Not Just Born

Reading about the Pope's visit to Brazil, I find that, according to The New York Times, he's "Argentine-born." That's funny; I thought he was Argentinean, born and bred. But, were we to take the prestigious paper's word for it, he just happened to be born in Argentina.

Of course, we all know that, except for brief periods, the man has spent all of his life in his native land. So, it's really misleading to characterize him as the newspaper has. This is a peculiarly-American practice that is clearly wrong. Unless a person has spent a significant part of his or her life in another country and has become its citizen, there is no valid reason to refer to him or her as being "wherever-born."

Nationality and citizenship are two different things, although the latter usually corresponds to the former. One can only have one nationality because it is based on where one is born. It is possible to have two or more citizenships because it's something that a government bestows on you, and depends on purely-legal considerations that are subject to treaties between two countries.

Only American ignorance prevents them from grasping these simple concepts, thus repeating the same mistake over and over again.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Belgian Buggery

The Catholic Church's sex abuse scandal won't go away; instead, it keeps growing every day.  Take the story out of Belgium, where a report has been issued that details what went on, including more than a dozen suicides linked to the abuse perpetrated by priests and  a cover up that continues to this day, when a Belgian bishop suggested that a complaint be withheld until 2011, when the bishop who covered up for the offending priest will retire.  With each passing day, it becomes more and more difficult to hold that this behavior was just the work of a few rogue priests.  There are just too many cases all around the world, for anyone to believe such a thing. This is clearly a major problem which the church tried to hide from the authorities and recklessly let it continue, without any regard for children elsewhere, by transferring priests.  There is no excuse for this unpardonable sin.
Read more

The Mutiny That Should Have Been

Maybe they should have mutinied. The crew of the Bounty replica, that is. An investigation of the October, 2012 sinking has determined that the captain was to blame, for his recklessness in sailing into Hurricane Sandy's path with a 50-year-old ship and an inexperienced crew. This modern-day Bligh, presumed dead, shared the hubris and insanity of his 1789 predecessor, causing the death of a woman crew member whose last name was Christian . The poor woman had been on board just five months, when she met her untimely death. I suppose that those who believe in such things must be thinking that there's something that makes the captain of the Bounty do insane things...
Read more

Hear, Hear!

Not that it means a whole lot, but, still, the gesture has some significance. After 33 years on the throne, the Dutch queen, at 76, will abdicate in favor of her son. Not subject to election by the vote of her people, she has done the right thing by resigning, so to speak, and letting her son carry on with the royal duties. At 86, and 60 years on the throne, Queen Elizabeth would do well to follow this example. Hanging on to the throne at her age and after so many years seems excessive and ungenerous. The same goes for King Juan Carlos, who has just turned 75, and has been on the throne for 37 years. His son will be 45 two days from now, so is already older than his father was when he became King. In Juan Carlos' case, he has, of late, given signs of poor judgment, that could very well be a result of his age. Queen Elizabeth and King Juan Carlos should follow Queen Beatrix 's example.
Read more