Comments on: But I Still Can’t Spell His Name

By: Jim in Texas

Jim in Texas — Wed, 15 Dec 2004 15:34:44 +0000

I lived in Libya in the mid-50s and loved it.

True, I was too young (10) to understand the politics but I remember the people and I liked them. And I rememebr there was a fairly large Jewish community there at the time. I guess they were eventually forced to leave.

My father would load up the family, spare gas and water, in the car and take off across Libya, generally west and stop at every cross road and explore.

We met and visted troglodytes, sheep and camel herders, I sifted the sands around roman ruins looking for coins (got a jar full still!) and I loved every second of the experience.

I would love to be able to re-visit someday

By: Bishop Hill

Bishop Hill — Wed, 15 Dec 2004 15:00:30 +0000

Three Middle Eastern democracies (Afghanistan, Iran, Libya) in as many years could be quite a result for the war on terror. I wonder how the naysayers would explain that away.

By: David Thomson

David Thomson — Wed, 15 Dec 2004 13:39:33 +0000

Seif el-Islam el-Qaddafi is for real. I see little reason to doubt his sincerity. The young man is a sign of hope. We need to encourage more Arabs to study in the United States. It is outrageously stupid in making it so difficult for foreigners to obtain permission to do so. The fear of terrorism must be balanced with the need to westernized these individuals.

By: Charlie (Colorado)

Charlie (Colorado) — Wed, 15 Dec 2004 01:16:45 +0000

11A55, I’ve asked the same question, but it appears that (a) the initial phoneme in what’s his name’s name is dialectically different depending where you are, (b) there’s more than one competing romanization for Arabic, and since the choice is somewhat arbitrary, you are, as they say in linguistics, screwed.

By: Robert Schwartz

Robert Schwartz — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 23:02:02 +0000

In the 19th century a number of thinkers and writers propounded grand world views, the most famous was Karl Marx whose eponynous sysytem wreaked such enormous havoc in the 20th century. Surely the palme d’or should be awarded to Alexis de Tocqueville, who as a young man spent months traveling in the back woods of the infant republic of the United States of America, and returned to his native France to anounce that he had seen the future and that it was Democracy and it worked.

Unlike his 20th century imitators, the young Frenchman was correct. And his insight has been borne out over the more than 160 years since his book was published.

By: 11A5S

11A5S — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 22:43:39 +0000

I’ve never understood the problem with transliterating Qadhafi’s name either. Just look at the first consonant: q, gh, and kh are all distinct sounds in Arabic. I guess two tranliterations of his name are logically possible (one from the Arabic written form and one from how it is pronounced in the Libyan dialect), but not the score or so one sees in the MSM.

But then all the above presupposes that the MSM would actually have folks who understand Arabic.

By: Rick Ballard

Rick Ballard — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 21:50:32 +0000

Roger,

If you write Mohammar Daffy everyone will still know to whom you refer. Maybe even more so than any “correct” spelling.

By: beautifulatrocities

beautifulatrocities — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 21:43:27 +0000

Here are all the ways to spell the Colonel’s name:

http://www.mcsweeneys.net/links/lists/ortho1.html

By: Bruce W.

Bruce W. — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 21:26:27 +0000

This reminds me of the Seinfeld bit (mentioned in the documentary he made about his craft).

“I got into a cab the other day in New york. And I’m telling, the cab drivers name on the License included the chemical symbol for Boron.”

I nearly busted a gut.

By: Wallace

Wallace — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 20:42:13 +0000

I always knew deep that the Qadhafi, Khadafi, al-Qadh√¢ÔøΩf√ÆÔøΩ, Ghaddafi’s …..those people, were good hearted souls even when they were planning terrorist attacks, mass murder and mayhem.