Tuesday 27 April 2010

Linguistic Faux Pas

It is almost three months now that I am living in Stockholm. Though I do not pretend to know Swedish, I have stumbled upon a few Swedish words which frankly have rendered me speechless.

I did not have to dig hard to look for these words; if you stay in Sweden for a few days, you would definitely encounter them.

I am not a prude by any standard, but the frequent appearance of the words like "Bra", "Sex" or "Slut" in the Swedish subtitels of prime time news or in Disney channel in television gave me a lot of shudder  initially till I got their actual meanings in Swedish.

How can some words have so different meanings in two languages as similar as Swedish and English, is something a linguist can answer. However, here is a small list of mine which will potentially save you from the socio-linguistic faux pas in case you ever visit Sweden.

Swedish                      English                  
Slut                              End
Fart                             Speed
Bra                              Good
Sex                              Six
Puss                             Kiss
Fan                              Fuck
Kiss                              Pee
Fack                            Trade
Bad                              Bath
Glass                            Ice cream

Friday 23 April 2010

A much needed reform

I thought of writing a blog about the much needed banking reform, so that the taxpayers in future are protected against footing astronomical bills of Great Bailout for the irresponsible and reckless business of the greedy bankers.

But then this speech of Barak Obama has saved me the trouble; he said the exact things I wanted to say and unsurprisingly in a much better way.

So, I decided to include the speech instead. Hopefully leaders in other countries follow him, too. Because as brilliant as he me may be, Obama can not save the non-Americans like me through his reform bills.

Tuesday 20 April 2010

To Fly or Not to Fly

After a week of near closure of all European air space for last 5 days, planes have started flying again in the European sky. It still not normal service, but they will get there soon.


And what made this transition from near total closure to near full opening of air space ? Did the volcano in Iceland suddenly ceased all its recent activities and went back snoozing again? Or did the ash went flying into some other direction due o a change in wind and weather? Or did they confirm that the volcanic ash would not damage the plane engine?

The answer is none of these. It has been opened because the airlines were making huge losses. They estimated it to be close to $1 billion already. And apparently the passenger safety is of much less value (how much exactly in US dollars, according the airline bosses?).

It is the general problem in today's world; everything is a business decision. Anything that does not appear on the balance sheet of big companies is just not important.

True, the prolonged air space closure poses big problem world wide and has to be addressed. And the air space should be opened immediately if it is safe to fly. But only if it IS safe to fly, and not just because some companies are loosing some (or may be a few million) money.

So it is the call for flight engineers, pilots, meteorologists and scientists with the knowledge of volcanic ash properties. But somehow they have been left out in the process. Once again, the decisions have been taken by the Mighty Managers, instead.

There have been talks of some "test flights" being flown by a few airlines. But which route did these test flights follow? in what altitude? For how long did they fly? No one knows the answers to these questions. In short it is not clear if these tests are actually of any value. Neither the testing criteria nor the findings have been assessed by the experts.

Every effort should be made to open the airspace, but only after assessing the situation in a proper, scientific way. Passenger safety should be of paramount importance, no matter how many gazillion dollar are being lost by the airlines.

Call me old fashioned, but I think even a single human life is worth much more than that.

Thursday 15 April 2010

The Missionary Zeal

Whatever you say against the atheists, you must admit that they do not hound you in every possible space and time with a missionary zeal to covert you or save you.

True, from Bertrand Russell to Richard Dawkins, atheists have tried to defend their case in numerous books and debates (which I think is a waste of their talent as atheism should come naturally to every adult with average intellect and basic education); but at least you can choose not to read or listen to them. Atheists do not ring your doorbell uninvited on Sunday mornings and attempts to make you a member of their club in spite of your clear lack of interest in it.

But the believers do not give you any option.

I realised this once more yesterday morning near the Karlberg tunnelbana station. I was on my way to Bus no. 72 through morning rush when I saw a couple of ladies distributing some Swedish leaflets, which I thought to be the adverts of some new hair cutting salon or fashion boutique or upcoming restaurants, i.e., the usual staff. As I went past them they asked me to take one. I smiled and politely said this will be of no use as I do not know Swedish. They seemed to be profoundly apologetic at this and said unfortunately they do not have anything in English. I thought that’s that.

But a few minutes later, as I was waiting at the bus stop, one of them came running with a leaflet in her hand; “here is an English one” she said panting. As I started mumbling something like  “oh, you shouldn’t have to do this..”, my eyes fell on the English heading; True Path to Heaven.

For God’s sake, not again! Shouted my inner self where my outer self still managed to retain at least 15% of my charming smile (it is so difficult to actually shout back when the opposition is divinely polite and smiling).

I had been regularly hounded in London by people with a bible and few copies of printed material in hand and a divine desire to save me. And somehow it never goes into their peanut sized, thoroughly washed brain that I am not actually interested in being saved. So they came again and again, with an iron determination to spoil my Sunday mornings, my evening walks, my shopping trips. The problem is I am generally a polite person and cannot say “**** off” to a very polite and smiling person just because they are galactically stupid. I accepted them as just another London nuisance like weekend engineering works in tubes and absurd speed humps on roads.

But I thought myself to be safe now , so far north up here in Stockholm. I presumed that the people in Scandinavia are in general not so frightfully devout. Besides, the whole country was buried under meters of snow till recently. And I thought the Gods in this region are Thor and Odin, who may throw a  hammer at you if displeased, but at least do not let loose a battalion of preachers, blabbering complete gibberish, on poor unsuspecting souls like me.

But clearly I was wrong; the true missionary zeal of saving some soul from the burning hell and helping them to secure a birth in heaven knows no geographical boundary. It might have been a little dormant in -25 degrees, but has sprouted again along with the crocus as soon as the spring came.