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| Britain |
| Clinton: All you need is ubuntu |
| 2006-09-28 |
| Bill Clinton told the Labour conference to get into ubuntu. Eh? Ubuntu. That was what Bill Clinton told the Labour party conference it needed to remember this week. "Society is important because of Ubuntu." But what is it? Left-leaning sudoku? U2's latest album? Fish-friendly sushi? No, it's a word describing an African worldview, which translates as "I am because you are," and which means that individuals need other people to be fulfilled. The former president, husky-voiced and down-home with the delegates, gave it a folksy flavour, describing it in terms of needing to be around others to enjoy being ourselves. "If we were the most beautiful, the most intelligent, the most wealthy, the most powerful person - and then found all of a sudden that we were alone on the planet, it wouldn't amount to a hill of beans," said Mr Clinton. The word comes from the Bantu languages spoken in southern Africa - and is related to a Zulu concept - "umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu" - which means that a person is only a person through their relationship to others. And it's entered the political lexicon through the political changes in South Africa. Archbishop Desmond Tutu, in his book No Future Without Forgiveness, says: "Ubuntu is very difficult to render into a Western language... It is to say, 'My humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up, in what is yours.'" More |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #15 related to a Zulu concept - "umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu" - which means that a person is only a person through their relationship to others. How utterly post-modern, post-national, post- whatever. In America we are accustomed to thinking that a person is what he chooses to make of himself from the materials at hand. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-09-28 22:34 |
| #14 F*** Ubuntu as a collectivist philosophy. But as a linux distro, its damn good. |
| Posted by: Oldspook 2006-09-28 22:16 |
| #13 Don't step in the Cowbunga. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2006-09-28 19:17 |
| #12 ROFL, Frank! |
| Posted by: .com 2006-09-28 18:55 |
| #11 wow - he's so worldly. It takes a village to satisfy his narcissism |
| Posted by: Frank G 2006-09-28 18:53 |
| #10 "Ubuntu"??? Dear God, is there to be no deliverance from this unrelenting rising tide of vapid liberal bubblebrained feelgood bullshit?? Is this the Final Plague Thou hast set upon us?? Every now and then, in the dead of my darkest nights, I get a vision of how our world will end. Not in fire, nor in ice; but just... kinda unwound. Stuck on Stupid. Bill Clinton, YMMV*. *= You Make Me Vomit |
| Posted by: Dave D. 2006-09-28 18:27 |
| #9 Sounds like a word meaning something very close to "socialism." |
| Posted by: no mo uro 2006-09-28 17:02 |
| #8 Yo. I be usin it a sentence fa ya... Ubuntu getta whitey ova heah ta do my plantin, ya rich cracka jive ass bastid! |
| Posted by: Farmin B. Hard 2006-09-28 16:26 |
| #7 Yes, yes ubuntu....bwana. It's an Afri thing, those in he west wouldn't understand. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2006-09-28 16:03 |
| #6 Ubuntu, ubuntu, ubuntu, ubuntu, ubuntu, ubuntu There's nothing you can do that can't be done. Nothing you can sing that can't be sung. Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game It's easy. There's nothing you can make that can't be made. No one you can save that can't be saved. Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be in time It's easy. All you need is ubuntu, all you need is ubuntu, All you need is ubuntu, ubuntu, ubuntu is all you need. Nah. Doesn't scan right. |
| Posted by: Mike 2006-09-28 16:01 |
| #5 Heh. I am touched. I am feeled. I gotta go hurl. |
| Posted by: .com 2006-09-28 15:59 |
| #4 ...which means that a person is only a person through their relationship to others. Yeah, n if Hillary gets the What House back, this'll work better on them interns then Leaves of Grass. "Ubuntu, baby. Now why don't ya put ya face in the former leader of the free world's lap..." |
| Posted by: William Jefferson Clinton 2006-09-28 15:49 |
| #3 Archbishop Desmond Tutu, in his book No Future Without Forgiveness, says: "Ubuntu is very difficult to render into a Western language... It is to say, 'My humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up, in what is yours.'" Translation: Stick em up and gimme your wallet. |
| Posted by: badanov 2006-09-28 15:41 |
| #2 Badanov says Desktop BSD is the future. ...dang, as I linked to the article I just noticed Desktop BSD is now offering a 64bit version. *drool* |
| Posted by: badanov 2006-09-28 15:37 |
| #1 Oh, I figured he was a convert to the hot and happening Ubuntu Linux distribution... |
| Posted by: Classical_Liberal 2006-09-28 15:27 |