No speaka de lingo

Posted on 13th February, 2005 by

There’s a report in today’s Observer about the violence in Colombia surrounding the cocaine trade, which is supplying an increasinly sociably respectable drug to middle-class Brits. They talk to a 19-year-old girl who was blinded (and whose hands were also injured) by a crude landmine probably planted by a Marxist narco-terrorist group. I can’t help notice the reference to a Spanish interpreter, though - what is this paper doing sending someone to cover a story about a Spanish-speaking country who does not speak Spanish? It’s not as if Spanish speakers are that difficult to come by in this country.

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  • http://www.mereislam.info/ Abdurrahman R. Squires

    as-salamu ‘alaykum,

    You’re right, that’s a bit strange for a Spanish speaking country. However, for the Middle East not being able to speak the language is par for the course. I’ve even read where certain news organizations (not to speak of neo-con owned private contractors) hold it against a person if they speak Arabic. This is seemingly because they don’t want anyone who can sympathize with “those people” over there. Rather they want someone with the mentality of a zoologist, who can go over there and just passively observe (from the top of a proverbial high horse) what the restless natives are doing. I’m speaking about the American media, of course, since in regards to the Middle East it’s obviously much worse than the British (which is not to say that the British media is fair in their coverage, but they are better).

  • aicha

    Assalamu Alaikum,

    Shown above is another example of what i was talking about when i said people were posting inapproporiate stuff on your blog.

    salaams, Aicha

  • http://www.blogistan.co.uk/blog/ Yusuf

    As-Salaamu ‘alaikum Aicha,

    Are you talking about spam (adverts for gambling, drugs and indecent material)? I check my blog several times a day and the first thing I do, whenever I get on the net, is delete the spam.