[MD] Translating Barbarians

[Arlo Bensinger]

All,

Last week I sent around a video clip that I had seen and had reminded me of 
the position put forth by (on this forum) Platt. Indeed, in many ways it 
also mirrored the "smackdown" that I feel needs to brought down on the 
right-wing of BOTH sides in this (what I have called a) pissing contest. I 
had no objections to what the woman appears to say, indeed my only real 
criticism (apart from some minor historical "syruping") was that it did not 
provide any mention of the same type of "common sense" smackdown needed to 
be heard in the West. But this, I dismissed, as simply bounds of the forum 
and the participants. After all, it is only a 5 minute clip.

An astute reader of the forum, then, sent me a link that sheds doubt of the 
"honesty" of the translation, as well as the selective capturing of the 
segment. I give you the link to this, that was sent to me, at the bottom of 
the email, but it made me (embarassingly) recall an old SNL skit where the 
commentators translated pretty much whatever they wanted to say over the 
foreign voices, which unless you knew that language would never be caught. 
We depend, as Peirce would say, on benevolent authority to satisfy our 
doubt as to the accuracy of the translation. Oddly, in another video 
snippet on iFilm, a group of US soldiers, interrogating an Iraqi family 
through an interpreter, are faced with a reverse situation, where the 
soldiers must trust that the questions they ask, and the responses given, 
are accurately translated.

I don't speak Arabic, and so have no way to judge not only the accuracy of 
the translation provided, but wanted to point out, as I perhaps should have 
done so right away, the dangers of relying on authorities whose motives we 
may not know, and the obvious lack of contextual information any small clip 
will exclude. This may very well be a straight-up, honest, accurate 
exchange. It may also be manipulated in translation (or presentation) to 
further the aims of ideological propaganda.

I remember once, while sitting in bar in Kobenhavn with some friends, 
watching a young American ask her Danish friend "how do I ask that guy if 
he wants to dance with me?". An answer was given, then the young girl 
trotted over, spoke the Danish words, and turned red as everyone started 
laughing at her. What she had asked, in reality, was "Would you like to 
come outside and watch me pee?". We trust language translations, but not 
all are "accurate".

Just a point...

http://www.aljazeerah.info/Opinion%20editorials/2003%20Opinion%20Editorials/November/16%20o/Selective%20Memri%20The%20Middle%20East%20Media%20Research%20Institute,%20is%20it%20an%20Israeli%20propaganda%20project%20Brian%20Whitaker.htm

Arlo