I am a little disappointed. I was looking forward to going to Victoria Falls this weekend, but all flights are full! :-( Now I have to come up with another trip that is feasible over a weekend and with short notice. Any suggestions?
It also means I will most probably have to stay here a little longer as I really want to go to Vic Falls! Anyway, I am seriously thinking about if this is not the right time to go off on a around-the-world-trip. Anyone who wants to join?!
Oh! I have forgotten to update you on the latest news in The Herald. This weekend there was a priest who had run away to South Africa with the wife of a member of his church. Just a year earlier the very same pastor was the one who wed the two. The whole issue was about to split the congregation in two. Monday, the top article on the first page was about a Harare town clerk who accused his wife of breaking down their marriage because she was having an affair with a colleague and the parties were mutually claiming money from the other. This is the top news of a main news paper! Just above the article on the opening of the opening of the Harare Agricultural Show by, the president of Botswana Festus Mogae.
This morning I read about an other suicide on the front page. Two brothers had been quarreling over a piece of land for some time and now the fight ended (after a beer drinking session) with one of the brothers killing himself by stabbing himself several times in the stomach with a screw driver…..
I mean, I think in Sweden the surviving brother would at least have been investigated about the incident…
The Herald ended the article by encouraging people not to end fights with suicide, but instead seek the advise of elders or even the police. That is very wise and considerate, isn't it.
1 comment:
Hi Josef,
yes it it interesting with names. I can tell you there have been many times when I hated my name too. It doesn't really rhyme on anything and it is not easy to make any nicknames of it, why I never really had any that stuck (except the one that you and the Bijmans sometimes use :-)). But I was sometimes teased any way. In Sweden Gud is how God is spelled so I often got to hear things like "are you called God!!" or "if God was a woman, she would be called Gudrun" etc etc (anyway, who said God isn't a woman?!).
Then after that period, there was a comedy show in TV with a woman called Gudrun and then the leader of the left party in Sweden was called Gudrun, and she alwas got a lot of media attention. The very same day as I left Sweden for Belgrade the worst storm in ages raged in Sweden. That storm was also called Gudrun. All this might not have been a problem if Gudrun was a common name in Sweden, but it isn't, at least not in my generation, so all these things somehow came back to me...
I have also been thinking about the connection between religion and names. With the first part of my name being "God" people often also assume I am Christian, but from what I know about it is a pagan, pre-Christian name.
But as you, I made it through. Nowadays it only bugs me when I am abroad, as it is not very international. The only countries where I don't have problem (outside Scandinavia) are in the German speaking world! There on the other hand, people tend to think I am German. I don't know which is worst! ;-)
Indeed names also reflect your social position. I never thought about that until a couple of years ago. We were driving all the way from the west coast back to Stockholm and to waste time Jonas, who were sitting in the back of the car, started reading an article about namnes and social class. There were also two lists of names, one of the most popular among high income families and one of the names most popular in low income families. He started reading some random names and we had to guess low or high income. I was surprised how easy that was, I think I got all the answers right.
Anyway, you know I think Josef is a very beautiful name! ;-) (so are the names your brother chose for his, son I agree)
big p&k
G
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