Posted on 11/05/2014 7:12:14 PM PST by PotatoHeadMick
Ireland, like most members of the European Union, uses the euro. The United Kingdom, including Northern Ireland and Scotland, kept the pound as its currency instead. This is not particularly complicated, but it is apparently quite confusing to Joe Kernen, co-host of CNBC's "Squawk Box."
The show hosted Martin Shanahan, the head of IDA Ireland, an Irish government agency responsible for promoting foreign investment in the country. When Kernen's co-host Rebecca Quick asked Shanahan how the weaker euro affected tourism to Ireland, Kernen erupted in utter bafflement, as you can see in the above video.
Specifically, Kernen appears unable to grasp that Ireland and the UK are separate countries:
(Excerpt) Read more at vox.com ...
The guy admits that he recently visited the UK and appeared not to understand the very simplest and most basic political and economic situation in the country he was visiting? It's not like it was Burkino Faso or somewhere, it's the UK, the US' biggest ally and one of its most important trading partners.
That's quite apart from the shocking level of ignorance about the fairly well-known history of Ireland that a guy called Joe Kernen might be expected to be familiar with.
Well Northern Ireland is a part of the UK.
Joe Kernan, you’re a sassenach!
pogue mahon!
CC
I thought Ireland was part of the UK. Also thought that the UK is not a country but a group of countries.
Northern Ireland is still part of the United Kingdom.
Probably most Americans would make the same mistake, don’t think it is too embarrassing
He and his 5th grader wrote a book defending capitalism.
“Well Northern Ireland is a part of the UK”.
Yes, and that is clearly stated in the first line of the article.
The person being interviewed was a representative of a different country, the Republic of Ireland.
It’s not terribly confusing, if a member of the South Korean government was being interviewed you wouldn’t expect the interviewer to ask about “your president Kim Jong-un”, you’d expect a commentator on international finance to have a basic grasp of political geography.
My measuring stick is “If I know more that the expert, he’s a pathetic SOS”.
Or a European country.
See my post above.
If a commentator is so ignorant that he doesn’t know that the Republic of Ireland gained independence from the UK almost a century ago I would suggest he give up his job.
That is really odd to me. I actually read the article to make sure Northern Ireland wasn’t mentioned.
After your post I looked again and there it was staring me in the face. I guess I am getting stupid in my old age.
Geography is fun and not hard. People should try it sometime.
Oh dear.
The UK is a country, it’s on the UN security council, it’s in the G-7, it is the US’ number one ally, how on earth can you believe it’s not a country?
And the Republic of Ireland got independence from the UK almost a century ago, seriously dude.
Ok, I'm exaggerating. But the same folks who would give this "journalist" a pass for not knowing the Ireland and Northern Ireland were separate entities, would point to said pop quiz and say "SEE? An imbecile!"
Yes I am totally aware that Northern Ireland and Ireland are not the same country tho they share the same island. I also know that Great Britain does not include Northern Ireland and also that England does not include Scotland, Northern Ireland or Wales.
That’s great, it’s fairly basic geography that one would expect most people to understand about what is a pretty major world nation, but you stated in your post that you didn’t think the UK was an actual country, which I found rather surprising. Forgive me if I came across as a bit snippy.
Sorry, please excuse my post, it was another poster who said that, not you.
Sorry, please excuse my post, it was another poster who said that, not you. I need my eyes tested as well.
What are you talking about?
I said no such thing.
OK forget my last post too.
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