Griping about a pet peeve

[aesmael]

Episode of Nikita taking place in Hong Kong, person they are pursuing murders his girlfriend and calls the police to stymie them. Spy agency folk at their office describe it as there having been "a 911 call" placed, but in Hong Kong as in England the number is 999.

What bugs me is the prominence US media gives to their local emergency number. Not so much for it being a bad idea or thing to do in itself, but the knock-on effects of this tendency. Other nations don't give their local number such prominence in their media - I think this might be a mistake on their part. Where a British or Australian show would say "call the police", a US program would say "call 911".

Effective device for educating the populace on the number to call in case of emergency, but with the pervasive export of US media, leads to people living internationally thinking first of the foreign number to call instead of their own local number.

Comments

[cmcmck]

Ah, the wonderful world of US cultural imperialism! :oS