Drought banned in Australia - apparently too depressing

[Plan C]

The word "drought" has now been replaced with "dryness":

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...r-farmers.html

My personal fav:

"There needs to be a new national approach to living with dryness, as we prefer to call it, rather than dealing with drought."

I bet Australian farmers feel so relieved right now, at last, something's been done about the drought.

I was under the impression that child labour was banned in oz but clearly the Drought Policy Review Expert Social Panel has employed some 5-year-olds to think up solutions for them

Another example of how taxpayer money is wasted on heaps of BS.

[Pivra]

cute hahaha

[Ishoss]

"Mørke tider" (Dark times) is such a depressing word. I propose us Norwegians rename it "Mindre Lyse Tider" (Less Light Times)

Yay me!

[Marie Louise von Preussen]

The world is falling apart due to PC.

[the_mango55]

This is hilarious.

[BoJaN]

Isn't this like 1984 when they start removing words from the English language.

[Big War Bird]

Who else's first thought was "dryness" sounded more like a personal sexual problem?

[Last Roman]

Who else's first thought was "dryness" sounded more like a personal sexual problem?

heh, I actually have to agree with you on that one

people trying to cover up a problem with a new title isn't going to get rid of the problem. this is just quite pathetic.

[Musthavename]

"Let's just pretend it doesn't exist and hope it goes away!"

[Gaidin]

It's good for entertainment value though.

[C-Rob]

That degrades the seriousness of a drought. Calling it dryness might cause people to not take it seriously when they REALLY SHOULD. Drought is a HUGE problem and calling it by any other name is senseless.

[Richard]

That degrades the seriousness of a drought. Calling it dryness might cause people to not take it seriously when they REALLY SHOULD. Drought is a HUGE problem and calling it by any other name is senseless.

You're right. Dryness is also used to describe weather conditions, and means something different to a drought.

[Salazar]

I'm absolutely for political correctness where it actually helps to avoid hurting or insulting people, but this is just ridiculous. Also, my english isnt perfect, but if we accept for a moment that farmers are hurt in their feelings by the word drought, than how is the word dryness any better? I mean, if you're going to use euphemisms than at least choose an effective one

[boofhead]

Stupid. People aren't depressed because of a word, they're depressed because of a reality.

PC 'panels of experts'. Bloody halfwits more like it.

[Каие]

This a prime psychological example of running away from the reality of finding a solution for a problem, by changing the most irrelevant thing to give yourself a sense of accomplishment despite not accomplishing anything.

Boof, as a form of protest, and sheer common sense, you must call it the drought, the drought and nothing but the drought. After all when is it going to become a crime to call a fence a fence.

[Furious Mental]

You lot don't seem to fully understand the reasons why the Commonwealth boffins are deciding to use the term 'dryness' rather than 'drought'. In part it is because it apparently makes farmers unhappy.

However it is chiefly because the term 'drought' suggests that the weather conditions are temporary even if prolonged. In proper meteorological terms this country is not experiencing a drought at all - it is simply the case that the country is ing dry and that isn't going to change in the foreseeable future. You would not say that Timbuktu is experiencing a centuries long drought, would you? You would just say that it is in the middle of a bloody desert and so it never rains there. I.e. it is dry.

This is meant to convey the message that farmers can't expect to just get a mountain of handouts to tide them over until the seasonal deluges return (because they won't and the country can't sustain such payments to people and businesses that produce nothing), rather they have to change their agricultural practices altogether or move.

Hence the phrase 'living with dryness'. You people seem to be under the false impression that 'dryness' is meant or has the effect of mitigating the seriousness of this crisis in the public mind. In fact it is precisely the opposite - the prospect of living on a continent where water resources are permanently rather than just temporarily scarce is much more alarming and the term has been chosen partly for that reason.

Hence also why our resident geniuses the Nationals are saying "No, a drought is a drought and I think we need to continue to refer to it as such, because people need to know that something does come to an end", (even though it looks for all the world like it won't come to an end) and also why they insist on continuing the Exceptional Circumstances payments ad infinitum (even though the current circumstances appear to have become the rule, not the exception).

Of course, trust a foreign newspaper (and the Daily Torygraph no less) to not have a goddamn clue about anything that happens here. If you want news from Australia I suggest trying the website of the Australian, Melbourne Age, Sydney Morning Herald or ABC in future.

[Каие]

Renaming the fence a bouncy castle does not make any single difference, except an increase of ridicule. It's simply weak, when there is a problem target the word...why don't they just use a different language?

sécheresse
Dürre
droogte

It's just nonsense.

[Furious Mental]

Of course it makes a difference. Calling Osama bin Laden a 'freedom fighter' rather than a 'terrorist' is a huge difference. Same with calling a crash in the stockmarket a 'correction' rather than a 'crisis'.

The term 'drought' falsely conveys the idea that the aridness of the continent is temporary rather than permanent. Moreover, as I also pointed out, the term 'drought' is being explicitly used by certain idiots in our legislature to justify their policy of maintaining the status quo as far as agricultural policy goes, which basically means standing in quicksand.

In any case, as I said, the persons that compiled the report in question quite rightly point out that Australia is not experiencing a drought at all, it is simply dry, so to use the term 'drought' is incorrect as a matter of language. Most of these farmers are not 'drought-stricken', they are simply farming in areas that have become semi-deserts and will remain so - droughts eventually break, deserts just remain rainless wastelands. I know how much people love to bash 'political correctness', and I'm sorry to ruin all your fun, but this has little to do with political correctness, unless you think that it is politically correct to use words according to their proper definition.

[Каие]

Of course it makes a difference. Calling Osama bin Laden a 'freedom fighter' rather than a 'terrorist' is a huge difference. Same with calling a crash in the stockmarket a 'correction' rather than a 'crisis'.

You can be both. Bin Laden can be a freedom-fighting terrorist or terrorist-using freedom fighter, [not saying he is...]. It's not really the right example to use, in the case of this drought business, a 'lighter' term is used to make farmers feel better. I'm sure a lot of Afghans like to think he is a freedom fighter, as it's easier on the mind.

My point is simple, it doesn't matter what it's called...the thing happens. Thus it's simply a nuisance to change the word. Especially when done by a panel of 'experts' and authorised by powers. It just seems like...propaganda.

[Odovacar]

Lets just rename "death" to something pleasent like choclet..