What is the BBC saying about Saudi Arabia, arms sales and the grizzly murder of the man they call a 'dissident journalist' who we eventually discovered was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.
(How do you pronounce Khashoggi?- Is it hard ‘K” or soft ‘H’ - aitch not haitch - and is there supposed to be a hard ‘G’ followed by a soft ‘g’ rather than two soft gees? It’s quite a difficult word to enunciate effortlessly, but hat’s off to the announcers that have mastered a smooth 'Hashog-jee.'
From a position of sheer ignorance, I instinctively feel that’s the best bet (and good luck with Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha.)
I can’t help seeing parallels between the media's apparent advocacy of an immediate cease-fire and/or an embargo on arms sales to Saudi Arabia because of, a) the murder of Khashoggi and, b) the humanitarian crisis in Yemen and the same media’s attitude to various Hamas/ Gaza/ Israel wars. Immediate cease-fires may not always produce the best outcome, arguably.
I know next to nothing about the Houthi insurgency and I can’t see much information about it in Paul Adam’s ‘explanation’. I understand that Paul Adams is far from impartial in this (or any other) area.
The BBC does provide some info here - circa 2015. Judging from the fact that the Houthis are (or were) known as Ansar Allah (Partisans of God), that they seem to be a spin-off of al-Shabab, and are backed by Iran, one might reasonably wonder if an immediate cease-fire would prolong the suffering of the unfortunate Yemeni population rather than bring it to a decisive end.
I speak from a position of near total ignorance, rather like various panellists and pundits I’ve heard vehemently opining on the Beeb.
The 26/10 episode of 'Newswatch' looked (at some length) into how exactly Jamal Khashoggi's name should be pronounced.
ReplyDeleteI'm still trying to get my head round it.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0bpbnv5/newswatch-26102018
Here's my best attempt and transliterating it all:
John Sweeney - Gash-oggy
Mark Lowen - Hash-oggy
Bill Hayton - Hash-od-JEE (strong emphasis on last syllable)
Chris Buckler - Kash-od-Jee
James Landale - HJ(throat clearing sound)-odjy
Frank Gardner - HJ(heavy throat clearing sound)-odjy
Some viewer said, as the victim's friend, she pronounced it Kash-oggy, so that's that.
Samira Ahmed said "the BBC's pronunciation service differs with its official guidance"...
...which is interesting.
The BBC's pronunciation service recommends the Gulf Arabic rather than the standard Arabic version: HJash (heavy throat clearing sound at the start)-od-jy. And then Samira pronounced it much the same.
And THAT is pretty much your smooth correct version, Sue! (if you've still got the will to live).
On this theme, a language professor once calculated that there were more than a million different ways to spell the name of the deceased dictator Ghadaffi using the Roman alphabet. Sounds counter-intuitive until you start going through all the
Deleteorthgraphical opportunities K/Kh/G/Gh/Q/Qu etc
It's actually been spelt over 100 ways in the media, but I can see how you could generate a million variations, if you started combining elements of these variations with other variartions.
https://alucinogenado.wordpress.com/2011/08/27/how-many-different-ways-can-you-spell-gaddafi/
I was also getting extremely annoyed at the reluctance of the UK media, BBC to the fore, to refer to Kashoggi as anything other than a "journalist"...He was a political activist, closely tied to the Muslim Brotherhood. In fact you can't really make sense of the whole sorry tale unless you realise it was not just a political murder but also a calculated insult aimed at enraging Erdogan, another man closely allied to the Muslim Brotherhood. The Muslim Brotherhood clearly represents an existential threat to the corrupt Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
ReplyDeleteSo I can take the gaffa tape off as I stand in the driveway?
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