oh, so that's what they meant

[jfb]

William Saletan:

Thursday morning, President Bush greeted the people of Iraq on their TV screens. "You are a good and gifted people," he told them as Arabic script appeared below his face. I don't know Arabic, but I'm sure the translation didn't convey what Bush means by "gifted." He doesn't mean exceptional. He means ethnic.

What? Go read it.

Comments

[greyaenigma.livejournal.com]

My god. Is that what they meant by putting us in all those "gifted" classes? Grade school ghettos?

Seriously, as much as I want to find fault with Bush and his regime, from reading the article, it sounds largely like typical political speak. They're not going to go out and give a speech to people whose support they at least ostensibly want and say, "you're all a bunch of slovenly losers with poor posture and worse hygiene."

I still have yet to write that bit comparing the condescension I feel at work with what I feel from the Bush regime. Maybe I'll sleep first.

[dongle.livejournal.com]

If anyone knows where to find a clip of Bush's speech, I can get have the Arabic subtitles translated by someone for whom Arabic is a first language, and who is a professional translator. His article should have ended with "I don't know Arabic." I hope Slate didn't pay a lot for this article.

[greyaenigma.livejournal.com]

I was of the impression that Bush's speech was given in English. Are you saying it doesn't matter what Bush actually said, as long a non-official translation sounds OK?

[dongle.livejournal.com]

No, but I am saying that, as Bush was addressing Arab speakers, and his remarks were going to be translated, his writers would likely consult with some translators as to how things should be phrased, so that their meaning could be translated by the captioners. I've given prepared speeches to Arab audiences via translators, and they often will suggest changes in phrase and idiom that would seem odd to English speakers but make perfect sense in Arabic. If that sort of thing happens when I address 150 Arab businessmen about the Internet, surely we can assume that similar activities surround a key address by an American president to the Iraqi people at a point in time where our military are engaged in a conflict with their leaders.

Further, while the author isn't saying outright that Arabs would misunderstand Bush (although he seems to think that they would, even while he admits his ignorance of what the Iraqis would have understood,) but rather he's saying that he understands "gifted" when used by Bush to be some sort of right-wing racist "code" that indicates disdain rather than the plain meaning of the term ("possessing gifts.") Are Republicans never allowed to mean what they say? Is the party of "I did not have sex with that woman" in any position to perform this kind of linguistic analysis on presidential speeches? While we're at it, why don't we just go ahead and say that Bush hates white people, since he never calls them "gifted?"

Since 9/11, the left has surpassed even the far right in its paranoia and delusion. And, just as it makes no sense to get into arguments with the likes of Timothy McVeigh, it makes little sense to argue with someone who thinks he finds coded messages in words like "gifted" and "talented."

Re:

[greyaenigma.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure Bush hates me, or would if he were aware of the greater population.

Also, while this may have changed, Bush doesn't have the best record for actually thinking about what he's saying with regards to the rest of the world. I'm remembering specifically the "crusade" he talked about bringing against the middle east shortly after 9/11.

Also, frankly, I don't think a discussion of the subtle semantic connotations of "gifted" holds a candle to the kind of right-wing-nuttery I've seen coming from the radical right. Just the implication that Saddam was in cahoots with Bin Laden blows it out of the water.

Re:

[greyaenigma.livejournal.com]

Here is an interesting article about a friend of mine who actually did the effort in debunking a lot of right-wing myths.

I won't argue that a lot of people on the left have said a lot of stupid things and I wish they'd kept their mouth shut, but I'm not at all prepared to accept that the left is anymore crazy than the right. And that's without mentioning trying to impeach a president because he was one of a very long line of infidels and liars of both parties.

[jfb.livejournal.com]

Okay, both of you, cut it out.

Here's what happened: A guy (not the Democratic party) did a Lexis-Nexis search (not a linguistic analysis) and posted to his paid but informal blog (not a peer-reviewed journal). I linked to it because, to me, it was an interesting way of interpreting a phrase (not proof of wrongdoing).

Don't go turning this into a which-side-is-wackier brawl. Left and right both have their share of people so crazy that "left" and "right" hardly apply. William Saletan's little parlor trick isn't in their league.

(For what it's worth, although I don't know much about Saletan's political leanings, I wouldn't call him a mouthpiece for the Democrats. He doesn't seem to like Bush very much, but he supported Bush's wars on Afghanistan and Iraq. In the last few years he's gone after Bush and Hatch, but also Clinton, Daschle, Gore, and Feinstein.

I think the proper context in which to view the "gifted" item is this: Before his current Iraq-centered assignments, his work for Salon was mostly in three ongoing columns about "spin". His strength is analyzing style, not substance. So when he spots an odd phrase in a speech, he talks about it. It's what he does.)

[jfb.livejournal.com]

I think he's on staff.

I think the line about the Arabic translation was a throwaway, The article wasn't about what the Iraqi people saw on TV but about a pattern of word usage by the president. (I also don't think it's meant all that seriously--I mean, it's a blog entry.)