As part of an ongoing initiative to promote the joys of Yiddish into Jamaican patois, chutzpah is this blog’s second Yiddish word in a week (who can find the first?). Although there is a strong historical Jewish presence on the island, it is derived from the Sephardi branch of the Jewish diaspora, in particular those fleeing persecution in Portugal as of 1497 (Check the Jamaican phone book for Portuguese names, or take Mr Sean Paul Ryan Francis Henriques, for example), rather than the Ashkenazi branch that created Yiddish.
Clear? Then I’ll get back to current politricks.
chutzpah was the only word to describe the new Minister for Information and Development’s declaration that the recent Trafigura scandal was over.
At the end of the day having refuted and really destroyed all the arguments coming from the Opposition, the matter is now at an end.
- Donald Buchanan
This is reminiscent of Bush’s infamous declaration that major combat operations in Iraq have ended … in May 2003. (Curiously there’s no photo of the equally infamous “Mission accomplished” banner in the Whitehouse souvenir album.)
Minister Buchanan seems to think that it is enough for the accused to deny the charges in order for them to go away. My children know better than to try that trick on me, and they’re only 5 and 7 years old.
It was all the more brazen in that Buchanan’s statement came on the day set by the independent investigator, the Office of the Contractor General, for the Minister’s party to submit a long list of documents and data concerning the Trafigura affair.
I say it ain’t over yet, Mr Buchanan.
Er zol vaksen vi a tsibeleh, mit dem kop in drerd, fi real!
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[...] Jamaica-based Linguist Ria Bacon uses the example of the Jamaican Minister of Information’s statements about a recent political scandal to demonstrate the meaning of the Yiddish word “chutzpah”. [...]
I can only repeat what they’d say in my neighborhood: “Oy ve!”
I hope they hurry up and remove Buchanan, Paulwell and all the rest of their colleagues.
Plenty of chutzpah here bribewise. (Most mayors do their stint in prison,) But it’s not international company stuff; merely local. Oy ve as your friend above says…. Let’s get rid of the lot of them..