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Svaziphil a strange
name?
The story about
it
In
Summer 1996 I joined a mission with PHR (physicians for human rights)
in Bosnia. We lived in Tuzla, a city close to the frontline. Of
course there were some postwar problems. For example the phone.
If I had to call outside of the country we had to go to the post
office. I had to call to Switzerland but I did not know the country
code. I asked the women behind the information desk. She had no
idea or she could not understand me. So she gave me a little book
with some country codes.
I could not find Switzerland,
but spotted a very close one: SWAZILAND . I have a little bit experience
in the Hungarian language and know that they call us svaizi. So
I thought Swaziland might be Switzerland.
I was walking to the phonebox
when my friend Ron Turbull stopped me with a laugh. I asked him
what happened. Then he told me that Swaziland is a country in Africa.
Since then I was called Swazi or Swaziphil, the king of Swaziland
who is calling by bongos to Swaziland
I changed swazi to svazi, so
no one from Swaziland gets hurt or upset... or just call it "freedom
of the artist"
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