genocide

[Dan Goncharoff]

I am, as I often am by the messages here, confused.

Wasn't the professor's "definition" pure sarcasm??

DanG

On Tue, Feb 22, 2011 at 9:49 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:

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> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: genocide
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Dave has stated my precise point better than could I.
>
> As always, my exx. from the Libyan envoy and the Ultonian professor are
> grist for the linguistic mill, not claims that the "meaning has changed"
> for millions.  But, surprisingly to me, the meaning of "genocide" is
> evidently much more fluid for some people, no matter how highly
> educated, than it is for most of us.  Or so I presume.
>
>
> JL
>
> On Tue, Feb 22, 2011 at 7:33 AM, Dave Wilton <dave at wilton.net> wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Dave Wilton <dave at WILTON.NET>
> > Subject:      Re: genocide
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------=
> ------
> >
> > I notice that no one has actually posted the relevant definitions. It's
> > kind of difficult to discuss the meaning of a specific definition when
> th=
> e
> > definition has not been stated.
> >
> > The OED has: "The deliberate and systematic extermination of an ethnic or
> > national group."
> >
> > Article 2 of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the
> > Crime of Genocide has a more specific definition, but one that is
> compati=
> ble
> > with the OED definition:
> >
> > "Genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to
> destro=
> y,
> > in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as
> > such:
> > (a) Killing members of the group;
> > (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
> > (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to
> > bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
> > (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
> > (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group."
> >
> > The key is that any specific act must be within the context of a larger
> > campaign to eradicate a national or ethnic group. Gunning down Vietnamese
> > civilians from a helicopter or killing Libyan protesters in a square in
> > Tripoli, horrendous though those acts may be, are not genocide because
> th=
> ey
> > are not part of a larger campaign of eradication.
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
> > Of Wilson Gray
> > Sent: Tuesday, February 22, 2011 12:56 AM
> > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> > Subject: Re: genocide
> >
> > On Mon, Feb 21, 2011 at 11:57 PM, Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > genocide
> >
> > Sorry, Victor. I'm still stuck in the past, I guess. Certainly, the
> > destruction even of an abstract like "culture," in a real sense,
> > erases the bearers of the extinguished culture from the face of the
> > earth. And the point of the thread is the *legal definition* of
> > genocide, regardless of the exact manner in which it has been or may
> > be carried out. However, even if the extinction "only" of a culture is
> > the end, that extinction often begins with the physical extinction,
> > often in the process of the propagation and imposition of some "one,
> > true faith" - after all, *peoples* were destroyed in order to "save"
> > them, long before any villages were - of those most able to pass on
> > that culture.
> > --
> > -Wilson
> > -----
> > All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"=96=96a strange complaint
> t=
> o
> > come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> > -Mark Twain
> >
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>
>
> --=20
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
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