Once upon a time there was a poor young man scavenging along the beach for shellfish to eat and whatever cast away things that he could use when he came upon a rusted clump. It didn't look promising but he thought that if it was just all rust, he could toss it away later. If there was still some usable metal within the rust, he could sell it at the recycling center for a few centavos.
When he reached the hovel he called home, he worked to get the rusty crust off whatever was inside the clump he found. Lo and behold, there was what appeared to be an oil lamp....
To make a long story short, out came a genie who granted him three wishes. He asked for wealth, good looks, and to really impress the women, he asked that he should be able to drag his penis along the ground when he walked. The genie then transformed his legs to mere stumps.
There are many variations to this anecdote. There's one where an American, seeing the success of foreign cars on American soil asked for a foreign car dealership. In the blink of an eye, he found himself the owner of a Cadillac dealership in the middle of Tokyo.
And then there's the story of the man who bought shoes at a shoe store because it was a “half off sale.” He only got one shoe, instead of a pair.
The point here is that ambiguity leads to confusion and sometimes, tragedy. Furthermore, if we are not vigilant in the manner by which other people use ambiguous language to mislead us.
We have always played fast and loose with our ambiguous and misleading language. News coverage of the recent dismissal of former Court of Appeals justice Vicente Roxas mentioned that he was a bar exams topnotcher. Being a bar topnotcher means topping the bar, that it, getting a grade higher than everyone else.
The term “barrister” refers lawyers in England and members of the Commonwealth State who have qualified to, and are allowed to appear before magistrates. Here we use that term to refer to law school graduates who are preparing or taking the bar exams. The proper term for those is “under bar” or bar examinees if they are currently taking the exams.
The problem with not being very exacting in our use of language is that we allow those who are more creative in their use of words to mislead and hoodwink us.
During the height of the rice crisis earlier this year, rumors were swirling around that Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap's father-in-law was unduly and unlawfully taking advantage of the situation. Secretary Yap issued a statement stating that his father-in-law was not in any way involved in the wholesale trading of grain. Of course, that did not really answer the issue of whether or not his father-in-law was taking undue and illegal advantage of the rice crisis. His father-in-law could have been involved in the grains retail trade, or numerous other activities related to the grain trade. Somehow, people just left the issue at that.
Just yesterday, the Armed Forces released a video of what appeared to be child soldiers undergoing training in arms and warfare under the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). The MILF immediately issued a statement categorically stating that none of their regular soldiers were children and that they do not recruit children to join their ranks. The MILF used a lot of words to say nothing at all.
The accusation based on the video is that the MILF is training children in the use of arms and in warfare. When the MILF stated that there are no children in the ranks of their regular troops or among their combatants, it only means that the alleged child soldiers do not join the ranks of regular troops and combatants until they are of age. And when the MILF avers that they do not recruit children, it does not say anything about whether or not they refuse children who volunteer to join their ranks.
When he reached the hovel he called home, he worked to get the rusty crust off whatever was inside the clump he found. Lo and behold, there was what appeared to be an oil lamp....
To make a long story short, out came a genie who granted him three wishes. He asked for wealth, good looks, and to really impress the women, he asked that he should be able to drag his penis along the ground when he walked. The genie then transformed his legs to mere stumps.
There are many variations to this anecdote. There's one where an American, seeing the success of foreign cars on American soil asked for a foreign car dealership. In the blink of an eye, he found himself the owner of a Cadillac dealership in the middle of Tokyo.
And then there's the story of the man who bought shoes at a shoe store because it was a “half off sale.” He only got one shoe, instead of a pair.
The point here is that ambiguity leads to confusion and sometimes, tragedy. Furthermore, if we are not vigilant in the manner by which other people use ambiguous language to mislead us.
We have always played fast and loose with our ambiguous and misleading language. News coverage of the recent dismissal of former Court of Appeals justice Vicente Roxas mentioned that he was a bar exams topnotcher. Being a bar topnotcher means topping the bar, that it, getting a grade higher than everyone else.
The term “barrister” refers lawyers in England and members of the Commonwealth State who have qualified to, and are allowed to appear before magistrates. Here we use that term to refer to law school graduates who are preparing or taking the bar exams. The proper term for those is “under bar” or bar examinees if they are currently taking the exams.
The problem with not being very exacting in our use of language is that we allow those who are more creative in their use of words to mislead and hoodwink us.
During the height of the rice crisis earlier this year, rumors were swirling around that Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap's father-in-law was unduly and unlawfully taking advantage of the situation. Secretary Yap issued a statement stating that his father-in-law was not in any way involved in the wholesale trading of grain. Of course, that did not really answer the issue of whether or not his father-in-law was taking undue and illegal advantage of the rice crisis. His father-in-law could have been involved in the grains retail trade, or numerous other activities related to the grain trade. Somehow, people just left the issue at that.
Just yesterday, the Armed Forces released a video of what appeared to be child soldiers undergoing training in arms and warfare under the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). The MILF immediately issued a statement categorically stating that none of their regular soldiers were children and that they do not recruit children to join their ranks. The MILF used a lot of words to say nothing at all.
The accusation based on the video is that the MILF is training children in the use of arms and in warfare. When the MILF stated that there are no children in the ranks of their regular troops or among their combatants, it only means that the alleged child soldiers do not join the ranks of regular troops and combatants until they are of age. And when the MILF avers that they do not recruit children, it does not say anything about whether or not they refuse children who volunteer to join their ranks.
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