| Monday, July 17, 2006 |
| History lesson from 33,000 feet above sea level |
This is what inspired this post. I’m in the plane with my family flying to LA for a two week vacation. The security video on the Delta flight was slightly disturbing. The friendly female announcer said, with a lovely smile, "…most of the seat cushions can be used as flotation device…" Most of them? What do you mean most of them? So, whose seat cushion is going to be stuck to the seat in case of emergency…?
To take my mind off, the seat cushion I started playing the Inflight Trivia challenge under the name Loser. When a question that I’m 100% sure about came, it was about Ethiopia. The question was "Which African country is the oldest Christian country?" I confidently pressed "Ethiopia" on the screen and got it right. You get a short description or added info related to the question. The description read, "Christianity came to Ethiopian in 1923 after the occupation of Italy…" Hello! Try 4th century AD, dude. Who designs these trivia questions? Do they do any research, at least on Google - never mind reading books…
Ethiopians date the coming of Christianity to Ethiopia to the fourth century AD, when a Christian philosopher from Tyre named Meropius was shipwrecked on his way to India. Meropius died but his two wards, Frumentius and Aedesius were washed ashore and taken to the royal palace. Eventually they became king Ella Amida’s private secretary and royal cupbearer respectively. They served the king well, and Frumentius became regent for the infant prince Ezana when Ella Amida died. Frumentius and Aedesius were also permitted to prosyletize the new religion in Aksum (as modern Ethiopia was then known). After some time, Frumentius and Aedesius returned to the Mediterranean, travelling down the Nile through Egypt to do so. When they reached Egypt, Frumentius contacted bishop Athanasius of Alexandria and begged him to send missionaries back to Aksum, since the people there had proved so ready to receive the gospel.
May be the person responsible for the "research" doesn't know the difference between Orthodox church with protestant churches in Ethiopia.
The Sudan Interior Mission began its work in the South of Ethiopia in the 1920s. It progressed steadily but unspectacularly, baptising four converts in 1932 and perhaps a hundred by the time they were driven out of Ethiopia by the invading Italians in 1938.
If Delta can't ensure flotation device for all, at least get the facts right on the trivia quiz.
I am looking forward to doing some Paparazzi work in Hollywood tomorrow. |
posted by Fikirte @ 11:43 AM
 
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| 1 Comments: |
- name<="c1580565974068010677" id="c1580565974068010677">
I, too, played the inflight trivia challenge and was amazed at the inaccuracies and spelling mistakes. I didn't know, for example, that Klinger from M*A*S*H was a transvestite (not a crossdresser) nor that the 70s show I once watched was the Mary Tyler Movie show. I wish I could find out who writes those questions and offer to be their copy editor, I would be busy for the rest of my natural life!
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I, too, played the inflight trivia challenge and was amazed at the inaccuracies and spelling mistakes. I didn't know, for example, that Klinger from M*A*S*H was a transvestite (not a crossdresser) nor that the 70s show I once watched was the Mary Tyler Movie show. I wish I could find out who writes those questions and offer to be their copy editor, I would be busy for the rest of my natural life!