🚀 go-pugleaf

> 
> >Now they have a good percentage of OUR (the U.S.) market. Look at the stereo
> >market, the TV, VCR, CAMERA, ETC.... There are more JAPANESE and CHINESE
> >then all those who natively speak English.  This attitude will continue the
> >ORIENTAL invasion of our markets.
> 

Permit me to make a comment about this statement.  This does not deal with
internationalization directly, but it does deal with discussing this topic.

Fortunately, our site had a copy of the parent article, because the
above can easily be misconstrued.  I am talking about the use of loaded
words like "ORIENTAL invasion."  I realize the speaker has quite a
respect, but his words can easily be taken out of context as his entire
text was not quoted.

Recently, I was returning from a meeting in Montreal and behind me sat
two members from a major military weapons facility (to go unnamed) who
attended the same meeting.  They were discussing the supercomputer
race with a non-meeting passenger on the plane talking about how if
the US did not keep up with the Japanese, that US industry/defense,
everything would be at the mercy (too kind a word for genitals) of
the Japanese.  At which point, I turned around to join an what I thought
would be interesting discussion.  The speaker promptly shut up.

If you are going to discuss invasions, let us not forget that WWII
hysteria drove my relatives into detention centers and created
witch hunts in the 1950s.  Do we begin by turning the US into a
totalitarian state because of economic hardship?  Perhaps, I should
quit working for the US government because I might be suspected of
being an economic spy.  Perhaps, you want all those descended from
the Far East to jump off cliffs to remove all doubt?
I rarely like to think about "the color of my skin," but recent
protectionist attitudes has my guard up.  I don't regard my comments
as a flame, but rather a defense of civil liberties.

To repeat, I don't regard the above as a personal attack, but
everyone discussing internationalisation had best put a good
foot forward (or I should say hand) as this group is read around the
world.

--eugene miya
  NASA Ames Research Center
  {hplabs,ihnp4,dual,hao,decwrl,allegra}!ames!aurora!eugene
  emiya@ames-vmsb