Bienvenue en Azawad!

Time was (back in the days of “Gangs of New York”), that a barrage of dornicks was known as “Irish confetti”.  (And if that shocks contemporary sensibilities, well, the Irish of the time  have only themselves to blame.)   In parallel, we might denominate an IED that blows up an aid-workers’ vehicle (as happened today to Médecins du Monde, in Kidal  in northern Mali) an “Azawadian welcome”.  [Note:  This incident, along with others like it,  was apparently not reported in the anglophone press.  If you try Google News, they give you this:

http://www.romandie.com/news/n/_Mali_un_vehicule_d_une_ONG_saute_sur_une_mine_a_Kidal_deux_blesses82260220142138.asp ]

It’s just their special way of saying, “Thank you, health workers, for coming to our country at your own expense, and treating our people free of charge.”

For more on the quaint folkways of expressing gratitude in the local language:

“Heartfelt thanks to the great French nation”

*

Si cela vous parle,

savourez la série noire

en argot authentique d’Amérique :

http://www.linguasacrapublishing.com/justiceexcerptdivorce.html

*

 [Update 7 April 2014]  Doctors in Africa are having it rough these days.  Today’s headlines: "A mob attacked an Ebola treatment center in Guinea, accusing it of infecting the town with disease."