Our PM, Mark
12.18.08 (12:05 am) [edit]
Thailand just got a new prime minister - our twenty-seventh, in fact. All I know about him is that up until recently, he was the leader of the opposition, he's British-educated, and his nickname is Mark. I know nothing of politics, but it interests me how Thai people always end up calling politicians by their actual nicknames (practically every Thai has a nickname, as our real names are reserved for formal settings) or made-up, often derogatory, nicknames. I know Bush is called Dubya, but you'd never expect that name to show up in a respectable publication like The New York Times. Not so in Thailand. I just saw the front page of Daily News, a rather well-circulated Thai newspaper, they're calling our PM "Mark", as in "Mark did this" and "Mark did that". I don't know if it's familiarity or contempt.
Final thought: What's in a name...?
Final thought: What's in a name...?
posted by: alaskawildflowers (reply)
post date: 12.17.08 (9:22 am)
Everything! Our personalities are partly wrapped up in our names-- and we live up or down to them.