There's an old joke about the Pope dying and being met by God himself in Heaven. God tells the Pope that he was most pleased with his work on earth, and would like to offer him whatever he would like in Heaven as his reward. The Pope, ever the pious and scholarly man, asks for a chance to read all of the scriptures and church documents in their original forms. Because, he figures, he finally has the time.
God is more than happy to oblige, and ushers the Pope into a comfortable reading room in Heaven's library, and has all the requested documents delivered.
The Pope reads for days, weeks, months...until one day, an awful wailing sound is heard coming from the library. The angels rush to the Pope, and find him seated on the floor, a book open on his lap, tears streaming down his face.
"What's wrong?" they ask.
The Pope points to a line of text, and says, "it says celebrate!"
...
No point to that joke except this: isn't it kind of funny (in that awful way things tend to be funny these days) that the best possible way this can reflect on the administration is that the State Department's "director of the office of press and public diplomacy in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs" goes on the biggest Arabic news channel, gives an interview in Arabic, and inadvertently says "stupid and arrogant" instead of...well, what did he mean to say, anyway? Competent and well-planned?
Maybe Mr. Fernandez should hire a good translator. Wouldn't want there to be any cultural misunderstandings here, after all.
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