Hia - Monitor Lizard Keeps Name

[george]

Monitor lizard keeps name

Monitor lizard

BANGKOK: -- The Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation has abandoned plans to give the water monitor lizard a new Thai name of "Voranuch" or "Voranus".

Earlier this week, director of the department's wildlife conservation office suggested a replacement should be found for hia (which has many negative connotations).

"We don't plan to change the lizard's name," the department's director general Kasemsan Jinnawaso said yesterday. "We would like to apologise for any confusion".

Kasemsan acknowledged that people named Voranuch and Voranus had contacted the office to complain that they would have to share their name with the reptile.

-- The Nation 2009-07-03

[oevna]

I hear it's not a very polite word!

There are other words in Thai that have alternate impolite or humorous meanings, such as kaeng karii (yellow curry). I wonder if they will suggest changing that to kaeng voranuch or kaeng voranus.

[Thailand]

[animatic]

A fate worse than death sharing a name with a ground crawling lizard. ??

They should name the lizard Voranus and then the complainers should

change their names to go with the baby panda!

[brahmburgers]

the department's director general Kasemsan Jinnawaso said yesterday, "We would like to apologise for any confusion".

apologize to who ....the lizard? I think it would be an honor to have a large lizard have the same name as me. Message to silly man Kasemsan: go ahead and name it Brahmburgers.

I could list several pages of ways in which the character of monitor lizards are superior to the character of people.

[Plus]

I could list several pages of ways in which the character of monitor lizards are superior to the character of people.

I'm curious, can you keep it down to few lines?

[NHJ]

it's funny, in french "vorace" means something/someone who likes to eat a lot, so there's no need to tell you that with "anus" ending part of the word, i had a big smile on my face reading this news!

[tigerboy]

Last Friday at about 5pm I was walking along Thanon Ratchawithi approaching the Victory Monument and saw one right near Center Point. It as about a meter long head to tail and was pretty freaked out, running all over the place, which in turn was freaking out everybody in the area, which is quite crowded with people walking around. The flashes from the cameras of everyone snapping photos didn't help either. They can move pretty fast when they're excited! No idea how it got there, storm drain I guess.

I've also noticed that Thai's often confuse the word here with hia, anyone else have this experience?

[brahmburgers]

I could list several pages of ways in which the character of monitor lizards are superior to the character of people.

I'm curious, can you keep it down to few lines?

Comparing lizards and humans, which species:

A. mentally tortures its own

B. blows up its own with bombs

C. torments its own species, with noise pollution

D. wipes out other species for sport

E. relishes in the suffering of other people

F. relishes in the suffering of other species

G. Takes drugs for sexual arousal

H. emits toxic chemicals in bulk upon forests

I. pollutes the oceans - indeed, all bodies of water it comes in contact with.

J. cuts down forests

K. dumps toxic wastes everywhere.

L. physically tortures its own

M. disdains killing fetuses, yet eats other animals in bulk.

O. eats non food such as artificial oil in snack foods (ok, maybe lizards do that also, when they raid garbage dumps, but lizards don't invent and distribute artificial foods).

P. take drugs which are supposed to make them happy, but which wind up making them more depressed.

Q. Won't eat dog or cat, but will eat snails, brains, fermented and entrails.

R. Get so fat they can barely waddle from one shop to another in a shopping mall.

S. keep others alive (and in pain) when those people want to die.

T. kill themselves

U. dig up their dead and examine them

V. change their physical appearance with myriad vanity products.

W. pay others of their species to cut in to their bodies to insert plastic pieces to alter their physical appearance.

X. Speak of peace but wage war.

Y. hold grudges

Z. kill others of their own species because there are slight variations in the others' belief system

........?

...shall I go on?

[animatic]

And the winner IS?

[MSingh]

I thought that they were actually called " Ta-Gu At " anyway ??

[h90]

And the winner IS?

There were some good suggestions of suitable names from the PAD.....

[Tim207]

A fate worse than death sharing a name with a ground crawling lizard. ??

They should name the lizard Voranus and then the complainers should

change their names to go with the baby panda!

Ai Voranus wouldn't roll off my ex's tounge as easily as ai hia. Not sure if that is good or bad. I have grown attached to her pet name for me.

[DaleBlue]

What's wrong with the name Woranuch. It is a great name, and the name of a popular Thai soap star:

http://images.google.co.th/images?hl=en&am...anuch+wongsawan