February 21, 2004

PROGRAM MISUNDERSTOOD

Ramil S. needs to pay more attention in class:

An Armenian military officer attending a NATO Partnership for Peace program was hacked to death on Thursday morning with an ax and a knife by an Azerbaijani participant, police officials said.  

"We suspect Ramil S. of having committed murder with unusual cruelty," Budapest Police Maj. Valter Fulop told reporters. "We say 'unusual cruelty' because beside a number of knife wounds on his chest, the victim's head was practically severed from his body."  

The officers were attending an English language course within the framework of the Partnership for Peace program, which is aimed at increasing cooperation between neutral and former Soviet bloc nations and NATO in peacekeeping and other areas.

Keep up the good work. In other English language news, the German press is struggling to make sense of recent developments in Australia; our head of the Defence Intelligence Organisation, Frank Lewincamp, spelled things out fairly clearly:

I have never said the Bush Administration's claims justifying an invasion were exaggerated. Nor have I said that the Government was told that Iraq WMD did not pose an immediate threat.

But obviously not clearly enough for the German media:

Critical voices from intelligence sources regarding the alleged US proof for WMD in Iraq are on the increase. Now the chief of an Australian intelligence service has called the whole war as unjustified.

Perhaps this journalist should attend a NATO English course. Don't forget your ax!

Posted by Tim Blair at February 21, 2004 03:23 PM
Comments

Okay class, can anyone tell me what Ramil was doing wrong here? Anyone?

Posted by: Pixy Misa at February 21, 2004 at 06:15 PM

Buehler?

Posted by: Donnah at February 21, 2004 at 11:05 PM

Andrea, could you please kick this spammer's ass?

Posted by: Tatterdemalian at February 22, 2004 at 12:19 AM

actually, germans prefer nights of long knives, rather than axes

Posted by: Mr. Bingley at February 22, 2004 at 01:28 AM

Ooo! Ooo! I know! I know! Call on me! Lt. Safarov showed a lack of sensitivity to Lt. Markarian, and he is probably insensitive to Armenians generally. In addition to the lack of sensitivity, there's a lot of anger there, too. The class needs to supportively share with him ways for him to work out these negative feelings in a more constructive manner.

Posted by: Ernie G at February 22, 2004 at 02:08 AM

As an English teacher, i'm appalled. Not at just Ramil who killed 1 person, but at the media in nearly every country who take the plain, simple meaning of the words expressed, and transform them into something the speaker never said. In so doing they teach error to billions, which will undoubtedly result in many deaths in the future. So preventable - but the people loved a lie rather than the truth....

Posted by: daniel at February 22, 2004 at 12:04 PM

I like the implication: part of the war :
German Reporter to an Aussie digger:
So, tell, me, which part of the war did you not like, the bit where they overwhelmed the enemy,the day the rolled into Baghdad and tore down the statue of Hussein or the day when the Commander ordered the men to end their beach side holiday and march into Iraq.

Digger to cobber: Are we on the same planet?

Posted by: d at February 23, 2004 at 09:04 AM