Words and maneno
Had a near heated discussion yesterday about the use of the term Third World countries as opposed to First World countries, this has to do with how someone identifies their continent. The appropriate terms in my mind fall squarely between Least Developed to Developed and of course the in betweenies. This brought to my mind the daily discussions we had while I was training to work in the HIV/Aids sector about the use of language and how it can be used to diminish a human being, the use of AIDS victims, patient, sufferer were a definite no-no. Of course this was always brushed aside/dismissed as political correctness gone mad, now that term political correctness gone mad really annoys and irks me. As these were people living with HIV/Aids telling us what they preferred to be called, the choice has to be by the person that you are defining; that you desist in defining them by terms that often diminish them…….
The use of names of cities, recently one English pompous man called the BBC complaining about the change of names of Bombay to Mumbai, Peking to Beijing and that is something that the British in the empire days gave names that suited their pronunciation. Kenya is derived from Kerinyagah (I think, correct me if I am wrong)
This also follows from MJY’s post on Kenyaness, which set me thinking about identity, you know those identity cards (vitambulishos), I went to collect mine and I was told that I needed a chief to sign it, mind you this is not an ordinary run of the mill chief, but he had to come from the Central Province after all this where my “tribe” are supposed to come from. At least at this instance, we used kifua where the District Commissioner was a family friend. Anyway, I lost my kitambulisho and I am still trying to puzzle which chief I could have gone to…..
This morning on the radio, a deejay was describing a thief who went to burgle Tesco’s and he managed to get away with £400 worth of ciggies and ciggie papers, but the thief left his prison ID card as he had just been released from prison a couple of days before, the DJ said that “somewhere out there, there is a village that has lost its idiot” this reminds of me another one which I thought was so funny, cannot remember whether I read it in a book but to paraphrase “ the sex was so good that there were people in a ten-mile radius smoking”…..
The server at this place is down so I am trying to kill time… Can you imagine being at the whims and fancy of a network connection that can be so prima donnish?
The use of names of cities, recently one English pompous man called the BBC complaining about the change of names of Bombay to Mumbai, Peking to Beijing and that is something that the British in the empire days gave names that suited their pronunciation. Kenya is derived from Kerinyagah (I think, correct me if I am wrong)
This also follows from MJY’s post on Kenyaness, which set me thinking about identity, you know those identity cards (vitambulishos), I went to collect mine and I was told that I needed a chief to sign it, mind you this is not an ordinary run of the mill chief, but he had to come from the Central Province after all this where my “tribe” are supposed to come from. At least at this instance, we used kifua where the District Commissioner was a family friend. Anyway, I lost my kitambulisho and I am still trying to puzzle which chief I could have gone to…..
This morning on the radio, a deejay was describing a thief who went to burgle Tesco’s and he managed to get away with £400 worth of ciggies and ciggie papers, but the thief left his prison ID card as he had just been released from prison a couple of days before, the DJ said that “somewhere out there, there is a village that has lost its idiot” this reminds of me another one which I thought was so funny, cannot remember whether I read it in a book but to paraphrase “ the sex was so good that there were people in a ten-mile radius smoking”…..
The server at this place is down so I am trying to kill time… Can you imagine being at the whims and fancy of a network connection that can be so prima donnish?
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on Saturday, May 14, 2005 at 12:31 pm.
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LOL at the “ the sex was so good that there were people in a ten-mile radius smoking”…
We should all be so lucky!!
I remember going to a meeting just before the UN's World Conference on Women in Beijing. The woman from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office insisted on calling Beijing 'Peking' even after being corrected by several people. She said the FCO would continue using 'Peking' no matter what the Chinese said. I guess this was her personal view as I know they have changed all their documents to reflect this change but that was one weird meeting.
btw: pole - your team, Palace, got relegated - I saw generations (children, parents, grandparents, women and men openly sobbing):)
Nyaks...your blog is such a joy to read. You never know how a post is going to end. You manage to pack in so much in such a small space without losing my attention. How do you do it?
As for names, oh!! I have the same problem with my name. Every other English person wants me to change it into something they can pronounce. I was once asked if there was a short form of Kui!!?
Mshairi-My team did not get relegated it was the Saints they are still there in the Premier those were tears of joy not sadness. Honestly if they had been our village would have been razed to the ground.
MJY- thank you for those sweet words sometimes I feel like I ramble but I enjoy this blogsphere maneno and it is just an extension of me talking and I know when I talk people tend to switch off. You know this attention-seeking at its best ama!
Kymmbr- my hero what you do think it is just another way of making a statement another variation "Did the earth move?" Welcome back to the blogsphere, you have been missed
*Not making any comments on technology at this point, I dont want any hate mail*
I feel you on that "Third World" term. It always irks me. Its like trying to diminish those people who dont come from the "First World" - which are the second worlds-and how can we move to the first world, by stealing, killing and maiming and bombing them who live in the "First world"?
@MJY - that British thing of shortening names - ati a shorter version of Kui? I have a two syllable name and people cut the last letter of my name to shorten it-WTF?
Nyakehu- you looking for attention, you got it -we are listening- if only you could blog more often *wink wink*
Ati a name they can pronounce? Mine is so phonetic that a well trained seal could say it, but these people can't. On the other hand, we are all supposed to know how to pronounce "Worcester" and so forth: what the hell are all those extra letters doing? Anyway, great blog!