MY…HOVERCRAFT…IS FULL…OF EELS…
Oh, come on!
Really?
According to the the national director of the Deaf Federation of South Africa , the man who appeared to be signing on stage next to world leaders speaking at Nelson Mandela’s memorial service had no idea what he was doing, and was faking the whole thing.
The solemn, professional-appearing unidentified man seen on television around the world “was moving his hands around but there was no meaning in what he used his hands for,” Bruno Druchen, the federation’s national director, told reporters. Sign language experts agree that the man was not signing in South African or American sign languages and could not have been signing in any other known sign language because his arm and hand movements appeared completely random.
How could this happen? Why would anyone do this? And how do I know all the signers I’ve watched over the years weren’t doing the same thing?
This is a very insidious, peculiar, alarming but funny form of either audacious fraud or mind-boggling incompetence. Who was this guy? What if he had been an assassin? How often are signers just trusted when they say they know sign language for the deaf by event organizers who wouldn’t know if they were translating or signing knock-knock jokes?
And where is Garrett Morris when you need him?
________________________________
Facts: ABC
Ethics Alarms 
Somebody in the protocol office along with at least one dude from the Secret Service is getting fucking fired over this.
Good point. Nice security and vetting by all concerned. What was stopping that fake signer from leaping over a few feat and snapping the President’s neck? If he wasn’t a real signer, who knows what he was, or what his intent was? I have to get sexually molested every plane trip, and yet a mystery man ends up next to the President, within killing distance, on false pretenses?
But as you know, nobody gets fired at the White House.
Fair point.
Well, maybe he IS a security guy. Stranger things have happened.
I like it! On the other hand, why bother to have wacky fake interpreter security when you can have regular angry man in a suit security?
I had the impression, until I read your post, that the government of South Africa placed the fake signer there for their own purposes, whatever they might be. I’ve become so used to the idea that the government does whatever they want to do and for their own reasons that I automatically assume the fraud is being perpetrated BY the government rather than ON it.
Maybe some little scene you’d expect from a campy Hollywood comedy occurred in the background. Maybe the real signer slipped and fell unconscious and as the coordinator rushed up to tell the event organizers the show was on and the first speaker said “ah, good the signer is here, hope you do great!” Then the poor shmoe is standing there with nothing better to do but flap his arms.
I’m sorry, this is serious, but I can’t help but snicker with the world’s leaders standing next to that buffoon.
“Hey, it’s Enrico Palazzo!”
A man after my own heart. Quoting Naked Gun…
Should be a comment of the day.
With that guy stand so close to so many world “leaders.” I wonder who in that crowd was the biggest fraud?
MY…HOVERCRAFT…IS FULL…OF EELS…
**************
Feed your fingertips to the wolverines.
The ABC news article you linked to has been replaced. The new text (quoted in its entirety due to ABC’s demonstrated willingness to replace it):
“The man accused of faking sign interpretation next to world leaders at Nelson Mandela’s memorial told a local newspaper that he was hallucinating and hearing voices.
“Thamsanqa Jantjie did describe his qualifications for being a sign language interpreter, but told The Star he works for an interpreting company that paid him $85 for interpreting Tuesday’s event. He told Radio 702 Thursday he’s receiving treatment for schizophrenia and had an episode while on stage.
“Jantjie did not address allegations by sign language experts that he faked interpretation for the Mandela memorial attended by scores of world leaders and broadcast internationally.
“The Star quoted him as saying: “I tried to control myself and not show the world what was going on. I am very sorry, it’s the situation I found myself in.””
Can’t make this stuff up…
It’s also been replaced again. The new text:
“The man accused of faking sign interpretation while standing alongside world leaders like U.S. President Barack Obama at Nelson Mandela’s memorial service said Thursday he saw “angels” at the event, has been violent in the past and suffers from schizophrenia.
“Thamsanqa Jantjie said in a 45-minute interview with The Associated Press that his hallucinations began while he was interpreting and that he tried not to panic because there were “armed policemen around me.” He added that he was once hospitalized in a mental health facility for more than one year.
“Jantjie, who stood gesticulating three-feet (1 meter) from Obama and others who spoke at Tuesday’s ceremony that was broadcast around the world, insisted that he was doing proper sign-language interpretation of the speeches of world leaders.
“But he also apologized for his performance that has been dismissed by many sign-language experts as gibberish.
“The statements by Jantjie raise serious security issues for Obama, other heads of state and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon who made speeches at FNB Stadium in Soweto, Johannesburg’s black township. The ceremony honored Mandela, the anti-apartheid icon and former president who died on Dec. 5.
“”What happened that day, I see angels come to the stadium … I start realizing that the problem is here. And the problem, I don’t know the attack of this problem, how will it come. Sometimes I get violent on that place. Sometimes I will see things chasing me,” Jantjie said.
“”I was in a very difficult position,” he added. “And remember those people, the president and everyone, they were armed, there was armed police around me. If I start panicking I’ll start being a problem. I have to deal with this in a manner so that I mustn’t embarrass my country.”
“Asked how often he had become violent, he said “a lot” while declining to provide details.”
The $95 and up Sign Language Market was all booked?
Literally every nation providing a speaker coughed up $1 per speaker to cover for this guy. I mean I understand most of the Western World and other nations are facing some budgetary constraints, but dang… maybe spring for the $150 Signer guys….
Wow. Assuming this is the true explanation, which it may be, I think it’s even more disturbing. From the article at the time I read it:
” ‘What happened that day, I see angels come to the stadium … I start realizing that the problem is here. And the problem, I don’t know the attack of this problem, how will it come. Sometimes I get violent on that place. Sometimes I will see things chasing me,’ Jantjie said.”
“Asked how often he had become violent, he said “a lot” while declining to provide details.”
I’m all for nondiscrimination against the mentally ill, but even assuming he actually is otherwise qualified for a job, someone with an apparently extensive history of violence due to an ongoing medical condition should have been rejected by any security agency for this particular job.
I’m all for nondiscrimination against the mentally ill, but even assuming he actually is otherwise qualified for a job, someone with an apparently extensive history of violence due to an ongoing medical condition should have been rejected by any security agency for this particular job.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I read something yesterday that said this isn’t the first time he’s done this.
The same source said fake translators are a problem in South Africa.
On a more positive note, if you haven’t seen the little girl signing Christmas songs for her deaf parents, you’ve got to.
(I love her sign for “glow” in “Rudolf The Red-nosed Reindeer”.)
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/video-girl-signs-christmas-carols-deaf-parents-article-1.1545641
Oh, Lord, the race-baiters are on that story already. 😦
Totalitarian countries use fake interpreters as additional security. That man has a large gun in his jacket or waistband. There is no way these corrupt Regimes would allow a simple community person up there on stage with access to observations and conversations! The worst news is, I’ve seen Obama using these fake security goons masquerading as interpreters.