Wednesday, December 11, 2013

(OT) Sign Language Interpreter at Mandela's Funeral Made It All Up


(UPDATE) Mr. Thamsanqa Jantjie says he was hallucinating, seeing angels, according to AP. He insists his sign language is proper, which is vehemently contested by sign language experts and people who use sign language. They say it was gibberish.

Meanwhile, New York Post (only one of so many) is rather upset with the president of the United States taking a selfie with a leggy blonde who happens to be the prime minister of Denmark.

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You can't make things like this up, but this unnamed man apparently did.

From AP via My Way News (12/11/2013):

Mandela ceremony interpreter called a 'fake'

JOHANNESBURG (AP) - A man who provided sign language interpretation on stage for Nelson Mandela's memorial service, attended by scores of heads of state, was a "fake," the national director of the Deaf Federation of South Africa said on Tuesday.

Asked about the claim by The Associated Press, South Africa's government said it was preparing a statement.

Three sign language experts said the man was not signing in South African or American sign languages. South African sign language covers all of the country's 11 official languages, according to the federation. It wasn't immediately clear if the unidentified man was using a different method to communicate.

The unidentified man seen around the world on television next to leaders like U.S. President Barack Obama "was moving his hands around but there was no meaning in what he used his hands for," said Bruno Druchen, the federation's national director.

Nicole Du Toit, an official sign language interpreter who also watched the broadcast, said in a telephone interview that the man on stage purporting to sign was an embarrassment.

"It was horrible, an absolute circus, really really bad," she said. "Only he can understand those gestures."

South African parliament member Wilma Newhoudt, a member of the ruling party who is deaf, also said the man communicated nothing with his hand and arm movements. AP interviewed both Druchen, who also is deaf, and Newhoudt by telephone using an interpreter.


The man's identity hasn't been disclosed.

Video from UK's Telegraph:

20 comments:

SouthJerseyJoey said...

beats me what the guy was doing. it looks like it be secret service hand communications. only the finnish troll knows for sure ;-)

Anonymous said...

He was interpreting the true crap that comes out of poititians mouths and that's why it didn't make sense!

Anonymous said...

The poor man graduated from the Finnish Troll School of sign language.

Anonymous said...

This guy should be working for Tepco

Anonymous said...

Wow, he was doing his thing for 4 hours and nobody took him off stage. I would have at least thrown in some break dancing and some twerking towards the end.

Anonymous said...

Jim Morrison would comprehend the meaning.

Anonymous said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yogw44ehpOk

Anonymous said...

And this guy was hired by the same high echelon government people who some insist have a diabolically genius masterplan to subdue the world population and ultimately enslave us? Yeah, good luck with thinking themselves out of a paper bag.

VyseLegendaire said...

It's all the same if you ask me. Considering Mandela was a fraud and a horrible murderer Marxist, and Obama likewise.

Anonymous said...

I read about this a few days ago. It doesn't surprise me in the least.

"Why pay someone for a quality service when they can provide epic fail for a cheaper price?"
"Why bother learning sign language when you can make it up yourself and still get paid for it?"

That is the kind of mentality I see everywhere now, for everything.

The worst part is that there are always people who will jump to the defense of such mentality, just because they don't like to see anyone complaining about anything. They never care that they are making the world a shittier place for everyone by dismissing valid issues. Humans should be renamed to Hedons.

Anonymous said...

Why trivialize the funeral of a great man with such reporting? Always good to divert attention from Japan and point the finger (however minor the event) to something non-Japanese.

Anonymous said...

Anon at 11:01PM, get lost.

Anonymous said...

If people can fake being able to operate npps why not sign language?

Anonymous said...

10:11 PM, I agree wholeheartedly, whith both your comments!

Anonymous said...

It's Tourette's World, 10:11.

And don't worry everyone, DITU/D2 is watching you, has got your back.

GTFO

/sarc

IntelAgent said...

My thyroid now feels noticibly swollen, we have been getting tremendous amounts of rain as of late, I don’t believe my crappy water filter removes radioactive iodine “:(” from my city water supply, and since the rain wouldn’t stop, I and many others HAVE had to go out in it. Sux man, I relly didn’t want a swollen thyroid, I tried to get iodine at the beginning of this from pharmacies “I don’t have a #$%^& credit card to go online” and they wouldn’t give me any or didn’t have any so I even though I had $$$ was SCREWED OUT OF PROPHYLACTIC MITIGATION MEASURES!!!!!COMMUNISM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I want iodine right mf’n NOW!, now now now, anybody tell me where I can get it without having to talk to communist pharmacists, pls/tx. Western canada fyi. I just wanted a lil bit for supplementary measures to help me not uptake radioactive iodines “plural!!!!” like a sponge for when the municipal water supply is flooded with rainwater, and also just to have a little security in the case the whole site does something unprecedented like turns into an inferno or blows up I can take some for 3 or four days when the air is laden, and possibly live or possibly not have to get a “chernobyl” necklace , I know the stuff’s cheap and I’ll gladly pay,,, maybe if I was in N.Korea I could get some, but what do I know.
For the reactors> dump tons of lead in them or into their holes in the ground ‘these coriums were just under 100 tons of nuclear fuel” just dump the lead on the fuel wherever it is, leave it alone, let the water boil away, let the relatively fluctuating corium cook the low melting point lead so that it melts into the mix, it will most surely give you a “cold shutdown level” solid corium mass in a short time* afterwards.
Spent fuel pools- remove all fuel from this hellhole immediatly and if there is molten fissioning fuel “I seen steam from these reactors even recently” dump lead on it, hot or cold I don’t care and let it work it’s magic, so that you can get stable solid masses of non fissioning fuel, in a short time*.
*Time is needed after integration of lead to allow the most highly active
fission/heat generating isotopes to decay. Then put this puppy to bed, and do your contamination routine “33% reduction in contamination maximum or so it says in attempts”. This is what you do japan, stop the fission, gain ability to operate on these dangerous materials. lead is toxic, but lead “maybe some boron for flavor wouldn’t hurt” is the answer. The entire site will need to be completely excavated anyway, so lead is not a problem/quite the opposite hope it happens.I say do this and I think russia wants this and would agree .

Hikarius said...

Sure it is a farce, but the interpreter might be the result of exploitation from outsourcing, as suggested by some respondents here and The Guardians.

"Ordinarily, sign language interpreters in South Africa are switched every 20 minutes to maintain their concentration levels, she said. Jantjie was on the stage for the entire service, which lasted more than four hours. (...) Whereas the standard fee for an interpreter is 1,300 to 1,700 rand a day, she noted, Jantjie was being paid just 800 rand."

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/12/mandela-memorial-interpreter-history-violent-behaviour

Anonymous said...

As for the selfie, it might be worthwhile also reading this:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-echochambers-25355881
*mscharisma*

I Have A Name said...

Nelson Mandela was not a great man. He was a violent terrorist with a long-standing, high-ranking position within the South African Communist Party up until his death (which was finally admitted by that organization & several recognized others, post-Mandela's death, after decades of denying it. Decades. Why?). Do your own research.

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