R2OK!

Minx · Posted: Wed Dec 11, 2013 12:44 pm Post subject: Mandela Memorial Service

One of the (many) unsettling aspects of yesterday's memorial bash:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2521843/Sign-language-translator-Nelson-Mandelas-memorial-FAKE.html

We've lived in Johannesburg for several years...there's every chance that this is true. Rolling Eyes

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Minx

To err is human, to forgive - canine.

Helen May · Joined: 10 Dec 2006 Posts: 19333 Location: Cheshire

It should have been easy enough to get someone who could sign you would have thought. Or do you think they didn't want to do it correctly?

H
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88 - 91 FM this is Radio 2 from the BBC!

I said it live on air in the studio with Jeremy Vine on 10/3/2005

Minx · Posted: Wed Dec 11, 2013 8:44 pm Post subject:

I'd heard that Zuma had used him before for 'signing' his political addresses. In which case the guy has probably become accustomed to signing gobbledygook.

What amazes me though, is that if the guy is an imposter, what were the American security forces doing letting someone whose background/credentials are so dicey get so close to the President? Were no security checks undertaken?
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Minx

To err is human, to forgive - canine.

Helen May · Joined: 10 Dec 2006 Posts: 19333 Location: Cheshire

Yes they are usually so careful. I remember when Jimmy Carter came to the UK my O/H was involved with the aircraft handling and he was thoroughly checked out as he had to go onboard.

Very odd.

H
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88 - 91 FM this is Radio 2 from the BBC!

I said it live on air in the studio with Jeremy Vine on 10/3/2005

Colin · Joined: 26 Sep 2013 Posts: 916

I've had to overlay sign-language sequences onto video several times and when I watched the clip in question I said to my wife that something looked odd about it. It's peculiar that the bloke didn't know what he was doing and was just blagging it to an international audience. Was he doing it for a bet, I wonder?

A discussion on Radio 4's The World At One today featured an interview down the line with a South African woman who is an activist for people with hearing disabilities who was incensed that this was allowed to happen, and she said that she hasn't spoken to one person who understood his signing.

All very odd!

Minx · Posted: Thu Dec 12, 2013 6:53 am Post subject:

We often came across instances of behaviour that I suppose you'd describe as ingenuous, a kind of childlike belief that you could concoct wild stories or engage in totally incredible behaviour and no-one would entertain any suspicion. I'd doubt it was anything so cynical as doing it for a bet. He looked to be thoroughly enjoying himself, totally engrossed in what he was doing. And apart from the small fact that it appears to have been nonsensical, he did it very convincingly with the appropriate degree of gravitas.

The only thing I noticed was that any form of facial expressions were absent, which I've got used to seeing when we have sign language news on the television.
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Minx

To err is human, to forgive - canine.

Minx · Posted: Thu Dec 12, 2013 7:33 am Post subject:

Ah, now I see he says he was suffering from schizophrenia and had an episode on stage... I expect Obama's security staff are relieved to know that it was nothing more than a schizophrenic standing shoulder to shoulder with their President. Shocked

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Minx

To err is human, to forgive - canine.