Below are samples of news briefs that I am charged with editing. The English is…um…very peculiar (and written by a senior editor!)
Diyarbakır (IHA) — Diyarbakır anti-smuggling and organised crime bureau police confiscated 8 million 123 thousand cannabis roots within 3 raids they staged. 9 suspects who were taken into custody ,were convicted in the court.
A mother whose name has not been identified yet , was taken into custody in Karsıyaka district of Gaziantep with the accusation of torture on her own little children .The mother is alleged to have stuck hot porks that she heated , on the skins of her 2 and 3 years old kids and to have burnt their clothes .It was reported that the relatives hearing the children crying with pain and fear , saved them from the mother’s hands at the last moment.The mother was restrained but she was later released by police since nobody testified against her.
Adana — Republican Peoples’ Party ,CHP ‘s deputy chairman and Istanbul parliamentarian Kemal Kılıcdaroglu stating Kurds should be allowed to constitute private newspaper and TVs peculiar to them , added: “ PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party ) must lay down weapons so that a solution for Kurdish issues then can be provided ”
Van —- Military activity in east and south-east regions which inclined up with spring is still ongoing.
Last evening , a convoy consisting of 18 martial vehicles including armored ones to accompany the convoy , set off towards Hakkari after getting loaded in Van .
editing that must require some major detective work there, esp the “van” one
“hot porks?!”
I know right? I still get a chuckle when I think about it, thought hen I feel guilty because it’s a depressing story.
yeah…and speaking of English in multilingual countries, or the issue of good English or bad in a country otherwise having linguistic minorities (arbitrarily tying in the Kurd issue): Oppression might not only be a function of a politically and demographically dominant group with a largish linguistic minority, but having a dominant language group at all. In Uganda, f’rinstance, ALL the linguistic groups are minorities; for African countries to have a multitude of languages is pretty common, but for there to be nobody in a position to impose its language at independence as the (or an) ‘official’ language (usually along with the colonial power’s language) is uncommon, but for a variety of reasons that didn’t happen in Uganda (…which was one of my irritants with “The Last King of Scotland,” in which the Idi Amin character is speaking Swahili…wouldn’t’ve happened.)As a result the ONLy official language, the only language of ‘serious’ business (e.g., banking, law, large commercial transactions and anything outside of a small rural village) is English… which means that although the written English is quirky at times (and in speech has some accenting and intonations that take some getting used-to, British with an overlay of North Bantu musicality and rythmicity)…its fairly ubiquitous and the overall quality in the big city and among young adults is fairly good…you’d almost suppose you were in the Netherlands. (Well, almost.)