Judges MELT death sentences; PM wants lights in town AREAS

The goof that could depict you as a scribbler lacking in linguistic competence might be a result of typing error (typo, in newsroom lingo) or an oversight. But then, as we keep harping here, the reader doesn’t care; all he wants is value for his money!

Which is to say, being a career scribbler, you need to always try harder if you are to maintain your reputation as a competent media professional, and not somebody who acquired a newsroom job by mistake or fraud.

Having thus lectured, let us proceed to deliver linguistic goodies gathered over the last week in Bongo and beyond. Here we go…

Bongo’s huge and colourful broadsheet of Sat, Oct 9, has a Page 3 story entitled, ‘Lawyers demand scrapping of death penalty’, in which the scribbler purports to quote what a retired judge said with regard to death penalty, and writes in Para 8:

“Not all judges MELT that sentence willingly; they do because of the oath they took.”

Melt a sentence? Heavens, no! I aver our colleague had in mind the word METE, but even this one must be followed by “out” to form the phrasal verb METE OUT. Judges mete out sentences (punishments), they don’t melt/mete them!

On Page 4 of the same broadsheet, there is a story entitled, ‘Amaranth growers express new hopes in crop using improved seeds’. In Para 10, our scribbling colleague based in Kibaha reports:

“One of the researchers from TARI - Kibaha, Dr Ruth Meena, said there are five varieties of improved amaranth…” and in the following Para, he writes on: “Dr RUTH said the basis for amaranth cultivation is to have quality seeds…”

I will remind my colleague, once again, about naming etiquette for those of us who subscribe to the British system of naming, which dictates: You use prefixes such as Mr, Mrs, Miss, Ms, Dr or Prof, VP or President, with the person’s FULL NAME or the last (SURNAME). So, it isn’t right to refer to Dr Ruth Meena as Dr Ruth. Call her Dr Meena (or Dr Ruth Meena)!

It means The Citizen writers are very correct when, after the initial mention of President Samia Suluhu Hassan, subsequently refer to her as President Hassan or Ms Hassan. As to why other media outlets refer to her Ms Samia/President Samia or, Ms Suluhu/President Suluhu…ask them!

Still on Sat, Oct 9, whereby we pick up a copy of Bongo’s senior-most broadsheet whose Page 1 has a story entitled: ‘PM: Shoddy projects won’t be accepted’. Therein, the scribbler purports to quote the Premier as saying:

“Right now, the government has instructed that all projects in town AREAS must have street lights…”

Granted the PM, who gave his good speech in Kiswahili, said: “…miradi yote katika MAENEO ya mijini…” Now that, when converted to English, should have been thus written, “…all projects in URBAN areas must…” or simply, “…projects in all TOWNS must…”

Another story on the same page had a story headlined, ‘ATCL keeps rising’, and this is what the scribbler wrote in Para 2:

“Zanzibar President Dr Hussein Mwinyi led Union and Revolutionary Government senior leaders, INCLUDING hundreds of the (sic!) Islanders to welcome the Airbus A220-300 planes…”

The preposition “including” here gives the presumption that the hundreds of Islanders at airport to welcome the planes were part of the Union and Revolutionary Government senior leadership. That couldn’t be, of course! We aver our colleague had in mind the word(s) PLUS/AS WELL AS (not including) hundreds of Islanders…”

On the same date, Nairobi’s huge daily that enjoys substantial readership in Bongo had a story on Page 9 in which a scribbler writes: “Auctioneer firm Garam Investments has put up for sale Mr Osewe’s commercial-cum-residential apartment…over a Sh300 million LOAN he BORROWED from GT Bank.”

A loan he borrowed? Nope! We don’t borrow loans, we borrow money, and such money will comprise the loan we TOOK (not borrowed).

Ah, this treacherous language called English!