The Ministry of Silly Names & Disinformation

international | politics / elections | news report

Thursday September 06, 2007 18:08

by 1 of 9

Last January the US "global" newspaper "The International Herald Tribune" ran a short story on rumours that the Venezuelan government were going to restrict future parents in the state of the same name to a list of 100 names. As a story it was surprisingly good & even though in my humble opinion it came up to the scratch of the now near institutionalised regular the funny names foreigners & enemies give their spawn stakes it wasn't really picked up no by either pro+Chav or anti-Chav factions in the worldwide socialist or antisocialist family. During the summer commercial media turned their attention again to the delightful parents of mythic China who have been struggling through the much maligned courts of that land for the right to call their baby boy "@ at" which as well as being the international internet protocol for email addresses approximates to the mandarin form "is loved". Then the Venezuelan silly name story came back.

& since official clarification of the story came in a statement yesterday by the president of that country's election office, I thought to tell you all about it.

For verily there is much in a name. Tibisay Lucena, who occupies a position without equivalent in the Irish constitution is responsible for scheduling elections & referenda in the Venzuelan state. As such she is one of the people at the top of the current 5 pillars of the 1999 constitution. Speaking to Union Radio yesterday she confirmed that her office is prepared for the statewide consultation which will take place later this month to reform and append to that constition & institute as a 6th pillar the emerging village and local councils. She also referred to the "silly name" thing which for some odd reason had begun to bounce around world media in the last week. Her office to responsibly schedule and oversee democratic participation of what is a third world state must ensure that the greatest number of eligible citizens are enfranchised and there is no other way of doing this then entering their names in some sort of database; be it of the chisel and stone, plume and ink, or electronic kind. If one is not registered - one is getting vaccinations nor is one going to take part in the Bolivarian project as a voter. On the "silly name" thing she basically assured her listeners that the whole rumour was utter crap, it's important to be registered with the state & it is helpful to have a name that offers people a clue to your gender if not mentioning ethnicity, race, melanin content or likely received notions on the girl on girl action thing.

I hope you're all keeping up with me.

Now quite honestly for many decades Venezuelans have enjoyed a reputation for their penchant for exotic and unusual names. Tibisay Lucena might be a case in point. I'm quite sure if you check your local school registration applications you'll not find a Tibisay. She has poured cold water on the suggestions of both Anglo Saxon & Spanish media (who ought to have known better) that an outright ban will be placed on parents calling future babies , Hochiminh, LeninMao, FidelCastroMaria or my personal favourite the calque palindrome which is Susej (not only very difficult to pronounce in Spanish of any accent, the word is the backwards spelling of Jesus which we should agree is an English equivalent of the quite common Spanish first name Jesús with the all important accent on the "u"- hence my accurate description of the nomenclature as a palindromic calque.)

I hope you're all still keeping up with me.

Here is the original report from IHT in January 2007
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/01/07/news/venez.php

Here is the latest report from IHT this week
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/09/04/news/journal.php

Here is a report from El Pais yesterday which delighted in telling its mostly centre left and even lefty readers in Spain that the Venezuelans they know would no longer be allowed have silly names like Elvis or Apollo3 or Hitler.

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/internacional/Maolenin/H...6/Tes

Lastly here is the news ( in Spanish ) that the referendum is prepared and this time there ought bhe no objections when a long line of LeninMao's whose names hark back to an earlier very pro-marxist age are in fact being sent out by Caracas central to vote for the man. All that said, what really qualifies Venezuelan democracy as being tippy toppy is the majority disregard for ballot boxes which ensures that most people no matter their name would prefer not to vote, not to get registered, not to get taxed, not to get weighed, not to get counted, not to get processed, & not to get in the system.

Aye. there is wisdom in a name or lack of it.

http://www.unionradio.net/Noticias/Noticia.aspx?noticia...14593

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Comments (5 of 5)

Wonderful to see this Venezeualan thread has attracted none of the usuals.

by +Chav O Neill (the big fellah)

Sat Sep 08, 2007 13:20

Instead its subthread :- Why Is Ireland introducing racially segregated education?
as reported by the International Herald Tribune is already getting bogged down in people who claim to have either gone to schools next to "people of colour" or those others who without mentioning going to school, claim they send their own kids there.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/09/03/europe/EU-GEN...s.php

Is Ireland's first school for Black Kids a religious one?

So Can I....

by Eulalia Fartinger

Sat Sep 08, 2007 11:49

Having experience alone of the state school sector that the racism cultivated over
many years of an FF/PD government which separated families and cultivates ignorance
that there is racism in the Irish education system. I am of course speaking as a parent
who stands in the yard everyday and listens to other parents accusing school boards
of:

1. Neglecting their kids academic development in favour of teaching non-nationals
the english language.
2. Muttering about the racial balance in the over-full classrooms.

These parents do not look at the lack of provision of educational psychologists to any student
with regard to learning difficulties.
These parents do not look at how FF economic policy has created a two tier education
system that has starved the state sector of pupils and teachers and advanced the
private education system to the detriment of equality in education.
These parents do not look at our bigoted legislation that does not ensure adequate
response to issues of asylum and integration.
These parents do not look at how Mary Hanafin has ended the traveller capitation grants
system and run down the irish language requirements in schools.

These parents see black and white and nothing in between. Mary Hanafin has critically
underspent on school building programmes, she has not ensured equality to all sectors
in education and she has ensured that parents who are overloaded with the highest
grocery and services bills in the EU must pay hidden fees to struggling national
schools, because despite being the richest nation in the EU the FF policy
of privatisation and encouraging greed/conspicuous consumption does not see
the need to invest in future generations through either adequate school or health
infrastructure= the principal becomes a CEO- not an educator.

colour of education

by Observant Individual

Fri Sep 07, 2007 22:43

"if one coloured kid enters a school that their kids are better off in 'private' cos the quality of education
will be effected"

I can tell you from personal experience of both the public and private sector in Secondary Education that there are more children of colour enrolled in private than in state schools. Quality and delivery of education is not affected of course. This is probably because any children with less than perfect English are given extra tuition.

State Schools

Fri Sep 07, 2007 21:40

I do wonder how Mary Hanfin TD proposes to deal with the issue of integration of non-irish
or Irish children of non-nationals , given that she has proposed something in that area which
does nothing really to address her previous form. i.e. she dropped the traveller capitation
grants(relentless mainstreaming), fecked off the Irish language and culture teachers and of
course the overt racist administration (which emphasise the material above ethos) of which
she has played an integral role encourages bigotry and Irish people believing that if one
coloured kid enters a school that their kids are better off in 'private' cos the quality of education
will be effected. make no mistake its not intellectual snobbery but cultivated ignorance and
anti-diversity. The present and previous governments paid lip service to equality whilst
denying traveller rights, holding badly worded 'citizenship' referenda and cultivated international
controversy by denying sheiks their religious right to wear the thingy on their head.

The removal of kids from integrated primary schools by racist parents is called black flu- and only
those with embassy level pay packets are tolerated by the nouveau riche in Ireland-
those who drive the SUVs and have gained wealth through property exploitation and
widened tax bands. you reap what you sow- if the political party you represent encourage
lack of equality then they get it= simple maths.

The school my child attends is very integrated with kids from all cultures playing together in
the yard- only thing is this, we have to collect old uniforms to dress the very poor who cannot
again this year afford the uniform. What % of those kids who learn toleration in the
classroom will grow up to go to medical school given the 12,000 euro fees.

you've a lovely name there, but wouldn't a number make things fairer for the black kids??

Fri Sep 07, 2007 12:04

Readers who feel they may profit from a deeper exploration of Venezuelan silly names & silly Spanish can of course consult these sites which offer the student a list of silly words, expressions, curses and things you wouldn't get past Cervantes. http://www.lachuleta.net/dic/ http://www.nacionesunidas.com/diccionarios/venezuela.htm Of course Cervantes is a popular first name in the region & in this author's acquaintance have been counted a clutch of Cervantes', Demecritus' and even one Polyester but so for not one Siobhain or Seosaimh. Which brings me to the home truth of how silly Irish names of the gaelic type can appear on the globalised stage. A nun or brother who has given his life to the educational opportunities of youngsters whose fate have left them a few kilometres short of world class cancer care, might think the little fellow or child named Niamh or Feidhelmis off to a great start in life and future employers will scarcely glance beyond the Name and Surname line of the CV. These people have never left the state with over 250ml of non descript liquid or potcheen home still in their bag. Therefore I propose very sincerely that the department of Education in Ireland (since we have no ministry of silly names in Eire) consider a national plan of action on such difficult to pronounce gaeilge names, obviously for reasons of heritage & the GPO we can't go banning them outright. The day of explaining the transcription or orthography of gaeilge with its seamhú or buailte to the anglicised sort of silly name our famine fleeing ancestors couldn't get on the US mailbox is long gone. So we ought assign a number to all the little kiddies and hope that their entry to education not be judged on some local prejudice for one variety of silly name over another, as undoubtedly and proudly we may attest melanin doesn't come into it.

Lastly for those who appreciated the wonderful process of naming, which sees a sound more than a written form, a hero more than an individual taken and given to a newborn - consider this puzzle as indeed many do South American ballot offices - is a HoChiMinh going to be a man or a woman?
Does MaoLenin sound like a big strapping girly name or a little bald scutt of a paul daniels effort?

links to the blogosphere & worldwide web on the "Black kids don't get into Irish schools" thing -
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...76445
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/09/03/ap/europe/mai...shtml
http://clericalwhispers.blogspot.com/2007/09/black-chil....html
http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2007/09/03/939073-black-c....html
http://www.rachelstavern.com/?p=692

and just to think Garvey was an Irish name....................

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Comments (5 of 5)