Time was (back in the days of “Gangs of New York”), that a
barrage of dornicks was known as “Irish confetti”. (And if that shocks contemporary sensibilities, well, the
Irish of the time have only
themselves to blame.) In parallel,
we might denominate an IED that blows up an aid-workers’ vehicle (as happened
today to Médecins du Monde, in Kidal
in northern Mali) an “Azawadian welcome”. [Note: This
incident, along with others like it, was apparently not reported in the anglophone press. If you try Google News, they give you
this:
It’s just their special way of saying, “Thank you, health
workers, for coming to our country at your own expense, and treating our people
free of charge.”
For more on the quaint folkways of expressing gratitude in
the local language:
*
Si cela vous parle,
savourez la série noire
en argot authentique d’Amérique :
*
[Update 7 April
2014] Doctors in Africa are having
it rough these days. Today’s
headlines: "A mob attacked an Ebola treatment center in Guinea, accusing it of
infecting the town with disease."
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