Everyday we get closer to Biden having to pronounce "Niger" correctly in-front of the entire world.
this post was submitted on 11 Aug 2023
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If you want to be correct, since Hausa is the majority ethnic group, it's really Jamhuriyar Nijar
The name comes from the Niger River which flows through the west of the country. The origin of the river's name is uncertain. Alexandrian geographer Ptolemy wrote descriptions of the wadi Gir (in neighboring modern Algeria) and the Ni-Gir ("Lower Gir") to the south, possibly referring to the Niger River. The modern spelling Niger was first recorded by Berber scholar Leo Africanus in 1550, possibly derived from the Tuareg phrase gher-n-gheren meaning "river of rivers"
Neezh-air is how I pronounce it
I’ve learned that I’ve been mispronouncing it my entire life.
Mispronunciations are fine.
But there is one mispronunciation for “Niger” that is fatal…. Just don’t make that mistake lol
I read an article in the Seattle Times about the Niger coup a few days ago. Talks about how they're hostile to France (ostensibly presented as a bad thing, no mention of French misadventures in West Africa) and pro Russia (scary! bad!)
Some talk about how it will affect the fight against islamic insurgents as well with the absence of French troops, they talked about how attacks from insurgents increased after the coups in Mali and Burkina Faso but in typical western journalism fashion left the reader to draw their own conclusions on that
Canada/US media just nakedly calls out the fact that the uprising is a threat to western interests in the region and expects the reader to just take as a given that something must be done to protect them, which most agree with I assume.
Then there is the whole racist use of the word “junta”, which is blatantly only used to describe uprisings in non white countries.
This +trying to resuscitate the Islamic terrorism boogeyman to get people to care about it
The media makes it out to be of great importance that our allies and the West intervene in
country, when two weeks ago most people couldn’t locatecountryon a map if their life depended on it.
God, this makes me feel old.
In Brazil I hardly hear people talking about it, and when they do it's a sort of "ignorant sympathy" for the people there, even if they don't really care to learn what's happening. It's really hard to be foaming at the mouth here for intervention abroad when our national bourgeoisie won't even get any benefits from said intervention. Only people who seem to care about "upholding global democracy" are the weirdo Europhiles, but they hardly remember Africa exists in the first place.
It's more like Afghanistan than Ukraine because they can't even worry about all the blue eyes white children.
Poland - standard imperialist propaganda laced with racism - evil African warlord junta vs good prowestern African democracies and their benevolent concerned patrons in Europe and America. Conflict of hungry for power barbarism versus the pure human rights, freeze peach and of course occasional mention of the sacred law of property.
It's also usually very vague since nobody here know shit about Niger and its region, nor anyone care, but it's cucumber season in full swing so it made some headlines.
In Sweden it is cast as a Russian/Wagner takeover snce we're unable to comprehend anything outside of an colonial framework, instead of a struggle for self determination. That being said any counter narrative is portrayed as pro Russian propaganda being spread on pro Russian social media. Nothing is said about the French colonial bullshit, the unfair and exremely exploitative extraction of natural reaources, or even any attempt to correctly historically contextualize the "coup".
I don't think I've heard a single word about it in any Danish news media
Silence in Germany as far as I can tell.
I've had a couple videos on the events suggested to me on YouTube from Tagesschau and DW, but based on the titles alone you can tell that it's the same old pro-imperial garbage. In terms of people talking about it, haven't heard a peep.
I didn't know anything either until now
Here in the Czech Republic, almost nothing. Only a few stories about overthrowing of “democratically” elected president, and few comments from French. No one seems to care.
In the USA, pundits and commentators talk about it but ask the average person and I can nearly guarantee they either A.) Don’t know where that country is, B.) Don’t know what’s going on there, and C.) (less likely but still plenty of people) Don’t know what Niger is.
Live in Canada but only watch Portuguese television and from what I’ve seen on Portuguese news they’re mostly still focused on Ukraine and barely give any time or attention to Niger.
Not even mentioned
How you described it is quite literally how it's being discussed here in the states. It's ironically the "I support the current thing" meme but in real life. It's definitely not receiving as much attention as Ukraine, but unsurprisingly enough, people only really care as far as they see Russian flags being waved around lol. What happens to the people/ what they even want seems to be secondary.
I don't here anything about a war about to happen from my news. I live in ~~the Great Satan~~ Amerikkka.
US/Terminally online — I’m mostly interested insofar as they apparently have Burkina Faso’s support. Can’t say I knew much else about the area otherwise before this, unfortunately. The Wagner connection doesn’t sit well with me since I’m a major fruitcake and they probably don’t cotton to that kind of thing, but if the mercs are necessary the mercs are necessary.
I do not speak to other people about these things irl for fear of hearing dumb opinions and I do not watch or read the news from major sources.
Ever since the dismemberment of Libya, jihadist groups, including ISIS have moved in in the whole area. Wagner was invited there after 15 years of US "help" not actually helping but making the problem worse.
Surprise surprise, the Wagnerites were actually effective at kicking several jihadist groups out of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso. Compare Niger to the neighbouring Nigeria, who still rely solely on Western help and is about to collapse.
Yeah, in that light their involvement definitely seems worthwhile.
It's really more the personal "They would probably beat my ass in the insanely remote chance we crossed paths" factor. Then again, there's a lot of people who would do that.