The directionless logic of language

[alias_sqbr]

So I'm reading this book "Stuffed and Starved" about global issues with food and stuff. I'm a few pages in and he says "most farmers have few options, especially those in the Global South (the term I use in this book to refer to the world's poorer countries)."

And I am completely thrown out of the book and have to stop reading. The global south? So, what, Australia is a poor country now while all our neighbours to the north are rich? Did he just assume none of his readers were from this side of the planet? I understand semi-redefining words that have ambiguous meanings which almost say what you want them to (the other option being making up totally new words that people will forget the meanings of) but south isn't ambiguous! It's a neat geographical division!

Well, except for "The Deep South" etc. So I guess it's a relative term.

But it's not like people make generalisations about The East and The West that..oh wait. Huh. And those seem totally natural to me, despite being much more ambiguous (West of where?) and making even less sense (Nigeria is exactly as "West" as Germany, after all)

Language is funny innit? :) (I still don't like the term but I'm sure I'll get used to it)

Comments

[sanguinity]

I tripped on that, too, for similar reasons. Then had to back off, for similar reasons -- "the West" doesn't make any sense, either, I'm just used to it.

I haven't been able to quite find out why it's a preferred term in anti-colonialism circles (I've had it show up in some of my other reading, such as essays in INCITE!s The Color of Violence). It's obviously preferable to "the third world" and "the developing world" (both of which are value laden), but why is North/South preferable to East/West? Unless it's a way of avoiding the orientalism of the phrase "the East" (which never included Africa or South America, anyway), and the Western-centrism of "the non-Western world."

What does "the Deep South" sound like to you? Do you parse it globally instead of nationally?

[alias_sqbr]

Yeah, I can see why you'd want a new term, and I'm sure I'll get used to it.

"The deep south" means America to me, but remembering that (northern hemisphere) example, I then thought of "up north" and "down south" as local terms in Australia etc.