Yes Madam, No Sir. Another classic from Lebanon.

Seriously. What the hell were MoneyGram thinking when they came up with these ads? Or is it just me and a few others who were insulted by them? But if that were true, then the voice overs of the "pilipino" and Shandra, who is only good at talking and knows it, would have been by an actual man from the Philippines and a Sri Lankan woman named Shandra. Not a Lebanese making fun of the two.

Oh and one more thing MoneyGram: It's not even funny.

MoneyGram Lebanon Summer Campaign Radio Spots:

Speaking of the Arab awakening, when are we going to wake up?

Nariman works in business development in Jordan and is on a mission to a gulf country. Throughout her trip, she would complain about the number Indians there were, and how it is difficult to understand them (once to an Indian expecting empathy), or how everything smells when they're around. At some point, she just blurts out "Look. I can't stand them. OK?" In one of the business meetings she had with a local, she started asking about the reasons for the competitive edge some companies have over others and then deduced "Yeah it's maybe cause they have so many Indians". The local business owner said "But we all employ many Indian engineers. You know they get paid more than Arabs. They don't need to come here, there's a boom in their country."

You'd expect Nariman to have been shocked to the core by this piece of info. But no. She made a derogatory remark and brushed it off. We are Arabs. Of course we are better.

True story.

Stating the obvious

"Here's the thing. Don't even think about an Indonesian, because they are simply not clean. Sri Lankans would work very hard in the house, but don't let them near your child. Philippinos... now that's a tricky one. They're great with kids and they can do household chores. But they will never agree to do both. Their major weakness is that they babble on about human rights and demand their day off a week. Oh and they will never let you hold on to their passport."

I did not make this up. I overheard this conversation between a woman in her mid-30s, giving advice on how to select a foreign domestic worker. For me, the most baffling thing was how this woman had gathered enough information about groups of people from 3 different countries to make this very confident conclusion. And then it dawned on me, she didn't. She probably just based these conclusions on a few experiences that she's had and feedback from her neighbours and friends. Not the most scientific of methods I suppose.