. Brown gave Obama a pen holder made from the timbers of the 19th century British warship HMS President, while Obama responded by awarding Brown a collection of classic American movie DVDs.
Oh, give me strength, the Daily News quoted an appalled Daily Telegraph staffer as writing. We do have television and DVD stores on this side of the Atlantic.
When trying to improve ties with a former Cold War-era foe, check a dictionary. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton learned that lesson the hard way on Friday, when she presented Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov with a gift bearing an incorrect translation - one that implied hostility, rather than peacemaking.
It seems that someone in the U.S. State Department forgot to double check the translation. Anyone with a sense of the Russian language, and there are quite a few in the State Department, could have told Clinton that there is a mistake in translation.
Clinton handed Lavrov a palm-sized box with a gift-wrapped red button on a black base, which said "Reset" in English and "Peregruzka" in Russian (with Latin script instead of Cyrillic, which could count as another gaffe). The problem was "peregruzka" doesn't mean reset. It means overcharged or overloaded.
Lavrov opened it and pulled out the gift. Clinton said she was presenting the gift because it "represents what President Obama and Vice President Biden and I have been saying and that is, 'We want to reset our relationship.' And so we will do it together."
"We worked hard to get the right Russian word. Do you think we got it?" Clinton asked Lavrov.
"You got it wrong," Lavrov said. "This says 'peregruzka,' which means overcharged."
After the two top diplomats stopped laughing, Clinton said: "We won't let you do that to us, I promise."
Clinton adviser Philippe Reines said "Opechatka [Russian for typo] is being fixed, the gift will correctly read 'Perezagruzka'."
Russian media have been making fun at the US Secretary of State over this translation error.
http://politicom.moldova.org/news/hillary-clintons-gaffe-pushes-wrong-button-with-russians-188042-eng.html
she musta got her dip tips from Plugs
They are both an embarrassment.
This is what happens when children are put in charge. Brother, you asked for it.
You about photo says it all,
Thanks for your service and may GOD bless.
Stay safe soldier.
“We worked hard to get the right Russian word...”
She got it right the first time. So much for a Yale education.
0bama blows off the Brits, but he could hardly wait to run off and give his first interview as President to an Arabic station in the middle east...
And just wait until he rolls out the red carpet for 0dinga and Mugabe.
Well, what do you know. There’s no one in the State Department who speaks Russian.
To the office,country and it’s people sorry Mr Brown.
Actually, this kind of treatment from the Obama-ites is a compliment: they showed the same kind of contempt for Sarah Palin.
Cheers!
Friends in the UK...keep in mind that 145 MILLION eligible voters did NOT for the Kenyan. Every country has its share of morons, unfortunately.
More than likely the DVD set was made in Mexico, was bought for less than a dollar, is in Region 1 code and thus unable to be played in the Region 2 of the UK, UK is PAL format, the US is NTSC, its a copyright thing.
So basically this “gift” is worthless trash.
Way to go Obama, burn all the bridges so your enemies cannot sneak up on you?
It might not have been a gaffe, but part of the plan to sink the US.
Maybe Gordon Brown needs to do what I did. Goto Ebay and buy a region free player. I have Philips model which plays PAL and NTSC and just about anything else including Divx and has a thumb drive. All for 50 bucks.
Hillary was just standing there giggling her fat butt off as the Russian informed her they had made an error, but I bet she wants grinning when she tore into whoever screwed it up.
Perhaps a new alert status, in addition to the flying ashtray alert?
“Oh, give me strength,”
I’m laughing at my desk. Now others are seeing first hand what America has put in the White House.
What do you expect with a President whose foreign affairs experience consists solely of being born in Kenya and Muslim primary schooled in Indonesia and a Secretary of State whose diplomatic credentials are having made travel junkets overseas on the taxpayer’s dime.
Good thing that button didn’t say “launch” in Russian.
Regardless, a really stupid “gift”.
There is a total lack of class, everywhere you look. Incredibly embarrassing...
Obama's DVD gift did not contain "Gone with the Wind" but did have "ET" and "Graduate." IIRC, there was not one single pre WW2 film on American history. Whatever, this was extremely tacky as was the cheap children's toy. These are the kinds of gifts I would have expected somebody from trailer park to give.
Please don’t worry. We know very well that it’s Obama who did this, not the courteous and hospitable people of the USA.
“The US is region 1, the UK is region 2, they do not mix.”
Can others mix? The reason I ask is because the Republic of Panama (region 4 according to your map) has no problems playing DVDs, etc, from the U.S.
“Maybe Gordon Brown needs to do what I did...”
One problem from what I have read is that Gordon Brown is not a movie watcher anyway.
That cheeky Kenyan is an idiot...His wife too.
The Arrogant and the Classless are in charge now. I hope we have SOME friends left when they depart the national stage.
Why aren’t Repubs legislators all over TV and radio blasting the Obamanoids for their incompetence? They cant simply depend on Rush and talk radio to do it.
Glad to hear it...many of us are mortified.
Perhaps if Hillary simply engaged in diplomacy instead of trying to be cute. I’m so tired of these people.
It’s the Laugh-In/ SNL generation come to fruition. Everything’s a joke. I am afraid the joke is on us.
I’m just shocked that the UK’s fag media has turned on the cool black dude.
Not very hip, progressive and sophisticated of them.
Thanks for that. I’m so sorry to have to be associated with these boobs.
Besides being cringe-inducing because of the insult to our former president and because of using the wrong word, is it a good idea to joke about a big red button between the two nations who have the majority of the world’s nuclear warheads, and who had them aimed at each other for more than 40 years?
Trashing President Bush became part of the Obama campaign - that he was needed to ‘regain’ the world’s love for the USA. This idea was sold to the world, until it became “accepted wisdom” that everyone disliked the USA because of President Bush. A totally irrational perspective, but repeated every day in every way on every mass media outlet.
Liberals do not deal in truth and facts. They lie to themselves, and believe their own lies, and are then surprised when truth can no longer be avoided. Lies like Hillary is a qualified foreign policy expert! Or that Obama is going to govern from the center, etc etc.
British colonial forces accused of terror tactics in Kenya
February 7 2005-Kenyans who fought in the Mau Mau rebellion have taken the British government to court for alleged humans rights abuses. Their application reflects the fluidity of the concept of terrorism. While the colonial government referred to the Mau Mau as ‘terrorists’ in the 1950s, the Kenyan Mau Mau Trust has now delivered a dossier to the British High Commission in Nairobi, entitled “Kenya: White Terror”. More than 200 000 Kenyan freedom fighters were detained in camps in a bid to force them to abandon their nationalist goals in the 1950s. The dossier catalogues instances of torture and murder by British soldiers and locals under their command. Other documented atrocities in the report include castration and blinding of defiant captives, as well as fatal whippings and r ape by British soldiers. The report is based on more than 6000 depositions alleging numerous cases of human rights abuse. This is the third time Kenya is seeking reparations from the British government for atrocities committed during British colonial rule.
Read the East African report on Allafrica
“Can others mix? The reason I ask is because the Republic of Panama (region 4 according to your map) has no problems playing DVDs, etc, from the U.S.”
Also, and it could be, the U.S. and Panama share a lot of “like” things as compared to other countries which would make Panama the exception in this area.
“Perhaps in the future Obama and Hillary should just give a gift certificate to foreign dignataries, and they can go buy whatever they want.”
A brilliant idea indeed. I love it!!!
The children could get gift certificates to McDonalds (is that too expensive?). And the Browns could get gift certificates for a drink at the airport as they are leaving. Oh wait. They travel by private plane...But do the Obamas know this?
Hmmm...(thinking again). How about a couple of bottles of Ripple Wine? Oh wait. That is not produced anymore...Hmmm...thinking...Oh yes!!! Thunderbird Wine should do it.
I know MP and Mrs. Brown would be overwhelmed with surprise and wonder at the thought and care given to each gift.
P.S.
I forgot about Hillary.
She too is a cheapo.
At the end of some official meal/banquet she has with the Russians, she needs to handed a bill as she is going out the door (at the table would be nice) for the meal and tips.
(I wonder if the Russian thought for a nanosecond the button he was expected to push for show was really a detonator, and she was wearing the suicide belt.)
i haven’t seen reports that he got the region wrong. That would be truly classic!
I’ll bet good money Huma got chewed out later that night.
That sounds like a pun to me.
British colonial forces accused of terror tactics in Kenya
&&&&
I tell everyone who will listen that we have a Kenyan-American in the White House, with no Eurocentric sensitivities at all. He is much more in synchrony with the rest of the non-European countries that make up the majority of the UN, who have been living in hope of knocking the USA off its superpower status for years.
bump
“You about photo says it all, Thanks for your service and may GOD bless. Stay safe soldier.”
Thank you Joe! God bless you and your family, too.
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