Posted on 02/09/2003 9:21:26 PM PST by kanawa
Iraq must get 'fair dinkum' about disarming says PM
February 10 2003
Prime Minister John Howard said Iraq must get "fair dinkum" about disarming and cooperate fully with United Nations weapons inspectors if it wanted to avoid war.
Speaking in Washington ahead of crucial talks with United States President George W Bush, Mr Howard said Iraq could face war within weeks unless it had a sudden and dramatic change of attitude over weapons of mass destruction.
The prime minister will discuss the crisis with Mr Bush at the White House later today, after talks with US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell.
Mr Howard had lunch with Vice-President Dick Cheney yesterday, followed by meetings with Assistant Secretary of State Richard Armitage and US Trade Representative Bob Zoellick.
He repeated his call for the United Nations Security Council to make a strong and united statement against Iraq if the world was to have any chance of avoiding a conflict.
And he took little comfort from chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix, who said he had been encouraged by the reception he received on a weekend visit to Iraq.
Dr Blix said he believed further weapons inspections were preferable to a US military strike.
"I hope I have seen a beginning of taking these remaining disarmament issues seriously," Dr Blix said after talks in Baghdad.
But Mr Howard said Iraqi President Saddam Hussein needed to do more than just hand over more documents to the UN if he wanted to avoid military strikes.
"The community of nations (has) to be sensibly convinced of a change of heart (by Iraq)," Mr Howard told reporters.
"It's got to be a fair dinkum change of heart.
"We all know what that is. We all know that, given everything that's happened, in order to turn this thing around, Iraq has to give totally genuine, transparent, fair dinkum, open cooperation."
Mr Howard will meet UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Dr Blix in New York tomorrow, before he flies to Britain for talks with Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Mr Howard reaffirmed Australia had made no commitment to join a military strike against Iraq, although about 2,000 Australian troops were taking part in the US-led military build up in the Persian Gulf.
However, he ruled out Australian forces being involved in any peacekeeping or stabilisation force in Iraq after a war.
FAIR DINKUM
From Stephen Wan, Australia: “I’m looking for the origins of the Australian slang phrase fair dinkum, which I’m told originates from Chinese. It means real, and is used to allay any potential disbelief about some claim the speaker is making. Apparently, Chinese gold miners in the nineteenth century would tell others of any discoveries of gold using the phrase din gum meaning ‘real gold’ in Chinese.”
"It’s an excellent story, and for all I know the Chinese words do really mean that. I’ve encountered the story before: it’s recorded in a 1984 issue of the Sydney Morning Herald, no doubt among many other places. It’s just another example, I’m afraid, of folk etymology—a well-meaning attempt to clarify the puzzling and explain the obscure.
Most dictionaries published outside Australia and New Zealand are unhelpful, just saying “origin unknown”. But it seems very possible that it comes from an old English dialect term, which is recorded principally in Joseph Wright’s English Dialect Dictionary of 1896-1905. He found several examples of dinkum in various parts of England in the sense of a fair or due share of work. He also encountered fair dinkum in Lincolnshire, used in the same way that people might exclaim fair dos! as a request for fair dealing. But there’s no clue where this word comes from, and dictionaries are cautious because it is not well recorded.
It turns up first in Australian writing in 1888 in Robbery Under Arms by Rolf Boldrewood, in which it had the sense of work or exertion: “It took us an hour’s hard dinkum to get near the peak”. Early on it could also mean something honest, reliable or genuine, though this is actually first recorded in New Zealand, in 1905. Fair dinkum is recorded from 1890 in the sense of fair play, and soon after in the way that Australians and New Zealanders still use it—of something reliable or genuine. There have been lots of related phrases since, like dinkum oil for an accurate report.
For me, being about as far from Australia as it’s possible to get on this planet, the word brings to mind Robert Heinlein’s The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, about a future penal colony on the moon in which everyone speaks a weird patois containing elements of Australian and Russian slang. The sentient computer at the centre of the story is described as “a fair dinkum thinkum”. Go figure."
lol
Well phrased. It's time to get started on rebuilding.
That's the way it always works, at least, and I'm not the only one who's ever observed that.
Wonder if there's a psych explanation?
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