Newsgroup: it.cultura.linguistica.inglese
Titolo: baby-eating

QUOTE
Besides, so long as America gave the lead and handled the high-tech
logistics, Nigeria and others would be prepared to supply extra manpower.
And there is no doubt that more or less any intervention force would be
welcomed by the locals, who are praying for one.
Most of Africa is not at war, however, and needs different kinds of help. As
a baby-eating right-winger, Mr Bush is loved neither by Africa's chattering
classes nor by the West's professional worriers about Africa. But he has a
habit of surprising foe and friend alike.
UNQUOTE
Source: "Now for Africa", The Economist, July 5th 2003, p.11
Exactly what ghastly thing is the journalist implying here about Mr. Bush by
referring to him as a baby-eater? Surely, he is not saying that Mr. Bush is
a cannibal with a predilection for the meat of infants.
---
Xakero

 a cannibal with a predilection for the meat of infants.
He didn't refer to him as a baby-eater but rather as a baby-eating right-winger.
The insinuation, in my opinion, is that extreme right-wingers have an atrophied
sense of humanity. Come to think of it, why are you asking that here, and why am
I answering it?

 I answering it?
Ma non erano i comunisti a mangiare i bambini ?...
Adesso ci si mettono pure quelli di destra ?...
:-)))
--
Er Roscio.

I answering it?
It was a word whose meaning he was not aware (or he was not sure
about) and you were so kind to explain that. Am I answering your
question? ;) Besides, here in Italy a "baby-eater" could be a way to
offend a Communist. There's a sentence in my dialect and the meaning
in Italian is "I comunisti mangiano i bambini". I don't know if it is
widespread and I have no idea of where it came from.
Oh, BTW, I didn't want to offend any right-winger or left-winger that
is reading this post, it's just a sentence I've heard many times and
then, when I read "baby-eating" referred to Bush I, thought that the
journalist was calling Bush a Communist. ^_^
Sebastiano
--
Start spreading the news, I'm leaving today
I want to be a part of it - New York, New York
These vagabond shoes, are longing to stray
Right through the very heart of it - New York, New York

---
In the past it was a fairly common form of propaganda to say that your 
opponents ate babies, etc.  e.g. in 15th Century Spain, the Catholic 
Monarchs portrayed Jews as baby-eaters.
Here I think it is more ironical, "baby-eater" is not really 
sophisticated enough for a modern Western audience.
Cheers
-- 
John G Davies



"Baby-eaters" was used about Communists (in the Forties/Fifties, I think).
Nowadays, it's used speaking ironically about (allegedly) absurd
or exaggereted accusations.
It's the first time I hear it about President Bush!
-- 
Enrico C
Do Something Amazing Today
Save a Life, Give Blood

  atrophied sense of humanity.
Thanks to all who replied.
It was the adjective "baby-eating" that puzzled me (and posed the question
without any political undertones. The remainder of the text was merely for
context.)
References to baby-eating I found with Google were in fact about cannibalism
and I wasn't able to guess the other, figurative meaning of the term.
---
Xakero

A certain Xakero, of it.cultura.linguistica.inglese, writes:

Searching Google with the Italian expression ("mangia-bambini" =
"baby-eaters"), the first result reads
COMUNISTI MANGIA BAMBINI www. 
cronologia.it
1945-1948 - anni difficili. I COMUNISTI " MANGIANO I BAMBINI " Idiozia
e genialita` nelle parole dei tornei elettorali...
that is, more or less...
BABY-EATERS COMMUNISTS www. 
cronologia.it
1945-1948 - hard years. COMMUNISTS "EAT CHILDREN". Nonsense and genius
in the words of electioneering...


A certain Xakero, of it.cultura.linguistica.inglese, writes:

Searching Google with the Italian expression ("mangia-bambini" =
"baby-eaters"), the first result reads
COMUNISTI MANGIA BAMBINI www. 
cronologia.it
1945-1948 - anni difficili. I COMUNISTI " MANGIANO I BAMBINI " Idiozia
e genialita` nelle parole dei tornei elettorali...
that is, more or less...
BABY-EATER COMMUNISTS www. 
cronologia.it


 :-)))
E' sempre tutto un magna-magna.... ;-)
Fabio

E' sempre tutto un magna-magna.... ;-)
ROTFL!


 E' sempre tutto un magna-magna.... ;-)
E facci vedere il tuo ministero !... :-)))
--
Er Roscio.

 It's the first time I hear it about President Bush!
Me too. I was not aware of President Bush's pedofagus inclinations.
I would agree with your comment and add my two cents worth of contribution.
During the First World War - to instil hatred of the enemy in the troops -
the "Huns" were depicted in the French press as savages who would commit all
kinds of nefarious acts on the civilian population, including eating babies.
I was a little boy in the fifties and, as far as I can remember, it might
have originated as anti-communist propaganda in Italy but it soon started
being used ironically even by the communists.
In the context of The Economist's article I see as a badly picked, tasteless
substitute of "outright" or "extreme".
Maurice