'help the genocide'

[Lynne Murphy]

Was just sending this to a copy-editing blog I read
(engineroom.blogspot.com), but thought it might be of interest here too.

Was driving through Palmyra, New York yesterday, and spotted a handwritten
sign affixed to a telephone pole near a traffic light.  It said:

"Children are being hurt and killed in Darfur.  Donate money to help the
genocide."  (I think it gave a phone number at the end.)

Now, the handwriting was rather childish, so I thought it was just a child
not knowing what 'genocide' means.  But now I've googled "help the
genocide" and found examples from people who ought to know better:

http://human-rights-organizations.suite101.com/article.cfm/darfur_ways_to_help_the_genocide
http://www.dosomething.org/project/teens-darfur
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080406075111AA3TIf4
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080526230512AAlFafW
http://pinkmohair.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/05/help_end_genoci.html  (in a
comment)

(The second link could be where the Palmyran got the idea from.)

When human rights supporters have web pages on 'ways to help the genocide',
it can't be a good thing!  Do we think there's any change in meaning here,
or just bad writing skills?  I'm leaning toward the latter, since the first
line on the first article linked above is "If you want to lend a hand with
the conflict in Darfur, these organizations may be a place to start."  I
half-expected some of the organizations listed to be arms dealers.

I can see how 'help/lend a hand' could come to be interpreted as 'help to
stop' or 'help the victims of', but one doesn't see similar calls to 'help
cancer' or 'help AIDS' or even 'help Hurricane Rita'.  Then again, one does
see "Cancer Support"...

I'm too literal-minded, I guess.    Ooh, should have sent this to the
Literal-Minded blog.

Lynne

Dr M Lynne Murphy
Senior Lecturer in Linguistics and English Language
Arts B135
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QN

phone: +44-(0)1273-678844
http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com

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