Saddam

Adam Stevens a_ste at uclink4.berkeley.edu
Wed Sep 22 00:38:05 PDT 1999


At 07:21 PM 9/21/99 -1000, you wrote:
>In that case, obviously, one couldn't support such a 'mistake.'
>
>I recall also during the war on Iraq's civilian population on Larry King
>Live once, the ambassador ot the United Nations representing Iraq was
>taking phone calls from the US public and one caller kept on calling him
>by his first name. The ambassador stopped him and insisted that he first
>get clear that it was not proper to call an ambassador by his first name
>and that second it was even more proper to refer to him as Mr.
>Ambassador....Not that I'm that into authority reinforcing
>appelations....but in that instance I was saying to myself...Right on Mr.
>Ambasssador, you tell him...
>

It reminds me of the way American southerners would only refer to African-Americans by their first names' -- never as "Mr.," or "Mrs." It's deliberately condescending.



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