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[This post may be taken as a belated response to the comment(s) made by a few people (oh who are we kidding? > let’s narrow it down to say, comment #2 in particular) on March 17, 2009 of http://www.misual.com/2009/03/17/barack-obama-is-31pc-irish/ regarding the purported dubiousness of Barack Obama's image owing to his err...mixed lineage, also referred to as ‘thlahpawlh’ in Mizo. In this particular comment, mixed lineage has most unfortunately, (to echo Blind Dayze's sentiments on the subject) been crudely associated with significantly reduced trustworthiness or in Mizo, ‘rinawm nep’. Other colourful options have also been underlined in some of the comments under the same link. As my post awaits moderation at the said site, i have gone ahead and posted it on MY blog].
Extract:
chawnghilh Says:
March 17th, 2009 at 8:18 pm
"Lai tawng chuan KAHPIAH, Zotawngin THLAH PAWLH … a dum leh var inchawhpawlh a nih miau avangin Artist huang atanga sawi fiah dawn chuan ‘Obama is GREY’ kan ti thei ang —GREYHOUND ni em lovin! Photographical takin ‘Obama is Monochrome’ a tih theih bawk awm e..
Tin, BLACK leh WHITE hi art lam atang chuan COLOR an ni lo ve ve a; kan Celebrity thenkhat, “Eng kawr rawng nge i ngainat zawng?” tia zawhna A DUM, A VAR tia chhang maiho hian Lemziakna Sikul an la dai lut hman rih lo tih a tarlang chiang!
>> DUM chiah lo, VAR chiah lo hi “an rinawm nep” tiin an lo insawi ve tho mai! Thlah pawlh an engemaw deuhva hnam tinin kan sawi ang tho hian!”
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Though one is very rarely inclined to wax offensive, comments like these can appeal to one's baser, more defensive instincts, making one quite favourably disposed to spout expletives of the foulest water, though preferably, one would perhaps want to rise above the mud and dirt and maintain an austere silence. But it has been decided that austerity, at this point, just does not cut it. So one shall do neither.
Ye-es, one shall soil one's hands a little by offering a few (to spurn a better word)... recommendations.
Think Tiger Woods and Halle Berry, Pushkin and Dostoevsky, Norah Jones and Bryan Clay, Marley and Hendrix, Alicia Keys and Harry Belafonte, Malcolm X and Ben Kingsley, Naomi Campbell and The Rock, Vin Diesel and Tina Turner. This is recommended for blogger chawnghilh (and his ilk)…though one is left in serious doubt as to whether this would be sharp enough to pierce, putting it bluntly, this surface of singular bluntness...will one succeed where Obama has failed to make a dent? Makes one wonder if perhaps the pure of blood are also thick of skin...not to rule out exceptions of course.
But let us proceed nonetheless.
So to continue with chawnghilh, his comments and the prescriptive recommendations, if he hasn’t heard of either Pushkin or Clay, of Malcolm X or Dostoevsky, it is recommended that he take the time to look them up. Their half bred lives have moved many a soul, sung many a song, told many a tale and run many a race - literally and otherwise, than many of the lives led by the so-called ‘pure’ of blood. Not that one is trying to make this in any way a contest. It is entirely up to him, but it would be appreciated if he were to take this as pure, unadulterated retaliation. Yes, it is rather hoped that it would have the effect of water on smoldering charcoal...or hybrid Nirvana to the hitherto insensitive mind.
It is also keenly prescribed that he exercises this freedom and one might go so far as to further advise him to test the efficacy of this exercise on the intelligence of his off-spring (though this may regretfully have profound, untold repercussions…as one shudders to think of what yardstick may be employed for this purpose). But studies have shown that such ‘exercise’ oft begets heightened intelligence and beauty – speaking largely in terms of future progeny...and yes, the intended albeit thinly veiled pun.
It is also requested of the aforementioned blogger that he kindly elucidate - to the few here who have been left yearning for enlightenment, as to what is meant by his rather embarrassingly prejudiced comment… “thlah pawlh an engemaw deuhva hnam tinin kan sawi ang tho hian!”, and what exactly is “engemaw deuh” and lastly, who exactly he means/includes when he says ‘kan’ in ‘‘kan sawi ang tho hian” (??!) This we ask of you because mentioning Obama and “engemaw deuh” in the same breath does not exactly prove the stupefying point you were trying to make...that is indeed, if you were trying to make one at all.
P.S. One would also like to add that monochrome photography yields a range of no less than 256 beautiful shades – otherwise called the ‘Grayscale’...or, at the obvious risk of sounding redundant, different shades of gray. But this is another very telling scent you’ve allowed us to pick up - that for some people out there, gray is just not a colour or an option (and perhaps not the most “happening” place to be). So to speak in figurative terms, it is either black Or white, and hardly ever black AND white. Tsk. Tsk. Dear chawnghilh (and ilk), I fear I am getting to know you all too well. Do remember that Monochrome basically means the resulting blend of many, many bright colours…and that gray can be beautiful - to the polychromatic eye.
P.P.S. If we take this point a tad further, the symptomatic condition ‘Monochromacy’ also means total colour blindness – the complete inability to distinguish colours…more food for thought. One is compulsively led to think...‘now doesn’t that ring an awfully familiar bell?’ And while delving into the recesses of one’s memory, the mind is allowed to wander for just a bit…and pop forth a juicy, tempting question: What would happen if we, or at least the few of us who find it beyond ourselves to take in too much “colour” at a time, were all Monochromatic...??
...with this last afflatic spurt, our rusty old bell finally hits home with startling clarity. Old Hippocampus and her sisters tremble with the once forgotten, newly remembered, resounding clang of ....World Peace!
Disclaimer: The addressee is requested to kindly not be misled...by this seemingly innocuous conclusion, into taking this as a peaceful, conciliatory post.
