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August 15, 2007
Names
People in the camps have occasional access to television, where Western cultural norms are learned through the filter of popular media interpretations of those norms. One of the quirky results of this particular situation is the late profusion of Western popular culture-inspired names among camp residents. “New Feature” is my personal favorite among them, but there are many, many more; some are inspired by history, others by movies or politics or even the NGO presence in the camps. Recently, a set of newborn twins were named “IRC and OPE”. In Mae La and nearby border camps, last names of American ex-presidents seem to be the Gary’s of the fifties for many young people. Many refugee children now have first names like “Lincoln” or “Franklin” or “Jefferson”. Other popular names pay homage to a different kind of influence, with names like “Cindarella”, “Anastasia”, or “Tinkerbell”. One family named their four children “Henry Kissinger”, “Tennessee River”, “Kennedy” and “Blesses”, but also decided to keep their one-syllable Karen last name. To my surprise, I recently I met an elderly monk in Nupo who introduced himself to me as “Rambo”.
In Tham Hin camp, shortly after September 11th, two newborn twins were named “Osama” and “Bin Laden” and according to a caseworker, the family’s case was subsequently rejected by DHS. Who knows, it might be unfair to assume that their misfortune had anything to do with the twins’ names. Reading about name-based discrimination in places like France, where someone called “Muhammed” or “Abdullah” would probably think twice about submitting a CV with a real name at the top, makes me wonder what life will be like for Karen refugees with names like “Sylvester Stallone” or “Peter Pan” when applying for jobs and attending school in the United States.
Posted by Bremen Donovan at August 15, 2007 08:51 AM
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