LOST IN TRANSLATION

President Sarkozy of France: liaising with the Russians.

A silly little joke came my way from my Chum, Cyril Randle (famous for being accused by the Walsall litter Gestapo of throwing chewing gum from a car window he could not open). One of the many silly jokes he e-mails one concerned a little girl who one day goes to her father and asks: 'Daddy, where does poo come from?' Her father considers his little girls question for a moment and thought, well, she's got to know some time or other. So he told her all about how, when we eat our food, it get digested in the stomach and all the nutrients are taken taken out to give us energy and what is left over goes through the bowel, finally coming out the other end as poo. His daughter looked horrified and with quivering lip asked: 'What about Tigger and Eeyore?'

Sometimes the simplest mistake in understanding what others actually mean can have some quite important implications, especially when such a lot hangs on the translation.

Sadly, if things are not bad enough in the conflict between Russia and Georgia, things have been made worse by a badly translated document which was originally written in French, then translated into English and then Russian. The document concerned the ceasefire agreement and it was originally written in French as they are in the EU's presidency until the end of December.

A passage in the Russian translation in the document speaks of security "for" South Ossieta and Abkhabzia, whilst the English version speaks of security "In" these areas. A little difference that means a lot, it is because of this there is a still a strong Russians presence "in" Georgian territory.