"I Am Not American" Web Site Adds Designs, Languages, Merchandise

"I Am Not American" Web Site Adds Designs, Languages, Merchandise

Surrey, BC.
November 29, 2003

It started with a t-shirt featuring the Canadian flag and the phrase "I
am not American" translated into multiple languages, a web site with a
provocative name - iamnotamerican.com - and a few borrowed dollars to get it
all going. It resulted in the shirt's designer receiving abuse and threats,
and one U.S-based website owner trying to shut him down. Now, Surrey (B.C.)
resident Trevor Wilson is expecting more of the same after releasing new
designs and additional merchandise featuring the same controversial message.

Thanks to 'advances in modern technology' it is now possible for anyone
with an original design to offer a range of products without the need to
purchase and maintain a large inventory. Trevor has taken full advantage of
this by offering a selection of merchandise such as stickers, mousepads,
coffee cups and clothing with one of his seventeen multi-lingual or single
language designs.

"I can make all five of my original designs available, whereas before I
could only sell the one design." Trevor said Saturday. "I have also made
each of twelve languages available by themselves on their own products. The
shirt featuring Arabic only, for example, looks great! Custom designs are
also possible now, with any combination of available languages."

Having refined the design since the original 'Canadian Flag' shirt went
on sale in February, the language line-up has changed slightly, with the
addition of Spanish and Dutch and the deletion of Afrikaans. Also available
in addition to the two new languages are Arabic, French, German, Japanese,
Italian, Portuguese, Slovak, Chinese, Russian and of course, English.

Newly added designs include all twelve languages without a background,
or with backdrops such as the circular 'Peace' symbol. In a move that is
bound to upset some 'Stateside', other designs feature the American flag
beneath the international symbol of prohibition, either by itself or with
the the multilingual "I am not American" translations.

Prompted by a personal experience over ten years ago, Trevor had been
toying with the idea ever since. In August of 2001 he decided to finally
put his plans in motion, but tragic events the next month resulted in a
decision to delay release for at least one more year. In 2003, the site was
closed for two days out of respect for the many victims of September 11.

Over and above the basic concept of the design (after all, how dare
someone want to say they were not American?), Wilson's sense of humour has
upset some. At one stage an image was featured of U.S. President George W.
Bush 'wearing' one of the shirts. This resulted in a resident of Bush's
home state - Texas - starting a campaign of harassment in order to close the
web site. About that, Trevor said "the odd thing is that this person ran a
'free speech' web site. It seems they didn't truly believe in the concept
of free speech."

Trevor also points out an interesting example of irony. The only
company offering the 'small-run' service he is utilising to make all his
designs and merchandise available is located in the U.S.A. "I find it
amusing that an American company is producing something that says 'I am not
American'," he said. "Unfortunately though, no Canadian company offers this
service, but the minute they can, I will be there giving them my business".

The full range of "I am not American" merchandise is available on the
internet at http://www.iamnotamerican.com .

I like a lot of other Americans are probably too busy doing more important
things with our time than making T-Shirts like, "I am not Canadian" or "I am
not French." although if someone made them, I'll bet a lot of us would be very
happy to wear them.

--
Dairenn Lombard
Los Angeles, CA - http://www.base-ix.com/~dlombard/
Base-IX Communications, coming 2004

Dairenn Lombard wrote:
I like a lot of other Americans are probably too busy doing more
important things with our time than making T-Shirts like, "I am not
Canadian" or "I am not French." although if someone made them, I'll bet
a lot of us would be very happy to wear them.


Actually I'm a bit familiar with the kind of problem canadians face
abroad. I'm dutch and every time I'm abroad people think I'm german.
It's just very annoying. Not that I have something against germans, but
I'm simply not german. In some parts of europe you used to get really
lousy service if they thought you are german. That situation is
improving luckely.

Nils

"Nils Zonneveld" wrote in message
...
I'm simply not german. In some parts of europe you used to get really
lousy service if they thought you are german. That situation is
improving luckely.

Maybe they're bad tippers?

McWebber wrote:
"Nils Zonneveld" wrote in message
...

I'm simply not german. In some parts of europe you used to get really
lousy service if they thought you are german. That situation is
improving luckely.


Maybe they're bad tippers?



We dutch are probably even worse tippers. When I was in New York I was
shocked to hear that service personel expected a 20% tip (gasp!). At
home I'm used to tipping to round to the next 5 euro's if the service
was good. But then again, service is included in the prices here (not
that New York is any cheaper than Amsterdam despite that).

Nils

"Nils Zonneveld" wrote in message
...


McWebber wrote:
"Nils Zonneveld" wrote in message
...

I'm simply not german. In some parts of europe you used to get really
lousy service if they thought you are german. That situation is
improving luckely.


Maybe they're bad tippers?



We dutch are probably even worse tippers. When I was in New York I was
shocked to hear that service personel expected a 20% tip (gasp!). At
home I'm used to tipping to round to the next 5 euro's if the service
was good. But then again, service is included in the prices here (not
that New York is any cheaper than Amsterdam despite that).

I'm not sure what service personnel *expect* a 20% tip. They might like it,
but generally expect 15%. But, since you know that service is not included
in the prices, you tip accordingly.

--
McWebber
No email replies read
If someone tells you to forward an email to all your friends
please forget that I'm your friend.

Dairenn Lombard wrote:

I like a lot of other Americans are probably too busy doing more important
things with our time than making T-Shirts like, "I am not Canadian" or "I am
not French." ...

And why should you do it? You wouldn't make much money.

I think it's cool. I notice you can order the T-shirts *without*
the English translation. So you can get one in Arabic that Arabs
will understand, and when Americans ask you what it says, you can
tell them "It means 'I Am A Proud American.'" And since
Americans seem to be too lazy to study foreign languages, they'll
have to believe you.

\\J. Smith

Schultz writes:

And since Americans seem to be too lazy to study
foreign languages, they'll have to believe you.


Americans aren't "too lazy" to study foreign languages.
We simply have no practical need to do so. This is
because of the sheer size of our country and the cor-
responding lack of proximity to peoples nattering in
other tongues. Hell, we have mere *counties* that are
bigger than a lot of those cute little European nations.

ObTopical: English is the international language of
aviation. I bet that ****es off the fashionable
America-haters something fierce, and particularly
galls (heh) the French.

"Frere ZHOCK-uh, frere ZHOCK-uh
Dormay voo? Dormay voo?
Sonny LeMattina, Sonny LeMattina
He's nice, too. He's nice, too."

See? I speak that ****. Haw!



Geoff

--
If God were a liberal, we'd
have the Ten Suggestions.

Geoff Miller wrote:


Americans aren't "too lazy" to study foreign languages.
We simply have no practical need to do so. This is
because of the sheer size of our country and the cor-
responding lack of proximity to peoples nattering in
other tongues. Hell, we have mere *counties* that are
bigger than a lot of those cute little European nations.

Which counties are bigger than "a lot" of European Nations?
Your definition of "a lot" differs from mine.

mrtrav writes:

Which counties are bigger than "a lot" of European Nations?

You're trying to get me to jump through hoops, and I don't
do hoops. But being in a magnanimous mood, I'll get you
pointed in the right direction. Hint: break out a map of
the United States, one that shows counties, and look out
West. (If the map is right-side up, that will be to your
left...which is probably intuitive, in your case.)


Your definition of "a lot" differs from mine.

Well now, that strikes me as a bit odd, seeing as how you
hadn't even given me a chance to respond to your question
yet.



Geoff

--
If God were a liberal, we'd
have the Ten Suggestions.