Nick Tonkin wrote:
> Personally I find the very name Apache a little uncomfortable..
> ... but the relevance of an http server to the Apache nation
> escapes me (and the symbolizing of the Apache nation with a feather
> strikes me as stereotypical at best).
Most of you will have seen, at least in photgraphs, the remarkable
sandstone escarpment of Ayer's Rock in Australia. For millenia this was
a sacred place for the aboriginal Australians. When europeans first
started touring the continent, they happily scampered up it since to
them, climbing to the top of things seems to be the obvious thing to do.
After about a century of this, it finally occurred to someone to ask an
aboriginal what he thought about people climbing the rock - did he mind?
The answer was "Yes, actually".
Nowadays, although Yulura (to give it its original name) is still
climbed (the native austalians choose not to assert their opinions) you
should be aware that you climb it with the disapproval of a people to
whom it is holy. You might as well whack a few pitons into the Wailing
Wall or bungee-jump in St. Peter's Basilica.
The point I am making is that you cannot anticipate how people of a
different culture might think about symbols and names and places. It may
be that people of the Apache Nation are indifferent to the name being
used for a computer program, or they may like the association with a
freedom-loving, open-source, not-for-profit organisation which is
striving against corporate greed to make the world a better place, or
they may find it offensive. I don't know.
Did anybody ask them?
Rgds,
Owen Boyle.
