Freudian Slip

Or a subintentional slip of tongue at least. The Nation reports in its online edition of August 25th, 2008, that “Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra inspects one of Thai products awarded in Prime Minister’s Export Award: PM Award 2008 at the Government House on Monday.”

The inspected products were toilets and Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra is not prime minister, but in safe exile. That’s right, calling Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej by the name he tries to avoid comes across as a telltale Freudian slip. Look how different they look.

And did Thaksin ever inspect toilets. Now what’s the intention. That he and him are becoming indistinguishable. That it doesn’t really matter who is who. Or that the text is – does it matter? – a reused caption of some not too far away past.

In The Nation, of all things.