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Ya ok so I was in the tub, reading articles on Canadian Military History, specifically during the Confederation/US Civil War period when I had a thought.
I don't know why this train of thought came around, but it deals with the more or less generally accepted litigious nature of American citizens in geneneral. I am not trying to start a pushing match here, in fact quite the opposite and no offence is offered or desired.
Most everyone here knows that I serve in the Canuck military and have done out of country duty, so the main focus of my point will in that direction.
While most Westerners generally accept that Americans will sue almost anyone for any reason, the example of the "gentleman" trying to sue Coca-cola because of a leaky pop can is just one. What is not known is that this is not strictly an "American pastime" as perhaps some might like to belive.
I specifically refer to those of Middle Eastern heritage. I spent 6 months in Cyprus, dealing with Greeks and Turks. In and of themselves, they are great people and I had a lot of fun working with them. However, as a United Nations Peacekeeper, I found that there were times when they could be quite difficult to work with.
Take example, an armoured vehicle doing a patrol through the Buffer Zone, and it runs over a chicken. In most places, while that might not be a real great day for the farmer, he will usually accept it as a loss and move on. Not so the Turk or Greek farmer. He will lament the loss of his chicken to the patrol commander, and then on to the Troop commander, and so on until his complaints are heard by the Regimental CO and sometimes even as high as the Force Commander. I know this for a fact. My primary job was in the Joint Operations Centre, and we heard the complaints first. We also saw the bills that came in for the loss of said chicken too.
The charges that were laid against the Force in general could be quite substantial based on the relative age and productivity of the chicken. Not only did we pay for the current replacement value, but we also paid for how much revenue that particular chicken might have made with egg sales, how many offspring it might have produced, and an approximate value for the lost revenues of that offspring. The bills that came in were sometimes astronomical in comparison to the basic replacement value of the animal itself. I never did figure out why this was, other than perhaps it was an easy way to make money off Foreigners. I even saw a renumeration for running over a dog, although UN troops had special license to hunt feral dogs to control rabies.
So the next time someone says he/she is going to sue you for some percieved wrong doing, ask how old the chicken was, and is it still producing eggs?
I don't know why this train of thought came around, but it deals with the more or less generally accepted litigious nature of American citizens in geneneral. I am not trying to start a pushing match here, in fact quite the opposite and no offence is offered or desired.
Most everyone here knows that I serve in the Canuck military and have done out of country duty, so the main focus of my point will in that direction.
While most Westerners generally accept that Americans will sue almost anyone for any reason, the example of the "gentleman" trying to sue Coca-cola because of a leaky pop can is just one. What is not known is that this is not strictly an "American pastime" as perhaps some might like to belive.
I specifically refer to those of Middle Eastern heritage. I spent 6 months in Cyprus, dealing with Greeks and Turks. In and of themselves, they are great people and I had a lot of fun working with them. However, as a United Nations Peacekeeper, I found that there were times when they could be quite difficult to work with.
Take example, an armoured vehicle doing a patrol through the Buffer Zone, and it runs over a chicken. In most places, while that might not be a real great day for the farmer, he will usually accept it as a loss and move on. Not so the Turk or Greek farmer. He will lament the loss of his chicken to the patrol commander, and then on to the Troop commander, and so on until his complaints are heard by the Regimental CO and sometimes even as high as the Force Commander. I know this for a fact. My primary job was in the Joint Operations Centre, and we heard the complaints first. We also saw the bills that came in for the loss of said chicken too.
The charges that were laid against the Force in general could be quite substantial based on the relative age and productivity of the chicken. Not only did we pay for the current replacement value, but we also paid for how much revenue that particular chicken might have made with egg sales, how many offspring it might have produced, and an approximate value for the lost revenues of that offspring. The bills that came in were sometimes astronomical in comparison to the basic replacement value of the animal itself. I never did figure out why this was, other than perhaps it was an easy way to make money off Foreigners. I even saw a renumeration for running over a dog, although UN troops had special license to hunt feral dogs to control rabies.
So the next time someone says he/she is going to sue you for some percieved wrong doing, ask how old the chicken was, and is it still producing eggs?
(Me)
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