Here's a news story worth writing a joke about:
20 fined for using letters W and Q
DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) -- A Turkish court has fined 20 people for using the letters Q and W [...].The court [...] fined each of the 20 people 100 new lira ($75.53) for holding up the placards, written in Kurdish, [...]
For the whole story, click here.
Knowing what I know about Turkey (which isn't much), I'm sure that it's more of an anti-Kurd thing than a real aversion to the letters Q and W. But it would be kind of funny if only it didn't reflect so poorly on freedom of speech and minority rights in the country. (Next, I'll try to open a business in Quebec, put a sign in English out front, and see what happens.)
3 comments:
I spent 3-4 days in Diyarbakir in 1987 and it was a really amazing town, heavily influenced by the arabs and Kurds. Westerners weren't very common and you got stared at a lot. I'm sure I used a lot of W and Q words, but no-one saw me as a Kurdish-sympathiser. I'm not sure I would have walked the streets with a religious placard or anything, as it was really the wild-west and they probably would have kidnapped me or something!
I can just picture the Turkish version of Wheel of Fortune.
Contestant: I'd like to buy a Q please.
Turkish Equivalent of Pat Sajak: That'll cost you 100 new lira.
I agree with you, though. That's a silly law. It would be like outlawing the Spanish ñ character in the U.S.
I guess this means Qwest isn't going to land any Turkish telecom contracts anytime soon.
Post a Comment