Azam FC in high SPIRIT ahead of match? No; high SPIRITS
Bongo’s huge and colourful broadsheet of Thursday, February 04, had this mouthful of a headline: ‘Health minister mentions excessive drinking as one of major leading causes of mental health problems’. Yeah, this is the headline and for an intro, the scribbler says:
“Health…Minister Dorothy Gwajima has cited excessive drinking as one of the MAJOR LEADING causes as of mental health problems thus calling on Tanzanians to avoid taking much alcohol to PREVENT this VICE.”
“Major” and “leading” are two words that differ only in spelling, otherwise, if you ask us, they mean exactly the same thing. Which is to say, it is ludicrous to use either as a qualifier of the other. And them, we ask our legal experts out there: “Is having a mental problem a CRIME?” We so ask because that is what the word “vice” means—crime!
Well, we aver that our scribbling colleague is inadvertently conveying fake news by suggesting that a whole minister—herself a medical doctor—has said mental health issues are criminal, while truth is, they are MEDICAL issues, please!
Our colleague, reporting from Parliament, further writes in Para 3 of her story based on a question by Hon Lucy Mayenga:
“In her question, the legislator wanted to know the efforts DONE by the Government to APPROVE disorders of the patients who FACE VARIOUS CRIMES.”
Two issues here. One, efforts are not done, they are MADE. We make efforts, we don’t do them. Two, a when a person who happens to have a mental disorder is taken to court to answer certain charges, such a person is deemed unfit to answer them. Why, such a person can’t be held to account over his actions, however grave.
In this situation, contrary to what our scribbling colleague purports to say the MP suggested, the Government is not expected “approve” the accused person’s disorders; rather the Government is expected to ACKNOWLEGE (and dully inform the courts) that certain persons facing criminal charges are mentally unwell, so that charges against them are dropped.
And—need we say it—when individuals (including mental health patients) are taken to court, we don’t say they are “facing various crimes” like our colleague is suggesting Ms Mayenga said. What the MP noted, we aver, is that there are some mental patients in our courts facing (VARIOUS) CRIMINAL CHARGES.
In Para 6 the scribbler, purporting to tell verbatim what the no-nonsense heath minister said, proceeds to write: “…people should be careful ON what they TAKE INTO THEIR BODIES to prevent the disease.”
Careful on? Nope; we say “careful WITH…” while “take into their bodies” sounds rather awkward. Let us rewrite the sentence: “…people should be careful WITH what they CONSUME (not taking into their bodies) to prevent mental disorders.”
On Page 20 of the same broadsheet’s edition, we come across this headline, ‘Azam FC in high SPIRIT ahead of VPL, Federation Cup matches’. High spirit? Nope! Let us reiterate: idioms are fixed and we must not tamper with them, irrespective of our temptation to do so. When referring to a person or groups’ state of mind, that is SPIRITS. So we say high /low spirits, not spirit. It means, the headline writer should have penned, ‘Azam FC in high SPIRITS ahead of VPL…”.
We wind up by going back to Friday, January 29 edition of the tabloid closely associated with this columnist. In a Page 3 story entitled, ‘Magufuli showers praise on director, grants him pardon’, the scribbler writes in Para 10: “The President announced the elevation of the Kahama District Council to a MUNICIPAL.”
No, please! The word “municipal” is an adjective and it needs to qualify another word, a noun, to justify its usage. It means, our colleague should have told his readers that the President announced the elevation of the Kahama District Council to a MUNICIPAL COUNCIL or simply…to a MUNICIPALITY.
Ah, this treacherous language called English!
