Annals of Government Naming
April 4th, 2007Have you been drinking government Kool-Aid recently? Do you believe the nonsense emanating from ICANN Board Members about how allowing .XXX would get them involved in regulating content (as if rejecting the application were not exactly that)? Do you think ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee (whose website uses an IP address instead of a domain name) has a place in deciding anything about naming?
If so, you’re going to love two new pinnacles of governmental naming policy….
Tajikistan, famed for its fraudulent elections and a nasty kerfuffle over the .TJ top-level domain (TLD), and Sweden, which lost much of its domestic domain name market to .NU because of restrictive naming policies, provide two recent examples of high-handed absurdity.
- Couple fights to name baby ‘Metallica’ (Sweden). Here, the Swedish authorities, in their infinite wisdom, have decided to tell people what they can or cannot name their daughter. I happen to agree with them that ‘Metallica’ is a particularly awful name for a baby, but should a government really be in the business of saving people from themselves? They’re likely to miss some zingers — do you think the Swedes would have allowed ‘Condoleeza’, for instance?
- Tajik President Outlaws Slavic Endings on Names (Tajikistan). Instead of moving entire populations around the country, as Stalin did, Tajik president Emomali Rakhmon — formerly Rakhmonov — has decided to enter the 21st Century and just do it virtually, by re-baptizing everyone by decree. So, at a blow, all the ethnic Russians living in Tajikistan (and there are many, thanks to Stalin) are now pure-blooded Tajiks. (Note: I am corrected — only Tajiks have to change their names. Such forbearance!)
To me, these are just high-relief examples of governments doing what governments cannot help doing — imposing their ideas of the prevailing morality on their citizens. Naming regulation and content regulation (think .XXX) are part and parcel of the same irresistible temptation to censor. One of the side-benefits of globalization is to bring stories like this to light — and throw into sharp contrast how absurd these restrictions are.
Tags: naming, government regulation, Sweden, Tajikistan, .NU, Rakhmon, Rakhmonov, Metallica, ridiculous
You are dead wrong, my friend.
President Rahmon did not impose any name on anyone. He simply removed Colonialist-imposed Russian name endings “-ov” and “-ev” (-ovich, -evich) from his name to change it to traditional national patterns.
Just think, you name is Antony Van Couvering, but Russian colonialists change it into Anton Couveringov, would you like it? Imagine if Russian endings are imposed in any English name like George Bushovich Bushov, Tony Blairovich Blairov, Michael Jacksonov, Britney Spearsovna etc.. Would you like ‘em dude? Certainly not!
So, Soviet and Russian colonialists forcibly imposed their culture and language on us in an attempt to assimilate into their fold and build one nation called nominally “Soviet” (in fact Russian). While Tajiks had thousands years of their own culture and naming traditions.
President Rahmon just responded to this fascist attempt and changed his name into traditional Persian pattern of naming. His decision is personal and does not apply to anybody else, moreover to Russian minorities. Russian and all other ethnics in Tajikistan can chose whatever they want, they definitely chose their own naming patterns. President Rahmon did not even impose his example on other Tajiks.
He simply observed the law that was adopted in 1989 wich gives the Tajiks right to change their names or chose traditional naming patterns.
So, be accurate my brother and do not make havoc out of nothing. Accuracy should be more important than anything else in journalism. You have no idea about Tajikistan and simply generalise you common knowledge of Central Asian “dictators” as presented in the Western Media about every one.This is not a correct way.
Faramarz | April 5th, 2007 at 1:10 am
Faramarz,
I am not in Tajikistan, so of course I don’t know the reality of the decree. Where are you located?
But while I don’t trust the New York Times on everything, I’m inclined to believe them, because I’ve seen governments do all kinds of stupid things with names.
If I am not to trust Western Media (as you capitalize it), then whom should I trust? Is there some Tajik media I should look at?
Antony
Antony | April 5th, 2007 at 1:44 am