A new approach to ying and yang.Byline: Stefanos Evripidou IF THERE'S one thing I hate, it's generalisations. But we humans are funny little things. There's a tiny patch of concrete on the fringes of the Wagah-Attari border where under the watchful eye of the Pakistani Rangers and Indian Border Security Force you can hopscotch from India to Pakistan and back. From one nuclear power to the next. One imaginary line In general, an imaginary line is any sort of line that has only an abstract definition, and does not exist in fact. As a geographical concept, an imaginary line may serve as an arbitrary division (such as a border). on concrete. And as the two-headed Roman god Janus had one face looking to the future and the other to the past, one staring barbarity in the eye and the other to gentle conduct, so will I now do the same. You must understand the inherent dichotomy in man that pulls us apart. I say man because I can't think of an alternative to cover the whole spectrum. And these patriarchal signifiers are all over the place: wo-man, fe-male. Sure, everything has its antithesis, and they are always mutually constitutive constitutive /con·sti·tu·tive/ (kon-stich´u-tiv) produced constantly or in fixed amounts, regardless of environmental conditions or demand. of each other, but did men come first? Is that why the other sex, the bigger breasted one, was dealt with using the handy prefix, almost as an afterthought? Are we happy with this ying-yang approach or do we want to see stand alone representatives of each sex. For example, for want of a more scientific approach, let's take the two prefixes and stick them together. The other half, you see, they are not wo-men or fe-males, they are WOFE WOFE wholly-owned foreign enterprise WOFE Advanced Workshop on Frontiers in Electronics WOFE Wholly-Owned Foreign Entity WOFE Wingecarribee Our Future Environment (Australia) WOFE World Organization For Education !!! No, that doesn't work. Sounds too much like a builder's whistle or a horny horn·y adj. 1. Made of horn or a similar substance. 2. Tough and calloused, as of skin. dog. Ok, how about FEWO? Hmm, again, not sure that's going to stand the test of time, and anyway, it conjures up images of Japanese cat food. Let's be a bit flexible with the vowels here. Ah! I've got it. FOWE FOWE Frysk Oekumenysk Wurkferbân Earnewâld (Dutch: Frisian Ecumenical Committee Earnewald; The Netherlands) FOWE Frysk Oekumenysk Wurkferbân Earnewâld (The Netherlands) . Yes, Man and Fowa! Male and Fowe! And just add an 's' for the plural. Great, now how do we deal with the whole man-kind, hu-man being issue? Well, let's look at this a bit more closely. Not too close, stand back a little. Humans are animals basically, the main difference being we're quite good with our hands and can build stuff. Some of us also use our brain from time to time and most of us are very good at expressing heightened emotion more eloquently than our furry friends could: C[pounds sterling]Oh my God, I think I just died. Did the foundations of heaven move for you too or was it just the Public Works Department Many governments worldwide have had departments or ministries referred to as the Public Works Department either formally or informally. In Australia: - New South Wales -
Though we are less good at communicating more subtle emotions, like: C[pounds sterling]The thing is you see, I really, really like you and I know we've been dating eight years already, but you're still so cute and funny, it doesn't even bother me that you're not a looker.C[yen] But what really sets us apart from the four-legged creatures we share this planet with, and I hate to admit this, is our ability to appreciate something for the sake of the fact that it's there. Like a sunset for instance or, and this is the bit that riles me, an installation at the Tate Modern The Tate Modern in London is Britain's national museum of international modern art and is, with Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool, Tate St Ives, and Tate Online[1], part of the group now known simply as Tate. . You know the type: a rusty tap in a shoebox shoe·box n. 1. An oblong box, usually made of cardboard, for holding a pair of shoes. 2. Something resembling or suggestive of such a box, as a plain, rectangular building or a cramped room or dwelling. Noun 1. with a nail file nail file n. A small flat file used for shaping and smoothing the fingernails and toenails. sticking out the side. And I challenge anyone to find genius in that. So we humans display a certain sensitivity, despite what you might think after watching the 8 o'clock news. Now, I've got so worked up about the whole modern art issue I forgot where I was going with this. Give me a minute. That's right, humans are animals who can build complicated stuff but more importantly, on an emotional level, we can cry. Sure, an elephant can stomp with fury when you steal its tusks (if still alive), and a wolf will howl when hungry, not after witnessing the majestic beauty of a full moon. But I've never seen my cat break down in tears, even when I force him to do bellyflops for food. That is what differentiates us from the rest of the bunch. Now then, men don't own up to crying, even though they do. And fowas are considered to be more comfortable with the whole process. They are also much better at moving on after they've cried, where as men will cry, and then sulk in a corner, feeling sorry for themselves for having been brought to the climactic plateau that leads a man to tears. As such, fowas should be rewarded for keeping in the public eye the one thing that really separates humans from animals. Therefore, I move to rename the word 'human' with the word 'fuwan'. And now that we have dealt with fuwan beings, what do we do about mankind? Well, I suggest a little compromise here. If you put a mirror to 'man', you get 'nam'. We agreed earlier that you define yourself based on what you are not. Ergo Latin, therefore; hence; because. ergo (air-go) conj. Latin for therefore, often used in legal writings. Its most famous use was in "Cogito, ergo sum:" "I think, therefore I am" principle by French philosopher Rene Descartes (1596-1650). , a man is only a man because a fowa exists too. And one cannot be without the other, regardless of your sexual orientation sexual orientation n. The direction of one's sexual interest toward members of the same, opposite, or both sexes, especially a direction seen to be dictated by physiologic rather than sociologic forces. (now that's another story). So, let us celebrate this relationship, however bizarre, by reflecting that conjugation conjugation, in genetics conjugation, in genetics: see recombination. conjugation, in grammar conjugation: see inflection. in the word that represents our dot in time. From henceforth, I propose that 'man' in the sense of 'mankind' be known as 'mannam', thereby reflecting the juxtaposition of male and fowe, while keeping the word 'man' in there to appease the hardliners and adding a maternal context from the Greek word for mother, 'manna'. So, where was I? Ah yes. As I was saying earlier, you really need to understand the inherent dichotomy in mannam that tears us to pieces, pulling at us in all directions... Hang on a minute, maybe it doesn't tear us all to pieces, maybe fowas don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. what I'm on about. Maybe only men feel like this. Or is it just me? Copyright A[umlaut umlaut (  m`lout) [Ger.,=transformed sound], in inflection, variation of vowels of the type of English man to men. ] Cyprus Mail 2008
Provided by Syndigate.info an Albawaba.com company |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion