Songs without Words

… even in an article about how John Bolton has resigned from the UN (thank goodness for that).

In the English-language BBC article online, the paragraph describing the opponents’ opinions reads, “Mr Bolton’s critics said a man who once declared there was “no such thing” as the UN was hardly a suitable choice to join the body.” Factual, true, and utterly dry.

But now hop over to BBC Afrique, French edition, and what do we have? This literary masterpiece: “Au siège de l’ONU comme à Washington, le sentiment dominant est que ce dernier est l’antithèse du diplomate épris de multilatéralisme et qu’il se comporte au Conseil de Sécurité comme un éléphant dans un magasin de porcelaine.”

I translate: “In the UN, as in Washington, the popular opinion is that the aforementioned [Bolton] is the antithesis of a diplomat in love with multilateralism and that he carried himself in the Security Council like an elephant in a porcelain shop.” The drama! Not just an opponent, but an antithesis, a moral opposite, a Darth Vader to the multilateral cause! And the imagery of the elephant in the shop of china! If only English news were written this interestingly, the news sites wouldn’t have to resort to reporting on bats biting a woman decorating a Christmas tree (see http://www.cnn.com/ in the next hour or so; it should be there under “Top News”).

[I highly recommend this article, found via AppleGeeks: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/10/19/125148/65.  It covers a similar topic regarding the “news” these days]