Interpreters need

more than language

On a recent visit to the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, I had the opportunity to observe the remarkable lady known as “Froggie” in action.

The 79-year-old “Froggie” is, I believe, of Australian birth, but the important thing about her work is that she speaks not only English but also excellent French and, more important

still, that she has been using her language skills at the RFAH for many years to interpret for and generally mother people from New Caledonia who come in considerable numbers to the hospital for specialist medical treatment.

Dl, separated from their fami lies, finding themselves in a strange place and unable to

speak English, these people are often in a state bordering on terror and it is here that “Froggie” (she keeps a secret of her true name) comes into her own.

I listened carefully as “Frog gie” interpreted for a middle aged Melanesian man who had come down from Noumea for treatment of complications from a stomach operation he had had at RPAH eight months before.

The Australian nursing sister was trying to administer a “pre med” (pre-operative sedative) injection in the back of the

man’s hand, but could not find a vein. “Tell him to move his fingers,” she said to “Froggie”.

“He’s as stiff as a board.”

“Froggie” duly told him in French to move and keep moving his fingers, but about being “stiff as a board,” or anything to do with stiffness, she said not a word.

I wondered about this for a moment before the reason struck me: “stiff as a board” would have meant one thing only to the poor chap in the hospital bed it would have been the same as telling him he was stone cold dead, or at the

very least about to be.

The association between the ideas of physical rigidity and death is a potent one in his society and “Froggie” showed, by calmly ignoring the sister’s comment, that she’s not only on top of the cross language side of her work, but also and perhaps even more importantly the cross-cultu ral side as well.

Long may she flourish.

P. Warbeck

Sydney, NSW Australia

Energy: Hail

to a pioneer

With the present widespread interest in possible sources of village electric power in the Pacific, I would like you to print as a memorial to the late Mr Yahyah Bin Ibramsah, of La buan, Borneo, this short account of work he did in World War 11.

To save some of the local

children from forced labor for the Japanese army, and to keep the local power and water sup ply going, he scraped coconuts and rendered the oil for use in a Bollinder oil engine, which probably dated from before World War I. His successful action was in defiance of past and present conventional wis dom. A by-product of his pro cess was cooking oil, which was extremely scarce at the time.

My respects to a former edi tor of PIM, Mr Stuart Inder, and I ask that he inquire into the

present state of bomb disposal in Solomon Islands.

G. N. Hammond

Darlinghurst, NSW Australia

Letting loose

on racism

In responding to the letter by Bill Coppell “Poison Pens at Work” (PIM Dec. ’B5), I would just like to say perhaps we should analyse the reasons why such a message would traverse the thousands of miles of blue Pacific to come to rest on the shores of Australia.

Could it possibly to be that the sick and demented minds which still dwell in our “Deep South” felt that Australia would lend an ear to such “poison”?

It is no secret that Australia rarely treats its native peoples, the Aborigines, any better than its native animals; and certainly no better than the South Afri cans treat their Blacks, or Amer ica treats its Indians.

I dare you to print this.

Ivan Vernon Mckinney Jr.

Santa Ana Calif.

Usa