America's Long Middle Finger

This is amusing. Indra Nooyi, President and CFO of PepsiCo, recently gave a speech to Columbia Business School graduates, where she said, amongst other things,

This analogy of the five fingers as the five major continents leaves the long, middle finger for North America, and, in particular, The United States. As the longest of the fingers, it really stands out. The middle finger anchors every function that the hand performs and is the key to all of the fingers working together efficiently and effectively. This is a really good thing, and has given the U.S. a leg-up in global business since the end of World War I.
However, if used inappropriately –just like the U.S. itself -- the middle finger can convey a negative message and get us in trouble. You know what I’m talking about.
What is most crucial to my analogy of the five fingers as the five major continents, is that each of us in the U.S. – the long middle finger – must be careful that when we extend our arm in either a business or political sense, we take pains to assure we are giving a hand … not the finger. Sometimes this is very difficult. Because the U.S. – the middle finger – sticks out so much, we can send the wrong message unintentionally.
Unfortunately, I think this is how the rest of the world looks at the U.S. right now. Not as part of the hand – giving strength and purpose to the rest of the fingers – but, instead, scratching our nose and sending a far different signal.

I posted a larger section of her speech, because apparently, there are some moronic bloggers out there that are absolutely pissed at the affront to America, Nooyi makes. I'm not entirely sure if those offended have actually read her speech before launching into fevered defense of their country.

To those Americans that are offended by her words -- wake up! That's what you do on a regular basis to the world. You extend your middle finger. You do wonderful things around the world, and you're a great people, but whenever some idiot, especially the one in the White House, sticks it out to the world, it undoes all the good you've done. I believe that was Nooyi's point -- if you'd bother to read her speech, you'd get that.