No Sex Please, we’re British

Many a punchline has been cracked at the expense of the entire population of a country but you can’t seriously be telling me that every Irishman is ‘tick , every Italian has a yellow streak a mile wide and then only time I ever have sex is with the lights off (to be honest I can’t recall that far back, you had best ask the wife, she has the memory (arse) of an elephant)
National Stereotyping may be narrow minded , xenophobic and occasionally borderline racist but its not all bad, it has also provided us with some of the funniest jokes in world history but as they say , many a truth has been told in jest. In my job I have the dubious pleasure of working with colleagues from around the globe on a daily basis (the staff in the canteen are all foreign) and I must admit that its with a tedious regularity that they live up to their reputations both good and bad.
Take for example (this story is actually true and not at all massaged for literary effect) the meeting I had last week to discuss ‘the plan’ I invited to the meeting our Italian, French, German and Greek representatives as its their countries that will be largely effected, I distributed the documentation and arranged a mutually convenient time to talk (our American friends please note that there is more than one time zone in the world and I don’t appreciate being invited to a meeting at two o clock in the morning and then moaned at for not being there). The French didn’t turn up (no one knows where they were although it was 15:00 local time so probably still at lunch) The Germans were five minutes early and had kindly re evaluated my plan, The Greeks although 15 minutes late were very cheerful (unlike our Teutonic friends) but didn’t really have any idea why they were there as they hadn’t bothered to check their email and the Italians turned up vaguely on time, had a bare grasp of what we were discussing but stopped the meeting half way through for a quick espresso and smoke break (yes, that actually happened)
To prevent being labelled as some sort of goose stepping jack booted bigot (geese don’t actually walk like that so I assume ‘goose stepping’ must be linked to their sociopathic tendencies rather than their method of travel) I am going to try and find some good out of all this, for with the ying comes the yang.
The French might well be cheese eating surrender monkeys but boy is that cheese good, especially when washed down with a decent St Emilion or Chablis. The Italians although somewhat work shy and maybe a little vain invented Pizza, need I say more. The Greeks although unnecessarily hot tempered and responsible for the abomination that is Ouzo came up with the idea for the Olympics and have cool mustaches (yes, yes, and the men!) plus they have mezzes. The Germans although maybe a little up tight and stiff DO actually have a sense of humour and obviously invented Bratwurst and sour kraut which is never a bad thing. And now for some introspection, The English can be a small minded arrogant island race who stereotype everyone(no really, we do) but we can cook (honestly) and sometimes people do queue jump although never twice (we hang them for it here).
I hope this article although written tongue in cheek has given you food for thought, after all no one nation is all good (although the English come damn close!) or all bad, which I suppose raises the question ‘have you ever met a nice South African?’