Comments on: … and co-decision with the Council of Ministers applies!

By: Antoni Jaume

Antoni Jaume — Thu, 14 Oct 2004 19:46:50 +0000

Giles, I’ve verified your link, and what it says there is not what you seems to mean. Firstly I reckon there is a typo, the sentence you cite should read “The practice of a person being given two family names became the custom in Spain largely because of Arabic influence”. Secondly that does no imply Spanish surnames to be of Arabic ethymology. There are a lot of Arabic surnames, but Vega isn’t one of them. Jaume is Catalan for James from low Latin Iacomus, from Iacobus. For example Arrom, Rom, Arrumí, Rumí, are Arabic, they mean “the roman” and was applied to Christians, so when used as a common name it is frequently translated as “Christian” or “Unfaithful”. Other Arabic surnames are Alcántara, Almohedano, Mesquida, Mirabete, Amorós, Alcaide, Alcalde, etc. The frequent ending in “z” (Gómez, Sánchez, Rodríguez, …) has roots in a Basque suffix, and has the general meaning of “son of”: Pérez is equivalent to Peterson, … Now you may know something. DSW

By: matt

matt — Wed, 13 Oct 2004 22:26:34 +0000

Any idea of how I can get a copy of the whole thing? I’ve a EU law exam coming up in about 2 months and it might help me finally remember how to keep the commission and the council straight

By: Giles

Giles — Tue, 12 Oct 2004 22:36:26 +0000

“The practice of a person being given to family names became the custom in Spain largely because of Arabic influence” http://spanish.about.com/cs/culture/a/surnames.htm If surnames arose in Spain through arabic influence I think that’s unlikely Jaume

By: Antoni Jaume

Antoni Jaume — Tue, 12 Oct 2004 13:27:09 +0000

In Spain, Vega is not only not arabic but even pre-roman, but not Basque. DSW

By: Peter Murphy

Peter Murphy — Tue, 12 Oct 2004 10:30:16 +0000

On the subject of Tintin, I think the comic book authors should have livened it up with everybody’s favourite detective duo: Thompson and Thomson – now repackaged as MEPs from the U.K. Load it up with couplets like: “Co-decision with the Council of Ministers applies!” “I mean! The derision of hounding sinister supplies!” Even the Eurosceptics would get a chuckle from it.

By: jb

jb — Tue, 12 Oct 2004 01:44:20 +0000

on the etymology point, i wouldn’t be too sure about the “no arabs hiding there” bit. you have to keep in mind that arabic was a pretty strong influence on spanish. granted, you have to go back a bit. but i’ll bet the now normative spanish word is indeed arab in origin.

By: KCinDC

KCinDC — Tue, 12 Oct 2004 01:17:33 +0000

Giles, Vega the surname isn’t related to Vega the star. It’s Spanish for (according to my Harper Collins dictionary) “fertile plain; valley”. No Arabs hiding there.

By: Giles

Giles — Mon, 11 Oct 2004 22:26:41 +0000

Here’s the meainig of the name:—IRINA f Usage: Russian, Bulgarian, Romanian, Finnish Russian, Bulgarian, Romanian and Finnish form of IRENE IRENE f Derived from Greek eirene meaning “peace”. Irene was the Greek goddess of peace. Another famous bearer was an 8th-century Byzantine empress, the first woman to lead the Empire. She originally served as regent for her son, but later had him killed and ruled alone. VEGA f Usage: Astronomy The name of a star in the constellation Lyra. Its name is from Arabic (Al-Nasr) Al-Waqi meaning “the swooping (eagle)”. So ironically the “heroine” is probably not from the EEC but is a sounds Slavic but ahs Arab conotations. Which is unfortunate because later in the series we’re probably going to discover that she’s either selling uranium to the Russians or planning to sell water to the Arabs. Or at least her name leaves this avenue of attack open to ukip et al! Still priceless – can we have more please?

By: Kieran Healy

Kieran Healy — Mon, 11 Oct 2004 22:06:58 +0000

The topic is pollution, the setting is the EU bureaucracy, and the characters—well, just look at them. This thing should absolutely have been called Eurotrash.

By: Antoni Jaume

Antoni Jaume — Mon, 11 Oct 2004 20:00:07 +0000

If “Irina Vega” is neither Irish nor Danish, it would rather be because such countries are small, than the supposition that Europeans do not migrate. Usually Vega came from Spain, but too from Latin-America, and economical migrants or exiles may have easily brought that name to any of the two. Irina may be Slavic or Greek, but is sometime used in other countries that have no direct relation with them. DSW

By: Matt McGrattan

Matt McGrattan — Mon, 11 Oct 2004 19:06:47 +0000

The art and the typography look pretty Hergé-esque (with a modern veneer) to me. “Tintin and the Corridors of Power”

By: Saheli Datta

Saheli Datta — Mon, 11 Oct 2004 18:52:15 +0000

Years to come? Years to come? Hell, I wanna run out and buy my copy now!! This is awesome! Bring this on stateside! I mean, sheesh, if Homeland Security is going to be so useless, it might as well provide us with graphic novels!

By: Saheli Datta

Saheli Datta — Mon, 11 Oct 2004 18:51:36 +0000

By: Saheli Datta

Saheli Datta — Mon, 11 Oct 2004 18:50:32 +0000

By: Kevin

Kevin — Mon, 11 Oct 2004 18:47:35 +0000

Ha! I got that comic on my visit, too. The art actually isn’t too bad, but the story, especially when compared to what actually takes place, is like a Parliamentarian’s wet dream… in nearly every way. Who knew the cultural appeal of James Bond was so pervasive.