In anticipation of President Bush’s diplomatic trip to the Baltic States this weekend, protesters in Riga, Latvia were out in full force today. Thankfully, these were literate types — you know, real Eastern European, Milan Kundera-reading coffeehouse denizens — and took the opportunity to demonstrate against Bush’s arrival using that uniquely untapped Baltic brand of oblique irony.
As you can see above, however, their protestation is so goddamned indirect that, well, the “Engrish”-esque point is nearly lost on an American audience. “Peace Duke?” The idea comes across, but just barely.
Some blunter, coarser suggestions for future demonstrations in Riga:
NO MORE NATO
Russians Out, and Bush, Too
Bush & Kalvitis: Ogres in Arms
FAIR TRADE: We Supply You with Pornstars, You Supply Us with War
RELATED: Google results for “peace duke”, which you shouldn’t bother clicking, as they’re of no help at all
EARLIER: I’m sorry, I don’t speak “European”…what exactly are you trying to say, here?
11 replies on “Lost in Transatlanticism: the Peace Duke and his Quest for Diplomacy”
is Duke some kind of Baltic nickname for GWB, since John Wayne (the Ur-Cowboy) was nicknamed the Duke?
What’s funny is that if you say Peace Duke three times fast, it sounds very much like the Romanian word for “little cunt” PIZDUC.
nice!
Maybe they mean the Doors’ song “Peace Frog”: Blood in the streets in the town of New Haven . . . Blood will be born in the birth of a nation. . .
You know what? Those lyrics make no fucking sense. I used to love that song.
Peace Duke means literally “little cunt dweller” in Russian
yes, thats the point. peaceduke means exactly the same as in Romanian. What makes it conceptual is, that GWB thought he’s fighting for is “peace”, but what turned out was “peaceduke”.
That picture made it into the Washington Post, among other venues. I just wrote a nice letter to the editor, who I thought might need an explanation.
Check out this pic: http://pics.livejournal.com/vr_maniac/pic/0001aegf
Actually, as a Latvian and Russian, let me tell you that “Peace Duke” is a very clever pun on the Russian word “piz-dyuk” which means something like “cunt-lapper”. Did that help?
The folks at Big Russian Soul (“Bigger is better — and it’s bigger than yours”) have an interesting comment:
http://www.bigrussiansoul.org/s1006/resources_show.htm?content_id=16476
To quote, “His knee press Shah piss the roof off”. I wonder what the homophonic equivalent of THAT would be?
There’s another explanation (not very different to comments above) here:
http://www.allaboutlatvia.com/article/185/peace-duke-or-not
I think they’re trying for (forgive any translit errors, please) “Ne preshei pizdye rukav” or “Don’t sew a sleeve onto a cunt.” If I ever meet Bush, I’m going to go bilingual on him and say, “You do rock.”