Thursday, November 08, 2012

language and culture of the Middle East

Krim sent me this:  "You keep on saying how important it is to know the language and culture of the region one reports on, well, this is a perfect example of that homily:
The title of the article is: "Obama's re-election celebrated around world", and to "prove" it they cite:

'Though Iranian media have long said the country saw little difference between Obama and Romney on tensions over Tehran's nuclear program, that did not stop the semiofficial Fars news agency for rolling out the vivid headline, "Republican's elephant crushed by Democrat's donkey."'
Whoever wrote this obviously missed the obvious double entendre of the statement. As is well known, the donkey is symbolic of stupidity/imbecility in the Middle East, so the headline was "dissing" both parties.  Just thought to remind you, as if you needed reminding, of the level of journalistic competence in Western Media."