I do.
What I remember most was not the Liberal bias toward communist tin pot dictators and their murderous thugs. What I remember most is the stupid determination by the reporters for networks like CNN and NPR to pronounce Latin names with a Latin accent. The people would be chattering on about the wonders of the socialist paradise being constructed by the Ortega brothers - in middle American English - and every name would be pronounced with a Spanish accent.
It bothered the hell out of me.
John Derbyshire has a good short article on this topic that is a joy to read.
The indispensable Michael Kelly, writing in the New York Post (12/8/99, p.41), deplores the silence of the U.S. government in the face of a massive ethnic cleansing currently under way in Kosovo, this time "conducted by the Albanians against their ethnic Serb, Croatian, Roma and Muslim Slavic neighbors". I certainly share Mr Kelly's indignation; but-- excuse me-- who the heck are the Roma?
The question is rhetorical: having been given the novels of George Borrow (Lavengro, Romany Rye) to read at an early age, I happen to know that rom means "man" in the Gypsy language. The Roma are the Gypsies. How many other people know this, I cannot guess, but I feel sure it is not many. So why confuse us like this? Why not say "Gypsy"?
There is more of this going on. A scholarly e-group I belong to recently featured some exchanges about a people called the Saami. This one I didn't know and had to ask: "Saami" is the new, PC-certified name of the Lapps. Further east, the Samoyeds are now "Nemtsi". Meanwhile, down in Africa, Hottentots are "Khoi" while Bushmen must be called "San". What will now become of my party piece, reciting the silliest word in the German language: Hottentotenpotentatenstantenattentäter-- "one who assails the aunt of a Hottentot potentate"?
Read the rest.
This thought was brought about by the recent stories coming out of Burma.
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