Sometimes, even in the midst of this current Mandela Memorial Fake Interpreter debacle…you just gotta laugh.
And that’s what I and some of my Facebook friends were doing yesterday. Laughter IS the best medicine, after all.
It all started when I received a withheld comment on WordPress to my prior blog post – Mandela’s Fake Interpreter – in which I shared my thoughts about this international incident and the impact it was having on the Deaf Community, and on myself as a Deaf Pagan.
This spamming troll – whose comment did not make it onto my post – felt it necessary to let me know that this whole fiasco is due to nothing other than witchcraft.
Yup, you read that right.
Apparently this whole fake interpreter situation can all be attributed to Black Magick. After all, this is what happens when witchcraft is involved – you’re not doing God’s work, you’re doing the work of the devil.
Ohhhhh yeah. Right. We all know how witchcraft is responsible for the multitude of sins in the world…
including crappy interpreters.
I first shared this with my Spirit Sister, Crystal. Naturally she rolled her eyes and heaved a sigh…and then asked if this commenter thought the “interpreter’s” gibberish gestures were actually some sort of spell or curse.
Hmmm…now that’s an idea. Maybe those angels the guy claims to have seen were actually demons.
Well, I couldn’t resist. I just had to post this to my Facebook wall:
Hmmm…interesting. According to a (now deleted) comment left on my blog post, this whole fake interpreter situation is all attributed to “black magick.” After all, this is what happens when witchcraft is involved – you’re not doing God’s work; rather, you’re doing the work of the devil.
Oh yeah…right. We all know how witchcraft is responsible for all the sins of the world…
including crappy interpreters.
Crystal was the first to pipe in with her thoughts, undoubtedly inspired by a caffeine high:
I’m still laughing about this. (Of course, that afternoon coffee has helped to fuel my giggles.) Witchcraft – causing bad luck, poor crops, disease, and fake interpreters for centuries.
Yup. Apparently we witches have been conjuring up lousy communication facilitators since the dark ages. Maybe it’s about time that the rest of the world knew about this, so I decided to respond with my own comment:
Of course, we witches all know that those hand gestures were actually the guy conducting a spell…right, Sis?
Now you know, folks.
Fellow Pagan, CODA, and Interpreter Kiki had to join us in our laughter:
Lol. That sounds crazy.
Ridiculously so. But hey…let’s have fun with it while we can, n’est-ce pas?
My Deaf friend Janel – who isn’t Pagan but does share my occasionally twisted sense of humor – came along and inquired politely:
Am I allowed to say that was funny?
Sure you are, Janel. We’re all having a case of the giggles about it here.
Then along came another Deaf friend, Ken…with his own question, as well as an interesting observation:
He was casting a spell? That’s a new one..and not entirely impossible.
Nope…not impossible, Ken. Highly unlikely, maybe…but not impossible.
But then I started to feel a little guilty. Maybe I was saying too much here. After all, the ethics of spellcrafting encourages us To Know, To Dare, To Will, and To Keep Silent. Obviously I wasn’t doing a good job of keeping my mouth shut:
Shhhhh, Ken…we’re not supposed to give away our secrets.
Next to join the party was my same-sort-of-crazy-sense-of-humor Deaf friend Jodi, who posted a link to a video spoof of the fraudulent interpreter standing next to President Obama making balloon animals, and commented that obviously THIS was witchcraft:
Witches caused this, I tell ya! WITCHES!!!
Actually, I kinda wish this fake interpreter had been making balloon animals…at least that would have been entertaining to watch.
My friend Cedar, herself a Pagan who has worked as an interpreter in the past commented that
I sometimes wish we *were* that powerful. There would be a lot more good in the world if we were, I think.
Indeed, Cedar. There would be a lot more good in the world…and a lot less bad interpreting services.
Then I chimed in with some new thoughts and my own observations. You see, when I first read this comment, this is what was actually said:
This is what happens when witchcraft is envoved, you will get fack intrepters who are not doing God’s work. He is doing work of the devil.
Now you can understand why I deleted this comment. Sorry, but anyone who can’t even spell “fake” right doesn’t make it onto my blog.
So I commented on how I am now left to wonder if WTF actually stands for “What The Fack???”
Of course, we all then had to jump on that comedic bandwagon.
My friend and well-known Pagan Author Edain posted her own tongue-in-cheek comment:
Maybe that’s why I’ve been off FB for a month…too many facking witches doing their own thing.
And my Pagan pal Fyre posted the following meme:
So apparently the F stands for Fack, Foxtrot, or F-bomb. Gotcha.
Of course, Crystal thought that was FACKING FUNNY! while Melanie chimed with FACK THAT!
Yup, this whole witchcraft accusation is pretty facking hilarious. But at least it gave us all a chance to groan, giggle, and guffaw for awhile, and served as some healing balm in the midst of the pain and anger this situation has stirred up.
But as I woke up this morning, took another peek at that FB status post, and had a final chuckle over the sheer nonsense of it all, I started thinking about Ken’s comment.
Laughter aside…the concept of this being a spell isn’t all that impossible.
A spell is a formalized intention…it is a wish that is sent out into the universe, with the energy to manifest itself in reality.
It has long been the Deaf Community’s fervent wish that our culture, our language, and our communication needs gain the recognition and respect that they so rightfully deserve, and that the world comes to understand the importance of qualified interpreters as a part of achieving Equal Communication Access.
With his “gibberish gestures” Thamsanqa Jantjie has made that possible. Our wish is now manifesting itself in reality.
Magick is indeed taking place.
True magick is the art of creating change. It is the art of creating possibilities.
As Marion Weinstein, herself a respected leader and author in the Pagan Community, states:
“The work of magick involves transformation, and the first transformation is the shift of perception.”
The shift of perception. As I read the countless news reports and articles which have circulated about (and continue to circulate) in regards to the Mandela Memorial Fake Interpreter; as I watch the various videos and observe the various comments being made on Facebook, the one thing that has become pretty clear is this:
The transformation is happening; people’s perceptions of interpreting…of communication access and sign language and Deaf Culture itself is undergoing that shifting. The change is taking place. It may take some time to see noticeable results, but this is the first step.
But change to what?
To a fuller range of possibilities, to a broader spectrum of spirit. Not change to something else…but to something more. First we can all learn to know ourselves and to gain some understanding of each other. And then with that understanding, and a little love and patience we can expand – stretching our hearts and minds and souls, and exploring and developing new territories within ourselves, and within our communities. We can begin to implement many of the beliefs, practices, and philosophies that Nelson Mandela himself stood for.
For as every good witch knows:
She changes everything She touches, and everything She touches…changes.
This sculpture shows the sign for "connect"...and that is what Deaf Pagan Crossroads is all about - making connections. Connections between Deafhood and Paganism, connections between the Deaf Community and the Hearing Community, connections between myself as the writer and you as the reader. I hope you will take the time to read my various posts, some of which are listed below. Welcome to the Crossroads, and I hope you make some connections here!
Who could have foretold that Thamsanqa Jantjie’s fakery would have such a positive effect. Magick working itself through mysterious ways indeed.
Happy Solstice thoughts. 🙂
Excellent post Osh!
I smile! I agree ! I share the coffee with you, all. BB
I’m not sure I find anything funny about this. First of all, there was no accessibility for any Deaf people at the service, or for any Deaf people who was watching the service. That’s a shame itself.
Secondly, how horrible it must be for the people who were speaking next to this fake interpreter, to realize that he should have not been standing there. What if the fake interpreter did harm them?! Gosh. How scary that could have been. You wouldn’t have liked it if that happened to you, would you?
Now, are you still laughing??
First of all, allow me to clarify: I am a Deaf person myself. I do recognize the seriousness of this incident, and I do agree that it’s a damn shame that there was no accessibility for those who were at the service, or who were watching it. (Although I do wish to clarify that actually the service WAS accessible for me, through the provision of captions as provided by the television network I was watching it on…but I still found it confusing to try and understand what this supposed “interpreter” was trying to say.)
And yes…I agree that this could have been a serious security situation, and that this individual should have never been standing there in the first place, that he should have undergone a through background check and his credentials carefully reviewed.
I discuss this in my prior post on this subject, the link for which you can find within this post, or by going up to the top of my blog and clicking on “Mandela’s Fake Interpreter.”
No, I do not consider this incident to be a laughing matter.
But I believe you may have missed the point of this post. We were not laughing about the fake interpreter situation in and of itself…
We were laughing at the comment I had received and the ludicrousness of the commenter to blame this whole incident on witchcraft. To think that a bunch of witches could and would somehow cast a spell that would result in this whole situation is pretty ridiculous, and the only reaction that we could make to such an accusation is to laugh. Is it really all that funny? Probably not. But if we don’t look for the humor in such and laugh at it, we would probably be tearing our hair out.
So yes… I am still laughing.
But I’m not sure that I am laughing at what you seem to think I’m laughing at.
Accessibility? Respect? Competency? Security? Accountability?
No…I am not going to laugh at any of those.
Blaming the lack of such on witchcraft?
HAHAHAHA!
Oh goodness no, we were not laughing about the interpreter debacle itself. But we were most certainly laughing over a commenter blaming the whole thing on witchcraft.
Sorry, Huh?…but I have to do a Double Huh? to your comment.
I am left to wonder if you even read the above blog post, and if you did…did you truly understand it? Because frankly, I think it’s pretty clear that these folks are NOT laughing at the fake interpreter incident, but like Kim says and Osh herself explains…were laughing at the accusation of witchcraft.
If you read the blog post, you will see that some of the people who were in fact laughing over this silly accusation are themselves Deaf, or are Interpreters. They know that Ocean meant no offense regarding the interpreter fiasco – that what she was trying to do was install a bit of humor into an otherwise not-funny situation.
I’m Pagan myself, and on behalf of my own Pagan coven, allow me to say that we don’t find the fake interpreter debacle to be funny at all. We join in solidarity with the Deaf Community in its anger and pain over this situation and how it was allowed to happen, and we do hope that the resulting attention that this incident has received leads to improvements in accessibility, national security, and respect not only for the interpreting profession, but for Deaf people themselves – their language and their culture.
But as Ocean so eloquently explains at the end of this blog post, some positive things have come out of this whole fiasco. The world is now beginning to listen and to learn.
And that is indeed…magickal.