It has been pretty hard to ignore the passing of the nationally beloved South African leader, Nelson Mandela. It's is all over the news and people are mourning worldwide. Many came to South Africa either in person, or made the journey through computer or TV screens to honor this man at his memorial service on Tuesday. On a day of remembrance, one group of people seemed to have been forgotten.
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| A screenshot from the current news stories on Yahoo!, all relating to Nelson Mandela. |
The deaf community around the world in infuriated, claiming that the sign language interpreter and translator at the Mandela memorial service was a fake, which made it impossible for these people to understand. As awful and almost unbelievable as this seems, it has happened before, with the same interpreter.
This man, still unnamed, has interpreted at other events, where people claimed that we was completely inaccurate. How could the South American government, who organized the memorial service, let this happen again?
CNN covered this controversy, and in an interview with Bruno Druchen, leader of the Deaf Federation of South Africa, he stated that the failed interpretation was "a total mockery of the language". It seems as though the government could have put in a little more effort and hired a well-respected and knowledgeable interpreter, instead of the man who caused so much upset through his inaccuracies. This act of the government may suggest the marginalization of the deaf community; they were left out of a worldwide event, while the problem was so preventable. The large deaf community may now be seen as unimportant, not even worth the governments time of finding a reliable interpreter. Many people were upset by this situation; reactions include "appalled", "offensive", " and "[an] outrage".
Of course, the South African government is deflecting the blame away from themselves, not accepting responsibility for their actions. This is another way the deaf are marginalized in this situation; nobody is willing to acknowledge that what happened was wrong, accept the blame and apologize.
Is marginalization really what is going on here? Why else would a mistake so preventable be made?
I think that it may not be the SA government's fault that the interpreter was a fake. I do find it hard to be believe that such a ridiculous mistake of hiring that interpreter could be made, but mistakes happen. I think it is sad that the deaf community missed out on the event, but I do not really think it was because of discrimination against the deaf (just my guess).
ReplyDeleteMy dad showed me a video clip of the interpreter and told me this story. At first I didn't believe him, but after seeing it on the news, I realized he was telling the truth. From what I heard, the fake interpreter was not the man the government originally hired. The fake somehow managed to get the original interpreter's badge and information, and was able to lie his way into the speeches.
ReplyDeleteWhat amazes me is that he had done this before. What do you gain from that? How do you even come up with the idea? I don't think it was entirely the government's fault, but it did happen on their watch, show they are the ones who should take responsibility and apologize.
I am appalled, but at the same time, eager to see what SNL will do with this...
I appreciate both your comments, Josh and Jayce. I wrote this blog on the night that this story first came out, and I based my opinions on the limited information I had at the moment. Since then, much more information has been released, such as the interpreters possible medical condition, or the new information that Jayce discussed in her comment, which changes the story. Because of this, my opinions have changed to a degree as well. However, the one part of the story that stuck with me initially, and still sticks with me, is that this man had been used as an interpreter at another event, where he also was deemed a fake. I find it unusual that this man was used again at such an important event; this information is what led me to believe that the deaf community may have been marginalized, for their needs were not seen as important, and a man who was known for being a fake was the interpreter at the event. How can this be explained?
ReplyDeleteI too heard about this, and thought it was interesting and odd for a few reasons. First, why did nobody stop him? The deaf community has a reason to be upset, because they were left out of such a big event, in terms of an interpreter. However, aside from that, everyone keeps saying that they didn't know or they didn't realize that he was a fake. Somebody would have had to have made sure he was there, and why did nobody think, "Is he supposed to be there?" I also don't put blame on the fake interpreter himself because apparently he is diagnosed with schizophrenia, and didn't realize what he was doing. But for all the people that thought that him being a fake interpreter was such a bad thing, where were they when it was happening, and why didn't they stop it?
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