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Saturday, September 14, 2019

Allmost Lost in Translation

Generally, in every day conversation with every day people, one finds that Indonesians, as well as other Southeast Asians, know very little about America or American politics. And there's no reason that they should, actually. America is far away, and American realities are superfluous to every day life in Asian countries.

However, I happened to meet a young woman yesterday through my language sharing app who is a political science major at a university in Java and who I found to be quite knowledgeable about current political figures and trends in America, being able to understand the English in newspapers and news broadcasts. 

Nonetheless, the view she had arrived at, through these sources and through, I'm sure, the slant of her studies and lectures, was interesting. 

Trump just fired national security advisor John Bolton, she wrote. Trump is a traitor. He NEVER followed MY orders, Trump said. When I ordered him to give Putin a list of my CIA agents, Bolton refused. When I ordered Bolton to Nuke the hurricane, Bolton didn't do it. Now, thanks to Bolton, Alabama is in ruins.

As an American reader can see, I hope, this version of events is rather garbled, rather extreme. Even for one who despises Trump as much as I do, Trump is not quite so bad as painted here. He did not order Bolton to give Putin a list of CIA agents in Russia (at least as far as we know or has actually been reported). Bolton was not ordered to Nuke any hurricanes. And, of course, Alabama is not in ruins. 

But, you see, this is what happens when news that is generally bad is translated through language and cultural perception and foreign political sensitivities. It becomes worse. Conversely, when news that is good is translated through the same channels, it becomes better yet. Thus the common Indonesian affection for Barack Obama. Therefore, what strikes us at home as despicable about Donald Trump and his administration's policies becomes more despicable yet in foreign eyes. 

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