A ROSE IS STILL A ROSE
Shakespeare said in Romeo and Juliet “What is in a name? If a rose were called by any other name it would smell as sweet.” I don’t really believe that, “what is in a name?” Quite a lot actually; semantics is such that a word can change a lot. Recently the world has been obsessed with Bio-fuels and the word “Bio” has had disastrous consequences. I sat last night and wondered the importance of words and how they can change perceptions and even destiny. Noam Chomsky popped up in my mind; I remember studying semiotics 11 years ago, it was tedious but important. Words are transient, opaque, and elusive; they hurt more than sticks and stones, they are sweeter than honey, bitter than acid and stir the soul.
In recent times we have been bombarded with facts about the environment; about global warming, poles melting, and total collapse of eco-systems. The environmentalists have to put it in the starkest terms to get us to respond in time and quite often they are hysterical and even false. So Petrol is bad; diesel is evil, gasoline is mean. We were made to feel guilty for even jumping in a car; the guilt was mounting until we were given a solution. Bio-fuels; funny how just adding three letters to a word makes pollution okay. Bio-fuels are not as eco-friendly (another word) as they say; they don’t have many benefits to society and they actually cause environmental destruction on a massive scale.
It is like have a blanket that is too short; you have to choose between covering your feet or your chest. The Western consumer demanded a panacea for guilt and some marketing geeks thought up Bio-fuels; nations in the third world then proceeded to chop down millions of hectares of rain forest in order to save the environment. The price of food is rising and millions in the poorest countries face starvation because land that could have been used for food is now used for Bio-Ethanol, corn that could be eaten is now driving SUV’s and all staple foods are now in short supply.
There are words that instantly imply a positive connotation such as BIO, ECO, and sustainable. That is the beauty of marketing, playing on words can make you want something. DIET, FAT-FREE, LOW-CHOLESTERAL can make you buy anything and eat them in massive quantities; an ex-girlfriend of mine could eat a whole 14-inch pizza but only wash it down with diet Coke. A play on words is all it takes to sway the idiotic mind of a human, I remember my favourite cereal in the UK was “full of natural goodness” I wondered just what this natural goodness was, and how they could quantify it? Nevertheless cheerios rule the cereal world and should be enjoyed any time of the day.
The word NEW is dangerous; it is the most lethal word in advertising. Daz is one of the most popular washing powder brands in the UK; it was suffering low sales when they came up with a brilliant concept. NEW DAZ! It saved them millions in research and development just by adding the word NEW. Soon they were at it again NEW DAZ BIO, NEW DAZ ECO and so on. A word is all it takes to cause a war, find peace, call a truce. Right now the Israelis and Arabs know they both want peace just that they need to find a set of words that they can both sign up to; a set of words that are acceptable in Arabic, Hebrew and English. I wish them luck in that endeavour.
The word NIGGER is one of my favourites; when I went to live in the UK I was talking to someone when I heard the word. A friend was quoting someone and squirmed as he said it, he apologised profusely and I wondered why. Then I realised I had to learn the reflex of offence and jump up like a jack-in-a box whenever I heard it. It is one of the greatest con-tricks of all time, political correctness sought to eradicate all words of offence from the social sphere, while leaving in place all the social discrimination and setting the boundaries of offence. I have a friend Ronnie who steadfastly refuses to use the N-word even in a hip-hop context, which I found absurd because in hip-hop it is NIGGA; see the trick? Spelling it phonetically gives it a whole new context. It underlines the lower educational standards, ironic self-deprecation and repetition to dull the impact.
A Tribe Called Quest were one of the most politically conscious and righteous groups, they shocked their fans with their song SUCKA NIGGA. It concisely deals with the issues surrounding the word.
Socially I’m not a not a name, Black and White got game
If you came to the jam then I’m glad you came
See, nigga was first used up in the Deep South
Calling out between the dome of the white man’s mouth
It means that you can never grow; you know the word dummy
Other niggas in the community think it’s funny
But I don’t, neither do the youth coz we embrace adversity
It goes right with the race and being as we us it as a term of endearment
Niggas start to bug to the dome as where the fear went
Now the little shorties say it all of the time
And a whole bunch of niggas throw the word in their rhyme
Yo I start to flinch as I try not to say it
But my lips be like a ooh-wop (uzi) as I start to spray it
Sucka Nigga, Nigga, Nigga, I throw the sucka in the front
For the ones that front, sucka nigga, nigga, nigga
It’s the neo-nigga of the nineties
Our fathers scratch their heads because they fought wars of independence in order not to be called that word and then we use it as a term of endearment but this is always an important step in generations getting over the hurdle of discrimination. Re-branding is very important in the victimology that gets people their civil rights. In the 50’s Niggers became “Coloured”; which implied it wasn’t really their fault, just coloured a different shade. Then “Black” as they wanted rights on their own terms, then “Ethnic minorities” to imply they weren’t a threat. Homosexual is a horrible word; if they were still called that they’d still be seen as they were; but the genius who came up with the word: GAY was clever. It implied they were just excessively happy, as if they were just giggling effeminate queens and nothing to fear.
In Rwanda, two words have haunted our history; now it is very hard to say them in any social setting. These words have lead to decades of strife and countless dead. The government in one of its first motions moved to remove it from all public and private spheres. The words Hutu and Tutsi are no longer to be socially acceptable words and while they can’t be erased from current memory, it is hoped that they will cease to exist in future ones. Children are an example to us all; one of my favourite stories was told me by my cousin’s best friend’s mother. “When I first heard of Paul I just thought he was another kid, when I came to see the Christmas play I asked my son to point him out. He said he was the one in red and I said ‘you mean the Black one?’”
That fact that Paul was Black and his best friend White meant that Martin Luther King was smiling approvingly at their union from heaven. On a human level any two types of people can get on but it is when tectonic plates of cultures clash that you have problems. In South Africa, the ANC and the then White government were stuck in negotiations until the two main representatives struck a friendship. Cyril Ramaphosa and Rolf Meyer saved the lives of thousands and averted a war; just by being friends. That is what is needed; for people to be friends; how often do White people say “I have loads of Black friends”. But does that matter? In the UK the government publishes statistics on inter-racial marriages as a measure of social cohesion. Inter-racial marriage is up 9% therefore racial harmony is up 9%. So what happens when these couples split? Is harmony down?
Perhaps what is needed is for people to just respect each other; seeing as we can never look in the hearts of men to see their real motives, we can just go by outward etiquette. In the global economy we cannot have discrimination because skills are all that matters, whether a computer programmer is Tutsi or Hutu is not going to matter, just whether he is a good programmer. I talked to my friend Genza about what makes a tribe a tribe. Was it physical characteristics, Language, socio-economic activity? I said it was a combination of the three. I cannot call myself a true Tutsi because I don’t keep cows; when I travel to Mutara and see my cousins roaming the fields I understand what it meant. It is like when you take an Eskimo out of the polar tundra then he is just another man. Aboriginal communities suffer when taken out of their natural environment; our Grandfathers made the step forward into modernity and we are stuck here trying to make sense of our history. Hoping that it will mean more than just words.
Shakespeare said in Romeo and Juliet “What is in a name? If a rose were called by any other name it would smell as sweet.” I don’t really believe that, “what is in a name?” Quite a lot actually; semantics is such that a word can change a lot. Recently the world has been obsessed with Bio-fuels and the word “Bio” has had disastrous consequences. I sat last night and wondered the importance of words and how they can change perceptions and even destiny. Noam Chomsky popped up in my mind; I remember studying semiotics 11 years ago, it was tedious but important. Words are transient, opaque, and elusive; they hurt more than sticks and stones, they are sweeter than honey, bitter than acid and stir the soul.
In recent times we have been bombarded with facts about the environment; about global warming, poles melting, and total collapse of eco-systems. The environmentalists have to put it in the starkest terms to get us to respond in time and quite often they are hysterical and even false. So Petrol is bad; diesel is evil, gasoline is mean. We were made to feel guilty for even jumping in a car; the guilt was mounting until we were given a solution. Bio-fuels; funny how just adding three letters to a word makes pollution okay. Bio-fuels are not as eco-friendly (another word) as they say; they don’t have many benefits to society and they actually cause environmental destruction on a massive scale.
It is like have a blanket that is too short; you have to choose between covering your feet or your chest. The Western consumer demanded a panacea for guilt and some marketing geeks thought up Bio-fuels; nations in the third world then proceeded to chop down millions of hectares of rain forest in order to save the environment. The price of food is rising and millions in the poorest countries face starvation because land that could have been used for food is now used for Bio-Ethanol, corn that could be eaten is now driving SUV’s and all staple foods are now in short supply.
There are words that instantly imply a positive connotation such as BIO, ECO, and sustainable. That is the beauty of marketing, playing on words can make you want something. DIET, FAT-FREE, LOW-CHOLESTERAL can make you buy anything and eat them in massive quantities; an ex-girlfriend of mine could eat a whole 14-inch pizza but only wash it down with diet Coke. A play on words is all it takes to sway the idiotic mind of a human, I remember my favourite cereal in the UK was “full of natural goodness” I wondered just what this natural goodness was, and how they could quantify it? Nevertheless cheerios rule the cereal world and should be enjoyed any time of the day.
The word NEW is dangerous; it is the most lethal word in advertising. Daz is one of the most popular washing powder brands in the UK; it was suffering low sales when they came up with a brilliant concept. NEW DAZ! It saved them millions in research and development just by adding the word NEW. Soon they were at it again NEW DAZ BIO, NEW DAZ ECO and so on. A word is all it takes to cause a war, find peace, call a truce. Right now the Israelis and Arabs know they both want peace just that they need to find a set of words that they can both sign up to; a set of words that are acceptable in Arabic, Hebrew and English. I wish them luck in that endeavour.
The word NIGGER is one of my favourites; when I went to live in the UK I was talking to someone when I heard the word. A friend was quoting someone and squirmed as he said it, he apologised profusely and I wondered why. Then I realised I had to learn the reflex of offence and jump up like a jack-in-a box whenever I heard it. It is one of the greatest con-tricks of all time, political correctness sought to eradicate all words of offence from the social sphere, while leaving in place all the social discrimination and setting the boundaries of offence. I have a friend Ronnie who steadfastly refuses to use the N-word even in a hip-hop context, which I found absurd because in hip-hop it is NIGGA; see the trick? Spelling it phonetically gives it a whole new context. It underlines the lower educational standards, ironic self-deprecation and repetition to dull the impact.
A Tribe Called Quest were one of the most politically conscious and righteous groups, they shocked their fans with their song SUCKA NIGGA. It concisely deals with the issues surrounding the word.
Socially I’m not a not a name, Black and White got game
If you came to the jam then I’m glad you came
See, nigga was first used up in the Deep South
Calling out between the dome of the white man’s mouth
It means that you can never grow; you know the word dummy
Other niggas in the community think it’s funny
But I don’t, neither do the youth coz we embrace adversity
It goes right with the race and being as we us it as a term of endearment
Niggas start to bug to the dome as where the fear went
Now the little shorties say it all of the time
And a whole bunch of niggas throw the word in their rhyme
Yo I start to flinch as I try not to say it
But my lips be like a ooh-wop (uzi) as I start to spray it
Sucka Nigga, Nigga, Nigga, I throw the sucka in the front
For the ones that front, sucka nigga, nigga, nigga
It’s the neo-nigga of the nineties
Our fathers scratch their heads because they fought wars of independence in order not to be called that word and then we use it as a term of endearment but this is always an important step in generations getting over the hurdle of discrimination. Re-branding is very important in the victimology that gets people their civil rights. In the 50’s Niggers became “Coloured”; which implied it wasn’t really their fault, just coloured a different shade. Then “Black” as they wanted rights on their own terms, then “Ethnic minorities” to imply they weren’t a threat. Homosexual is a horrible word; if they were still called that they’d still be seen as they were; but the genius who came up with the word: GAY was clever. It implied they were just excessively happy, as if they were just giggling effeminate queens and nothing to fear.
In Rwanda, two words have haunted our history; now it is very hard to say them in any social setting. These words have lead to decades of strife and countless dead. The government in one of its first motions moved to remove it from all public and private spheres. The words Hutu and Tutsi are no longer to be socially acceptable words and while they can’t be erased from current memory, it is hoped that they will cease to exist in future ones. Children are an example to us all; one of my favourite stories was told me by my cousin’s best friend’s mother. “When I first heard of Paul I just thought he was another kid, when I came to see the Christmas play I asked my son to point him out. He said he was the one in red and I said ‘you mean the Black one?’”
That fact that Paul was Black and his best friend White meant that Martin Luther King was smiling approvingly at their union from heaven. On a human level any two types of people can get on but it is when tectonic plates of cultures clash that you have problems. In South Africa, the ANC and the then White government were stuck in negotiations until the two main representatives struck a friendship. Cyril Ramaphosa and Rolf Meyer saved the lives of thousands and averted a war; just by being friends. That is what is needed; for people to be friends; how often do White people say “I have loads of Black friends”. But does that matter? In the UK the government publishes statistics on inter-racial marriages as a measure of social cohesion. Inter-racial marriage is up 9% therefore racial harmony is up 9%. So what happens when these couples split? Is harmony down?
Perhaps what is needed is for people to just respect each other; seeing as we can never look in the hearts of men to see their real motives, we can just go by outward etiquette. In the global economy we cannot have discrimination because skills are all that matters, whether a computer programmer is Tutsi or Hutu is not going to matter, just whether he is a good programmer. I talked to my friend Genza about what makes a tribe a tribe. Was it physical characteristics, Language, socio-economic activity? I said it was a combination of the three. I cannot call myself a true Tutsi because I don’t keep cows; when I travel to Mutara and see my cousins roaming the fields I understand what it meant. It is like when you take an Eskimo out of the polar tundra then he is just another man. Aboriginal communities suffer when taken out of their natural environment; our Grandfathers made the step forward into modernity and we are stuck here trying to make sense of our history. Hoping that it will mean more than just words.
1 comment:
Interesting.. T and H words! I’ve been conditioned to cringe at their mere mention. Delicate issues. South Africans celebrate diversity (even the Afrikaners, I used to think they would be moving around with guilt forever). So maybe one day Rwandese will be proud and celebrate the positive aspects of who we are, its almost impossible to erase ethnicities, maybe redefining them would help us accept each other. Just a thought.
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