02 revelations
I was calling to book a room for a friend visiting from overseas. She was at the other end of the line. Things were going well when suddenly we hit a patch of Honiara that I didn't expect to hear about...
It all started when I asked to check if men were allowed to lodge at this establishment.
Iufala letem man tu for stap? Ia mifala save letem.
I was reassured but the next question took me a bit by surprise:
Man ia save dring? Nomoa, man ia no save dring ia.
Waswe smoke? Mifala no save tekem oketa man wea dring or smok ba. Man ia, dring en smok nomoa lo hem ia. No matta swear bata hem no save swear tu!
I wasn't fibbing - my friend was a smokefree teetotaller who didn't even curse.
She was undeterred: Waswe man ia save tekem gele? Nomoa, man ia maret man ia.
No mata maret, hem save tekem gele tu?
OK this brought me down to earth. It showed in my voice I think.
Oketa! man ia no save tekem gele ia. Stret man ia.
Had I been face-to-face, I swear she wouldn't have batted an eyelid.
Staka maret man bata tetekem gele lo hostel tu ia. Kaen 02 osem...
After more reassurances, we ended the conversation. With her words and tone echoing in my mind: Staka maret man bata tetekem gele lo hostel tu ia.
It wasn't just the words, but the matter of factness in her voice. Smoke, drink and women were all brought up in a calm, almost stolid voice. This from someone who sounded in her early 20s. To a male Solomon Island stranger on the phone. All with aplomb and polite persistence that I would have found hard to keep up if I were in her place.
Her composure and the word "02" coalesced in my mind. During the famous Solomon "tensions" from 1998 to 2003, when a combination of civil war and wild-west warlordism shook the country, the term 02 was coined for the practice of keeping an additional partner to one's legitimate spouse. The term alluded to the hull number of the SI police's second patrol vessel - 02, and drew a parallel with partner no. 2.
For all that, 02 is not about infidelity.
Affairs, mistresses and unfaithfulness were not invented during the tension.
No, 02 is about the acceptability of it all. By being a handy shorthand for everday use, 02 ushered into casual daily conversation something that was previously unmentionable.
02 never existed before the tension, because it had no place in respectability. It didn't need its own space. Infidelity and unfaithfulness were just negations of the norm - they weren't big enough, deserving enough to get their own words. "Meke trabol" was both vague enough and big enough to capture the range of misbehaviour all the way from a misplaced hand right through to pregnancy out of wedlock. No more.
The misplaced hand didn't even warrant a name anymore. The teenage pregnancy was unremarkable. And infidelity became so commonplace, and so common-knowledge that we needed a new word just for it. As always in pijin, the challenge was picked up by the street. Someone made the connection, used 02 and away we went.
Someone once said naming something gives you power over it. I don't know that this worked with 02 - though certainly the young woman on the phone sounded empowered!
It all started when I asked to check if men were allowed to lodge at this establishment.
Iufala letem man tu for stap? Ia mifala save letem.
I was reassured but the next question took me a bit by surprise:
Man ia save dring? Nomoa, man ia no save dring ia.
Waswe smoke? Mifala no save tekem oketa man wea dring or smok ba. Man ia, dring en smok nomoa lo hem ia. No matta swear bata hem no save swear tu!
I wasn't fibbing - my friend was a smokefree teetotaller who didn't even curse.
She was undeterred: Waswe man ia save tekem gele? Nomoa, man ia maret man ia.
No mata maret, hem save tekem gele tu?
OK this brought me down to earth. It showed in my voice I think.
Oketa! man ia no save tekem gele ia. Stret man ia.
Had I been face-to-face, I swear she wouldn't have batted an eyelid.
Staka maret man bata tetekem gele lo hostel tu ia. Kaen 02 osem...
After more reassurances, we ended the conversation. With her words and tone echoing in my mind: Staka maret man bata tetekem gele lo hostel tu ia.
It wasn't just the words, but the matter of factness in her voice. Smoke, drink and women were all brought up in a calm, almost stolid voice. This from someone who sounded in her early 20s. To a male Solomon Island stranger on the phone. All with aplomb and polite persistence that I would have found hard to keep up if I were in her place.
Her composure and the word "02" coalesced in my mind. During the famous Solomon "tensions" from 1998 to 2003, when a combination of civil war and wild-west warlordism shook the country, the term 02 was coined for the practice of keeping an additional partner to one's legitimate spouse. The term alluded to the hull number of the SI police's second patrol vessel - 02, and drew a parallel with partner no. 2.
For all that, 02 is not about infidelity.
Affairs, mistresses and unfaithfulness were not invented during the tension.
No, 02 is about the acceptability of it all. By being a handy shorthand for everday use, 02 ushered into casual daily conversation something that was previously unmentionable.
02 never existed before the tension, because it had no place in respectability. It didn't need its own space. Infidelity and unfaithfulness were just negations of the norm - they weren't big enough, deserving enough to get their own words. "Meke trabol" was both vague enough and big enough to capture the range of misbehaviour all the way from a misplaced hand right through to pregnancy out of wedlock. No more.
The misplaced hand didn't even warrant a name anymore. The teenage pregnancy was unremarkable. And infidelity became so commonplace, and so common-knowledge that we needed a new word just for it. As always in pijin, the challenge was picked up by the street. Someone made the connection, used 02 and away we went.
Someone once said naming something gives you power over it. I don't know that this worked with 02 - though certainly the young woman on the phone sounded empowered!
Labels: 02, social change
posted by honiara at 7:19 am
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