Show 161 Wednesday 11 October

Watch today's show at YouTube.

Intro

Hi, I’m Sarah welcome to The Daily English Show. Stick News today is about Mel Gibson and his anti-Semitic comments.
What does anti-Semitic mean? And what does Semitic mean?
This is another confusing word.
The word Semitic was originally used to talk about a language family – including these languages:
Amharic, Arabic, Aramaic, Assyrian, Akkadian,Ge'ez, Hebrew, Maltese, Syriac, Tigrinya, etc.
Then ... “the term also came to describe the extended cultures and ethnicities, as well as the history of these varied peoples as associated by close geographic and linguistic distribution”
But wait, there’s more ... “the late 19th century term "anti-Semitism" came to be used in reference specifically to anti-Jewish sentiment, further complicating the understood meaning and boundaries of the term.”
So anti-Semitism means against Jews ... but not against all Semite people.
Wikipedia says: “Anti-Semitism is hostility toward or prejudice against Jews as a religious, ethnic, or racial group, which can range in expression from individual hatred to institutionalized, violent persecution.”
So anti-Semitism means anti-jew ... but what is a jew? I find this confusing ... and I mustn’t be the only one because there’s a page on Wikipedia titled: “Who is a Jew?”
A Jew can mean a Jewish person or a follower of the religion Judiasm ... or both.
So why would Mel Gibson say nasty things about Jews? I don’t know, I guess you’d have to ask him.
But I think the trouble all started back in the day with wars between Romans and Jews.
And since then Jews have suffered “discrimination, oppression, poverty, and even genocide”.

STICK NEWS

Kia Ora, in Stick News today, Mel Gibson has given an interview talking about the anti-Semitic comments he made after being arrested for drink driving in July.
He said the comments were the "stupid rambling of a drunkard."

Mel Gibson is an actor. He has starred in many films, including Mad Max, Lethal Weapon and Braveheart.
He is a Christian and is married with 7 children. He also owns an island near Fiji.
He has been an alcoholic since he was a teenager. This addiction has caused him many problems.
In 1984 he drove a car drunk and then crashed. He was caught drink driving again in 2006.
After being caught he shouted abuse at the police officers. He shouted expletives, as well as sexist, and anti-Semitic comments.
He has since apologised.

The interview with Mel Gibson will be on TV in America tomorrow and Friday. And that was Stick News for Wednesday the 11th of October.
Kia Ora.

conversations with sarah
# 107 What did he actually say?

Yosuke and Sarah talk about Mel Gibson’s comments.
Step 1: Repeat Yosuke’s lines.
Step 2: Read Yosuke’s lines on the screen and talk to Sarah.

Yosuke What do you think about what Mel Gibson said?

Sarah It’s pretty bad.

Yosuke Yeah. He did apologize though.

Sarah What did he actually say to the police?

Yosuke One of the things he said was: “the Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world”.

Sarah That’s a terrible thing to say.

Yosuke People often say stupid things when they’re drunk though.

Sarah Yeah, but not that bad. I don’t think being drunk is a very good excuse for anything ... he must actually think like that if that’s what he said when he was drunk.

Notes

Music on the show is used with permission from Jamendo.

Today's questionanswer music:

Artist: David Schombert
Album: Quiet Life vol.2
Track: La symphonie du vide
site
music at jamendo

Mel Gibson at Wikipedia.
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