[lbo-talk] language query

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

On 2/5/07, Carl Remick <carlremick at hotmail.com> wrote:
> >From: Liza Featherstone <lfeather at panix.com>
> >
> >I wonder what LBO-sters -- especially those living in non-Western
> >countries, but everyone should feel free to weigh in -- think of the
> >expression "the global South." I really try hard to stay away from
> >expressions that convey speakers are members of some special,
> >exclusive, righteous club, so I don't like it. I have used it on a
> >few occasions, out of a sense that "developing world" was too
> >optimistic and imperialist -- though it's very accepted in policy
> >wonk circles, probably for exactly this reason -- and "Third World"
> >vaguely problematic.
>
> I would guess that many non-Westerners dislike collective labeling of any
> kind by the West.

I don't know who invented the terms "the North" and "the South," but,
as far as I know, the terms are used by non-Westerners -- especially
by Latin Americans, it seems -- in popular culture as well as
political discourse.

E.g.,

In political discourse:

"Al citar al poeta y escritor uruguayo Mario Benedetti quien sentenció
en una de sus creaciones que 'el Sur también existe', el presidente de
la República Bolivariana de Venezuela Hugo Chávez Frías, compartió
este pensar y agregó que 'nosotros somos los hombres y las mujeres del
Sur y el mundo necesita el equilibrio entre el Norte y el Sur, si es
que queremos un mundo de iguales y en paz. Si no, no habrá paz en el
mundo'" [Citing the Uruguayan poet and writer Mario Benedetti who
wrote in one of his creations that "the South also exists," the
president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela Hugo Chávez Frías
shared this thought and added that "we are men and women of the South,
and the world needs balance between the North and the South, if we
want a world of equals in peace.  If there is no balance, there will
be no peace in the world"] ("Es necesario el equilibrio entre el Norte
y el Sur para un mundo de iguales," 31 March 2006,
<http://www.mci.gov.ve/noticias-prensa-presidencial/28/9354/es_necesario_el.html>).

In popular culture:

Ricardo Arjona, "Si El Norte Fuera El Sur" [If the North Were the South]:
Lyrics,
<http://www.tsrocks.com/r/ricardo_arjona_texts/si_el_norte_fuera_el_sur.html>;
Video
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vVXCnbpBB0>.

-- 
Yoshie
<http://montages.blogspot.com/>
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