Jamal Khashoggi by Daniel Baxter, 2018 (courtesy of the artist).
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from the ongoing series, Imperial Abhorrences (& Other Abominations)
Ammiel Alcalay
Kashoggi or Kashog-ji?
From an American perspective
perhaps the most notable thing
about the case of the Saudi
journalist was that for two
straight days, no matter
where you turned, from
NPR to Fox or CNN
they all pronounced
his name Kashog-ji—
it was as if the NSA
had installed a
pronunciation
chip into the
collective
mind of
the MSM
Translation theory
Maybe some of these people who
think they can translate Hafez or
Rumi freely without even knowing
the language ought to try working
GITMO, like my friend Khaled,
where he couldn’t say a word
someone else hadn’t already said
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